Taste the local flavors …next Tuesday
My friend Karen Conn is hosting the Local Flavors luncheon at the Inn at 835 (835 South Second Street) next Tuesday the 20th … If you don’t know about this culinary event – it was organized by the Illinois Stewardship Alliance, a non profit group that bring lower growers together with restaurant and catering firms…
Let them eat bread
It’s the Irish in me – but wheat or rye, multigrain or oat, bread would be my food of choice if I had to choose just one thing to sustain me for life. For that reason (as well as the fact that I like seeing small businesses come to town) here’s a hearty welcome to…
The answer to health reform is right here
We usually overlook the mind, body and spirit connection when it comes to our wellness and health care. A lot of people don’t believe it works, but it does work. We are just now beginning to understand things like the placebo effect and how the belief that we are healing actually has the potential to…
That General Tso sure gets around
In recent months the strip center at Montvale Plaza (across from west side Schnuck’s) has had so many businesses coming and going it was hard to keep track. Last month Sunny China House opened in the space next door to Little Caesar’s (which was either the space that used to be the Spaghetti Shop (that…
Great gourds
Here’s a festival that grows bigger each year. Girard harvested 400 pumpkins for this Saturday’s fest held on the town square. Go on a hay or pony ride, enter the pumpkin painting or carving contest, smash a car, see the winning pet or child costume and so much more. The air/human/mechanical powered pumpkin chunkin contest…
Fall revelry
Welcome autumn this weekend at Lincoln Memorial Garden’s Indian Summer Festival. The ambience starts as you tuck your car between two trees in the woods. Then stroll out of the forest into the clearing where musicians, food, craft vendors and activities galore immerse you in the sights, sounds and smells of harvest time. The kids…
Renewed computers, renewed lives
It’s yet another Saturday work day at Springfield’s Computer Banc, where digital wizards infuse computers with new hope for the future. A pale green panel van backs up to a door in the small, ordinary white building on a nondescript asphalt lot at 1023 East Washington. The driver swings open the van’s back doors. The…
Michael Moore’s Capitalism shortchanges the audience
It’s no secret that Michael Moore’s films, though labeled “documentaries,” should be called “diatribes.” While the filmmaker might twist the truth a bit here or there, he’s more guilty of the sin of omission where his presentation of facts is concerned. He’s come under considerable heat taking this approach when dealing with such hot-button topics…
College sowing seeds for a local slam poetry movement
Local youths may be familiar with the confrontation and spectacle of mainstream hip hop, where the words flow effortlessly with messages of violence, money and sex. Less familiar is a close cousin, slam poetry, which also has smooth lyrical moves, but uses them to deliver appeals to social justice, racial understanding and cultural identity. There…
Sausage without fear
Saxe’s quip is still commonly used, though less elegantly phrased — and not just about lawmaking. We wince, shrug, and say, “You know, it’s like making sausage….” Everyone understands that the rest is better left unsaid. Sausage-making is almost as old as civilization itself; there are sausage recipes that date back thousands of years. And…
Stereo Deluxe
Hailing from our eastern, state capital neighbor, Stereo Deluxe is a genuine, indie-rock band from Indianapolis. The power-pop quartet, composed of Jay Elliott (vocals, guitar), Ben Tatum (guitar, vocals), Luke Schneider (bass, vocals), and Matt Hogan (drums), have been friends since childhood, musically and otherwise, growing up together on the south side of Indy. They…
Apfelwurst (apple sausage)
My family’s preferred breakfast sausage was always Humphrey’s Market apfelwurst, made in-house. When they stopped making it almost a decade ago, I began experimenting in an attempt to recreate the original; the recipe below is the one that finally garnered my family’s approval. If you’re not inclined to make your own, the folks at Humphrey’s…
Bringing Computer Banc back to life
“The report of my death is an exaggeration.” —Mark Twain, May 1897. To paraphrase the great American storyteller, the report of Computer Banc’s demise was a bit premature. After abruptly closing its doors Sept. 2, Computer Banc has reopened with limited operations. It resumed distribution of computers beginning Oct. 1. “When the board met Sept.…
Pumpkin play
Illinois is the pumpkin capital of the world. Come and learn about it. Is it a fruit or a vegetable? Are pumpkins always orange? What can you do with a pumpkin besides eat it? Recommended for ages 4-8, this Saturday program features ongoing activities that take 30 to 45 minutes to complete and feature take-home…
When Quinn speaks ‘truth to power’ he forgets he’s talking to himself
One of Gov. Pat Quinn’s favorite lines is “I speak truth to power.” He uses it almost all the time, and has for years. It appears to be a verbal tic. Quinn has grown so accustomed to saying it for so long that he can’t stop himself. He said it once while explaining how he…
Apfelwurst and goat cheese miniature tarts
