2011: The Year Shorewood Shone

has been around for more than half a century, but it was only in the last days of 2010 that it got the notoriety it deserves.

Sure, Shorewood’s not that far from Chicago. And it’s right next door to Joliet, a town that supposedly has an almost-daily newspaper. But it wasn't until the that Shorewood was put on a pedestal appropriate to its inherent grandeur.

Indeed, when the Shorewood Patch showed up everything changed. You see, the Shorewood Patch is all Shorewood, all the time. And even though it officially started on Dec. 28, 2010 — exactly one year ago today — it is really a product of 2011.

After all, after those three days, it enjoyed — and we hope you did too — it’s first full year of existence.

Why don’t we look back at that year? It will be sort of like the Shorewood Rewind, except instead of seven days, we’ll be looking at what went down over 365. It’s a Super-Rewind, if you will. So let’s roll it back and remember what happened during Shorewood’s 2011. It was a great year, in a great place.

Jan. 1: Shorewood Patch editor Joe Hosey’s second daughter, Elyse, .

Jan. 10: Challenger Stevan Brockman looks to trying to keep a seat on the Shorewood Village Board.

Jan. 15: It was . Also the birthday of Joe Hosey’s older daughter, Gracie.

Jan. 16: Pro-life activist Jill Stanek, who was once reviled as the "worst person in the world" by television personality Keith Olbermann, at Shorewood’s .

Jan. 19: The mayor of the One True Shorewood bet the mayor of the other Shorewood .

Jan. 23: The Bears .

Feb. 1: There was a .

Feb. 2: It was Groundhog Day and it .

Feb. 8: Major League umpire Mark Carlson was declared the .

Feb.  8: A Shorewood teen in a federal drug takedown.

Feb. 16: Drew Peterson’s case was .

Feb. 19: The Village of Oak Brook .

March 4: Shorewood endured a .

March 11: Shorewood Patch editor Joe Hosey bought a new car.

March 18: The Shorewood Patch for wrongly placing a Shorewood man on the sex offender registry years after a state police captain blamed the mistake on a Shorewood cop.

March 27: Shorewood Patch editor Joe Hosey and his family went to Disney World.

April 4: The Brookforest Avenue Dominick’s .

April 5: Underdog challenger Stevan Brockman on the village board.

April 12: Accused family killer Christopher Vaughn’s big shot St. Louis lawyer for his court hearing in Joliet.

April 20: Village Administrator Kurt Carroll the S.S. Shorewood.

May 1: Osama bin Laden .

May 7: Drew Peterson in jail.

May 10: Cut off from a veritable bottomless well of state money, Christopher Vaughn’s lawyers the case.

May 17: The in a Walgreens, shocking a Joliet man and themselves.

May 19: The closest professional sports team to Shorewood — the Slammers — their inaugural season.

May 24: The Shorewood police a band of alleged car-breakers.

May 31: Former Cub slugger Keith Moreland Shorewood.

June 6: The Shorewood police on heavy felonies after he allegedly ran over a young woman’s arm during a drug rip-off. But prosecutors dropped the charges to misdemeanors and he was later released from custody.

June 13: Crack county cop Ken Kaupas . Kaupas is a Shorewood resident.

June 14: Lifetime announced it is out of Fatal Vows, the book by me, Joe Hosey. Rob Lowe is going to star in this movie.

June 21: A Shorewood meat distributor a mess of possibly bad sausage.

June 22: Joe Hosey went up to Chicago to Waiting For Drew Peterson. It was great.

June 25: Shorewood inventor and entrepreneur Michael Schuster a prestigious award.

June 28: The Shorewood Village Board to buy another village employee a brand new four-wheel drive truck.

July 15: Beloved Shorewood gynecologist Thomas Heggen on felony drug and identity theft charges.

July 23: Shorewood Patch columnist Erin Gallagher of long-time Police Chief Robert Puleo’s retirement.

July 26: The that Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow blew his deadline to appeal the ruling on what hearsay evidence can be used against accused wife-killer Drew Peterson.

July 28: ? Yeah, we never heard of him either.

Aug. 5: That nobody actor playing Joe Hosey in the movie is to be Joe Hosey’s friend on Facebook.

Aug. 5: The Bank of Shorewood .

Aug. 6: Joe Hosey was .

Aug. 7: Mayor Chapman .

Aug. 23: Federal agents on a charge of child pornography possession.

Aug. 30: After failing on four previous attempts, Drew Peterson’s crack legal team to get him sprung from jail. SPOILER ALERT: It didn’t work.

Sept. 5: It was Labor Day.

Sept. 8: started.

Sept. 11: It was .

Sept. 13: Shorewood police Cmdr. as the third police chief in the history of Shorewood.

Sept. 15: New Lenox, already with Kurt Carroll in its pocket, Shorewood Economic Development Coordinator Nancy Roman, who will get to spend most of her time working from her new home in Texas.

Sept. 16: Joliet’s from Shorewood.

Sept. 21: There was apparently an in Shorewood, according to an FBI report.

Sept. 23: , Typhoid Mary.

Oct. 6: Shorewood Mayor Rick Chapman Jeff Fiegenschuh will replace the departed Kurt Carroll, pending the approval of the village board.

Oct. 10: !

Oct. 10: A Shorewood man in a downstate boating accident.

Oct. 11: Village Trustee Steve Brockman new administrator Jeff Fiegenschuh.

Oct. 14: Shorewood was the home to homecoming queens.

Oct. 23: Two Shorewood police officers an alleged shoplifter after a chase up Route 59.

Oct. 28: It was the of Stacy Peterson’s disappearance.

Oct. 31: !

Nov. 4: Shorewood’s own Bosak brothers in a Heidi Klum costume contest.

Nov. 5: We our clocks back.

Nov. 9: The Federal Emergency Management Agency, along with the Federal Communications Commission and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, of the nationwide Emergency Alert System.

Nov. 11: It was Veterans Day. Vietnam Veteran Bill Nixon with us.

Nov. 16: The same Joliet guy for allegedly panhandling in Shorewood.

Nov. 18: It’s to turn on the tap in Camelot.

Nov. 22: Frank Richkus lost a home to the flood of 1996, and 15 years later.

Nov. 24: Thanksgiving: .

Nov. 30: The Illinois Supreme Court to the appellate court.

Dec. 2: An escaped convict was at Rockdale’s Waste Management facility.

Dec. 8: Lifetime for the movie based on my (Joe Hosey) book, Fatal Vows.

Dec. 12: State Rep. Jack McGuire’s wife’s , and the neighbors don’t like it.

Dec. 14: Lifetime for the movie based on my (Joe Hosey) book.

Dec. 15: State’s Attorney James Glasgow not to sell synthetic marijuana.

Dec. 19: A Plainfield couple is over the alleged injuries their daughter suffered in a sled crash in .

Dec. 21: Is the trailer for the movie they’re basing on my (Joe Hosey) book the best movie trailer ever? .

Dec. 22: The Shorewood cops are .

Dec. 25: !

Dec. 28: The Shorewood Patch turns 1 year old today. Happy Birthday to us!