Gnocchi and summer insanity
Untitled Document Just the idea of a baked potato in the middle of summer makes me sweat. There are so many greener, leafier dinner choices at this time of year that keep the oven dial in its proper “off” position. What would possess someone to turn the house into a sauna just for a couple…
Benched
Untitled Document Two months into a record-breaking overtime legislative session, the four state legislative leaders met last week to talk about the budget, but for the first time ever they made a point of not inviting Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Senate President Emil Jones and House Speaker Michael Madigan, plus high-level members of the other two…
True grit
Untitled Document Fascinated by the arcane world of federal farm subsidies? Want to know who’s getting what from the good ol’ U.S. Department of Agriculture? Here’s the good news: You don’t have to be a fast-moving investigative reporter or an Ivy League grad to get the scoop. The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit pro-environment, anti-subsidy…
Rank and foul
Untitled Document Be bored, be frustrated, and be angry — that’s about the only thing that rank-and-file lawmakers can do while Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the four legislative leaders work to nail down a budget agreement. “Basically, we’re done,” says Rep. Rich Brauer, R-Petersburg. “[Blagojevich] keeps calling us in, but there’s nothing to do.” Brauer…
Experimenting with fresh-picked corn
Untitled Document Are there any sights, sounds, and smells more evocative of a Midwest summer than those of fresh corn on the cob waiting to be shucked? The leaves are still crisp and green; the aroma’s corny and delicious; the husks squeak when they’re ripped away to reveal the tender kernels. For anyone who’s ever…
“Ripple effect”
Untitled Document Sister Beth Murphy winces when she hears the word “nun.” Nuns are contemplative women who live in enclosures, she says, whereas she and other Dominican sisters try to live like the Apostles. “We’re out in the world teaching and preaching,” Murphy says. From the moment she entered the Springfield congregation 25 years ago,…
Cycling Bugs
Untitled Document It’s Tour de France time, but we’re not interested here, because no Americans are in the hunt — but I’m looking for a new sport to watch, because football, baseball, and basketball no longer fill up all my free time. Last Tuesday I came dangerously close to reading a book. I dismissed NASCAR…
Have a great cucumber crop
Untitled Document Imagine my surprise during the first week of July, when my son and I harvested 40 cucumbers from our three cucumber plants. Since then we have been blessed with about 20 cucumbers per week. In addition to being abundant, this is the tastiest crop of cucumbers we have ever grown. So what does…
Unfriendly skies
Untitled Document Travel in some primitive parts of the world is a nightmare — passengers are treated like livestock, service is surly, rules are ridiculous, delays are common, and the whole experience is dreadful. Luckily, here in sophisticated America, we have modern airlines — on which passengers are treated like livestock, service is surly, rules…
Green greens
Untitled Document What alternatives are there to traditional fertilizers and other chemicals typically used on golf courses? What other actions can be taken to make golf courses kinder to the environment? Although golf courses are large areas of open space, certainly more desirable ecologically than equivalent amounts of paved highway or polluting industrial operations, they…
No-beg zone
Untitled Document Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman says that although downtown panhandling doesn’t faze him, he’s willing to step up on behalf of those for whom it’s an issue. “People have expressed it to me as a problem,” Cahnman says. “Some people are bothered by it — Downtown Springfield [Inc.] with all of its business…
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. LET’S ELEVATE THE DEBATE I appreciate the fact that your article was kinder to the proposal of the corn mill in…
Dead man talking
Untitled Document As a young reporter, Lincoln Steffens learned that successful police officers had a somewhat ambiguous relationship to the law. Here’s how it worked in some New York City precincts in the late 19th century: Criminal syndicates did a thriving business in age-old vices (gambling, prostitution, thievery) and the police protected them, as long…
People’s Poetry
Untitled Document chutzpahpoem #1at the interminable canadiancustoms a car sneaks from aside street horns its wayinto the queue ahead of ussome docile driver lets itI send ugly vibes for flat tiresfaulty generator broken beltsa boiling radiator bird poopon its gleaming finishnone of these to take effectof course till it’s clearedthe checkpoint unless —best of all…
Musicals, rock shows, and radio
Untitled Document I hope that by now you’ve heard about the Jacksonville world premiere of David: You and I, a locally written and produced musical based on the life of King David from the Bible’s Old Testament. The show runs this weekend and next with all the details on page 18. Area playwright Ken Bradbury…
Painful Bourne
Untitled Document If theater owners screening The Bourne Ultimatum want to do their patrons a service, they’ll stock Dramamine at the concession stand. The third installment in the Jason Bourne saga, directed by Paul Greengrass, is literally a blur. This overblown action flick shoots itself in the foot from the start, substituting one sleight-of-hand fight sequence…
Sisters to the rescue
In a small city in the Andes Mountains, a father takes his 3-year-old daughter to the doctor. She’s sluggish and behaving strangely. “Something’s not right,” he thinks. He’s shocked, but not surprised, when he hears the news: His child has a blood lead level of 58 micrograms per deciliter, more than five times the recommended…
Ties that bind
Untitled Document JoAnn Lemaster gasps when she learns how high children’s blood-lead levels are in La Oroya, Peru. As a member of the Illinois Childhood Lead Poisoning Advisory Council, Lemaster is accustomed to dealing with problems caused by lead, but she wasn’t aware of the current crisis in the foreign city. “That’s heartbreaking,” Lemaster says.…
It’s a wrap
Untitled Document A group of residents in the small town of Lodge secured a win this week in their fight against plans for new corn mill when the Piatt County zoning board approved a different location. The residents feared that the 45,000-square-foot facility and a lagoon for wastewater storage might cause air, noise, and light…
