My Gift
My Gift This poem was written by my mother,Vera Wardner Dougan, to my father,for their first Christmas together, 1924. If I could give to you one only giftTo hold forever, in remembrance of meT’would be the peace that enters in the heart When love comes there to dwell, all silently. I’d wrap…
Settlement set for Carpenter
Paul Carpenter, a Springfield police detective terminated in 2006 but ordered reinstated to the force by an arbitrator in August, will receive more than $190,000 in back pay and benefits under an ordinance up for a city council vote on Tuesday. Under terms of the settlement set for a council vote, Carpenter, who has returned…
A challenging and rewarding Young Adult
Uncompromising and sharply written, director Jason Reitman’s Young Adult is that rare Hollywood film that isn’t concerned about meeting the expectations of audiences. Focusing on a tragic case of arrested development, this challenging and ultimately rewarding film zeros in, with brutal accuracy, on how easy it is to get bogged down in the past, allowing…
The Farewell Drifters
This Nashville-based band comes on with feet and fingers, music and minds in several generations. Members of the Farewell Drifters, born in the 80s and 90s, reach into the past for inspiration, conjuring up modern sensibilities within the timeless folk, bluegrass and country idiom. Among a crop of young folks playing old music a new…
Now’s the time to get involved in local politics
Can it be possible that the good ol’ boy political machine is weakening in Sangamon County? Clearly, some kind of change is underway. The normally disciplined and restrained Republican Party engages in open warfare and the Democrats struggle to rebuild after years of intra-party battles and organizational inertia. Despite the gradual decline of political party…
MOUNDS OF MEALS
Forty-thousand pounds. That’s about equal to the weight of 10 cars, two large elephants or about 210 grown men. It’s also the total weight of food given away to families in need by the Central Illinois Foodbank on Dec. 10. The food bank set up mobile food pantries at Kumler United Methodist Church, 303 N.…
CHALK TALK
Kids playing hopscotch is one thing. But after weeks of decorating downtown sidewalks with symbols, slogans and quotations, members of Occupy Springfield have gotten crosswise with police, who last week issued a pair of $500 vandalism tickets for quoting Aristotle with the help of chalk on a sidewalk outside the downtown office of U.S. Rep.…
Letters to the Editor 12/15/11
CHALK QUESTIONSHow can it be illegal for anyone to chalk a sidewalk? It will wash off; it is not permanent or damaging [see Cap City, p. 8]. The news report about the recent Occupy Springfield chalking of U. S. Rep. Aaron Schock’s office begs several questions. Can kids not use chalk on sidewalks anymore? If…
catalpaforest poem concluded
you could buy your way out of the civil war pay someone two hundred dollars to take your place the farmer on the road near us (well before my grampa was born) did so his replacement was killed. many years later a maimed ex-soldier – eye an empty hole leg missing below the knee –…
Poignant performances propel The Descendants
It’s not uncommon for life to get in the way of your becoming the person you want to be. But what’s ironic is that you often don’t realize that you’re failing to realize your goals or meet your responsibilities. In Alexander Payne’s poignant new film, The Descendants, lawyer Matt King (George Clooney) is clueless to…
Following in Lincoln’s steps
Rarely in publishing is there such a perfect collaboration of writer, photographer and publisher as in the new book, Abraham Lincoln Traveled This Way. The lovely landscape photographs by Illinois photographer Robert Shaw are complemented by the narrative of preeminent Lincoln scholar Michael Burlingame. Shaw used his own company, Firelight Publishing, to assure quality control…
A soldier’s Christmas in the Civil War
Since this year marks the sesquicentennial of the Civil War’s beginning, it seems appropriate to look back at how some of those soldiers spent their holidays. We begin with the accounts of two men in the 84th Illinois Volunteer Infantry who wrote about their experiences in the fall and winter of 1863. It had been…
Making noises in civics class
Have you ever thought about how much Freddie Mercury’s Queen owed to the works of Gilbert and Sullivan? You have? Okay, we’ll talk about something else. The other day State Rep. Bill Mitchell (R-Hickory Point Mall) introduced a resolution in the Statehouse that would ask Illinois voters to decide by referendum whether Cook County should…
Progress slow on MacArthur apartments
A milestone was quietly reached Dec. 5 with a certificate of occupancy granted by the city of Springfield for one of seven four-plexes placarded last August in a housing inspection blitz at the MacArthur Park apartment complex. It was the first instance of the city allowing tenants to live inside apartments shut down four months…
Blister wonderful
I’m starting to have feelings for this guy friend I’ve been fooling around with, but I’m worried he isn’t feeling the same way. He’s stopped short of having full-blown intercourse with me, which I find odd, although I don’t want to have sex yet because I have genital herpes and I’m not ready to tell…
Potential post office closures delayed until May 2012
The U.S. Postal Service announced Tuesday an agreement to postpone for five months numerous potential post office closings, including two in Springfield. The Postal Service previously announced plans to close about 250 postal facilities across the country and eliminate next-day delivery of first-class mail and periodicals. The service must cut $20 billion in operating costs…
East side commercial zone could get facelift
The cluttered skyline near South Grand Avenue and Dirksen Parkway in Springfield overlooks a swirling mass of fast-food wrappers and plastic shopping bags blown across an empty and unkempt lot by the brisk winter wind. It’s exactly the kind of scene that planners of a renewed commercial zone on the city’s east side say keeps…
What to tell the Blagojevich daughters?
“I… I… I… I… I couldn’t fathom what I would say to those two girls,” U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald stammered last week when asked what he would say to Rod Blagojevich’s daughters after our former governor was sentenced to 14 years in prison. It was impossible not to think of those little girls last week.…
The deep shallowness of Professor Gingrich
Mea culpa, I misspoke, my bad – I stand corrected. In past commentaries, I have called Newt Gingrich a lobbyist. Apparently, he hates that tag, even though he has indeed gotten very wealthy by taking big bucks from such special interest outfits as IBM, AstraZeneca, Microsoft and Siemens in exchange for helping them get favors…
The stream team
There are few things in this world more irritating than paying an oversized cable bill (OK, paying an oversized gas bill comes close). Thankfully, TV fans don’t have to suffer the indignity of paying a monthly bill for thousands of shows and movies they don’t watch. Services like Netflix and Amazon Instant Video can deliver…
Take 10: top DVDs for the cable-rree
Don’t let those who’ve cut the cable miss out on their favorite shows. Holiday downtime is perfect for catching up on some of cables’ most popular and critically acclaimed shows. Here are a few of last season’s biggest titles, available on DVD and Blu-ray. – Lindsey Romain 1. “Mad Men,” Season Four (AMC/Lionsgate) $49.99, DVD…
Lanphier’s Iron Chefs
It’s astonishingly quiet in Lanphier’s kitchen lab. But not actually silent. Students in the four kitchen cubicles are talking to each other. They’re also responding to questions from the adults observing them. But none of the students – not one – is fooling around or engaging in the boisterous banter that can occur when adolescents…
No Plain Jane
When I first saw Nora Jane Struthers she was standing around at a Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, Tenn., in February of 2010, passing out promo EPs of her upcoming CD. At those get-togethers everybody has an agenda, often with less than polite means and always with at least a strong purpose of commercial possibilities.…
Vintage vocals
Up-and-coming Nashville-based singer/songwriter Nora Jane Struthers comes to the Hoogland Center for the Arts stage Saturday, Dec. 17. Struthers calls her style of music “Classic Americana,” blending folk, bluegrass and the traditional tones of Americana. Cowboy Andy also performs. More info about this young singer can be found on her website www.norajanestruthers.com. Her blog is…
Festive flicks
The folks at The Legacy Theatre cooked up a Christmas film treat for the people of Springfield this weekend. Instead of watching your two favorite holiday classics on your television at home, come out with other holiday and film enthusiasts to savor and view It’s a Wonderful Life Friday night on the theater’s grand screen.…
Glorious glow
One of the best times to see the Dana-Thomas State Historic Site is during the holidays and especially at the popular Luminaria Evening, set for Sunday, Dec. 18, from 4-8 p.m. The recently remodeled home will glow with approximately 1,000 luminaria lining the sidewalks and ledges of the 12,600-square-foot structure. Tours during the Luminaria Evening…
Holiday hijinks
Two performances of Second City’s Dysfunctional Holiday Revue are slated for audiences in the LRS Theatre at the Hoogland Center for the Arts on Saturday, Dec. 17. Don’t miss the mark as the best-known comedy troupe enterprise in the United States shares an evening of humorous song, scenes and the improvisation that gives Second City…
