Justin Taft, well-known Sangamon County farmer and former Clerk of the Supreme Court, recently published a semi-autobiographical look back at his 80-plus years in a book entitled As I Saw It — A Collection of Short Stories on Rochester and the Taft Family. Taft’s stories are of the homespun variety and recall the days before […]
Community & Lifestyle
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Earth Talk
Dear Earth Talk: Are there toothpastes on the market that don’t contain chemicals or artificial sweeteners? — Jeffrey Moss, Westport, Conn. Most conventional toothpastes use saccharin as a sweetener. Although it has not been proven that saccharin causes cancer in humans, many studies have linked it to cancer in laboratory animals, and some experts, including […]
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Asparagus success
Warm spring temperatures mean different things to gardeners– lawnmowing, brightly colored spring flowers, fresh produce. My family, for instance, can’t wait for the first garden-fresh lettuce-and-spinach salad — and asparagus from Grandma’s garden. One of the first vegetables harvested in the spring, asparagus emerges when the soil temperature reaches 50°F. This hardy perennial is generally […]
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A dyed-in-the-wool Springfield original
James R. “Bud” Fitzpatrick (1895-82), owner and publisher of the Springfield Citizens Tribune, kept a plaque on his office desk that bore this quotation: “There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come.” From these words he drew true inspiration, for apparently he felt that he never had a bad idea and […]
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Lawn joy
Spring rains and warmer temperatures have brought beauty to our yards — bright-yellow daffodils and, for most of us, lush green lawns. Of course, a few folks are happy with anything that’s green, but most prefer a lawn free of weeds. What’s the best way to defend against weeds, insects, and disease? The answer’s simple: […]
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Made by God, delivered by Rechner’s
At the corner of 12th and Reynolds, hard by what was once the site of the John Hay Homes, stands the former residence and business of August Rechner Sr., a native of Baden, Germany, who emigrated from that place to Springfield in 1895 as a 17-year-old boy. The two buildings have borne witness to so […]
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And the 2004 winners are. . .
With so many new plant introductions each year, which ones should you try this year? Almost every horticulture industry association or society names a plant of the year. These award programs offer a useful guide to selecting something new and different. The winners, by definition, are plants with outstanding characteristics. Here are a few herbaceous […]
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Pretty in pink (and red, and white. . .)
Dianthus is a flower-garden favorite. Easy to grow, dianthus plants produce beautiful, bright and generally fragrant blooms. There are more than 300 species of dianthus, ranging in size from six inches to three feet, including annuals, biennials and perennials. Common varieties include pinks, maiden pinks, carnations, Sweet William, cottage pinks, clove pinks and gillyflower. Because […]
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Peas’ time
As a child, you probably didn’t like eating your vegetables. Fortunately, my son will eat almost any vegetable (except beets, okra and Brussels sprouts). His love for fresh vegetables started with venturing out to his Grandma’s vegetable garden and picking and eating snap peas right off the vine. Peas are hardy, vigorous, and good for […]
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Finding beauty in everyday things
Just a few years ago, when our kids were still quite little, our family was watching an old black-and-white television program when my daughter allowed that she wasn’t altogether enjoying the show. When we asked her why, she innocently asked whether the whole world was black and white “back then.” She was disturbed by the […]
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Back in the ’30s, they played for keeps
Fans of such insipid pop-culture TV fare as Fear Factor, Survivor, American Idol and other staged, stultifying and overly orchestrated pabulum so mind-numbingly vacuous that you can actually feel your IQ score tumbling as you watch, know this: There was a time when they played for keeps. Remember the 1969 movie They Shoot Horses, Don’t […]
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The school for wives
In the days before television talk shows, cooking shows and HGTV — indeed, in the days before television itself — the American woman, who was almost always a housewife, had a limited network of resources upon which to call when she sought information so vital to her occupation: the business of cooking, cleaning, and household […]
