Help tomatoes beat the heat
The most exciting garden event of the summer arrives when juicy, fresh tomatoes are ready for harvest. Last weekend my family and I were delighted to enjoy an armful of this tasty fruit. We ate our tomatoes with a little salt, with white gravy, and in BLT sandwiches. Our passion for tomatoes is shared by…
Homeless Suggestions
When I noticed that the City Council was preparing to address the problems of homelessness, I stopped by outside St. John’s Breadline after lunch to ask the poor and the homeless, and those who try to help them, whether they had any suggestions for the city’s leaders. I asked John, a blind man tapping his…
Good Night Shyamalan
His obsessive fans have labeled him the new Hitchcock; his detractors vilify him as a hack who relies too heavily on tired old twist endings. M. Night Shyamalan, whose latest film is Lady in the Water, inspires extreme reactions on both sides, but neither side’s thinking is necessarily logical. The Hitchcock comparison is preposterous. Nothing…
Cooking with Neanderthals
As Springfield continues its slow yet steady infiltration of the world with homegrown musicians, few fellows have traveled as far and as much in as little time as 1994 Springfield High grads, Ranjit “Raj” Prasad and Steve Mitchell. According to a reliable source (Harry Mitchell, Steve’s dad and a respectable VP at Horace Mann), the…
Venting a range hood
Dear Gene: I plan to vent my range hood into the attic. Is this a good idea, or is there a better way? It is definitely not a good idea. Ideally the range hood should be vented to the outside, usually through the roof. This requires the installation of some ductwork but is worth the…
Lulu’s blue cakes
In another life, my name was Lulu. I worked as a waitress in a stainless-steel diner in Philadelphia, manning a 20-seat counter that required the nerves of an air traffic controller and the wit of a standup comic. Weekend brunch was the busiest shift, with customers jamming the aisles and demanding coffee faster than you…
Not good enough to be awful
Midlake is from Denton, Texas, the same smallish town that spawned Centro-matic, but you’d never guess it by listening to The Trials of Van Occupanther. With its soft and inviting beds of acoustic guitar, piano, and woodwinds, the quintet’s second album is considerably less blippy than its predecessor, Bamnan and Slivercork, but it remains painfully…
To tandoor or not to tandoor
Some guys collect sports memorabilia or antique beer cans. My husband, Peter, collects barbecue gear. He’s currently the proud owner of two smokers, various grills, an indoor fireplace grill and rotisserie, and the “Party Que,” a Greek contraption designed to rotisserie whole lambs and other small animals. As I write this, a Japanese tabletop yakitori…
Smoldering
Starting Sept. 17, when a citywide smoking ban takes effect, Springfield restaurant patrons won’t have to choose between a longer wait for a table in the nonsmoking section and being seated immediately — but risk smelling like an ashtray later — in the smoking section. Objectors to the smoking ban, which was authorized by the…
Letters to the Editor
We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address, and daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length, and clarity. Send letters to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. OUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK Yes, Rod Helle’s “Caging the beast” commentary, published July 6, and…
Vinyl Static
SINGLES ONLY By no stretch of the imagination does Yo La Tengo look cool. The Hoboken, N.J., trio doesn’t subscribe to any hipster conventions — nary an ironic mustache or trucker cap to be found. The group sticks to a similar, ever-dependable ethos when making their eclectic, dreamy space-pop, and perhaps that’s why it has…
Redneck redemption
Talladega Nights, a tribute to arrested development, is the best comedy of the summer, but that’s only because there have been so few of them. Like a day at the racetrack, this parody of NASCAR culture runs in fits and starts: Sometimes it’s uproariously funny; sometimes it tries too hard. Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) is…
“Small” is beautiful
You might assume that the Small Business Administration exists to help, you know, small business — but that would ignore the conniving nature of big business and the weaselly nature of the SBA. Of course, the Bush administration constantly poses as the champion of America’s small enterprises. The head of SBA recently bragged that the…
Hot Flash
When it’s hot and humid out and the air conditioner’s not running, America suffers. Babies break out in rashes, couples bicker, and computers go haywire. In much of the nation, an August power outage is viewed not as an inconvenience but as a public-health emergency. In the 50 years since air conditioning hit the mass…
No end in sight
Israel’s consul general to the Midwest, Barukh Binah, traveled to Springfield earlier this week to discuss the newest war in the Middle East, which started with the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Islamic organization Hezbollah. In the wake of the soldiers’ capture, Binah says, Israeli officials believed they had two military options: 1. Use…
Allegations against cops outlined
Springfield Police Department Detective Jim Graham showed up intoxicated at three crime scenes, ate pizza with his partner at a murder victim’s dining table in a room later determined to be the scene of the crime, and once stepped in a puddle of blood with his flip-flops, according to an Illinois State Police report obtained…
Rethinking paper
Dear “Earth Talk”: Is bamboo really an environmentally friendly alternative to wood for making paper? If so, why are we still cutting down trees to keep our copiers and printers humming? — Ali Forte, by e-mail Bamboo is a fast-growing and renewable resource, and it has long been used throughout Asia as a raw material…
People’s Poetry
grandchildrenpoem #3 their gentle aunt my daughter chides me when I refer to my three obstreperous grandsons as those boys that’s nothing compared to what they call each other I tell them as far as I’m concerned you are all monkey dicks © Jacqueline Jackson 2006 Three days after my father died, after the funeral,…
The suitable war
1964. I have nothing against the suit and tie; it’s just that I don’t have them in my wardrobe. In my last college semester, for my first professional-type job interview, I borrow my roommate’s suit. The suit “bunches” me, and the shirt collar chokes me as I fight the tie demon. As I attempt to…
