How to build partnerships
It’s not often that you come across a real-life dynamic duo, but the Springfield community says that Butch Elzea and Diane Mathis are it. For the past 20 months the pair has met with businesses, nonprofit agencies, and academic organizations from all across the capital city and convinced them that the Edwin Watts Southwind Park…
Let the feasts begin
Alan Pearl, D.D.S.: We had friends who went to China . . . . They went to Peking where they make the ducks, and what they say is that the food over there is not as good. You can’t get a sauce as thick and sweet over there. They don’t make it like that —…
The approaching menace
The Illinois Department of Agriculture announced on July 18 that the emerald ash borer had been spotted in McLean County. In the past six years this pest has killed millions of ash trees in Ohio, Indiana, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, as well as Ontario, Canada. Since the emerald ash borer began knocking at…
Oodles of Chinese noodles
Untitled Document Legend has it that Marco Polo brought pasta home to Italy after his travels in China. Like so many legends, however, this one doesn’t stand up to close scrutiny: Marco Polo returned to Venice in 1295; the Roman gourmand Apicus described a broad noodle, laganon (ancestor of our word “lasagna”), in the first…
Growing the pie
1992 was a crucial election year in Illinois. Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton was hoping to carry a swing state that President George H.W. Bush had won by a scant 2 percentage points four years earlier, and Illinois’ Cook County Recorder of Deeds Carol Moseley Braun was attempting to become the nation’s first African-American female senator.…
Quite a rush
Some college literary magazines exist primarily to publish the scribblings of a group of friends. I edited — OK, perpetrated — a couple of them back in the day. Then there are those with higher goals. SCOPE, published by the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, is in its 15th year (go to www.siumed.edu/oec/SCOPE/index.htm to…
CAP CITY
STOMPTHEFAIRGROUNDS After the Illinois Symphony performs and before ZZ Top takes the grand stage, amid the motocross demonstrations, open barrow and sheep costume shows, and the fiddle and banjo contest, teams representing cities across the state will compete in the Illinois State Fair’s first dance and Greek-style step competition. No, the contest, scheduled for 8…
Pineapples and pants
You’d be hard pressed to find a film that has as many contradictory elements as Pineapple Express. Its director, David Gordon Green, is a darling of the indie film circuit, with such esoteric works as George Washington and All the Real Girls under his belt; its stars, Seth Rogen and James Franco, are alumni of…
People’s Poetry
lakepoems 2008 suddenly it’s white —the forest hillside awakewith indian pipes towels from successive swimsthis rainy summerdrape the cabinlike bunting that monstrous spider isback between the dock boardswhere did she winter? © Jacqueline Jackson 2008 American life in poetry Edited by Ted Kooser I’d guess you’ve all seen a toddler hold something over the edge…
The force
Ald. Mark Mahoney says it looks like his Ward 6 citizen patrol is already doing some good. Taking one of the first shifts last Friday night, Mahoney drove through neighborhoods that have been identified as problem areas, including sections of Spring Street, College Street, and Iles Park. In one instance, he says, a group of…
A deal is a deal, right?
“A deal is a deal.” That’s the promise made to credit-card customers by Citigroup, the Wall Street financial conglomerate that even used the phrase last year as an advertising slogan to promote a new consumer-friendly credit card policy. Citigroup said that if people took its card, the terms of the agreement would not change for…
Poison at the PC3
I recently spoke with Joe Saputo, one of the head honchos of the PC3 (much easier on the tongue than “Prairie Capital Convention Center”) about upcoming events at the downtown facility. Unfortunately there’s not a lot on the list other than last week’s professional wrestling match, Winnie the Pooh in November, and the Poison concert…
Exercise in futility
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is contemplating yet another special legislative session to take up a newly revised $25 billion infrastructure-repair proposal for transportation, schools, and economic development. Whatever happens, it certainly appears that any special session would be an exercise in futility. House Speaker Michael Madigan is not budging from his opposition to the governor’s capital…
Exercise in futility
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is contemplating yet another special legislative session to take up a newly revised $25 billion infrastructure-repair proposal for transportation, schools, and economic development. Whatever happens, it certainly appears that any special session would be an exercise in futility. House Speaker Michael Madigan is not budging from his opposition to the governor’s capital…
Letters to the Editor
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. WE’RE AT A CROSSROADS Nancy Long’s letter included the excellent statement “If you want safer streets, then you have to help make homes…
Exercise in futility
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is contemplating yet another special legislative session to take up a newly revised $25 billion infrastructure-repair proposal for transportation, schools, and economic development. Whatever happens, it certainly appears that any special session would be an exercise in futility. House Speaker Michael Madigan is not budging from his opposition to the governor’s capital…
IT Picks
OPPOSITES ATTRACT Since Felix Unger and Oscar Madison hit the boards in Neil Simon’s 1965 production of The Odd Couple, there’s been no better way to describe a friendship of polar opposites than to invoke neat freak Felix and slovenly Oscar. This Saturday, some of Springfield’s favorite actors present a reading of Oscar and Felix:…
Green roofs
Untitled Document How can a residential or commercial roof be modified to provide environmental benefits? Most buildings are designed to shed rain and so are built with hard, impenetrable roofing surfaces. As a result, rainwater bounces off and collects as runoff, picking up impurities — including infectious bacteria from animal waste, as well as harmful…
Division problem
Four hours into last week’s hearing about relocating a state facility from Springfield to Harrisburg, enthusiasm on the part of Illinois transportation-safety employees hadn’t diminished. Packed into the first few rows of seats in the Capitol rotunda, some of them chomping on fistfuls of popcorn, the neon-green-clad workers intermittently whooped, hollered, and booed as they…
Pearson’s legacy
It’s not unusual to find a skeleton in a medical school, but you can’t say the same about an intact Depression-era drugstore, antique bloodletting apparatuses, or a 19th-century dentist’s fainting couch. All of these items can be found at Springfield’s Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. SIU-SM is one of the few medical schools in…
