Blagojevich says no
Part of me cheered when Gov. Rod Blagojevich took a shot at Chicago Mayor Richard Daley last week. In case you hadn’t heard, Daley last week announced that he wanted a huge land-based, city-owned casino. Twenty-four hours later, Blagojevich said no way. I live in Chicago, and I’ve come to believe that it’s a little…
Knoepfle 5-20-04
sandalwood poem #2 have you changed or is it I have lost my faith I am not with you anymore though you see how I am always here going down the same old road © John Knoepfle 1978, 2004
The march for women’s lives: A front-line view
At 5:30 p.m. Saturday, April 24, approximately 50 people gathered at Planned Parenthood in Springfield. We were indeed a mishmash: The youngest was 6 and wasn’t really sure what we were about. The oldest was in her eighties and had witnessed many changes for women in her lifetime. Some of us had marched in the…
letters 5-20-04
Letters policy We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address and a daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length and clarity. Send letters to: Letters, Illinois Times. P.O. Box 5256. Springfield, Illinois 62705. Fax: (217) 753-3958. E-mail: editor@illinoistimes.com KEEP THE KIDS AT HOME I am writing about the situation at…
Prairie Notes 5-20-04
Funny how we sometimes see the value of things. I’ve never heard of someone shopping around for the cheapest doctor or the cheapest hospital — after all, when it comes to our health we want the very best, and hang the cost. But when we go to the supermarket, we want cheap! Most people would…
Rhubarb’s best when it’s red
My favorite spring vegetables include lettuce, spinach, asparagus, and rhubarb. One of my favorite meals is a grilled pork chop, a fresh garden salad, creamed asparagus, and a slice of warm rhubarb pie with ice cream. Rhubarb (Rheum rhabarbarum) is a cool-season perennial vegetable with thick red, pink, or green petioles (stalks) and large, extravagant…
Grace about town 5-20-04
What a weekend. It was so big that it oozed over into Monday. Which can get messy. I’ve been busier lately than I anticipated. My big show! I needed a stage. And lights! I didn’t have lights until this Monday, but luckily my friend Mike Taylor is coming to my rescue, lighting-wise. Thanks, Mike. Last…
Pitt shows he’s not just a big-screen pretty boy
Anyone who saw Brad Pitt’s first major screen role as the hitchhiker in Thelma and Louise should have realized that here was a future star. The part was small, but Pitt made it stand out with his natural screen charisma and peculiar sense of humor. His detractors attribute his success to his “pretty boy” looks,…
Savvy shoppers
Three students, as part of a recent class project, did what thousands of Springfield grocery customers do every week: They compared prices, looking for the best deal. But this exercise in savvy shopping had an edge. The three University of Illinois at Springfield students — Tabitha Curran, Daniela Di Silvestro, and Laily Mesbah — were…
The estrogen factor
Sherry is just a regular gal. Like most Americans, the married 30-something would rather watch Survivor on CBS than a bunch of talking heads discuss Washington politics on CNN. And yet, she has a photo of John Edwards and his wife stuck on her refrigerator. Oh, except she’s carefully grafted her own face onto Elizabeth…
Bo knows
Actress Bo Derek side-saddled into Springfield this week to promote legislation that would ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption. The Hollywood horse lover’s plea came just as Cavel International — Illinois’ lone equine slaughterhouse, based in DeKalb — sets to reopen after a fire shut it down in March 2002. Derek testified Wednesday…
Portraits from the street
Remarkably, Pamela Gray considers herself fortunate. She beams at the thought of her two daughters in college, her son’s good-paying job, and her baby granddaughter just five-months-old. They come to visit her from Chicago when they can. But Gray, who stays at a shelter on South 11th Street, can’t make the trip up north. Not…
Small victory
It’s a warm spring day, and the kids across the street are pelting each other with water balloons. At least a dozen people, probably more, are present, ranging in age from the mid-twenties down to mere babes bouncing on their young mothers’ knees. Their shouts and laughter drift through the open window of Clyde and…
aldermania: What’s cooking
City Council met Tuesday night to share a bowl of pudding. Nothing that required chewing, nothing tough to digest, nothing that might trigger a food allergy — just soft, yummy pudding. The stinky Brussels sprouts that was a zoning request to build a Harper’s Oil station near a historic neighborhood was put back into the…
The basics — and then some
Cecil’s Bar and Grill is, as its name suggests, a neighborhood bar that serves basic food: burgers, appetizers, pizza. Like many similar establishments that serve a dual purpose, it offers customers a place to down a cold brew after work and also serves up lunch and late-night food — and does it well. The restaurant…
When Lulubelle and Scotty ruled the airwaves
The decade of the 1930s marked the halcyon days of radio. Television was still a novelty, while radio technology had progressed to a high level of sophistication, allowing for not only both live and taped news and entertainment programming to originate from the studios but from remote locations as well. One of the most popular…
quicktakes 5-20-04
UNION UNITED From the Stratton and Dirksen buildings to the Old State Capitol to several other sites across Springfield and throughout Illinois, thousands of state employees took to the streets during lunch hours on Monday. They gathered to deliver a message to the governor. After five months of stalled negotiations, the American Federation of State,…
On guard
Sgt. Kathy Krusz has been an Illinois conservation agent for 26 years. Her life’s work is protecting the state’s abundant natural resources, including its wildlife. She’s dealt with some of the wiliest and dumbest creatures ever seen. By her account, she’s had plenty of close encounters. “Think of the stupidest things human beings can do,…
Movie review
Shrek sequel isn’t equal to orginal Witty and innovative, Shrek put the DreamWorks animation division on the map in 2001. The film’s breezy pace, lively voice characterizations by A-list movie stars, and clever script spelled box-office success. Producing a sequel was a no-brainer. Shrek 2 has a tough act to follow, and — no surprise…
Earth Talk 5-20-04
Dear Earth Talk: Which are better for the environment, disposable or cloth diapers? — Barbara Fritts, White Lake, Mich. The “disposable versus cloth” debate has raged among environmentalists for years. Non-degradable disposable diapers can sit for decades, even centuries, in landfills and require thousands of tons of plastic and hundreds of thousands of trees to…
Now playing 5-20-04
Great googly-moogly what is going on here? Are those people wandering around downtown Springfield at night, enjoying the fine entertainment offered by scores (almost) of nearly new nightclubs? Even the most hardened Springfield cynic has to be somewhat softened by the recent growth of late-night goings-on in our fair city. And if the offerings are…
Local artists sell out (or at least try to)
Hot on the heels of last weekend’s Old Capitol Art Fair comes another Springfield art show. And this one couldn’t be more different. Local artists, loosely banded together under the banner of Manifest Destiny Art Troupe, will host their second annual Extravaganza Cabaret for Starving Artists. The all-day and all-night (so they say) festival includes…
