Letters to the Editor
Workplace giving Your Feb. 26 article described disbanding the Sangamon County Combined Campaign [see “United Way changes where charity dollars go,” by Dusty Rhodes]. This action shows flagrant disregard for the fact that “government employers are bound by different rules than private employers.” Attorney General Lisa Madigan issued an opinion saying public employers are required…
Fighting back in America’s 30-year class war
David Brooks was upset. You can tell when this conservative and rather-professorial columnist for the New York Times gets upset, because his words almost sag with disappointment — you can practically hear the heavy sighs in each paragraph. When most commentators on the right see things that offend them, they get mad; Brooks gets sad.…
IT Picks
MUSIC |Local legends Two of Springfield’s finest folk musicians, Tom Irwin and Ben Bedford, strum, pick and sing Saturday night at 7:30 for a Prairie Grapevine Folklore Society concert at the Abraham Lincoln Unitarian Universalist Congregation. These two beloved singer/songwriters are the acoustic kings of the capital city. Tom has opened for well-known crooners Willie…
No gain on budget deficit without some pain
Republican State Sen. Bill Brady kicked off his new gubernatorial campaign the other day by claiming that Illinois’ horrific budget deficit can be “managed.” But a new report by the governor’s office makes that claim even less realistic that it already was. As you already know, Democratic Comptroller Dan Hynes has estimated the state’s budget…
Start a garden with seeds, tools, sun and land
The number of people growing a vegetable garden is on the rise. Some mail order seed companies are reporting a 40 percent increase in sales, while a typical year may see a 15 percent increase in sales. Reasons for this growth spurt include the increase in food prices, food safety issues and concerns for the…
Last House rotten to the core; but Miss March is worse
Wes Craven’s 1972 feature The Last House on the Left has a permanent place in horror film history as one of the genre’s most notorious releases. Pushing the boundaries of gore and violence, this brutal feature served as the filmmaker’s calling card as well as an entry into the industry for his co-producer, Sean Cunningham,…
Conns speak out: TIF process needs overhaul
Karen Conn’s voice takes on a buoyant tone as she describes the future of the Maisenbacher House, or what she and her husband Court loyally call the Lindsay House. Now parked in its final resting place at 503 S. Seventh St., the 19th-century brick home, constructed by Isaac Lindsay with $650 borrowed from Abraham Lincoln,…
Asian food, and a store of memories
Walking into the original Asian Food Market on Spring Street never failed to put a smile on my face: I knew that Aunt Catherine and Uncle Ray Taintor had to be whirling in their graves. For decades, it had been Taintor’s Grocery Store, a classic mom-and-pop operation: Uncle Ray’s father had opened it, and Ray…
People’s Poetry
friendquote poem # 14(written by Gary Smith) LARRY At the parkputting out foodfor the catshe said listen I heard nothingjust a truck going by It’s a robinlistenyou hear themwhen it’s clouding upor going to rainor at 4:30 in themorning right beforethe sun comes up Listen he saiddo you hear Yes I saidI do now ©…
When the Crime Stoppers dumpster came to my street
When I first heard about the new Crime Stoppers drug dumpster, I found it amusing. A trash dumpster, welded shut, painted orange, is stenciled with, “A suspected drug house is in this area,” and “Report suspicious activity 788-8427.” There’s a spaceship-like blue bubble-dome on top, caged in metal mesh, that tries to make criminals think…
Price of preservation
A living geologic and natural time capsule, Elkhart Hill shows off her best skirt in April as nature’s paintbrush splashes her slopes with color-drenched prairie wildflowers. The Elkhart Historical Society sponsors guided Wildflower Walks to provide an opportunity for a family outing, a chance to enjoy the beauty of spring with family and other loved…
Buckhart hog operation opens while neighbors fume
Last month, Bob and Sandy Young hosted a ribbon-cutting and open house at their hog farm a few miles east of Rochester on Buckhart Road. About 350 people showed up to listen to a few speeches, dine on free pork chops and tour the state-of-the-art shed that will eventually house some 3,740 hogs being fattened…
Nice bridge, but would you want to live there?
As bridges go, this one is deluxe. It’s built on a vintage single-span construct donated by the township of Island Grove, and topped with a newly-made pitched roof that, once completed, will feature two cupolas, each lit by a wrought-iron chandelier. Situated on the drive to the site of a future bed-and-breakfast, it’s designed to…
The view from Elkhart Hill
Rearing up nearly 800 feet above sea level, above the flat land all around, Elkhart Hill stands guardian over a place where geography, nature and human history converge. It was here, on her wooded slopes, that an early white settler stood on the lawn of the house he’d built and had a vision of a…
I need medical marijuana
I read with interest your article on medical marijuana [see “Medical marijuana,” by R.L. Nave, IT, Feb. 26]. I then read the letters to the editor in the March 5 issue and I take issue with one writer, who states that he doesn’t smoke but he knows all about marijuana and is certain there is…
You don’t have to have the blues to enjoy the music
Oh man, you just got to love the blues. From this music based on things not being so good, seems to come good things, or at least most folks claim to feel better and act happier after hearing the blues. Funny how that works. Springfield gets its fair share of good blues acts through town.…
