People’s Poetry
Untitled Document kinquotepoem #9 my father’s blueprint newspaper published in sixth grade was banished when he printed this syllogism we go to school to improve our faculties our teachers are our faculties ergo we go to school to improve our teachers © Jacqueline Jackson 2008 A child with a sense of the dramatic, well,…
The joy of writing
Untitled Document Central Illinois has many writers’ groups — I can easily name six in Springfield. Some have died: Women Writes waxed awhile, and so did the Snotty Little Writers Group. Some are lying fallow; surely some, like gas clouds in a star nursery, are forming as I write. Add all of the unorganized who…
Cap city
Untitled Document IFIWEREACARPENTER . . . Used to be, anytime Paul Carpenter’s name was in the newspaper you could bet that the story was about his law-enforcement expertise. As a detective with Springfield Police Department’s major-case squad, Carpenter and his partner, Jim Graham, worked tirelessly to solve the city’s most serious crimes. In May 2005,…
A warming way to start the day
Untitled Document Somehow winter always seems the coldest in early March. Perhaps it’s because March is considered a spring month, even though spring officially doesn’t start until the third week of the month. Those warm and sunny days that we get sporadically are cruel teasers, too, making the inevitable return to frigid temperatures all the…
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. FOCUSEDONREALITY, NOTTHEORY The article “Counting the wrong thing,” in the Feb. 28 edition of Illinois Times, is more than a bit perplexing. The…
Hope is on the way
Untitled Document I once heard that mean old talk-show host Dr. Laura say, “Hope is not a good strategy.” I’ve never given much credence to anything that crotchety giver of advice had to say, though, and neither should you. Hope is a fine thing, especially when we’re talking about the band 56 Hope Road. The…
Computing power
Untitled Document What’s the environmental impact of personal computers — and are “greener” PCs available? Online gamers and other heavy computer users are definitely leaving an environmental mark. Depending on when it was made and how it was designed, a standard desktop PC can use anywhere from 60 to 300 watts when in use, and…
Where there’s a Mill, there’s a way
Untitled Document Turning a dilapidated old restaurant into a historical museum takes a lot of time and work — especially when you start out with no money. “It’s definitely the most difficult task I’ve undertaken,” says Geoff Ladd, chairman of the Route 66 Heritage Foundation of Logan County, established originally to save the Mill and…
Turning things around
Untitled Document In the 1980s, when she served as this paper’s general manager and ad director, Sharon Whalen and her family lived on Dial Court, just west of MacArthur Boulevard. She could walk to the Esquire Theater and see a first-run film, eat at Lichee Garden, and buy groceries at the nearby National Foods. The…
Decision time
Untitled Document After years of debate, the city of Springfield may be close to making a decision on whether to proceed with the construction of Hunter Lake. The controversial project, which would result in the creation of a 7,795-acre lake southeast of Lake Springfield, has been on the drawing board since at least 1965. The…
Chewing on Wrigley
Untitled Document Sam Zell, the owner of the Tribune Co., is fast becoming Public Enemy No. 1. The publishing and real-estate magnate also owns the Chicago Cubs, and he’s been alienating fans, the media, and legislators with his arrogant talk about auctioning off the naming rights to Wrigley Field and cutting a deal that would…
Rocky road
Untitled Document The middle-school kids who trudge past the immense beige structure on South MacArthur Boulevard twice a day aren’t old enough to remember when the building housed a Venture store. Even many of their parents are too young to recall the days when the Red Grill restaurant, Woolco store, and automotive center stood there.…
Get more from your mash
Untitled Document The girlfriend of a mashed-potato lover somewhere in the great online beyond needed culinary counsel. They’re in a “mixed” relationship — she’s an omnivore, he’s a vegetarian — and for her the ultimate companion for a mountain of mashed is a pool of gravy made from unctuous meat drippings. What, she wondered, could…
Steal this film
Untitled Document From a financial point of view, it makes sense that Lionsgate Films is promoting its latest, The Bank Job, as another hyperkinetic seizure-inducing Jason Statham actioner. After all, the actor has amassed a loyal fanbase with such B-movie favorites as The Transporter, Crank, and War, so touting this feature as just more of…
RSVP or else
Untitled Document The U.S. Supreme Court wants the city of Springfield to explain why a police sergeant who blew the whistle on two brothers in blue isn’t protected by the First Amendment. The sergeant, Ron Vose, resigned from SPD and filed suit in 2006 against then-Chief Don Kliment and then-Deputy Chief Bill Rouse, claiming that…
Bank-robbing bankers
Untitled Document One word you never want to hear your dentist say is “Oops.” Likewise, a word you wouldn’t want to hear a top executive of your bank say is “Yikes!!!!” Yet that’s exactly the comment that a Wachovia bank executive wrote in an internal memo in 2005 when she came across alarming numbers suggesting…
