The village fire chief, Charles "Fire Truck Chuck" Himsel, was mourned and buried Monday, escorted to his grave by a cortege of big shiny trucks and throngs of friends from the overlapping communities he served, taught and comforted for 40 years.

When a teacher at Northside Elementary School taught students chess as part of a math enrichment class years ago, she was impressed by how much they enjoyed it.

As impossibly idyllic as it may sound, members of Madison Fruit and Nuts want fruit- and nut-bearing trees in a public place near you, where you can watch the fruit form and ripen and when the time is just right, reach up and pluck it.