CAP CITY
THE BUZZ YOU HEAR . . . Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed said what’s been on most everyone’s mind last week when she asked why the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum hasn’t hired a replacement for former executive director Richard Norton Smith, who recently departed for the world of academia. Is it because those…
When nothing “really” matters
Yanks (“American”) Avatar (“embodiment of a concept”) is, by definition, the essence of American thought, the quintessential American. Were it not so, he’d have a different name. Here is his story. Yanks worked for 50 years, and he labored well. He took pride in doing his jobs as best he could. He’s retired now; the…
The revolution will be motorized
With fuel prices hovering around $2.80 per gallon, it would cost Dayton Keyes about $8 to make the daily round-trip trek from his home in Maroa, near Bloomington, to his job in Springfield at the Capitol. But Keyes doesn’t use gasoline. Instead, he pays between $2.10 and $2.30 per day to run his diesel-engine car…
Jacqueline Jackson
radiopoem #2 the sweet-faced curly-haired early morning guard at the Y instead of inane talk radio or even worse music tunes in to morning edition so we can both listen to what’s going on not miss cokey roberts’ analysis garrison keillor’s poem daniel shorr’s wise words our guard’s a musician plays gigs at his church…
Letters to the editor
We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address, and daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length, and clarity. Send letters to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. OXYMORON: MILITARY INTELLIGENCE As usual, Dusty Rhodes did a great job in telling the Marty Dwyer…
Educating automatons
As if President George W. Bush hadn’t mucked up public education enough by requiring all schools to conform to his teach-to-the-test scheme, along comes brother Jeb Bush with another wacky scheme for social engineering in our schools. Jeb, who likes to call himself the “education governor,” wants Florida to require every incoming high-schooler to make…
Corruption comes in many colors
In the wake of the George Ryan verdict, there is a need to consult another Illinois governor about public morality and corruption. Ryan got caught in the basest kind, selling contracts for kickbacks and using public influence for private financial gain. He wasn’t clever enough to disguise his graft as campaign contributions, as smarter politicians…
IDOC’s white elephant
THOMSON, Ill. — The new signs at the north and south ends of Thomson give the town’s population as 600, but nobody remembers 50 people moving in since the last census. In this small Mississippi River community in northwest Illinois, they surely would have noticed. Dubbed by locals the “Melon Capital of the World,” Thomson…
Same as it ever was
Dave Druker remembers this one: The car was taken away, says the spokesman for Secretary of State Jesse White. The car in question was a state-owned vehicle used by a secretary to commute to work in Springfield back in 2003. She lived in Centralia, making her daily round trip a 200-mile journey. There was nothing…
Earth Talk
Dear “Earth Talk”: Are there any environmentally friendly alternatives to using chemical weed killers such as Roundup? — Wyatt Walley, Needham, Mass. The active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, glyphosate, is a known toxin. This is, of course, why it is so successful in eradicating weeds. In fact, glyphosate is the most commonly used pesticide in…
Vinyl Static
SHOWS-A-GO-GO! The band is big, and the sound is bigger — if only the Abstract Giants could get a break. The eight-member Chicago-based hip-hop band is well known around Chicago’s established scene, but hasn’t gained much buzz outside the Windy City. It’s too bad. The Giants have the originality of the early Roots; their bass…
Roll out the barrel
One of the best parts of attending a polka dance is listening to the band. I love going to the old-timers’ (sorry) area at the Illinois State Fair and listening to the bands. They don’t jump around too much or amplify beyond what is necessary, and they are actual studied musicians who are proud of…
The Hype
DEMOCRACY IN ACTION MICHAEL ZIRI can now enjoy his summer. At last week’s meeting of the Capital Township — whose borders overlap those of the city of Springfield — township electors agreed to place an advisory referendum on the November general-election ballot giving residents the opportunity to take a stand on the occupation of Iraq.…
Can’t buy happiness
Nicole Holofcener writes and directs intelligent films about modern women, and nothing spells “box-office poison” to Hollywood suits like movies of this sort. With any luck, Holofcener’s latest, Friends with Money, will raise the filmmaker’s profile. Portraits of complex women in film are hard to find, yet Holofcener’s work is rife with well-rounded, realistic characters,…
Dogs and ponies
Despite what they said, it’s not too hard to figure out why the state Senate Republicans blocked two construction bond bills proposed by Democrats, one for education and the other for roads and bridges. The idea is to starve the governor and the Democrats of cash for projects that they could use to promote their…
American life in poetry
A circus is an assemblage of illusions, and here Jo McDougall, a Kansas poet, shows us a couple of performers, drab and weary in their ordinary lives, away from the lights at the center of the ring. What We Need It is just as well we do not see, in the shadows behind the hasty…
This dog Van Hunt
Van Hunt is the protégé of American Idol judge Randy Jackson, but try to keep an open mind. (Yeah, I know — it’s hard not to declare a pox on all their houses now that Mandisa is gone, but technically that outrageous miscarriage of justice was the voters’ fault, not the judges’.) On his sophomore…
Green light
The mother of a mentally ill man who died after being taken into custody may proceed with her most significant claims against three Springfield police officers, a federal judge has ruled. In a recent opinion, U.S. District Judge Jeanne E. Scott rebuffed key points in the city’s motion for summary judgment, clearing the way for…
Rise up
Last time I filled this space, it was in the edition of Illinois Times that appeared just before Christmas and Hanukkah. In that commentary I suggested that Congress should impeach President George W. Bush. I was angry that the president directed the National Security Agency to spy on U.S. citizens. That action fit a pattern of…
Boiling point
This week, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 484 and officials from the Celanese chemical company will try to work out a deal that could put an end to a 10-month lockout at the Celanese Emulsions plant in Meredosia, located in Morgan County. According to Kelly Street, president of Local 484, the two sides were scheduled…
The Hype
Where’s the fire? Nowhere. Gov. Rod Blagojevich picked up a major endorsement this week from the Associated Fire Fighters of Illinois — for whom, as first responders, a few seconds can be the difference between life and death. The governor arrived 23 minutes late. At least he didn’t disappoint. The governor’s notorious for being fashionably late.…
Low-risk gamble
Two billion dollars should buy a lot of jobs. That’s how much the state of Illinois has laid on the table with the passage of a law last week establishing the Central Illinois Economic Development Authority. The authority’s board will have the power to issue $250 million in tax-exempt bonds to pay for projects designed…
Rise up
Last time I filled this space, it was in the edition of Illinois Times that appeared just before Christmas and Hanukkah. In that commentary I suggested that Congress should impeach President George W. Bush. I was angry that the president directed the National Security Agency to spy on U.S. citizens. That action fit a pattern of…
Letters to the editor
We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address, and daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length, and clarity. Send letters to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. CHRISTIANS, CONSERVATIVES PLAY DIRTY I just read the article “Culture Wars” [R.L. Nave, April 6]. I…
Hard way out
It started with a knock at Marty Dwyer’s apartment door. He opened it and found a middle-aged man standing in the public hallway and unabashedly offering him oral sex. Dwyer quickly pulled the man into his kitchen — not to accept his offer but to discover, without the neighbors hearing, what had brought this strange…
Topinka in the lead
For the first time, a statewide poll has included state Sen. James Meeks in the gubernatorial mix, but the results are not yet encouraging for the potential third-party candidate. Meeks, an African-American minister and state legislator from Chicago, has been threatening to run for governor for the past several weeks. The poll, conducted by the…
Jacqueline Jackson
lovepoem #6 sometimes you do things right I doubt she remembers I didn’t till I found it jotted in an old journal but my youngest thirteen coming down the darkened back stairs was met at the foot by her mother who grabbed her struggling and yelping and smothered her with kisses you have to watch…
World of charlatans
If you prefer your comedy on the dark side, then Thank You for Smoking, written and directed by Jason Reitman, is just what the surgeon general ordered. Dripping with sarcasm, this sharply written adaptation of the Christopher Buckley novel gleefully portrays gun, tobacco, and alcohol lobbyists at their worst. As they line their pockets, these…
Vinyl Static
CD EXCHANGE: You weren’t the only disgruntled Springfield inhabitant who tore the shrink wrap off Illinois, Sufjan Stevens’ ode to the Land of Lincoln, only to find that the sole track representing the capital city is a measly 47-second interlude titled “A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane for Very Good Reasons.” Not…
American life in poetry
Poet Ruth L. Schwartz writes of the glimpse of possibility, of something sweeter than we already have that comes to us, grows in us. The unrealizable part of it causes bitterness; the other opens outward, the cycle complete. This is both a poem about a tangerine and about more than that. Tangerine It was a…
CAP CITY
THAT’S A RAP On Friday night, hip-hop came to Springfield — but not for long. The March Madness “Final Four” rap competition was shut down before the microphone was warmed up. Despite the fact the event had been planned for weeks and was the culmination of a month-long competition, promoters apparently didn’t square things with…
Hot in here
Three tornadoes in Springfield within a matter of days. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Melting polar ice caps. Such extreme weather events and climate changes are symptoms of global warming, says Colleen Sarna, the Global Warming Conservation Organizer for the Illinois Sierra Club — and it’s going to take local solutions to stop it. On March…
Women rule
Friday, April 14, is hereby proclaimed “Cool Gal Singer/Songwriter Night” in the city of Springfield. By whose order? By order of the great architect of the universe, the all-seeing I, and the hair on your great grandmother’s chinny-chin-chin, that’s who. Erika Luckett kicks off Friday’s estrogen extravaganza at 8 p.m. at Robbie’s (after the Craig…
Experiment with pleasure
They grow ’em weird in Brazil, and of all Brazil’s wonderfully weird cultural exports, Tom Zé may be the weirdest and most wonderful. Zé, who turns 70 this year, is one of the founders of Tropicalia, a musical, intellectual, and political movement that swept São Paolo by storm in the late ’60s and early ’70s…
Frequent-fliers
When you need to fly somewhere for business or pleasure, how would you like to take off whenever you choose, avoid the hassle of airport security, never have to change planes, enjoy a plush leather seat, and eat four-star food? It’s all yours — if you’re a member of Congress. A little-mentioned perk of congressional…
