Why Mencken matters
Paula Marantz Cohen of Drexel University hold argues in the online magazine The Smart Set why long-dead writer/critic/commentator H.L. Mencken remains as relevant as ever. She recalls HLM on the influence of the press. Substitute “media” for “newspaper.” . In America it is the newspaper that is [its reader’s] boss. From it he gets support…
Stout fellows, continued
In “The burdens of office” I recalled my inglorious tenure as president of Springfield High School’s Interact (a combination of “international” and “action”) Club in the 1960s. Two or three things might be said. In the rush to make deadline, I left out something important. I wrote how membership in the club was supposed to…
Ill spent
In “Wasted,” I lamented the fact that the Illinois public has so little basis on which to judge the merit in that perennial complaint that our tax money is being wasted by grasping public employees, bumbling bureaucrats, and corrupt pols. I suspect that the very first letter to the very first editor of the very…
Churchly people
For those on the evangelical right who are dismayed that there is not enough God in the Donald Trump campaign, I offer this on the GOP convention from the always interesting Tyler Cowen: They are not saying what they are saying, in fact they are saying “the world is going to hell, and many of…
“Ghostbusters” Reboot a Pleasant Surprise
I’ve never made any bones about not liking the original Ghostbusters. While many of my generation have proclaimed it a comedy classic, I always saw it as a lumbering movie that was hijacked by Bill Murray, who left his co-stars with nothing to do but pick up the pieces in his wake. It’s too bad that…
More name-calling
We learned on July 18 that the directors of the Prairie Capital Convention Center approved the sale of naming rights to the building to the Bank of Springfield for $150,000 per year for 10 years. The “facility” during that period will be known as — drum roll, please — the Bank of Springfield Center. The public…
The burdens of office
I know that my life makes you nervousBut I tell you that I can’t live in serviceLike the doctor born for a purpose— The Clash/”Rudie Can’t Fail” Critical though I feel obliged to be of their decisions, at one level I feel a deep empathy with Misters Madigan, Emanuel and Rauner. I too have known…
How to make a political platform
Jim Hightower PHOTO BY LARRY D. MOORE Last weekend in Orlando, Fla., I spent two hot, muggy days wrangling over policy issues as one of the members of the Democratic Party’s national platform committee. The worst development at the Orlando meeting was the Clinton campaign’s acquiescence to the wet dream of global corporate powers: The…
Fighting over fairy tales
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS Right off the bat, I should say that I think the so-called “stopgap budget” signed into law on June 30 was a good idea. Not fiscally, but because people who rely on state government desperately needed a break from the all-out legislative war between two ideologically entrenched parties. Gov. Bruce Rauner…
Letters to the Editor 7/21/16
Samuel Johnson PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE DRIVING WHILE BLACK I am surprised that Samuel Johnson won’t get his day in court to prove his allegation that he was stopped by Springfield police for the color of his skin, not his failure to use a turn signal (“Judge dismisses lawsuit over ‘racial profiling’ traffic stop,” July…
Editor’s note 7/21/16
Those of us watching the Republican National Convention to see whether Donald Trump can appeal beyond his base have been disappointed by all the attention to his family. Whether Melania’s speech was plagiarized is of no importance compared to the candidate’s stance on trade, immigration and foreign policy. That Sen. Mark Kirk and Gov. Bruce…
An elegy to the Spirit of ’08
I stumbled across a documentary about Barack Obama’s ’08 presidential campaign the other night while browsing through Netflix. “Perfect,” I thought, and settled back in anticipation of a pleasant trip down memory lane. I was 28 years old when Obama won the Iowa primary. Like much of the country, and most of the people in…
Food trucks at the fairgrounds
Enjoy cold beverages, delicious food and live music during the first annual Springfield Food Truck Festival hosted by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. The festival will be held on Saturday, July 23, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., at Conservation World on the grounds of the Illinois State Fairgrounds near gate 7. Confirmed food…
Sing, dance and play
The Springfield Park District is proud to present a free singalong, dance-along and do-along music festival and 40-year celebration for Funshop, the Springfield Park District’s play-based educational program for children ages 16 months through five years and their parents. The stage entertainment includes music by Chel, Miss Carole’s “Macaroni Soup” show featuring music and movement…
