Heating up the stage
Untitled Document Every year at least one Muni Opera show suffers from the intense summer heat. This year’s victim was Oklahoma!, which ended the Muni season this past weekend. For a period show in which everyone — especially the women — wears layers of clothing, it’s no fun, but it’s a part of performing outdoor…
Letters to the Editor
Untitled Document We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address, and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. ENGINEERING FAILURE IN ILLINOIS I used to work for the state of Illinois in the Bridge Office and have designed more…
Beggars beware
Untitled Document Garret Moffett calls downtown panhandling a “problem of epidemic proportion.” Moffett, owner of Springfield Walks, says that participants in his guided tours are often hit up for money five or six times, leading to safety and harassment issues. “For me, specifically, panhandlers were coming up before, after, and during the tours, asking for…
The new bottom line
Untitled Document It has taken years of secret research, consultations with focus groups, and trial-and-error engineering work — but, at last, the corporate scientists have come up with the answer we’ve all been anxiously awaiting: five sheets. That’s the amount of toilet paper that Kimberly-Clark has determined that its new product — the world’s first-ever…
The Dr. Fitzgerald conspiracy
Untitled Document One last shot at the Great American Novel, and I need help. I’m taking an online writing course from a university. It’s a simple agenda: Students are given a writing task, after which we write, we submit, and edits and advice are returned. It’s not going well. “Fritz” continually tries to broker my…
When aphids attack
Untitled Document I park my car under the canopy of a large bur oak tree. For the past several weeks my car has been covered in a sticky substance: honeydew. Aphids are sucking insects that feed on plants by thrusting their long beaks into plant tissue and withdrawing sap from the plant. Aphids excrete large…
Even a ding-a-ling can make a “Ding Dong”
Untitled Document Remember Ding Dongs? Even as a kid, I didn’t really like them. They sounded fun, though, and every so often I’d succumb to advertising hype or the desire to eat what my friends ate and nag my mom into buying them. The same thing happened with cereal. Tony the Tiger, Count Chocula, Lucky…
Walk it out
Untitled Document When Samuel Jackson asked U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood to support his “Thousand Fathers March” initiative, Jackson was taken aback by the congressman’s response. “How much do you need?” LaHood asked. “Nothing,” Jackson replied, a response that left LaHood, a former schoolteacher, equally shocked. Although modeled on similar endeavors, which entail moving busloads of…
Another look
Untitled Document The city of Springfield has pledged to reexamine its tax-increment-financing policy after Enos Park residents voiced concerns with current procedures at a neighborhood-association meeting Tuesday. Enos Park resident Owen Anderson told city officials in attendance — public-works director Mike Norris, Office of Planning and Economic Development director Mike Farmer, and TIF administrator Bissi…
Super good Superbad
Untitled Document I came late to the party where Judd Apatow’s cult TV show Freaks and Geeks is concerned. It was only after enjoying The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up, both written and directed by Apatow, that I gave in to my wife’s nagging and gave Freaks and Geeks a shot. It was…
Where there’s a Will
Untitled Document Joining several other lawmakers, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin has requested an investigation into the shooting death of freelance journalist and Illinois native Brad Will. A native of Kenilworth, Ill., Will was documenting social upheaval in the Mexican state of Oaxaca when he was shot and killed last fall when police opened fire on…
No calls, please
Untitled Document Customers flooded State Farm with calls after word got out that the Bloomington-based insurer would provide coverage for Apple’s pricey new iPhone. Many, however, met with disappointment. A Kansas resident says that the State Farm office he contacted received an emphatic no from underwriters in his state; a State Farm agent in Virginia…
Green with tomato envy
Untitled Document If we believe everything we see on the big screen, then fried green tomatoes were invented at the Whistle Stop Café in Alabama, where Idgie Threadgoode manned the stove. And that’s the truth, Ruth (Jamison). Southern folks are so savvy, taking an unripe piece of fruit and turning it into a tasty morsel…
Economic justice and saving the earth
Untitled Document Aside from the obvious benefits to humanity of reducing poverty, how would promoting more economic equality around the world benefit the environment? Research has shown that environmental protection tends to be of lower priority in countries with a wide disparity between rich and poor. The inverse is also true: Countries with greater…
Rooting for the Celtics
Untitled Document First, an apology to the kilt-wearing folk of the St. Andrew’s Society of Central Illinois and associated friends and fans. Back around St. Patrick’s Day, in an obviously ill- conceived and unsuccessful attempt at humor, I joked about the Scots’ pretending to be Irish so that they could party on St. Patrick’s Day.…
