This January issue of Terre haute Living brings with it a number of changes. Everything from the design to our distribution model.
I’ll start with the biggest change first.
Over the last 12 issues we have been printing roughly 7,500 copies of the magazine. It was not enough. readers and advertisers wanted more. So we’ve increased the number to 20,000. A 200% increase. This is a huge increase in number -especially considering that 4 out of 5 new magazines stop publication in the first year.
Here we are, two years later, still going …

In Christina Blust’s music, the darkest days are illuminated by the sudden flowering of a friend’s amaryllis. Magnolias dream of flowering under the snow. Her accordion conjures the hoodoo of a hurricane- ravaged New Orleans where she once volunteered.
And the cancer that once plagued Blust’s mother and sister — now, thankfully, in remission — is wished away, becoming poppy seeds, a wooden desk or a cotton skirt.
“It just seems to me that, of all the things a group of cells could be, why would it want to become cancer when …

Craig Stauffer does not care a lick about chess.
At least that’s what he’d like people to believe.
But for anyone who knows Stauffer, for anyone who’s ever stepped foot in his home situated a few quiet blocks away from Woodrow Wilson Junior High School, this statement is patently false. After all, chess and jazz and cigars and even fine wines (and all of their respective trappings) are ubiquitous in his home. A few of his favorite albums are artfully displayed on his living room walls, while others are meticulously …

“Next to music there is nothing that lifts the spirits and strengthens the soul more than a good bowl of chili.” Harry James (1916-1983) band leader and trumpeter
There is something about chili that inspires a passion in people which few other foods can claim. It’s ironic that this common comfort food, made of simple ingredients, using basic methods, seems to provoke a certain culinary snobbishness. You never hear folks debating the proper method for making potato soup, or insisting that the beef stew found in their region is …

One of the best stories about the many incarnations of St. Mary’s Supper Club originates in the 1960s. The then-owner wanted to make the rustic roadside structure just west of St. Mary-of-the-Woods College into a full-fledged restaurant and bar. That, of course, required all manner of special permits and tweaked zoning. According to the current co-owner, Chuck Stevenson, the Sisters of Providence volunteered to publicly support their neighbors in the supper club effort — on one condition: “None of the girls from the college were ever to be allowed in,” …

After nearly 30 years in various medical businesses and more than 110 flights a year over the past few years between Indianapolis, New York, Atlanta, Denver and other major cities, Susan Tingley is ready to give it all up for cupcakes.
Caboodle Cupcakes, a new business in Terre Haute, is a way for Tingley to have her cake and eat it too. Used to being seen in a suit with a briefcase, her former boss and co-workers couldn’t believe it when she told them she was hanging up her management position …

Driving along South 25th Street, you may or may not notice Reynolds & Co. No large lighted sign or massive facade is visible, but this is an understatement to its steady contribution in the local economy for the past 63 years.
Founded in 1946 by the late Stephen Gruesing Reynolds, the company has been led by his son Jerry since 1975. Reynolds remains a family company with Jerry’s wife Jean working in the business just as Stephen’s wife Lucille did in their time.
Typical of family businesses, Jerry started working part time …

Chrome sparkles in the sunlight, perfect candy colored paint and custom upholstery beckon car show attendees to take a closer look. Signs instruct the uninformed to look, but “please don’t touch.” Their owners have just spent a lot of time polishing and dusting, and those fancy paint jobs cost a lot of money. Oldies music blares from the mobile DJ trailer nearby, and car owners sit in lawn chairs behind their vehicles collecting compliments from admirers. A low slung, deep purple early 1950s vintage Mercury lounges in the sunshine of …

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, a lot of guys are feverishly making plans … for their Super Bowl parties. Indeed, February may not be that far down the road, but Valentine’s Day is likely the furthest thing from the male mind until approximately Feb. 13. Guys, I realize that it’s probably unrealistic to expect you to be planning your Valentine’s Day festivities this far in advance. But what if I told you that by putting just a little forethought into the holiday plan, you could both impress your lady and get more bang for your buck? Sound interesting? Well then, welcome to The Hautean Guy’s Guide to Rockin’ Valentine’s Day Out Loud: 2010 Edition.

In June 2001, my husband, Steve, and I were interested in buying the Homer Talley House, on South Sixth Street, which had previously been the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. The fraternity members had vacated the house, but left considerable detritus in their wake. Farrington’s Grove had organized about 30 neighbors to clean up the house and haul out the remnants of 35 years of fraternity use. Each of us was going about our assigned tasks, tearing out partitions in the attic, hauling elderly couches, chairs and television sets out of …