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. ILLINOIS GOP: NO WORRIES When I read Rich Miller’s column, I thought it was a humor piece or that he had…
Bottled water waste
Untitled Document Who is addressing the incredible waste generated by the nation’s bottled-water industry? The plastic waste spawned by the recent astronomical growth in the bottled-water business is significant. Environmentalists especially decry it because the water from our taps is usually as good as if not better quality than what’s inside the bottle (and, indeed,…
Rock & roll rollercoaster ride
Untitled Document Few dreams in life are as fervently and desperately chased as those of the aspiring artist — but if there’s a reason to preserve those desires of artistic achievement, to keep struggling in the face of adversity, to persevere when everything screams to not, it is that faint possibility of vindication, the opportunity…
Crafting her niche
Untitled Document Tucked away in her farmhouse on Old Rochester Road in the 1940s, using plaster of Paris, brushes, photos, and beeswax, Hettie Bunker Smith shaped medical history. Although Smith had wanted to be a doctor, her father discouraged it, instead encouraging her to pursue the work she did best — art. Smith heeded his…
A final SOS
Untitled Document As the Springfield Overflow Shelter’s final day in operation for the 2007-08 season draws near, it appears that a local homeless advocacy group’s goal to establish a full-time day center and crisis shelter by the end of March won’t happen after all. Setting up an oasis and emergency shelter was a formidable objective…
A library for Bush groupies
Untitled Document “Think tank” is not a concept you would associate with George W — and, sure enough, there won’t be much thinking done in the Bush library and think tank to be built at Southern Methodist University. The Bushites have cut a deal with SMU executives to locate his presidential library on this private…
People’s poetry
Untitled Document inmemorium poem #1(Terri Jackson was anSSU graduate and thenon the UIS staff till her recent death at 50, ofcancer. She was universally beloved.) be there heavenbe there goldthen terri’s therewithin the fold © Jacqueline Jackson 2008 The American poet Elizabeth Bishop often wrote of how places — both familiar and foreign —…
Wasted youth
Untitled Document Based on Ben Mezrich’s bestselling book Bringing Down the House, Robert Luketic’s 21 makes a strong argument for paying attention in math class. Six students from MIT decide to moonlight as Vegas hustlers to help pay off the college loans that will be hanging over their heads once they graduate. Professor Micky Rosa (Kevin…
Questions and answers
Untitled Document I get questions all the time, so here are a few answers . . . The judge in Tony Rezko’s federal corruption case has barred some evidence about the personal life of star prosecution witness Stu Levine, saying it could prejudice the jury against his testimony. Was he that bad? The feds have…
What’s in store
Untitled Document What’s that old saying — when God closes one door, he opens another? It’s almost the same for Goodwill shopaholics. Though the godfather of all thrift franchises is closing its store at 2305 Monroe St. on Sunday, it will open two other facilities in the weeks ahead. Sharon Durbin, executive director of Land…
Abbey’s blog
Untitled Document Thanks to the Internet, I’ve had the pleasure of watching some of my children’s contemporaries progress into adulthood, particularly friends of my older daughter, Anne. Even though they’re scattered everywhere, I get reports of major events — grad school! jobs! engagements! pregnancies! — and eventually photo series of new babies morphing into toddlers.…
The $3 Trillion War
Untitled Document Five years later, President George W. Bush and his minions were wrong about the need to fight in Iraq, wrong about the way to fight in Iraq, and wrong about what the war in Iraq would ultimately cost. Original estimates of $50 billion to $60 billion were, at best, optimistic guesses. In a…
Cap City
Untitled Document You are not alone Want to check the pulse of Springfield? The Internet may be the last place to go. Local Web logs are replete with tales of woe, apparently produced by middle-aged men who spend their nights in their underpants, typing about their unrequited dreams and day-to-day anxiety and trading funny clips…
Eyes on the prize
“Somebody has to do something, that somebody is us.” Scribbled in blue and yellow chalk on the cinderblock wall of a garage plunked in the middle of a Divernon cornfield, these nine words remind Illuminati Motor Works — a team of local engineers, automotive technicians, and car enthusiasts — what’s at stake. On a cold,…
The prophet Jeremiah
Untitled Document We won’t know who wins this year’s presidential election till November, of course, but I can declare one winner already: Mike Huckabee’s defense of Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s pastor on television last week was a class act. Of course Huckabee could politically afford to do it, because he’s withdrawn from the race for…
Knowing Knoepfle
Untitled Document Our local- and national-award-winning poet John Knoepfle has written an autobiography. Not a complete one — he begins with his roots in Ireland and Switzerland, carries us through his early education, his service in World War II and further education, his meeting with our well-known and well-loved Peg (one of the women honored…