Bands and bacon
The WUIS Bedrock 66 Live! concert series is thrilled to present the Bedrock 66 Live! Music Festival in conjunction with the Downtown Bacon Throwdown II on Friday and Saturday, July 22-23, in downtown Springfield. The music begins at 6 p.m. on Friday and features local Americana group Western Empire, Motel Mirrors featuring John Paul Keith,…
Stray it forward
PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon I’m a single guy who started a “friends with benefits” thing two months ago with an unhappily married female co-worker. We’ve since developed feelings for each other and started talking about a future. I’m worried because people always say, “If she cheated with you, she’ll cheat on you.” And…
Trying to get race right
Sunshine Clemons was in high school when she had one of those formative experiences nearly every black person has involving police. Clemons, who lives in Springfield, says she and a couple of her fellow black friends were pulled over while driving in southern Illinois, ordered out of the car, restrained with zip ties and forced…
Conflicts of interest
Brighton, by Michael Harvey. Ecco Publishing, 355 pages, ISBN: 9780062442970. “If my bones are Chicago, my blood is Boston, and specifically Brighton,” observes Michael Harvey in the acknowledgements to his most recent mystery novel. Harvey is a multitalented journalist who has received multiple Emmy awards for news, primetime Emmy and Academy Award nominations and has…
Disciplinary tribunal dings Cahnman
Former alderman Sam Cahnman A former Springfield alderman is facing a possible 90-day suspension from his legal practice by the Illinois Supreme Court. The case against former Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman argued by the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission raises questions about the ability of elected officials who work as attorneys to represent…
Welcome to Springfield
Alan Lowe PHOTO courtesy of ALPLM The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum last week welcomed its fifth director since opening day in 2005. Alan Lowe is somewhat a lifer in the world of presidential libraries, having started his library career as an archivist at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California in 1989. He…
THREE SISTERS
A cool concept devised by Native Americans will play a central role in the community garden at Butler Elementary School in Springfield this coming school year. Based on the idea of “companion planting,” Butler Elementary’s Three Sisters Garden will involve planting corn, beans and squash together, using each plant’s traits to improve growing conditions. The…
BUSES ON THE NET
Getting around Springfield without a car just got a bit easier. The Springfield Mass Transit District announced last week that they’ve integrated their bus schedules with Google Maps and several other online map services, making it simple to get directions for using public transportation. If you’re used to the old way of squinting at the…
Lights Out a fun frightshow
In order for a horror film to work, it’s required that at certain points, its characters act … without thinking? I don’t want to use the word “stupid,” as I surely don’t know how I would behave if a horde of flesh-eating zombies were bearing down on me and I realize I just happened to…
Hot dang music
Ashley Riley plays at 3 p.m. on Saturday in downtown Springfield for WUIS Bedrock 66 Live! during the Bacon Throwdown. Is it hot enough for you? If I hear that phrase one more time … Anyway, onward to the music, please. In the parade of weekend festivals that comes each July in our community, the…
Reed Turchi & The Caterwauls
Native of the Asheville, North Carolina, Swannanoa Valley area, Reed Turchi grew up playing boogie-woogie blues piano, became infatuated with the slide guitar sounds of Northern Mississippi and just kept going into blues, rock and soul. From 2012 until 2014, his group Turchi rocked the blues world with solid releases plus hard touring in the…
Ghost blusters
CARTOON BY JEN SORENSON
personal poem # 14
personal poem # 14 once on a time I put in (at my job) forfull professorship that’s the pinnacleof pay and prestige I got turned downthe committee chair told me “you havenot yet internalized the professorialethos” I was co-teaching then with aprof who also had an administrationpost so he was rungs above me he camewalking…
Fitness and food, my new frontier
The author in his bus preparing a post-workout breakfast for his CrossFit group. PHOTOS BY GINNY LEE A week after my wife, Julianne, died, I received an invitation to have lunch from her editor at Illinois Times, Fletcher Farrar. It was at this meeting that he brought up the possibility of my daughter, Ashley, and…