Humble sausage is transformed into a sophisticated hors d’oeuvre for these tasty bites, which I created for an apple harvest dinner. They can be assembled a day or two ahead, covered tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerated. Just pop them into the oven at the last minute and serve warm. 1 recipe apfelwurst 1 ½…
East side wins housing grant
The sounds of nail guns and power saws filled the air in a section of the east side of Springfield last week. Men with tool belts worked feverishly to build a new home at the corner of 12th and Edwards streets, raising walls and covering the frame with plywood. Right next door, a rundown, boarded-up…
Breakfast sausage with fresh ginger and sage
This recipe of Ruhlman and Polcyn’s for breakfast sausage is so delicious, you’ll wonder how you ever settled for that bland supermarket stuff. It makes a large quantity, but the recipe is easily halved. 5 lbs. boneless pork shoulder butt, diced; or substitute ground pork 3 T. kosher salt 5 T. peeled and grated fresh…
Fighting for space
In a flurry of precise motions, the young boy’s gloved fists shoot forward like a barrage of missiles, seeking an exposed cheek or unprotected stomach. The older, taller boy throws a hook, but 12-year-old Michael Turner-Bey ducks and lands a triple jab in the other boy’s ribs. “I like the training and the exercise,” Michael…
kidquotepoem #11
don’t get any more of thatlimeade brand it reminds meof gas station bathrooms Jacqueline Jackson © 2009
Stimulus funds boost electronic health records
The national health care debate continues on Capitol Hill, but that won’t stop Springfield medical leaders from injecting innovation into the local health care scene. Last week U.S. Sens. Richard Durbin and Roland Burris, D-Ill., announced that the United States Department of Health and Human Services would award $750,000 to the Illinois Primary Health Care…
Domestic violence programs need more funds, better services
From July through early September, Sojourn Shelter and Services could only offer emergency shelter beds to 16 women and children fleeing domestic violence — a dramatic decrease from the 32 the local nonprofit provided before the summer’s state budget scare. Candi Clouse, Sojourn’s prevention and development coordinator, says the organization is now “getting back to…
Backyard Tire Fire gets hot
Backyard Tire Fire, the little trio that could from Bloomington, Ill., is smoking its way across the musical landscape of America, blazing a trail and firing up good solid music the entire way. Highlights for the group in the last year include opening dates for Cracker and receiving a most-favored listening status from Cracker guitarist…
Whip It: Coming of age one body check at a time
Drew Barrymore shows a steady hand behind the camera with her directorial debut Whip It that contains an oft-told tale energetically rendered. Ellen Page is Bliss, a Texas teen who’s forced to participate in beauty contests at her mother’s (Marcia Gay Harden) insistence. The young woman is losing the will to live but is rejuvenated…
Wall Street’s new Halloween trick
Halloween is still a month away, but ghouls, ghosts and other grotesque creatures are already roaming America’s streets, possibly preparing to knock at your door. What makes them so scream-out-loud horrifying is that they are the newly issued spawn of — shriek! — Wall Street. The very same greed-fueled bankers who brought us the disaster…
CROSSING LINES HITS SPRINGFIELD
Last May we introduced readers to Indira Somani, a Springfield native who co-produced Crossing Lines, an award-winning film that looks at Somani’s life as a second-generation Indian and how she connected to her roots after her father’s death [see “Crossing Lines, the documentary,” May 27, 2009]. At 7 p.m. Oct. 15, Crossing Lines makes its…
Letters to the Editor 10/08/2009
SPRINGFIELD RESPONDSHospital Sisters Mission Outreach, a local organization that collects and redistributes medical equipment and supplies throughout the world, is responding to a humanitarian need in the Philippines, where hundreds of thousands of people remain homeless and in dire need of food, clean water and medical care after Typhoon Ketsana. Mission Outreach is among many…
‘Great Refrigerator Roundup’ is a bad bargain
Until Springfield develops a taste for warm beer, refrigerators will continue to account (with air conditioners) for the major part of every household’s electricity bill. That’s especially true if the fridge is old. City Water, Light & Power estimates that there are 40,000 ice boxes built B.C. — Before Clinton — that are still running…
HEART AND SEOUL
For the past three years, Carl Greenwood has been writing and researching a booklet on the Korean War — not to make money, but simply because he feels it is a forgotten conflict that got “lost in the cracks between World War II and Vietnam.” He’s the same Carl Greenwood who spearheaded the effort to…
Independent living
Two Springfield women star in this touching and informative documentary airing Friday on public television station WILL-TV. The show takes a rare look at the unusual relationship between Diana Braun, who has Down syndrome, and Kathy Conour, who had cerebral palsy and died Sept. 19. Some would call these two women profoundly disabled, but they…
Town meeting aims for green consensus
Since the Green Movement began to kick into high gear about three years ago, we are becoming aware of the importance of protecting the earth’s fragile ecosystem. Mayor Tim Davlin has pointed with pride to Springfield being rated fourth in the country among medium cities in the National Resources Defense Council’s Smarter Cities project. Cited…
