DIY local literature
Untitled Document Here are two books by area authors: One describes growing up on a farm near Carthage, 1930-1950; the other is the memoirs of a World War II fighter pilot, compiled by his wife, who co-manages a business in Peoria. Both are published by Vantage, an established subsidy press. About such presses: Everyone has…
Letters to the Editor
Untitled Document We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address, and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. PUBLIC DISCOURSE ALIVE AND WELL In Fletcher Farrar’s May 31 column, “The ‘assault on reason’ in Illinois,” he takes up the…
Embrace the dark side
Untitled Document What is “light pollution?” Is it really a factor in breast cancer? The glow of city lights blotting out stars in the night sky has frustrated many a stargazer, but recent studies have shown that “light pollution” — defined as excess or obtrusive light at night — can actually have serious health effects.…
A speech for the ages
Untitled Document He has a commanding presence and deep rich voice. He speaks, and no one listens. The grandparents here have heard it all in another time; they have heard everything in another time. They do not listen. They do not listen, because of all the afternoons that have gone before. The parents here look past…
Hurricane Billy is back
Untitled Document Bug may have been drowned in the current flood of sequels, but it has great cinematic significance. The intense psychological-horror thriller marks the return to form of director William Friedkin. He hasn’t been this good in decades. Ashley Judd gives a fearless performance as a troubled waitress who lets a strange drifter (Michael…
Slowly rising
Untitled Document Mike Pittman doesn’t drink coffee, but he thinks $4 is too much to pay for a cup o’ joe. A local real estate developer and newspaper publisher, Pittman wouldn’t mind having on the near east side a small coffee shop, with wireless Internet availability, and where people don’t have to take out a…
Saving the world, one cupcake at a time
Untitled Document I’d like to give vegan cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz a big high-five for the title of her latest book, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. Although I admire her spunk and tenacity for giving vegan baked goods a respectable crumb, it’s the “cupcakes taking over the world” part of the title that…
High profile
Untitled Document Paula Morrow has spent a significant portion of her law-enforcement career maintaining a low profile in the Springfield Police Department’s narcotics unit — occasionally going undercover, often working with informants. It’s an assignment she says she truly enjoyed but one that she realizes she can never return to since accepting a new assignment…
Rock’s romantic
Untitled Document At 67, perennial cult hero Ian Hunter isn’t likely to snag the mainstream fame that has eluded him for 40 years. The former Mott the Hoople frontman has always been something of a late bloomer — he was already in his thirties when he sang his first and biggest hit, a cover of…
Summer care of roses
Untitled Document On my way to work each morning, I have the pleasure of being greeted by the heavenly scent of Mr. Lincoln hybrid tea roses and Knock Out roses. Every garden should contain at least one rosebush — few plants compare, in beauty or in scent — but you should be careful when you…
In the company of thieves
Untitled Document One of the things that made Ocean’s Eleven such fun was the feeling that director Stephen Soderbergh was raising the velvet rope and allowing us to hang out with his ultracool crew. For two breezy hours, we rubbed elbows with the hippest dudes on the planet. In contrast, Soderbergh’s follow-up, Ocean’s Twelve, sported an…
People’s Poetry
Untitled Document friendquotepoem #5 diane saysin the next lifeshe’s going tocome back withmore hard drive © Jacqueline Jackson 2007 Though the dog chose domestication, cheerfully enjoying human food and protection, most of the world’s species look upon us with justifiable wariness, for we’re among the most dangerous critters on the planet. Here Minnesota poet…
Whine time is over, Springfield oenophiles
Untitled Document “Well,” says the guy across the table, breaking into the discussion, “I like Opus One.” My husband and I catch each other’s eyes with the look of complete understanding that people who’ve been married as long as we have develop. We manage to suppress our smiles and look suitably impressed. We are having dinner…
One down, plenty to go
Untitled Document Michael Davis was bitten by the music bug in middle school, but he was nearing his college graduation before he actually put his music out for the world to hear. The Petersburg native self-produced a CD of original songs, then sent it to music-business types around the country. A call came in from…
Out of sight
Untitled Document Onlookers gather on the east side of Seventh Street, in front of Lincoln Library, waiting for a young bride and her dark-haired groom to emerge from doors of First Presbyterian Church. An elderly couple smiles at the newlyweds as if seeing themselves as they were long ago, and a pair of teenage girls…
Al Qaeda banks on Bush
Untitled Document Poor George W. Bush. Except for his cohort, Dick “Buckshot” Cheney, no one really likes his Iraq policy — not the generals, not the troops, not the people of Iraq, not his fellow Republicans, and certainly not the American public. But wait — there is one group that is ecstatic about what he’s…
