Wishlist: eco-friendly laptop sleeve
Given my propensity to break/damage almost everything I own, I should probably own a laptop sleeve. (Seriously – don’t lend me anything you love. I get so stressed trying not to break it that I end up accidentally doing something terrible. Self-fulfilling prophecy much?) I love this laptop sleeve from Loopt. Bonus: it’s made from…
Treading on the indoor blues
As a southern Indiana native, I can openly admit that I’m not a big fan of Springfield winters. Ice and snow covered my neighborhood’s streets and sidewalks for weeks in December and January, making driving difficult, dog-walking unsafe and running nearly impossible. (Note: I can lend credibility to this complaint. I attempted to take my…
NCAA basketball comes to Springfield
This weekend, as Jim Naumovich returns to his hometown, he’ll bring the Great Lakes Valley Conference men’s and women’s basketball tournaments along with him. Springfield native Naumovich is the commissioner of the GLVC, one of the country’s largest National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II conferences with 16 members in five Midwest states. The University of…
Letters to the Editor 03/04/2010
BIPARTISAN POLICYThe “Editor’s note” [see Feb. 25 issue] suggests a Quinn / Dillard ticket for the November election of governor and lieutenant governor. Goodness gracious, could this actually result in some bipartisan policy (well, at least at the executive level, if not the legislative level)? Bipartisan policy – what a novel idea! But I’m not…
Giving immortality to their littleness
Illinois has a very short list of distinguished governors and a somewhat longer one of able historians. The list of distinguished governors who also are able historians is very short indeed. Only one name is on it, that of Thomas Ford. Ford’s term in Springfield, from 1842 to 1848, was his first and only popularly…
ILLINOIS PRISONS: Standing room only
They were imprisoned for prostitution, robbery and drug trafficking. They were dog fighters, arsonists, sex offenders and repeat drunk drivers. Almost 2,000 criminals of nearly every stripe short of homicide were released early from Illinois prisons between September and December 2009. In Sangamon County alone, at least 13 inmates were released early, many serving just…
Statewide goods
The Illinois Products Expo is a great way to discover and sample the goods of some of our local and regional producers. More than 70 Illinois food companies, and a few non-food companies, will exhibit at this food and cooking extravaganza. You can sample the food for free before your purchase. Soy and herb candles,…
aroundthecosmos poem #6
infinity meansthat you give upeven thoughyou knowthere’s more
Hungry for Haitian
It’s almost impossible to comprehend the devastation in Haiti after the Jan. 12 earthquake. But then, unless you’ve been there, it’s almost impossible to conceive conditions in Haiti, long the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, before that day. “The squalor in (Haiti’s capital) Port au Prince was overwhelming,” says Vicki Compton, director of Springfield…
Haitian Red Beans and Rice (Diri et Pois Coles)
Rice and beans are ubiquitous throughout the Southwestern U.S., Mexico, Central and South America, well as the Caribbean and other parts of the world. The beans differ – black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, pigeon peas, etc., but the preparation is essentially the same. Cheap staples that provide healthy nutrition are combined with aromatics like…
A sticky situation
The state’s beekeepers are buzzing to gain some independence. A new bill would ensure that small honey producers are able to sell their products at farmers markets, fairs or roadside stands without government regulation. The measure, supporters say, would allow beekeepers to build local networks with consumers, and help grow and maintain the state’s honeybee…
Grow Your Own Teachers faces drought
Instead of becoming a college student, Fallon Rowl became a single mom. She got pregnant right after she graduated from Southeast High School, and for the next three years worked several office jobs to support her daughter. In October 2005, she was hired as a special education attendant at Grant Middle School. That’s when everything…
Broken Stone
Known as one of Springfield’s finest presenters of modern radio rock, Broken Stone covers a range of groups, including contemporary bands like Breaking Benjamin, Velvet Revolver and Seether, along with classics from Dio and Mississippi Queen. In nearly four years of rocking the capital city and area towns at fairs, festivals, bars and clubs, the…
Picklese (a.k.a. Pikliz)
This classic Haitian condiment can be found on every table, sometimes even when there isn’t a table. The liquid is used as a hot sauce; in other dishes the thinly sliced vegetables are a sort of slaw/pickle condiment for meat or vegetable preparations. Scotch bonnet peppers are traditional –– but their close relatives, habañeros, can…
Fuqua’s Brooklyn finest film of the new year
Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) and first-time screenwriter Michael C. Martin pull off an interesting feat with their gripping film Brooklyn’s Finest. They take tired cop film conventions and make them all seem fresh once more by injecting them with a sense of grit and realism that immediately sets this movie apart from others in…
WOMEN’S RIGHTS WATCH
Woineshet Zebene was 13 when she was kidnapped, beaten and raped by four men in her small village in Ethiopia. She was attacked a second time by the group’s leader and was nearly forced to become his wife. Woineshet fought back against her rapist, becoming an inspiration to women in Ethiopia and the world. She…
Guitar town news and blues
Just when you thought it was safe to stay at home, look at the long list of hopped-up happenings this week. Then next weekend everyone goes green for the St. Patrick’s Day festivities and the celebration of all things Celtic. It seems the wicked are not the only ones getting no rest. Long a source…
Altering environments
Dr. Eric Grimm, Illinois State Museum botany chair, presents a free lecture, “Global Warming: Past, Present, and Future — Why Florida Should Care about Greenland.” His talk examines major climate and vegetation changes in Illinois since the last ice age, how scientists reconstruct past vegetation and climate, the major drivers of climate change and how…
Reaching the summit on health reform
President Obama recently convened lawmakers from both parties at the White House for a summit on health reform. Although the attendees failed to strike a grand compromise, Democratic congressional leaders still have time to incorporate some Republican ideas in order to produce a final bill that’s genuinely bipartisan. Such bipartisanship would be politically astute, thanks…
Fighting subversion of people’s sovereignty
As you’ve probably heard, corporations are now “people” — humanoids that are equivalent to you and me. This miraculous metamorphosis happened on Jan. 21. Accompanied by a blinding bolt of lightning and a terrifying jolt of thunder, five Dr. Frankensteins on the Supreme Court threw a judicial switch that endowed these pulseless paper entities with…
Snipes on the comeback trail with Brooklyn’s Finest
From looking at actor Wesley Snipes, you’d never be able to tell he was on the last leg of a cross-country trip that took him to one major city a day over a week’s time. After hitting Washington, D.C., Atlanta and other cities you’d think he’d be ready to pack it in when he visited…
Diehard love
Award-winning Guthrie Theater and The Acting Company join together for a national tour with a co-production of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy of innocent young lovers who fall victim to family hatred and a cruel destiny. Swords clash, everlasting love is promised and a treacherous sleeping potion is swallowed in the greatest love story of all time.…
Abolition, the spark that ignited a revolution
One hundred fifty years ago this year, Abraham Lincoln was elected president and the slavery question was threatening to dissolve the nation. In Illinois, Lincoln’s allegedly “free” state, black laws discouraged African-Americans from entering and especially staying. A black person could be jailed and fined if he or she came to Illinois for longer than…
Popular farm chemical goes on trial in Springfield
For Leon Corzine of Assumption, north of Pana, atrazine is as essential to farming as soil, water or sun. Corzine, along with wife Susie and son Craig, is a fifth-generation farmer who grows corn and soybeans and owns Angus cattle. Corzine relies on atrazine, a weed-killer used by Illinois farmers for 50 years. When atrazine…
Twin city urbanscapes
New striking images of Minneapolis and St. Paul by Midwestern photographers Chris Faust and Michael A. Shapiro will be on display at the SAA Gallery of Art. Faust’s photographs, popular with collectors and curators across the Midwest, have been shown at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Walker Art Center and Weisman Museum along with numerous…
Buffy-like Lincoln
Best-selling author Seth Grahame-Smith appears at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum Union Theater as one of the first stops on the release tour for his new book, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The new book follows on the heels and formula of Grahame-Smith’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which reached number three on the New York…
When a candidate for governor tries to help out a puppy gas chamber
Jerry Clarke is not easily ruffled. Not only has he seen it all in his years running campaigns in Illinois, but he’s served several tours of duty in Iraq as a combat helicopter pilot. But I thought Jerry might actually faint last week when I called him with an update on his candidate’s latest piece…
THERE SHE IS, MRS. SPRINGFIELD!
If your marital status (or numerous incriminating photos) prevents you from competing in the Miss America pageant, but you’ve yet to reproduce a big-haired, doe-eyed child suitable for “Toddlers and Tiaras,” then the Mrs. Springfield pageant may be for you. The Mrs. America pageant system is looking for the new Mrs. Springfield to compete in…
