The continuing saga of Marina V
Untitled Document It’s become a holiday tradition here at Now Playing world headquarters to write a column about Marina V on her yearly Yuletide return to central Illinois. I consider it a privilege and an honor not only because she is a good friend and a considerable artist but also because every year she has…
Scrumptious and filling
Untitled Document It’s hard to imagine anyone other than director Tim Burton bringing Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street to the big screen. With its grisly theme and gruesome goings-on, the story a perfect match for the filmmaker’s own dark sensibilities. Everything you’d expect from a Burton film is here: outcasts whose…
Lend a hand
Untitled Document Illinois Times invited local nonprofit organizations to tell our readers what they need — in addition to financial support — for the holidays. Attention Homes for Youth Inc. 829 S. Fourth St., 217-744-7788 Attention Homes for Youth Inc. operates the Youth Enrichment and Stabilization program, which serves young people, ages 9-18, who have an…
Topper
Untitled Document The Peace Corps nurse knows where we can get a real tree. Five days before the 25th of December, with Tsegaw as interpreter, Clark collects our Ruth and Tommy and they all pile into the family Beetle to find the spot she has described: Aba Samuel’s slaughterhouse. The slaughterhouse is south of town,…
Lost in translation
Untitled Document The Christmas of 1985, I was 19 and living in Paris, where I worked as a fille au pair for Monsieur and Madame Roth and their two young daughters. I was homesick and sick in general, subsisting on a diet of Gitanes, café express, and Monoprix vin de table. The Roths, I suspect,…
The governor’s buddy
Untitled Document It could have been worse, I guess. Gov. Rod Blagojevich wasn’t named or even alluded to in last week’s federal tax-fraud indictment of Chris Kelly, one of his best friends, closest advisers, and biggest fundraisers. Blagojevich does appear to have been fingered in a different indictment, but that got lost in the shuffle.…
Legal eagles
Untitled Document That whooshing sound you hear from the corner of Ninth and Monroe isn’t wind; it’s a sigh of relief running through the Sangamon County Courthouse over the announcement of the new first assistant state’s attorney. John C. Milhiser — a respected and popular attorney — accepted the post on Tuesday, replacing Steve Weinhoeft,…
Paving paradise
Untitled Document What is the impact of new roads and parking lots? The history of paving dates back to Roman times if not earlier, but our modern society has taken the practice to the extreme. Originally conceived as a way to make dirt- and mud-covered thoroughfares passable, roads (and parking lots) now cover the majority…
White Christmas
Untitled Document The church people come for a visit By CAROL MANLEY I had to give the people credit for climbing those stairs. The security lock on the door had been broken for a year. When I had moved into that building, pregnant and with a baby on my hip, I had to pay a…
The place to be
Untitled Document “Pops, which shoes should I wear with this?” My dad’s eyes dart up from under his glasses, and he gives me, then my feet, a quick glance as I lift up one foot, then the other. “Oh wow, I like that dress.” “Thanks — which shoes should I wear?” He looks again. “I…
Nuts in a bind
Untitled Document Inevitably during the holiday season with all of its twists, turns, and stress galore — something goes wrong in the kitchen. Even worse, you’ve got a pack of carolers showing up in 20 minutes for Yuletide socializing with nothing in the way of vittles. This is a good opportunity to develop your own…
A father’s plea to stop veterans’ suicides
Untitled Document It was a nice surprise to see Mike Bowman and his wife, Kim, last week on the NBC network news, testifying before the House Committee on Veterans Affairs. They were on CNN and CBS as well, and newspapers across the country picked up their story. The congressional hearing and the media attention were…
Christmas morning
Untitled Document There are two times when those who celebrate Christmas open their presents: Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Well, not exactly. Christmas gift-giving customs vary around the world, and many of them aren’t even on Christmas Eve or Day, which is kind of nice, separating the spiritual and religious aspects at least somewhat from…
Christmas Stories
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Christmas songs
Untitled Document I play guitar — or, at least, I like to think I do — but I never have learned any Christmas carols, though I’ve attempted to fingerpick “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” with little success. In a more secular vein, I’ve also tried to memorize the lyrics to a song by Woody Guthrie…
Lobbyists go shopping
Untitled Document ’Tis the shopping season, and many bedraggled consumers are going store to store seeking gifts for loved ones. But the most determined shoppers of all this season are corporate lobbyists, scurrying from agency to agency in Washington in search of special favors for themselves. They’re interested not in giving but in getting. Indeed,…
People’s Poetry
Untitled Document My mother wrote this lullaby for my oldest sister, on her first Christmas, 1925. I’m repeating it for this year. I’ll send the music on request. Lovepoem #8Sleep, little baby, the daylight is fading; Dim yellow stars the dark heavens adorn; Once, long ago, in a Bethlehem manger The little Lord Jesus was…
Xanadu
Untitled Document Cathy Schwegmann traveled to Bloomington in May and stood on the sidewalk outside the offices of Iowa-based Lee Enterprises’ The Pantagraph, chatting with employees and handing out surveys. In a few brief hours, employees say, she changed the internal dynamics of the 47,000-daily-circulation Pantagraph. A full-fledged unionization campaign is now taking place in…
Tax pass
Untitled Document As Ward 10 Ald. Tim Griffin headed to City Council Tuesday night, he was still receiving phone calls from residents worried about a property-tax increase. His constituents’ concerns, coupled with his and six other aldermen’s unfamiliarity with the city’s budget process, Griffin said, convinced him that raising property taxes next year was not…
The legend of the ungiven gift
Untitled Document The Frenches walked everywhere from their home in the hollow. They had walked the two miles up the west hollow to Uncle George’s and Aunt Daisy’s for Thanksgiving dinner. Dave walked miles on his trap line every other day. It was an easy walk through the timber to Frank Warner’s for eggs, even…
“Is America Great?”
Untitled Document If somehow we could only work Santa into this story By JACQUELINE JACKSON I was in a school hallway, collecting work that had to be done the next day, pile after pile, beginning to feel despair, till a rotund professor said that only some would be due. The scene changed; I was in…
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. GOODINTENTIONSNOTENOUGH Hear no evil, see no evil seems to be a common practice — it is human nature. Yet it has…
