Small town USA averts police state takeover
No doubt you had a lot on your mind in December – the dancing of sugar plum fairies, America stumbling toward the fiscal cliff, the outcome of the classic Beef O’Brady’s Bowl game and whatnot – so you might have missed this bit of big news that got very little news coverage: Our Constitution had…
A new Jerusalem
My Christmas shopping being done, I curled up in front of a glowing space heater to catch up on my reading. At the top of the pile was the official 2012 visitors guide to Springfield, “your not so far away getaway.” Published by the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the 56-page guide must have left many…
The day the bills stood still
Last Thursday was not exactly a banner day for the Illinois Senate Democratic leadership. In high profile moves, leadership’s attempts to pass a bill legalizing gay marriage stalled, as did bills on gun control. Even a much-needed spending bill was unable to move out of committee. Pension reform went nowhere. The biggest winners were cigarette…
Breaking the ice
January is national skating month and the Springfield Figure Skating Club, Springfield Youth Hockey and the Springfield Park District are hosting a It’s Great to Skate event Saturday, Jan. 12. Watch figure and hockey skaters demonstrate skills from the United States Figure Skating Basic Skills program and take part in a 20-minute skating lesson. After…
Heartfelt musical
The Fantasticks is a funny and romantic musical playing at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, Jan. 11-13 and 18-20. The world’s longest-running musical, The Fantasticks, by Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt, is one in which you might know a few of the songs. The famous score includes “Try To Remember,” “They Were You” and…
Deborah Madison’s recipe for what’s hot in vegetables
It’s a sure bet that every year around this time, I’ll be pulling Deborah Madison’s Vegetable Soups from my cookbook shelves. There’s just something so right about vegetable-based soups – even substantial concoctions – after the surfeit of the holidays. Madison’s treatments of vegetables are masterful, whether she’s showcasing a single ingredient or combining contrasting…
Raise federal minimum wage now
As a longtime businessman, I see a deficit in America that has received far too little attention. That’s the wage deficit experienced by growing numbers of Americans, with serious consequences for our economy. On Jan. 1, the minimum wage increased in Rhode Island and in nine states that adjust their minimum wage to match the…
City approves benefits for civil-union partners
After a delay caused by a court setback, the Springfield City Council has extended health benefits to civil-union partners of municipal employees. But the council’s action might still be illegal under the state Open Meetings Act, according to an attorney who successfully sued the city last year on the grounds that city officials have broken…
Priestly predilections continue
Sexual no-nos among clergy are nothing new in the Diocese of Springfield. The diocese in 2005 hired a Methodist to figure things out when a priest was severely beaten after soliciting sex in Douglas Park. Accusations of homosexual conduct rose to the very top of the diocese, with one man claiming to have bedded a…
Letters to the Editor 1/10/13
ROUND UP FOR HOMELESSBefore paying your City Water, Light and Power bill this month, please look for the Round Up insert with your bill. By signing up, you can join other residents who help the homeless by giving just a few cents a month. These inserts only arrive in our bills two months a year. If…
post-holiday poem
NPR’s this american life had stories about thelengths some parents have gone to make thegood saint real I was too young to recall whenhe brought our pony but there are photos ofmy sisters and me astride the gentle beast anda rather thin santa holding the bridle my folkswere realists of course santa didn’t come downthe…
Zero’s cold, efficient look at hunt for bin Laden
Very rarely is a film able to capture current events in the way Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty does. Chronicling the United States’ efforts to capture Osama bin Laden, the project was in production before the leader’s death at the hands of Navy SEALs, necessitating a complete restructuring of the movie’s plot. It continues to…
SPREAD
From origins as a college jam band formed at SIU-Carbondale in 2008 of friends drawn together by intellectual and interesting likes, SPREAD continues in a progressive march across the Midwest sharing magic in music with audiences everywhere. Creating delightful musical mayhem through improvisational stylings with space-intensive, psychedelic rock leanings, Patrick Reynolds (drums, vocals), Dave Petrizzo…
Re-solutions recommended
Certain commitments known as New Year’s resolutions are commonly concocted around the beginning of a calendar year and generally concern a makeover of the self, often dealing with all kinds of ways to feel, act, look and be better. The word resolution, broken down, says to me, “re-solution,” as in finding a solution again or…
The Lanphier lion learns to roar
The halls of Lanphier High School are strangely quiet. About 1,100 students file through the school’s maze of corridors several times each day, bringing the usual sounds of slamming lockers, chatty children and a shrill bell announcing the start and end of every period. But absent are certain sounds that used to be common at…
Dynamic duo
The Springfield Classical Guitar Society hosts its next concert at Faith Lutheran Church on Saturday, Jan. 12. Featured are local favorites Kamen Petkov and Russel Brazzel on violin and classical guitar, respectively. Kamen and Russel are well known in Springfield, both for their talent and for their advocacy for the arts. They have been performing…
Rocking musical
Only 50 seats are available for each showing of the critically acclaimed off-Broadway rock musical hit, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Limited seating includes a unique onstage view of each performance in The Legacy Theatre. Get your tickets early by phone for what Rolling Stone touted, “In the whole long, sorry history of rock musicals,…
