New class of mandarins
In August 2003 a shipment of the book Grand Canyon: A Different View was delivered to Grand Canyon bookstores and museums to be sold alongside other merchandise. The book, edited by Canyon Ministries founder Tom Vail, claims that the Grand Canyon was formed by the same deluge that launched Noah’s ark a few thousand years…
Invitation to the party
Here’s Bill McKenzie, explaining the premise behind his Acoustic Aspect Recording Project: “The idea was to make what was essentially a vanity CD and get it out to friends and family and have a few to sell when the DeRocchi/ McKenzie Band play out locally.” The disc, titled This Feels Like Where I Came In,…
Piling on
When a Sangamon County jury ruled last fall that Adetokunbo “Philip” Fayemi had poisoned his fiancée and seven other people, the only question left was what punishment the court would impose. Seven months later, however, Fayemi remains in jail as his new attorney tries to get the verdict set aside, alleging that two Springfield Police…
The contender
State Sen. James Meeks, D-Chicago, has continually brushed aside suggestions that he wouldn’t run for governor on a third-party ticket, saying last week, for instance, that he is encouraged by the results of a new poll he commissioned, the results of which show him actually in the race. The survey was taken April 25-30 by…
Casualties of Iraq
The number of troops back this year from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder could be five times higher than the Department of Veterans Affairs predicted. Instead of 2,900 new cases that it reported in February to U.S. Rep. Lane Evans, D-Ill., a leading veterans’ advocate in Congress, the increase could be 15,000 or…
Earth Talk
Dear “Earth Talk”: I’ve heard that it is now safe to throw away common household batteries and that only rechargeable batteries can now be recycled. Is this true? — Doug Reynolds, Martinsville, Ind. Today’s common household batteries — those ubiquitous AA’s, AAA’s, C’s, D’s and 9-volts from Duracell, Energizer, and others — are not thought…
American life in poetry
A worm in an apple, a maggot in a bone, a person in the world. What might seem an odd assortment of creatures is beautifully interrelated by the Massachusetts poet Pat Schneider. Her poem suggests that each living thing is richly awake to its own particular, limited world. There Is Another Way There is another…
The great pretender
Name a fragrance — rose, lemon, orange, lime, strawberry, peppermint, nutmeg, apple, apricot, coconut, even camphor — and there’s probably a geranium carrying that scent. Fragrant, easy to grow, and lovely to look at, scented geraniums have been proclaimed the 2006 Herb of the Year by the International Herb Association, but they’ve been a garden…
The profit prescription
Four years ago, Springfield Clinic had fewer than 140 physicians. Today the number sits at 175, and it’s about to grow. Thanks to a $30 million expansion project approved last week by the city, Springfield Clinic will soon have room for 40 more doctors. Shortly after the ribbon is cut in two years, the clinic…
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. INSPECTORS FOOLED, WHY NOT BOARD? If Larry Hupp and Debra Neece fooled the federal and state…
CAP CITY
THE OCCULT . . . FOR DUMMIES We never miss an opportunity take our ceremonial robes out of mothballs, so, on hearing the news that the Washington Park officials would be removing a circle-and-star design that some residents say resembles a pentagram, we printed instructions on performing a séance from the Web and headed towards…
Vinyl Static
SHOWS-A-GO-GO! Is a party ever really over? The Smoking Popes certainly thought so when they recorded their final guitar-fueled romp, Party’s Over, in 1998, much to the disappointment of their legions of loyal punk minions. But nothing brings a band back together better than nostalgia. When Chicago booking institution Flower Booking turned 15 in 2005,…
The stuff that dreams are made of
When I was 5 or 6 years old, I believed that musicals were real. When the time was right, the people around me would burst into song, and we could finally stop worrying about what to say next because we’d all be in thrall to the music, borne aloft by an invisible orchestra. Our everyday…
Axing national parks
America’s network of national parks is a natural resource so beloved by the public that even George W. Bush has posed in parks for photo ops in his two presidential campaigns, promising to bolster funding for these treasures. Once the campaigning is done, however, our park lover in chief goes after them with a double-bladed…
Jacqueline Jackson
parisweddingpoem #1 quel evénement my ravissante petite fille in a cloud of organza the mari très élegant in his silken flowered vest shiny black dress shoes the mayor resplendent in tricolored sash ceremony as snazzy as at a church then five courses or was it six at the restaurant prive caviar appetizer fois gras poisson with…
Gather around the mill
The hardest part of redeveloping the abandoned Pillsbury Mill isn’t figuring out what to build there — it’s deciding what to do with the buildings and silos that are already there. At least that’s what Springfield developer Todd P. Smith suggests. Smith, president of the Garrison Group, was a panelist at a September brainstorming meeting,…
The new face of crime?
There’s a new kid in town. He’s a shadowy figure — wears a mask and a backwards baseball cap. As the new icon of the common criminal, he’s slowly taking over the turf occupied by that classy fellow with the snap-brim fedora and opera cloak. The new kid is pictured on the neighborhood-watch signs posted…
Ship of fools
Director Wolfgang Petersen knew just what to do with his remake of The Poseidon Adventure, 1972’s blockbuster disaster epic: Deliver thrills and waste no time doing it. Character development be damned; the passengers of this doomed ship fall into two categories, survivors and dead meat. No need to learn about the subtleties between father and…
The Hype
It’s in the stars It’s official — there’s no love lost between JUDY BAAR TOPINKA and ROD BLAGOJEVICH. Astrologically speaking, Blago, a Sagittarius, and Topinka, a Capricorn, are a match made in hell. The Sagittarius, incumbent Democrat Blagojevich, is easygoing, in no rush to work out state fiscal matters, whimsical, always jumps headfirst into new…
Quick, thoughtful
The Springfield City Council allocated $719,000 from a federal grant to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield last week for a proposed community center on the city’s east side. Kristin Allen, executive director of the Springfield Boys & Girls Clubs, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, says the money is the first…
