Running buddy fail
I’ve had a couple of great running buddies over the years. Key qualities include justthe right level of cheerleading and knowledge of such things as stretches, tennisshoes and running paths. (I’m also glad when they’re talkers – ‘cause runninggets boring, and I’m usually too busy panting to bring much to the conversation.) But far more…
Strategy for the weak-willed environmentalist
The standard advice for anyone wishing to reduce their energy consumption tends to include turning off the lights, walking instead of driving and turning down the heat. Turning off the lights when I’m not in the room? Check. That one’s pretty easy. Walking everywhere? Wearing five sweaters all winter long? … Fail and fail. Some…
Fighting like crazy
On June 18, 1860, Elizabeth Packard, a mother of six and wife of a Calvinist minister in Manteno, Ill., was carried from her home and admitted to the Illinois Hospital for the Insane in Jacksonville against her will. Her husband, Rev. Theophilus Packard, thought she was insane and, according to state law at the time,…
Involve kids in back-to-school shopping
Back to school means seeing friends, catching up and wearing new clothes, which is fun and exciting for kids. But for parents, back-to-school shopping, planning and scheduling can be stressful. If you plan ahead, and involve your children in the process, you will save money and have the opportunity to teach some valuable life skills…
Sunny songster
Bring your lawn chair or reserve a seat for an evening under the night sky as The Muni’s rendition of the popular musical Annie shines bright on the stage and fields near Lake Springfield. Annie, an orphan living in a wretched orphanage, lucks out with a week’s placement in the luxury of hardened Oliver Warbucks’s…
Artist to paint a five-story mural in pursuit of ArtPrize
Springfield artist and mural painter Mike Mayosky is always working on and promoting something. Our colorful local artist has something very big that he is promoting right now. He has entered the ArtPrize 2010 competition in Grand Rapids, Mich., and he is hoping to win the grand prize of $250,000. Second or third place would…
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
Democrats throughout the country and right here in Illinois are pushing a two-pronged negative strategy to retain their hold on power in these uncertain times. The first is to do as much opposition research as possible on their Republican opponents to keep races “localized” with nasty revelations about individual candidates. The second is to try…
State Fair, the musical
Yes, fair citizens of central Illinois and other creatures making a beeline for the Illinois State Fair, the time is upon us. Once again Springfield buzzes with underlined excitement, all the hotels fill up, the roads become busier (especially around the north end and the fairgrounds), all the flies within a 200-mile radius come to…
Fighting back against the banksters
Oh, them wild and naughty bankers! What in the world will those rapacious rapscallions of Wall Street do next? Just recently, we learned from Kenneth Feinberg, the government’s special investigator of banker pay, that top executives of 17 financial giants shoveled $1.6 billion in excess compensation to themselves in 2008 — at the very moment…
Closed murder case still raises questions
On a mild November night in 1993, three young men went into a below-ground stairwell at Ridgely Elementary Schoolm 2040 N. Eighth St., in Springfield. Two of them left on foot; the third left in a coroner’s body bag with two gunshot wounds to the head. The murder of 14-year-old Harold “H.P.” Page III on…
Taking the Christian out of the YMCA
The American public tends to be ignorant of any history that hasn’t been the subject of a TV series, and so it was no surprise when market detectives hired by the national YMCA found members of that public to be “confused” about what it is, exactly, that a Young Men’s Christian Association is. That is…
Do it right in the dog days of summer
Watch this: I love that clip from Will Ferrell’s film Anchorman, and it fits tangentially into today’s post. Summer in the Midwest is a time of wretched, smothering humidity and baking heat, the combination of which usually makes you sweat without exerting any effort. If you dare to move around while outside in this sweltering…
Kids far more than just all right
The buzz has been steadily building for Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right. The advance reviews have been great and it’s crept into the national consciousness, referred to as “the lesbian mom movie.” Some critics have even claimed in print to liking the film without being able to say why. The reason is that…
PEACE PARADE
