Here we go again
Springfield Ward 5 Ald. Sam Cahnman is again in the crosshairs of a state commission charged with investigating misconduct by attorneys. The Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission, the investigative arm of the state Supreme Court, last week subpoenaed minutes of executive sessions of the city council in which anyone uttered the words “Calvin Christian,”…
Eastwood Takes a Fresh Approach with “Jersey Boys”
One would think that with over 30 films under his belt as a director that Clint Eastwood would be out of tricks. And yet, with his big screen adaptation of the Broadway smash Jersey Boys, he not only breaks new ground for himself – as this is the first musical he’s directed – but is…
Somebody tell the dogs
The third week of May every year is Dog Bite Prevention Week. The American Veterinary Medical Association spent that week “educating people about preventing dog bites.” Their time would have been better spent educating the dogs, as we learned from the report that State Farm Insurance released describing claims paid for damages from dog bites.…
A squid by any other name
Fried calamari are fantastic: crunchy, with just the right amount of chew, amenable to all sorts of dipping sauces. PHOTO BY METRO CREATIVE CONNECTION They’re cheap. They’re ecologically sustainable. They’re über-nutritious: low in calories, but high in protein, antioxidant minerals and several B vitamins. They take only minutes – sometimes just seconds – to cook.…
Lincoln’s extended family
Charles and Julia Edwards, two of Abraham Lincoln’s Springfield nieces and nephews now all but forgotten to history. Ask someone how many children Abraham Lincoln had and they are likely to answer correctly (four) and will probably be able to name some if not all of them: Robert (born 1843, the only one to survive…
The hills are alive
Mary Harmon as Maria in an early scene. PHOTO BY DONNA LOUNSBERRY I guess I just assumed I wouldn’t like the Sound of Music. Until last Friday, I’d never actually seen the play, but I was certain I had enough information to make what seemed like an easy decision. I can remember walking through the…
22 Jump Street
Jonah Hill as Schmidt and Channing Tatum as Jenko in 22 Jump Street. PHOTO COURTESY COLUMBIA PICTURES Mismatched partners, police officers Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum) have been handed a ridiculous assignment – they’re to enroll as college students in order to track down the source of a fatal drug that’s sweeping the…
Witnessing the past
PHOTOS COURTESY CHERI FRY The largest mounted Civil War reenactment in the Midwest takes place in Jacksonville Community Park June 20-22. Watch soldiers drill and prepare for battle, fix meals, practice medicine and enact major battles. There will also be Friday night entertainment, an exhibit to honor war veterans, rides in WWII trucks, 1850s vintage…
Festival and fair fun
The Soil and the Sun, a nationally known indie-rock band from Grand Rapids. Mich., headlines the 20-band The Horse Show festival near Pawnee on Saturday. Man oh man, the festivals are overflowing, the fair is happening and the warm season is here in all its music glory. Here we go with fun times in the…
Illinois nature
PHOTO COURTESY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS PRESS Naturalists Michael Jeffords and Sue Post will present a program on their newest book Exploring Nature in Illinois: A Field Guide to the Prairie State, foreword by Illinois Audubon Society Executive Director Tom Clay (University of Illinois Press, 2014). The 280-page book, loaded with color photographs and evocative descriptions…
Bridle party
I’m going to a friend’s bachelor party in Vegas, which includes a strip club visit. My girlfriend said I have to sit that out. She believes going could lead me to cheat on her. I assured her that I have no intention of cheating – ever – and strippers have no interest in me anyway.…
SEE THEIR CEDAR DOME
If you’ve ever wanted to live in a geodesic dome, now’s your chance. There’s a remarkable house available in Jacksonville. The Week magazine, a national weekly magazine, recently featured a geodesic dome house located in Jacksonville, Illinois, as its “Steal of the Week.” The geodesic dome was pioneered by German engineer Walter Bauersfeld in 1922,…
Comic pastiche
PHOTO COURTESY ROXY THEATRICALS Tony-award winning Best Musical Thoroughly Modern Millie arrives at The Legacy Theatre in a sparkling new production June 20-29. Set in the Roaring ’20s, “Thoroughly Modern Millie is that old girl-meets-boy, girl-loses-boy, girl-gets-boy and busts an international crime ring story,” says Director Scott Richardson, with a smile. “I can’t say it…
E-oaths
Curses, foiled again• After two people reported being maced and robbed by two men, police in Anchorage, Alaska, quickly nabbed one suspect. While searching for the other one, officers spotted a man who appeared in distress, “with tears and mucus running down his face.” When they questioned him, they determined that he wasn’t a victim…
Getting smart on crime
Rep. Michael Zalewski People convicted of low-level crimes in Illinois could soon see less time behind bars, but that doesn’t mean Illinois is going soft on crime. State lawmakers during the spring legislative session approved the creation of a committee to reconsider sentencing guidelines. However, the legislator who pushed the idea says it’s about being…
spur of the moment poem #1
the woman ahead of me in thecheckout line paid for her groceriesin quarters the cashier made manylittle stacks and checked them againand again to be sure there were fourin each the woman was more defiantthan embarrassed my cheerful remarkwas probably out of line looks like yourobbed your piggy bank she said to meyou’ll be here…
Inside the Bel-Aire Motel
Joe Landry (left) and Franklin Fite (right) both say the Bel-Aire is their home. They say they don’t want to leave and have nowhere else to go. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Franklin Fite is a collector. The small, one-room apartment he shares with his wife at the Bel-Aire Motel in Springfield is decorated with Pez…
Letters to the Editor 6/19/14
Simeon Wright, cousin of Emmett Till, is scheduled to speak in Decatur June 20. PHOTO BY ZBIGNIEW BZDAK/MCT WRIGHT ON TILL THE ENDI wish we never knew the name Emmett Till. But it will be forever emblazoned in our nation’s history because as a 14-year-old young man, Till was pulled out of his bed in…
Lesson of the city’s NAPA contract
For two years the Springfield city council worked hand in hand with Mayor Mike Houston and budget director William McCarty to consolidate four city maintenance garages – police, fire, public works and CWLP – into one. But this cooperation started to break down on March 4, when the Houston administration filed a peculiar ordinance to…
Editor’s Note 6/19/14
We cleaned up at the Illinois Press Association annual newspaper awards banquet last week, bringing home the top “general excellence” awards for our division in both advertising and editorial. In addition, we took eight first-place editorial awards. Bruce Rushton won five of those firsts, including the prestigious investigative reporting category for “You drink, you drive,…
A bold shift in America’s minimum wage debate
At last, our political leaders in Washington are taking action for low-wage workers and the middle class, striking a bold blow for America’s historic values of economic fairness and common good. Gosh, I hope you don’t think I meant Washington, D.C.! No, no – the same old corporate mentality of stiffing workers and stripping any…
Board games
Steven Beckett pleads naive. When he drew up a bill to divorce the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum from the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, the University of Illinois law professor who chairs an ALPLM advisory board says he had no idea that he was an architect of uproar. The bill would give Beckett’s advisory…
Tom Keifer
Best known as the voice of blues-rock band Cinderella, famed for such cuts as “Nobody’s Fool” and “Don’t Know What You Got,” Tom Keifer began working on his solo album right after the band broke up in the 90s. Then, told he would never sing again due to a paralyzed left vocal chord, the talented…
WILD MAN
Scott Gauvin When it comes to love of the Great Outdoors, it would be hard to be more devoted than Scott Gauvin of Springfield. An avid hiker, kayaker and camper, Gauvin shares his adventures with the world through his blog, www.hikingforward.com. And it was his blog that earned Gauvin a chance to go on his…
