Holiday humor
Make a list and check it twice to see The Santaland Diaries Dec. 7-9 at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. Written by the great American humorist David Sedaris, the play follows one out-of-work actor who decides to become a Macy’s elf to pay the holiday bills. During his tour of duty as Crumpet the…
Crowdsourcing presidential choice
Remember Election Night? All those colored maps on TV, intended to make clear what a jumble of numbers could not. But the maps, unlike the numbers, did not add up. Such massive swaths of red on the map, such a massive pile of blue electoral votes in the graphs. How could the Democrat have won,…
Tax transparency or competition killer?
Illinois would make public the tax data of publicly traded companies under a bill passed by the state Senate last week, but business interests say the move would put some companies at a competitive disadvantage. Prompted by the state’s budget crisis, the bill could be used as justification to revise Illinois’ corporate tax code if…
A death in the family – and the question is: whodunit?
Born in 1930 in Schiller Park, Ill., the deceased was 82 years old at the time of passing, which ironically was the day before Thanksgiving. Having long enjoyed the sweet life, the end was a bit bitter, for the dearly departed’s estate had been mercilessly plundered in recent years by unscrupulous money managers. This left…
CLEAR AS MUD
Macoupin County good, everyone else bad. That’s the assessment of the Illinois Policy Institute when it comes to government transparency in counties in western and central Illinois. The institute this week issued failing grades to 16 out of 17 counties, including Sangamon, proclaiming that they don’t put enough stuff like salaries and tax rates and…
German Christmas traditions: Fröhliche Weihnachten!
Deutschland may not be “über alles,” but German Christmas traditions are deeply ingrained in American yuletide celebrations. Many are centuries old, such as festooning the house with evergreen boughs, a practice dating back to the Middle Ages (perhaps even longer, to pre-Christian times) and which eventually led to decorated Christmas trees. Until the advent of…
Softly a metaphor for our times
More like The Sopranos in tone and feel than Pulp Fiction, what with its lack of self-aware irony, Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly has more than a few axes to grind. Intent on throwing the last two administrations under the bus for their causing and mishandling of the 2008 economic collapse, the writer/director uses the…
Driver’s license bill revived by huge Latino vote
Five years ago, most Illinois House Republicans, including House GOP Leader Tom Cross, voted against a bill which would’ve allowed undocumented immigrants to obtain state driver’s licenses. The conservative rhetoric against the legislation was very harsh. Even so, it was approved by the House, but was never called for a floor vote in the state…
A literary album of a farm
The Round Barn: A Biography of an American Farm, Volume 2, by Jacqueline Dougan Jackson. Beloit City Press, 2012. 487 pages, $24.95 Imagine you’ve discovered a box of jumbled old black and white photographs of good-natured folks going about their work. Further down are personal letters, ledgers, then clippings from newspapers and farm journals. There…
puzzle poem # 1
puzzle poem # 1 when feeding the red phalaropeoften swims in circles forming asmall whirlpool this nugget gainedfrom jigzone.com I often ease intothe day by doing the daily puzzletoday’s is the bottom of a greenwellington boot washed up by thetide a sturdy little-worn sole youwonder how it was lost and didanyone go with it I…
Happiest place on girth
I started taking medication that makes me fat – about 80 pounds overweight, which is a lot on a 5’7” female frame. Cutting calories and exercising will not change this, and I cannot stop taking this drug. I think people must look at me like I’m some undisciplined pig. I’d love to date, but I’m…
Take 10: Children’s books
What happens when Daisy’s ball is destroyed? When all the lights go out? When a family must flee their homeland? Adventure happens, that’s what – and so does discovery, learning and joy. Buy a child and book and ask to share an hour. Here, a few of the recent best, for tots, teens and you. …
Going to pot
While voters in two states have legalized marijuana for anyone over 21, Illinois legislators may take a key vote on a much stricter measure that would allow for medical use of marijuana in the land of Lincoln. It’s a proposal that’s floated around the Capitol for years. The Senate in 2009 approved a bill that…
Organizations at fault when pedophiles play
Although I am a Brit, I have lived very nearly half of my life in the United Sates. Having links to both sides of “The Pond” it is often a joy to see controversial issues and how they are analyzed and discussed in landscapes, Great Britain and the United States, that share a common language,…
Dreamy ballet
Springfield Ballet Company’s 38th annual production of The Nutcracker is Dec. 8-9 at the Sangamon Auditorium, UIS. One performance is slated for each day with an additional evening show on Saturday, Dec. 8. Set to Tchaikovsky’s enchanting score, The Nutcracker is a timeless holiday classic that follows Clara and her Nutcracker from a lavish Christmas…
JOBS FOR ALL
Who says it’s hard to find a job? Jay Rowell, director of the Illinois Department of Employment Security, met this week with local business leaders and officials from the Salvation Army in Springfield to showcase Illinoisjoblink.com, a free job board run by the state featuring both private- and public-sector job listings. As of October, the…
Letters to the Editor 12/6/12
IN PLAIN SIGHT James Krohe’s article, “Flatland into flatscapes,” (Nov. 29) is a fine testimonial to Harold Gregor, his inventiveness and his influence on several generations of Illinois artists. The article might have been more illuminating had Mr. Krohe traced the major influences in Mr. Gregor’s artistic development. The article’s tacit dismissal of other landscape…
Illinois laying off 18 medical regulators
Seven state workers in Springfield could lose their jobs at the end of the year as regulators scramble to cover the increasing cost of overseeing doctors in Illinois. That’s because the fund that pays for doctor regulation and discipline is expected to dry up this month, forcing the layoff of 18 regulatory workers total in…
Megaminds
A man in a fedora walks into an empty classroom on the second floor of a building on Washington University’s campus and waits in the darkened room. He has never been here before – not to this classroom, not even to St. Louis. The professor arrives and flicks on a light. Soon students dressed in…
Not so fast
A consortium of local governments stretching from Urbana to Bloomington is suing a Peoria-based waste company in hopes of killing a hazardous waste landfill near Clinton in DeWitt County. The plaintiffs are demanding that the Illinois Pollution Control Board require Clinton Landfill, Inc., a subsidiary of Area Disposal Services in Peoria, to get a permit…
December blues
For whatever reason, Springfield likes having the blues, at least when it comes to seeing bands that play the genre. And this month, just in time to thwart any possible pre-holiday, lowdown blue feelings, bands are in demand and plentiful. Our friends out at Boondocks, the new happening club on Dirksen Parkway (where Rockin’ Robin…
Country Christmas
Martina McBride comes to the Prairie Capital Convention Center to spread some holiday joy through her music on Wednesday, Dec. 12. One of the hottest country music stars around, McBride will feature Christmas classics in this concert touted “Joy of Christmas.” Selling more than 14 million albums in the U.S., McBride is a four-time Country…
Mulligan Munro
With the full intent of blending Irish and American folk music in song, Mark Butler (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Don Wright (vocals, five-string banjo), Mark Hudson (vocals, upright bass) and Katie Heilman (vocals, fiddle) became Mulligan Munro. As for what’s in a name, Mulligan comes from both the term for a stew made from on hand…
