Cover Story
Healthy, wealthy & wise
The ongoing pandemic has thrown off many of our regular routines. This year’s Healthy, Wealthy and Wise issue has tips on how to get back on track physically, mentally and financially or simply just keep better tabs on your goals and progress so that you can see how far you’ve come. It’s easy to feel…
Cookbooks are more than recipes
Food is inextricably linked to one’s heritage and culture. Cookbooks are much more than recipes. They reveal life, culture and foodways of the times. Kathryn Harris – local historian, librarian and Springfield’s 2020 First Citizen – has an impressive collection of African American cookbooks. They are now in the “Follow the Recipe” exhibit at the…
The Hickox family of Springfield,a clan of builders
Harris “Buzz” Hatcher, 70, of Springfield, invited me on a tour, saying, “I want to tell you about the Hickox family.” I was intrigued, since I had conducted research about homes the Hickox family owned over generations. We stand at Fourth and Cook in front of the Hickox Apartment complex, which is listed on the…
philosophy poem # 17
a close kin planned to be wed in a laden orange grove – green lush adjacent to her future home however near the entrance was unsightly debris the worst being an abandoned school bus destined for chicken coopdom my advice was to move the eyesore out of wedding range; an “impossibility” so I expanded my…
Letters to the editor 1/20/22
We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to editor@illinoistimes.com. —- REVISED PLAN This is all part of moving the innovation district forward (“UIS plans downtown campus,” Jan. 13). It was announced at the beginning of 2019, right before the COVID shutdown. The space originally…
Speaker Welch says crime is a top priority
House Speaker Chris Welch marked his one-year anniversary as his chamber’s top leader with a series of news media interviews last week. One of the questions I asked was what his legislative district’s constituents were talking to him about the most. “The No. 1 issue in my district, and this is across the state, is…
Bar is half a movie, be patient with Daughter, Scream on repeat
Bar: A near miss Based on the memoir by Pulitzer Prize-winning author J.R. Moehringer, George Clooney’s The Tender Bar is a movie where you can pinpoint exactly where it jumps the rails. Having been abandoned by his father at the age of eight, young J.R. (Daniel Ranieri) and his mother (Lily Rabe) are forced to…
The lost art of cursive
I called the bank last week to inquire about a check I had written. When I asked the person on the phone if he could look it up in his system, he read back the correct amount of the check. But I had several checks written for similar amounts, so I double-checked by asking him…
Mayor fires director of Lincoln Library
The director of Lincoln Library, who moved to Springfield from La Crosse, Wisconsin, when she was hired two-and-a-half years ago, says she was fired by Mayor Jim Langfelder Jan. 20. Rochelle Hartman, 59, told Illinois Times the following day that she was surprised and bewildered when Langfelder summoned her to City Hall and told her…
Wellness tracking
Wellness tracking has become a popular way to get a handle on physical, spiritual and mental health needs. Whether you track using a personal fitness device, apps or a bullet journal, keeping track of personal habits helps us to be mindful and reach our target goals. Typically worn around the wrist like a watch or…
Go outside this winter
The Danish term “hygge” (pronounced hoo-guh) has been all the rage over the last couple of years. Hygge is the art of reorganizing your indoor living space to maximize cozy feelings. The word hygge evokes images of warm lighting, hands curled around a hot mug of tea, a heady hardback novel, knitted scarves and blankets…
Ditch the diets, just cook your own food
There are countless diets in existence, all touting various and often contradictory methodologies aimed at improving well-being. The do’s and don’ts of what and how and when to eat can be dizzying, and it can be incredibly overwhelming to try and simply figure out what to have for dinner. Specific diets aside, the best way…
Investing in your financial health one step at a time
It’s 2022, and the pandemic is still part of daily life. It has changed everyone’s life in some way and, more specifically, the economic impact of COVID has changed the way many people think about money – how to spend money and how to save it. Were you financially prepared for such a disruption? If…
Shining a light on seasonal affective disorder
Now that the holiday season has come and gone, a lot of people have begun to feel the unwelcome effects of winter. Short days, early sunsets, frigid temperatures and gray skies can begin to affect our mood in ways we may rather not admit. When you add in continued concerns about COVID-19, it makes complete…
Publisher’s note 1/20/22
We’re pleased to announce that Dean Olsen has joined Illinois Times as senior staff writer, bringing with him decades of experience in investigative reporting and covering topics including the Statehouse, health care, business, education and much more. While most mainstream news coverage focuses on the federal government, the reality is that what happens at the…
Is seaweed the new kale?
Seaweed is regarded by many as the future of food. It’s one of the world’s most sustainable and nutritious foods. Seaweed is zero-input, meaning that it does not require fresh water, fertilizer, feed or arable land to thrive. Seaweed has the ability to absorb excess nitrogen and phosphorus deposited in the water by agricultural runoff…
See for yourself
Kokela Slaughter is proud of her son who will soon graduate from Lanphier High School, but she wants to know why he was punched in the head by a Springfield police officer. On Nov. 17, police officers responded en masse to a fatal stabbing at Lanphier High School. A 15-year-old girl has been charged in…
Back to the bars
Here we are in mid-January and it’s starting to feel a lot like winter, but before you know it, those hot summer nights shall return. But in the meantime, let’s see what’s happening this weekend. Thursdays seem to be the one night of the week that could use some help in the live entertainment department,…
Tracking down a test
With the omicron variant surging throughout the country and the Springfield area reporting the most daily COVID-19 cases of any point during the two-year pandemic, finding testing presents residents with a large array of options, some of them costly, and some untrustworthy or unreliable. For employees concerned about exposure or in need of testing not…
A celebration of artistic accomplishments
For the past five years, the District 186 visual arts program has partnered with the Springfield Art Association (SAA) to highlight the artistic accomplishments of the district’s students with special needs. The “ART is Exceptional” exhibit is a celebration of those accomplishments. The artwork – over 60 pieces of two- and three-dimensional works by students…
