Still fired up
Thirty-three percent of all black Springfield firefighters retired this week. Actually it was just one man — Charles Washington — but his departure leaves only two African-Americans on a force of more than 200. As of today, blacks account for less than a tenth of 1 percent of all Springfield firefighters, in a city where…
Beat the heat
Al Gore went from flying on Air Force Two to having to take off his shoes before getting on a plane. Since losing in 2000, the former vice president of the United States has stayed busy by launching a cable network, working for tech giants Apple and Google, teaching, and delivering speeches around the world.…
The Indelible Stain of Gitmo
George W. Bush’s prison camp at Guantánamo Bay is not only a hellhole for the roughly 460 men who’ve been locked down there for four years — it has now also become an indelible, shameful, and spreading stain on our country’s fundamental morality. You and I must no longer avert our eyes from what the…
Grape expectations
Illinois winemakers say their livelihoods are threatened by a lawsuit filed last week in Sangamon County. Villa Monteleone Winery, an upscale winemaker in Italy that produces 45,000 bottles a year, sued the Illinois Liquor Control Commission on June 22, claiming that the state is illegally protecting state wineries by allowing them to sell directly to…
A third way in Illinois
I’m not a big fan of third-party candidates. It’s not that I’m ecstatic about the two-party system. Too many “mainstream” candidates are media robots, poll-driven to the point that they drive me a little batty. I wouldn’t mind having another choice, if only to force the other candidates to stop acting like automatons and start…
Net monster
Craigslist, the free online-classified service that strikes terror in the hearts of newspaper advertising executives, debuted last week in Springfield. Previously local Craigslist aficionados had to go to St. Louis or Chicago home pages to find goods, services, or new friends, but Craigslist last week started up a page for Springfield and 99 other cities…
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. DEMENTIA RESEARCH CONTINUES HERE Kudos to Lauren Traut for her June 15 article “Losing Eddie,” in…
Rocky’s Road
Normally, I’m not what you’d call an “animal person.” I don’t think twice about eating chicken or beef or wearing leather shoes. I gave our last cat away when the doctor discovered my (human) baby was extremely allergic to felines. And I must confess, I actually guffawed the first time I saw the classic animated…
Solving a noise problem
Dear Gene: My home is close to a busy highway, and there is a lot of road noise. Are there special windows I can install to solve the noise problem? — M.M. Some windows are superior at screening out noise, according to their makers. An example is Milgard’s Quiet Line. For more information, check the…
The return of the bugs
Judging from the heat and humidity, the appearance of fresh-picked zucchini on the table, and the arrival of certain insects, summer is here. Imagine my dismay, while eating a freshly picked bowl of raspberries, at finding a Japanese beetle. This year’s invasion by the leaf-devouring, half-inch-long, colorful metallic-green critters with coppery-brown wing covers has begun.…
Price of freedom
An unpleasant encounter with a police lieutenant in Gold’s Gym turned into an expensive lesson for Larry Washington, an alleged drug dealer who learned Wednesday at an emergency hearing that he was being held on a $1.2 million bond. The case was initiated by two Springfield Police detectives currently under investigation for possible misconduct. Washington,…
Cooking for the cook
Cooks are a pain in the ass to cook for. I should know — I’m one of them. Friends tell me all the time that even the thought of cooking for me is intimidating, and I have been naïve enough to believe that my expertise is the barrier between me and those dinner invitations. Yeah,…
Shell’s game
Not surprisingly, Shell Oil Co. president John Hofmeister isn’t a fan of ethanol. Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press on June 11, along with two other Big Oil execs, Hofmeister explained that when it comes to ethanol, he prefers the blended variety, which contains 5 to 15 percent of the corn-based fuel, to E85, which is…
Fast-Forward Click
Michael Newman (Adam Sandler) feels that his life is nothing but a constant struggle leading nowhere, though he’s blessed with two wonderful, healthy kids and smart, resourceful wife Donna (Kate Beckinsale). As is the case in so many modern families, he finds that there simply isn’t enough time to meet the needs of his loved…
Deadbeats or Dead Broke?
Outside Courtroom 6B in the Sangamon County Building, a young man with rotten teeth and arms covered in tattoos stands nervously as an assistant state’s attorney discusses his child-support payments. To the man’s surprise, he’s paid up. “Whew! I thought I was going to jail,” he says, obviously relieved. Here, every Thursday morning, child-support cases,…
Meeks speaks
When last we heard from state Sen. James Meeks, the Chicago independent had dropped out of the governor’s race and endorsed Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s much-hyped education/lottery plan. With the proposal now under fire from almost all corners, I thought it might be a good time to check back in with him. “Nobody is discussing the…
When today’s 65 is yesterday’s… 65!
I’m 65. The TV is on because I like background noise as I pretend to do my morning exercises. The man has a few wrinkles around his eyes, but his eyes are clear and bright. His hair is gray, but there’s plenty of it. His teeth shine white to match his eyes. It’s a given…
Raising the bar
Contemplating nonviolent civil disobedience at the office of U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin isn’t easy. On the one hand, Durbin is one of the senators most supportive of ending the Iraq War; on the other, he has consistently voted to fund the war. As I find myself increasingly angry and frustrated about the lies, torture, disregard…
Different wavelengths
Hundreds of thousands of dollars in public resources are being deployed to bring Wi-Fi to downtown Springfield, without competitive bids to ensure that the planned system is the best — and cheapest — available. The bulk of the public subsidy is coming in the form of $380,000 worth of signal transmitters that being donated by…
Jacqueline Jackson
strangledcrypoem #2 SOME people don’t answer their email SOME people don’t answer their voice mail SOME people don’t answer their snail mail SOME people don’t even open it because it gets buried some people is me yet everyone expects that everyone six times a day boots up their email opens their snail mail checks…
All Altman
I listened to Garrison Keillor’s radio show once, many years ago, and I found it dull. The miracle of Robert Altman’s new film, a fictional depiction of the program’s final broadcast, is that neither appreciation nor knowledge of the show is necessary to enjoy the film. What goes on backstage is often more intriguing. Altman’s…
American Life In Poetry
Remember those Degas paintings of the ballet dancers? Here is a similar figure study, in muted color, but in this instance made of words, not pigment. As this poem by David Tucker closes, I can feel myself holding my breath as if to help the dancer hold her position. The Dancer Class is over, the…
Recycling tires
Dear “Earth Talk”: Can old tires be recycled? If so, where, and what is the recycled material used for? — George, Rockville, Md. Old tires can indeed be recycled, and thanks to concerted efforts by state and provincial governments from coast to coast, as many as 80 percent of them are these days across North…
America is a rainbow
Everyone is part of “our beautiful rainbow,” says Christelle Miller, who recently completed the fourth grade at Little Flower School. “What matters” is inside, says Alex Rahn, who just finished the fifth grade at St. Agnes School. “Fighting gets nothing accomplished,” says Aziza McNeese, who just completed the seventh grade at Lincoln Magnet School. We…
VINYL STATIC
SINGLES ONLY: Most alternative genres only have a few good years. The success of an insular subgenre can quickly turn free-spirited tunes into novelty tracks for tacky compilations churned out a few years down the road. But in the case of the variety of music often labeled “freak folk” or “the new weird America,” the…
No pain, no gain
Listening to Evangelista, Carla Bozulich’s latest album, is like watching someone carve off strips of her own skin, fold them into dainty origami shapes, and present them on a cloisonné tray. The effect is at once horrifying and soothing, visceral and delicate, like Memoirs of a Geisha rewritten by Yukio Mishima. At times, the former singer…
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. YOU NEED TO GET OUT MORE OK, Danny Faulkner, we both know that you need more…
A passion for potatoes
Have you ever eaten new potatoes — potatoes with skins so thin they scrub off easily with a vegetable brush, with flesh so lusciously creamy, it’s almost decadent? You might be surprised to learn that potatoes labeled “new” in the supermarket usually aren’t. Real new potatoes should be recently dug — anything more than a few…
Captain Rat and the What?
In 1980, somewhere near the twin towns of Champaign and Urbana, Captain Rat and the Blind Rivets emerged as a musical entity. Between then and now the peculiarly named band has taken its well-crafted, delightfully goofy show from the Rose Bowl to Soldier Field and to countless festivals, nightclubs, homecomings, jamborees, and shindigs in between.…
