Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 2hI will be in Naperville at their 95th St. library branch giving my phenomenal Great Graves of Illinois lecture at 1 p.m. tomorrow (Thursday). C'mon down and say hello! Pictured below is Springdale in Peoria, one of my featured cemetery picks. 070
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Perhaps the only time i have felt some form of national pride in six years or so, sounds great and feels right 1280
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I’m really pleased to announce my county/town naming game now has an addiction reduction mode. Colors turn to grayscale, and you’re prompted to take a break if you are playing too much. This is how my website is different than every other trash website on the internet. Play safe! 060
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 28/09/2026New updates to my Illinois county/town naming game include 67 Illinois Lore Relics that you win for entering certain town names, as well as new outfits like this Frank Lloyd Wright sweater and ISU clown pants. (I have also debugged the White Sox Pope Hat to be in correct color.) 1120
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Great news. My popular Illinois county-naming game now has a character builder so you can suit up your Mr. Illinois avatar before playing. Check it out at johnkokoris.com/experimental-module. 0152
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Forgive me followers, for I have sinned. I have used vibes coding to make an amazing learning module to help our youth train to become the next Mr. Illinois. Practice memorizing counties, county seats, and municipalities at johnkokoris.com/experimental-module.johnkokoris.comExperimental Module 180
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Putnam County Library is hosting my famous talk on Route 66 in Illinois ONLINE! It will begin at 6. Grab your brown bag dinner and/or popcorn and settle in for an hour of fun; link below. 1101
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Does anyone know how to get one’s mitts on an old Wilco poster? Their site has a few and I have looked up the artist as well. Surely there is some secret network of Chicago based Wilco poster dealers? 4160
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Mr. Illinois has entered Palos Heights ahead of tonight’s performance at their esteemed library. (Just enough time to confirm our local waterway is being properly oxygenated at the SEPA station pictured below.) 0171
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 22/09/2026St Dennis in Lockport, finished in 1879. Congregation dates back to 1846 which is pretty darn old for a Catholic Church in northern IL. 2382
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Waterfall Glen in DuPage County, which is somehow named for a man named Bud Waterfall. 2494
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Folks, we’ve got a real good Moose sign on our hands in Lockport 3552
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Very nice strangely shaped tower on this Lockport funeral home 2382
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Speaking on Revolutionary Illinois in Lockport tonight and in Palos Heights tomorrow. Come see me! I had to cancel/reschedule this Lockport one for a funeral, so I would love a few extra people to show up to make up for my unprofessionalism. Link below! 242
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 21/09/2026West suburban parishes to have spawned from St. Francis Xavier in La Grange. 0130
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 19/09/2026A 1907 Lutheran church (now Baptist) in Itasca. Not a bad spire on this one! 3501
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Went to Sacramento for my grandmother’s funeral and had time to visit Fairytale Town, a very charming 1959 playground with mostly 1960s/1970s equipment featuring mother goose and fairy tale stuff. Delightfully non commercial & had a lovely literacy center too. The anti-Disney Land 1231
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Very dramatic book drop placement at the beautiful Glencoe Public Library. 1665
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Managed to see Chris Foreman, who plays organ at the Green Mill most Fridays, with my brother yesterday picking him up from Misericordia Home. Always so good, and had a guitarist sitting in. 2282
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 04/09/2026I have somehow lost my Cahokia mounds hat, Quincy university hat, white sox hat, Knox college hat, Abraham Lincoln museum hat. Anyone have any ideas for another cool baseball cap I can buy to rep my Illinois pride? Needs to be a nice cap, no Velcro/plastic in the back! 881
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 04/09/2026This 1854 general store in Rockton became the town library in 1889. Is this the oldest public library building in the state? 2574
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Being well-versed in Illinois arcana requires familiarity with utopian alphabets that emerged from its peoples. That is why is why I am excited to begin reading The Deseret Alphabet, hot off the press! 0132
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 30/08/20261908 water tower (Christianized several decades later) near Green Lake, WI 1192
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 28/08/2026Very cool three story glass atrium over the Midlothian Public Library. A very kind and engaged little crowd tonight talkin George Rogers Clark with me. 1465
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 27/08/2026Good showing tonight at my Northern Illinois & Driftless Area talk in Geneva. Tomorrow my summer tour concludes in Midlothian with my Revolutionary Illinois talk. 0201
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Victorian church with gingerbread house style trim in Waupun, WI 0292
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 26/08/2026The old Carnegie library in Waupun WI, now a local museum 0233
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Final stop of vacation: Rockton IL’s Dairyhaus, a walk up homemade ice cream shop in an 1854 home. Hearty scoops served, and the salty caramel cashew was probably the best I have tried all summer. 0362
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 26/08/2026Vintage roadside motel near Princeton WI with secret basement bar 0142
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Brandon, WI’s public library. How great is this 0314
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Waupun WI has this crazy 1940 sculpture (called The Citadel) depicting the vampire of Fascism sneaking up on weeping Liberty. It is encased in a glass cube outside the old library 14011
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Seen a lot of libraries but this was a new one for me: Waupun (WI) Public Library is situated mere feet away from the imposing walls of the state penitentiary. 0110
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 25/08/2026My grandma passed away last night. She loved puzzles, sweets, & and books, and (with my grandpa) took me on my first Illinois road trips. She loved her crazy family unconditionally, especially my brother, pictured here, whose disabilities did not inhibit their close, beautiful relationship 211050
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 24/08/2026Ripon WI’s American Legion building 1281
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Very cool Victorian with incredible porte cochere 1342
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 23/08/2026Got a disturbing look at our northern neighbors’ culture in the men’s room of a certain Wisconsin lodge. They are not ok up here 1283
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 21/08/2026Pettit memorial chapel at the cemetery in Belvidere, the only such structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. An early example of prairie style 0414
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Indigenous monoliths can still be found in Berwyn if you know where to look 3285
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 17/08/2026You can only be in one circle, you can never leave. Which? 12130
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Sister Mary Jo Sobieck throwing out the first pitch and Bishop Southpaw in gold vestments to honor the sacred occasion of Pope Hat Night 0254
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Two nice shrines at St. Thomas of Canterbury in Uptown 2192
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Return visit to St. Thomas of Canterbury in Uptown, which has a fairly unique sanctuary and facade. Very heavy on the columns, 14 in front and at least 30 inside depending on what you count 0241
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 09/08/2026Chris Jones, a water scientist running for Iowa Ag Secretary, has one of the most compelling campaign messages of anyone running in a red state. He connects ag policy to school lunches, cancer rates, outdoor recreation, data centers, and more—issues that transcend rural America and affect everyone 04213
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 06/08/2026Your last chance to see my famed Route 66 talk in DuPage County this summer will happen tomorrow in Itasca! Get the scoop on the first 300 miles of the Mother Road from the only Certified Illinois Travel Expert in the state. See ya at 7. 0141
Certified Illinois Expert @mrillinois.bsky.social · 02/08/2026Trompe l'oeil doors on mausolea at Springdale Cemetery in Peoria 0231