About 60 kids aged 4 to 12 years old celebrated the simplest of ideas – peace – after spending several days last week learning how to preserve it. “We talk about positive conflict resolution, the environment, foreign languages and how to communicate with other people,” says Katie Mae Gonko, one of the organizers of the…
A grand tradition at the Grandstand
It wasn’t too long ago that the popular rock band Hootie and the Blowfish sold out the Grandstand at the Illinois State Fair. In 1995, the year after late author David Foster Wallace wrote about the fair in Harper’s Magazine, more than 13,350 people from around the state packed the venue to see the band…
When State Fair food was real
Ah, the Illinois State Fair – the highlight of my childhood summers. From about the third grade on, I sold produce from my grandparents’ organic farm from a makeshift stand at the end of our driveway. Every year I hoarded those earnings, my allowance and babysitting money, then blew it all on a gloriously uninhibited…
Crimes of oppression
Henrik Ibsen’s dramatic play about the transformation of a young housewife’s attitude after she is caught handling a financial matter behind her husband’s back. The cast features Aasne Vigesaa as Nora, Kevin Purcell as Torvald, Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson as Christine, Eric Thibodeaux-Thompson as Dr. Rank, James Daniels as Krogstad, Linda Schneider as Anne Marie and Nicole…
Caramel Corn
This caramel corn is simple and simply delicious. Dark corn syrup and vanilla make most traditional; using maple syrup and flavoring is a nice variation. Adding just peanuts makes it “Cracker Jack.” Using other nuts, singly or in combination, creates a more sophisticated version. 3-4 quarts freshly popped, unseasoned popcorn 3 c. roasted nuts: peanuts,…
These Guys deliver the funny
Adam McKay and Will Ferrell approach comedy by throwing various gags at the audience and hope more of them work than not. Their latest collaboration, The Other Guys, is a cop movie spoof that delivers crude jokes at a rapid-fire pace in a lighthearted tone. This is what the actor’s fans expect. However the inspired…
Grandstand timeline
1958 Louis Armstrong Jane Russell/James Garner/Jonathan Winters WLS National Bam Dance 1959 Grand Ole Opry Edd “Kookie” Byrnes/Alan King/ Les Brown & the Band of Renown 1960 Grand Ole Opry (w/ Roy Acuff, Patsy Cline and Ray Price) The Three Stooges Bob Hope 1961 Anita Bryant Neil Sedaka The Three Stooges Grand Ole Opry 1962…
EGAD, BAD WEBSITE
Central Illinois has a lot of great nonprofit groups that help the poor and the vulnerable of all ages. They do great work and meet a lot of important needs, but sometimes their presence on the Internet leaves something to be desired. Websites that seem to have been designed when the Internet was still a…
Julie Schurr
Singer-songwriters belong to a special group of performers, those who not only entertain, but also edify and enlighten, espousing their personal beliefs to a hopefully appreciative audience. For Julie Schurr the all-original, self-described “indierockbitchfolk” songs she performs in a brilliant voice supported by her acoustic guitar, inform listeners of the world of lesbian music in…
Housing starts
Across the street from the house she was born in, longtime Springfield resident Jacqueline Carter Smith last week stood beside city and state officials in a vacant lot on the city’s east side. There, near the intersection of Stuart and Wheeler streets, she took up one of nine gold-tinted shovels and ceremoniously lifted a chunk…
The capital city is bloomin’ beautiful
Spring rains, sweltering summer heat and those dang Japanese beetles made this yet another challenging year to be a flower gardener in central Illinois. And yet nearly 80 individuals and organizations stepped up and entered a project in the 2010 Springfield in Bloom competition. This is the sixth year of this friendly beautification contest originated…
Creme of the crop
Veterans, scouts and seniors are honored with free days at the fair. Veterans with identification, and their families, gain free admittance on Sunday, Aug. 15. A memorial service takes place at the Grandstand from 9:30-11 a.m. with Governor Pat Quinn and the U.S. Coast Guard Silent Drill Team. Scouts and those 60 and older get…
Grassland trek
The Sangamon Valley Group of the Sierra Club invites others to join them for a guided hike around the Ostermeir Prairie, located south of the Garden’s main entrance. The association will meet under the picnic shelter behind the old barn. The local group is also starting its first nonpartisan political fund that will be used…
Letters to the Editor 8/12/10
SHARE THE TRACKSWhile the author of “Slower than a speeding bullet” [by James Krohe Jr., Aug. 5] makes salient points about the competing concerns of passenger versus freight rail, he overlooks the fact that freight and passenger rail have successfully coexisted on the same infrastructure for more than 150 years. Development of high-speed rail in…
