Not (quite) a scratch
Brunon Blaszak recalls that about 25 years ago a Bengal tiger bit through his mother’s arm. He was somewhere between 8 and 13 years old, but wasn’t traumatized by the incident–he went on to pursue the family business. At the age of 16, he became “The World’s Youngest Animal Trainer.” Blaszak’s mother and father were…
Your Turn. . . 6-12-03
Correction In my “Happy birthday, Frank Lloyd Wright!” story that appeared last week, I should have said Lois Dunbar has long portrayed Susan Lawrence Dana. Pete Sherman A fair shake on the Fair Share Value Dear Pete Sherman, I was reading your article in the Thursday, June 5-11, 2003, edition of the Illinois Times…
Knoepfle 6-12-03
lines for an old friend when oswaldo juarez diedsome of us did not know he was in lima a musician for musicians and that music in his country would never be the same once he had touched it with the soft chords of his guitar everyone mattered to him you felt what can be the…
Everybody’s a star . . . not really
The quality of the voice has little to do with singing. Placido Domingo can sing, but so can Willie Nelson. Singing depends on weight and balance and knowing when to shut up. It’s not a matter of normal intelligence, because most singers can’t do simple math or parallel park: They sing the way Hank Aaron…
Return of the Kickapoo
On June 14 and 15, for the sixth year in a row, the Grand Village of the Kickapoo Park–a few miles northeast of LeRoy, about an hour away from Springfield–will be the scene of color, sound, and dancing, as many from the four directions of Turtle Island (as North America is known) gather for an…
Bards of the Sangamo 6-12-03
By Lee Gurga This week we have a special treat for our readers: haiku by Cindy Strong’s students at Lutheran High School. Passionate warmth, The sweet kiss of sunshine, Summer heat heals winter blues – Hannah Rucker A hit, dust flying A player races the ball Which one is faster? – Ricky Harkins …
A taste of the tropics
Key lime pie was born on a string of rocky islands, where the sounds of waves mingle with the rustle of palm fronds. With its sweet-and-sour flavor, the pie captures the magical mixtures of the tropics–and if you’re 1,500 miles away from the Florida Keys, a bite of key lime pie can bring you a…
Illinois’ lost laureate
Quick–who was the first poet laureate of Illinois? If you said Carl Sandburg, you’d be wrong. Don’t feel too bad; Governor Rod Blagojevich didn’t know either. When he announced his search for a new principal poet, he mentioned only two: “This individual will follow in the footsteps of previous Poet Laureates Carl Sandburg and Gwendolyn…
Justice delayed
During the recent municipal elections, five men ran for the job of mayor. Four of them promised repeatedly that if elected they would immediately remove John Harris from his position as Springfield’s Chief of Police. Harris has been chief nearly eight years–much longer than any chief in recent history. He has survived his share of…
Movie Review
2 Fast 2 Furious A more apt title for Universal’s sequel to its surprise 2001 hit The Fast and the Furious, would be 2 Stupid 2 Boring. Director John Singleton and his screenwriters jettisoned everything that was interesting and exciting about the original, replacing them with, well, nothing really. Perhaps Singleton believes in doing things…
Strange Weather Lately
The following was adapted from a Clemens Lecture presented in April for the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut. It originally appeared in the Chicago-based political magazine In These Times. What other American landmark is as sacred to me as the Mark Twain House? The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln…
Harris’s legacy
A federal judge has denied the City of Springfield’s motion to dismiss the race discrimination lawsuit filed by Renatta Frazier, Rickey Davis, and other current and former black Springfield Police officers. In an order published Tuesday, Judge Jeanne E. Scott let stand most of the claims contained in the complaint. She dismissed former Mayor Karen…
Now Playing 6-12-03
Once is not enough, it takes two to tango. I’m seeing double, but two is better than one. Bands are double dipping all over the place this weekend. Moroccan Soul camps out at Norb Andy’s for a weekend stay, Friday and Saturday, filling the intimate underground bar with smooth groove tunes backed by a Latin…
The Highway Side
FOUR I started out on foot, me and my trusty galoshes, but I soon went back for my Oldsmobile. The place was huge; trucks were everywhere, acres of trucks. Trucks fueling up, trucks waiting in line to fuel up, trucks pulling up to the scales. Trucks backing into parking spots, making wide turns, row after…
Fuzzy math
Last October Yolanda Perez visited Capital Community Bank on South Sixth Street to refinance her home–a clean, brown, two-story house in Enos Park. She went through the usual paperwork and agreed to pay $235 for a routine appraisal, which the bank would then use to set a limit on her loan. “Later the loan officer…
