Attack by the corporate foxes
While George W. Bush, the Congress, and the media have us looking south to the “invasion” of America by impoverished illegal immigrants or looking east to the “endless threat” to America from hordes of fanatical Islamic terrorists, there’s another, very real but very quiet, siege taking place on our government. It’s coming from within. Far…
Bill Clinton on his best behavior
“The greatest thing about not being president anymore,” Bill Clinton told our crowd at the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies gathering in Little Rock last weekend, “is, I can say whatever the hell I please.” Some of us got our pencils ready. “The only trouble is, you all don’t have to pay any attention anymore.” Many…
Hamburger, in the eye of the beholder
Doctor: No more hamburgers for you! Neighborhood bar and grill: $2. Police officer: The alleged hamburger. Teenager: Like, you know, like hamburger. Old-timer: In my day, we didn’t have hamburgers. We ate dirt, and we were damn happy to have dirt. Why, I remember one time in ’48, maybe ’49, we were playin’ football with a rock,…
Breaking up
Breaking up is easy to do if you try hard enough. Just make a clean break and be done with it. Gary (Vince Vaughn) and Brooke (Jennifer Aniston), the sparring couple in The Break-Up, can’t seem to take that logical step. Instead we see two emotional basket cases causing themselves unnecessary grief by trying to…
Lifting the smokescreen
Henry Rose is a man full of charity, kindness, and even temper; he can’t recall ever thinking ill of anyone, and he’s never been angry. Life is good, always has been, and through a combination of hard work and good luck he’s been able to retire at age 52 and immediately start volunteering his time…
Book Expo buzz
If you like books, if you really like books — if you are the kind of person whose books overrun your house, whose book budget exceeds your food budget, the kind of person who can spend an afternoon or the whole weekend in a bookstore, the BookExpo America convention is something like paradise . .…
The “corruption factor”
Is Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration just as corrupt or even more corrupt than former Gov. George Ryan’s? In a new poll, a plurality of Illinoisans answers yes to that question. A poll by the Glengariff Group found that 43 percent of Illinoisans believe that the Blagojevich administration is as corrupt or more corrupt than George…
Removing yellow stains
Dear Gene: Some of the grout in my two-year-old ceramic-tile bathroom floor has acquired yellow stains. I haven’t been able to remove the stains with various household cleaners. Can you help? — J.M. Household cleaners are sometimes strong enough to clean grout and tiles (I’ve had good reports about Simple Green, for example), but for…
VINYL STATIC
SINGLES ONLY: A chat is long overdue concerning Nelly Furtado’s feverish new single “Promiscuous.” Remember Nelly? She unleashed the ballad “I’m Like a Bird” from the successful album Whoa, Nelly in 2000. It wasn’t a club hit, but plenty of waiting-room occupants bobbed their heads to it on the way to root canals. The Canadian…
American Life In Poetry
Gardeners who’ve fought Creeping Charlie and other unwanted plants may sympathize with James McKean from Iowa as he takes on Bindweed, a cousin to the two varieties of morning glory that appear in the poem. It’s an endless struggle, and in the end, of course, the bindweed wins. Bindweed There is little I can do…
Bringing out the best
At least half of all marriages end in divorce, and the rate at which bands break up has to be even higher, so what are the odds that a husband-and-wife band could succeed in the long run? Whatever they are, Brett and Rennie Sparks are beating them. The Sparkses have been married for 18 years,…
Earth Talk
Dear “Earth Talk”: Is it true that livestock grazing is harmful to the environment? — Paul Howe, Athol, Mass. Most scientists and environmental experts view livestock grazing as an ecological disaster. For starters, cows and sheep are indiscriminate eaters and tend to remove every piece of grass and shrubbery in sight, thus eliminating shelter and…
Walks in the Garden
Gardens come in many colors and sizes, each reflecting a unique personality. In the coming weeks, you will have some wonderful opportunities to be inspired by what other gardeners have accomplished. Five beautifully diverse gardens will be featured in “A Symphony of Gardens 2006,” sponsored by the Illinois Symphony Guild of Springfield, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.…
Return to sender
Alejandro Agresti’s The Lake House is a ludicrous love story about a gloomy Gus, a negative Nancy, and a magic mailbox. Based on a Korean science-fiction romance, House offers an idealized notion of what makes a successful match, one rife with flowery language, convenient circumstances, and a happily-ever-after ending that’s as leaden as an anvil and…
One for Mom
When Gary Bloom received an inheritance after his mother died last August, he knew what he wanted to do with it. “Why buy a TV or a bunch of junk?” asks the big voice of local rockers, the Groove Daddies. “I wanted to do something that would really honor her.” Bloom, an integral part of…
Cap City
AREN’T TORNADOES TERRIFYING? Starting this month, City Water, Power & Light customers will be hit with a $1 surcharge for the city’s new million-dollar tornado-warning system. Was the monthly surcharge necessary — or could city officials have tapped another source of revenue? In Indiana, for example, municipalities can use federal homeland-security funds to pay for…
Very berry buckle
It really was my fault, but I blame it on the potato. Preparations for a Memorial Day get-together with friends were sailing along. I was embroiled in side-dish duty and dessert detail; he was working on a rack of ribs. We were both in a kitchen groove, staying out of each other’s way, listening to…
Wannabe a what?
It was 4:30 a.m. and pitch-black, and a nasty, chilly drizzle was falling as I pointed my car toward the CIA. I peered through the windshield, the monotonous rhythm of the wipers luring me back to the sleep from which I had been so rudely and recently dragged. But the litany of self-doubt that had…
