Loved your response to the bored-out-of-their-gourds parents of the 1-year-old. I’m three months pregnant and a little worried in the wake of a recent dinner party. There were four sets of new parents there, and all the wives seemed to resent the hell out of their husbands. The husbands, predictably, seemed defensive and angry in […]
Community & Lifestyle
Posted inArts & Culture
How sick was Lincoln?
The theories are plentiful: Abraham Lincoln was gay, or had Marfan’s syndrome, or syphilis or mercury poisoning; Mary Lincoln was insane, and on and on. But, are they true? It’s been 80 years since someone wrote a book addressing questions about Lincoln and his mental and physical health. A lot of new information and speculation […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Four wettings and a funeral
My hubby and I had our first child last year, and we’re so happy and proud to be the creators of the most adorable creature either of us has ever seen, but our marriage is tanking. We aren’t naive; we expected change. But we’re both stressed and exhausted and we never have sex. Our lives […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Springfield’s role in preserving the dead
Before the Civil War, embalming was mainly done in America by medical men seeking to preserve corpses for anatomical study. It wasn’t until the outbreak of the Civil War, when tens of thousands of soldiers died on battlefields far from home, that embalming came into fashion as a means of preserving bodies before burial. And […]
Posted inArts & Culture
I got spew, Babe
You wrote in your column, “Men, especially, are compelled to ditch what’s chasing them and chase what’s trying to ditch them.” It seems you’re advising that the simple desire to love a man must be approached without authenticity and personal integrity. Must a woman really scheme to get a man, using a painfully conscious strategy […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Splendor in the grass cuttings
I married a domineering man 20 years my senior. We have two college-age kids. I’ve spent the past 22 years (half my life) navigating his ill-temperedness and high expectations, and my life is often chaotic and unhappy. For nine months, I’ve been infatuated with my super-hot 25-year-old co-worker, “Dax.” I’ve tried to distance myself, but […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Hell in a hen basket
Seven months ago, when I met my boyfriend, I had no idea he had so many female friends. I’m 26; he’s 30. I understand having opposite-sex friends to get perspective on dating, but he’s like one of their girlfriends. He gabs on the phone with them constantly, and they treat him like their little teddy […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Scrumming in Springfield
It is easy to imagine the Springfield Celts as third-graders. These are the guys who loved dodgeball, the ones who laughed and screamed “Whoa!” when balls found their mark in particularly violent fashion, the ones who pleaded for one more game before recess ended, the ones who didn’t notice when classmates cowered or developed sore […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Scold mountain
The guy I’ve sorta been seeing travels around making videos for an extreme sports company but lives two hours away in the mountains. We met through a mutual friend, went to dinner and then had sex. We had a few more dates, and then he got a girlfriend. He contacted me after they broke up. […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The tweakest link
I met this man, and it was instant attraction. I’m a 40-year-old woman with my own place, a car and a good job, and he’s an ex-convict who served four years in prison for selling meth. He’s very loving, but he has no car or driver’s license (it expired during prison), has a minimum-wage job, and […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Apocalypse meow
For years, a group of us girls has gone camping, to dinner, to concerts, etc. Our husbands do their own thing together while we hang out. When they bring a new guy into their circle, they seem to think we should automatically accept his female partner. We normally do because we’re nice like that. The […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The poetry of longevity
What do Poetry Magazine, Chicago Chinatown, Madison County, Haenig Electric Company and the YMCA of McDonough County have in common? They are a few of 23 Illinois businesses, nonprofits and municipalities bestowed with a Centennial Award this year by the Illinois State Historical Society. The award recognizes organizations that have operated continuously for at least […]
