Ornamental kale brightens your fall garden
This is the time of year when flower gardens start to look tired. However there are a few plants that love the cooler temperatures and brighten the fall garden. Chrysanthemums, asters, pansies and ornamental kale are some popular fall selections. Ornamental kale, Brassica oleracea var. acephala, adds a splash of color during the fall and…
Time for tax reform in Illinois
Now that the Illinois General Assembly has acted to restore Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s budget cuts — using a one-time-only gimmick to supposedly fund the deficit — it’s time to get serious about state revenues to prevent this budget brinksmanship from happening again. Even now the governor says revenues are going to fall short of what…
Spirit of progress
T his year Springfield’s Harvard Park neighborhood celebrates the centennial of its annexation to the city. The neighborhood’s roots reach back to one of Springfield’s oldest families and tell the story of forward-thinking community planners who believed well-designed neighborhoods could provide beautiful scenery and easy access to jobs and recreation at affordable prices. Harvard Park…
Paint It Red
Thanks in large part to the success of Mobs, Murders and Justice: You Be the Judge, the Citizens Club will produce a full-length original play the weekend of Nov. 8 detailing the events of the 1908 Springfield Race Riots. The reenactment of the trial of Abraham Raymer, the man acquitted in the murder of 84-year-old…
WORLD WIDE PETITION
Three weeks ago, when Tiffany Taylor launched an online petition drive to restore funding to Illinois historic sites, her goal was to gather 1,000 signatures. A graduate student working toward a master’s degree in historical administration at Eastern Illinois University, Taylor, 24, sent an e-mail to about 100 people alerting them to her petition. She…
Sporting superiors
Some serious athletes are in town. We’ve seen rope-skippers, casting experts, shuffleboard champions and even horseshoe tossers at this year’s Illinois Senior Olympics. The action started Sept. 17, but some of the best is still to come. The ISO softball tournament kicks off at 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, at the University of Illinois-Springfield Softball…
Musical musician delivers Camp Sunshine comedy
If you’re wondering (and you’re probably not) how a theatrical musical found its way into a column about live music happenings, it is simply this: Roger Wainwright, composer of the play’s songs, is a musician. A well-respected, veteran keyboardist of several local bands, Wainwright now spends his days writing songs about specific subjects intended for…
Letters to the Editor
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. 9/11 SURVIVOR FROM SPRINGFIELD Mr. Wilkins, you have my sympathy and understanding [ See “I’m a 9/11 survivor living in Springfield,” Sept. 18].…
Foraging for fungi without fear
“Stop the car!” my daughter Ashley exclaimed. I hit the brakes and anxiously looked around. We’d gone to see how high the creek on the other side of our road had risen after the heavy rains that Hurricane Ike sent our way. “I saw sulphur shelves!” Ashley said. Anticipation replaced my anxiety. Turning the car…
IT Picks
Apple fest The 26th annual Broom Orchard Apple Festival marks the beginning of long cool nights and the Illinois harvest. The festival is a family friendly way to enjoy the pleasures of fall and the comfort of sweet apple cider. Take a wagon wide ride through Broom Orchard and breathe in the crisp country air.…
People’s Poetry
clothingpoem #2 I came in haste not prepared for cold so today we visited a vast warehouse dollar-a-pound clothing in bins hundreds of folks mostly poor stuffing shopping carts I pull on a jacket glossy black quilted lining zippers galore pockets pouches on the back a great round garish screaming seminole gold red green black…
Nehemiah plans more new homes
The City of Springfield and an east-side affordable housing organization will again partner to construct new homes for low-to-moderate income residents. On Oct. 6, the public affairs and safety committee will consider a measure to sell five parcels of land to not-for-profit Nehemiah Expansion, Inc., for $500. The Rev. Silas Johnson, chief executive officer of…
City’s legal bills for ex-cops’ defense expected to soar
Legal fees for the City of Springfield to defend three former police officers against a civil lawsuit filed by an alleged drug dealer have likely far exceeded the amount approved by aldermen, according to documents obtained by Illinois Times. Responding to a request filed under the Freedom of Information Act, the city provided invoices showing…
Sarah Palin, faux populist
“Perfect populist pitch,” beamed CBS analyst Jeff Greenfield right after Sarah Palin’s big speech at the GOP fawnfest in St. Paul, Minn. “She’s a populist,” echoed Karl Rove over at Fox TV. Excuse me? Palin is to populism what near beer is to beer, only not as close. You want a taste of the real…
WE’RE SO VAIN
As time draws near to renew the stickers on our 1977 Ford Pinto, we’ve been giving some thought to switching to vanity license plates. So we logged onto the Illinois Secretary of State Web site, which allows prospective personalized plate purchasers to check the availability of their desired letter combination, and noticed the following warning:…
We need a new constitution to subdue the Big Three
There is a defect in Illinois’ constitution which is so fundamentally fatal that it practically begs voters to approve a state constitutional convention this November. You cannot correct this flaw by throwing every incumbent out of office. The prospect of legislating a solution is nil. The problem is that the Illinois constitution has allowed three…
Miracle at St. Anna bores instead of inspires
Spike Lee’s intention with Miracle at St. Anna is to rectify the lack of recognition that’s been given to African-American soldiers regarding their participation in World War II. More than once, the film grinds to a halt for one of the four principals to rail against the injustices they’ve had to put up with as…
FRESH GREENS
The Illinois Green Party, which is fielding 55 candidates in the upcoming November election, has restructured itself and elected a new crop of party officers. At a meeting held recently in Springfield, Greens picked Phil Huckelberry, Julie Samuels, and A.J.Segneri as chair, vice-chair, and treasurer, respectively, of the party’s executive committee. “We have already staked…
Letters to the Editor
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. A MAGNET FOR NURSES The underlying cause for the ongoing nurse vacancies in our hospitals is the short supply of nurses in Illinois…
Cap City
BERRY FORTUNATE So what if we call bloggers a gaggle of pantless, basement-dwelling nerds? Cap City still logs in to cyberspace every now and then to see what our favorite newsgatherers are doing. Imagine our surprise this week when we stumbled across a fledging site dedicated to a topic we’re very much interested in. It’s…
Jury finds Seidler a “sexually violent person”
In November 1983, Kenneth Seidler of Springfield broke into the home of a 48-year-old woman and raped her in front of her two young daughters. He was convicted of rape by a Sangamon County jury and sent to the Illinois Department of Corrections to serve a 40-year sentence. Because “truth in sentencing” laws, which mandate…
Going on the record
Don Gray’s four-year-old no longer refers to him as daddy. “I’m now ‘Don Gray for Recorder,'”Gray says. He estimates he’s knocked on about 12,000 doors throughout the county and dropped about a dozen pounds and ruined a couple pairs of shoes in the process. But any advertising Gray can get — even word of mouth…
Everybody wants to be Senate President
Senate President Emil Jones began a meeting of his Democratic members not long ago with a playful announcement that, despite what everyone had read and heard, he had no intention of retiring from office. He was joking, of course, but while the joke may have temporarily relieved a bit of tension in the room, there’s…
Pounding pork to perfection
Q. I wondered if I could get some input with a dish I’m trying to replicate. Did you ever try the tenderloin sandwich at the [now closed] Sportsman’s Lounge? The tenderloins were pounded out (you could hear them pounding in the kitchen) and breaded. How would I go about this? I’m assuming you’d purchase pork…
Take your geraniums with you into winter
Are you sad at the thought that your cheery geraniums will soon fall victim to winter frost? Why not take them inside for the winter? Gardeners have several alternatives, including potting the plants, taking cuttings from them, or storing the plants as bare-root specimens. It’s important to make sure that the plants are vigorous, healthy,…
The color of the cutbacks
A Springfield-based state workers advocacy group has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Illinois Department of Human Rights about the impact of proposed layoffs at state agencies. The Illinois Association of Minorities in Government requested a breakdown by race and gender of employees receiving layoff notices, says IAMG executive director Jonathan Lackland.…
IT Picks
Journey through film Compelling film takes you to another place and with 49 movies available at the Route 66 Film Festival the destinations are endless. The festival helps aspiring filmmakers gain recognition and the word has spread. This year the judges received entries from Paris to Little Rock, Ark. resulting in a film festival featuring…
A house full of heartache
It was the early 1830s and Samuel Stevens was a young businessman seizing opportunity in the Northwest Territory frontier. He’d journeyed to what is now the Rochester area from New Hampshire to buy land and build a home for himself and his fiancée. However, his fiancée, Lucetta Putnam, was from a well-to-do family. “We believe…
Breaking lobbyists’ stranglehold on democracy
Jack Abramoff, the infamous Washington super-lobbyist who slipped on his own sleaze, was sentenced recently to four years in prison for corruption. How appropriate that his denouement came on the very day that John McCain was nominated by Republicans to be their presidential standard-bearer, and only one week after the Democratic Party convention. The timing…
There’s a lot going on in the world of music
Untitled Document Oh me, oh my! With so many excellent events and great goings-on this week I feel professionally unable to place one above the others. Therefore I’ve decided to take the easy way out and list, in one long, Now Playing breath, as many of the delightful deeds as I can muster. First here’s…
Let’s plant the town red
Plant recommended perennials and trees this fall. “Plant the Town Red” is the official theme of the AIB beautification effort. There’s still plenty of time this fall to add a splash of red to your spring and summer gardens with dozens of Red Oxford Tulips or Pardon Me Daylilies. Nearly any perennial in your garden…
How a tree likes to be planted
Fall can be a good time for planting trees and shrubs. To increase your chances of success significantly it is important to use proper planting depth, supplemental watering and good mulching practices, says University of Illinois Extension’s Nancy Pollard. As you select a tree or shrub, keep in mind the landscape purpose, available space, soil…
Plant bulbs now for a colorful spring
Bulbs provide a good investment for the money spent and they supply years of spring color in your yard. Fall is the prime time for planting hardy spring-flowering bulbs. Most bulbs can be planted until the ground is frozen. Good soil drainage is essential for raising bulbs. If you have a soil with a high…
I’m a 9/11 survivor living in Springfield
I am a 9/11 survivor living in Springfield. I was born and raised here, and after completing college in Chicago, I lived and worked in New York for 22 years. On Sept. 11, 2001, I escaped from the collapse of the South Tower — but not without some terrible consequences. While I feel fortunate to…
Avoid a wrong turn down Lakeview Terrace
Sometimes, the sheer force of personality a performer has is enough to make us overlook the shortcomings of a film’s script. Surely, director Neil La Bute knew what he was doing when he cast Samuel L. Jackson in the lead of his new film, Lakeview Terrace, a thriller that’s initially engaging but winds up imploding…
People’s Poetry
underwearpoem #1 some people hold things against their parentsall their lives mine probably will too my godkidsblame their mother that she made them weartheir underpants a second day inside out wellI remember my grandma doing a huge washing at the big house every monday took all day tubsand scrub boards all the overalls for the…
Think spring by planting the town red this fall
Regular IT readers are familiar with Springfield in Bloom (SIB), the friendly contest encouraging streetside beautification projects which will be in its fifth year in 2009. Hundreds of neighborhood and business-related projects have been completed during those first four years. The city’s beautification effort, Springfield Green, which has been a partner with Illinois Times in…
