Swim, bike, run for fitness and fun
Maybe it’s the obesity epidemic that has so many people worried about their waistlines. Or maybe it’s the ongoing recession that has people looking for low-cost extracurriculars. Whatever the cause, it’s clear that Americans are more interested than ever in getting fit. Last year was the first in which the number of marathon finishers topped…
‘Ultimate Frisbee’ offers fitness, fun and community
If you’re home from college or just wanting to get fit and have fun in central Illinois this summer, ultimate Frisbee may be for you. A game of “ultimate” is like soccer but is played with a flying disc and an edge of competition. The game has no referees, and players can even call a…
Big summer events
Juneteenth CelebrationSaturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19, 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. For 17 years a community-wide celebration has taken place in Springfield on the weekend of June 19 that marks an important date in the history of the United States. June 19, 1865, was the day that slaves in Galveston, Texas, were released…
District 186 wants to limit ‘Public School Choice’
With four themed magnet schools and one charter school drawing students from across the city regardless of attendance boundaries, School District 186 prides itself on offering “choice” to Springfield families who want to put their children in unique educational settings. [See “Choice schools,” April 7, 2011]. But besides the popular magnet schools Superintendent Dr. Walter…
Letters to the Editor 05/26/11
COSTS OF GAMBLINGSince 1990, the continual proposals for a Chicago casino and more electronic gambling machines/slot machines (EGMs/slots) have demonstrated that history repeats itself. While Illinois businesses and taxpayers were subjected to a tax increase of 66 percent during the 2011 lame-duck session, little notice was given to the 2011 legislation proposed to expand Illinois…
CALLING ALL COUNTRY SCHOOL KIDS
Two-mile walks, one-person graduating classes and a set of brothers who each day took turns wearing their one and only shared pair of shoes are just a few of the stories Lynnita Brown has heard since she helped host a country school reunion earlier this month in Douglas County. The stories, coming from those aged…
Sleepwalker
When four, decades-long, friends hooked up in the spring of 2008 for a “fun side project” band, no one dreamed someday they’d be celebrating and promoting a third anniversary show. Sleepwalker cohorts Keith Dunlap (guitar, vocals), Kortney Leatherwood (drums, vocals), Rusty Koehler (bass, vocals) and Ted Russell (guitar, vocals) describe the group as “four friends,…
The farm that McCormick’s Reaper built
Thinking about gardens and summer and checking out new sights and sounds? Why not head north this summer and check out St. James Farm? For years the locals only saw the gate of the lovely farm where the McCormicks, descendants of Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the commercial reaper, lived and worked. In 1851, Cyrus McCormick…
Handsome Jane Eyre undone by lack of passion
I’m not sure why the cinema keeps returning to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Yes, I know it’s a classic gothic romance and it probably isn’t a bad idea to reintroduce the story to a new generation every now and again. But if a new perspective can’t be brought to the story, then why bother? It…
Visit Benton and the Shawnee National Forest
You can find information about almost any kind of history in the small town of Benton. This is where Charlie Birger, the Prohibition-era criminal, was the last person to be hanged in Illinois, as well as the town where the first Beatles record was heard stateside. Come to this southern Illinois hamlet, tour the sites…
Student Loan Sharks
Almost anyone who took out student loans during college will be glad to hear this news: There’s a bill before Congress to allow private student loans to be discharged through bankruptcy. That’s a major step forward, and here’s why: student loans are the only type of private loan with a federal “no-escape” clause. If you…
northfifthstreet poem #16
people drive their kids to schoolthese days even when they livenearby guess they feel they have tostreets are too risky too dangerouscars line up before my house it’s nextto the schoolyard the pounding bassof their music shakes the pavementa rapper heard down the block shoutspimp the bitch pimp the bitch pimpthe bitch as kids climb…
GIVE TO JOPLIN
A Springfield man is collecting items for the community of Joplin, Mo., a city devastated by a massive tornado on May 22. Items are needed by Thursday, May 26. “They’ve lost everything and many of the people have died,” says Cal Scheuermann. “We send money to foreign countries but we just need to help people…
Al fresco dining in Springfield, 2011
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been writing this column for five years. In May 2006, totally out of the blue, I got a phone call from former IT editor Roland Klose, whom I’d never met. “Would you be interested in writing a weekly column for Illinois Times?” he asked. To say I was surprised…
Four-decade magic
The 70s classic-rock band America plays at Sangamon Auditorium, UIS on Friday, June 3. Popular for their first #1 song, A Horse With No Name, the group rose to fame with a string of hits, such as, I Need You, Lonely People and Sister Golden Hair, racking up six certified gold and/or platinum albums and…
A rich season of summer theater
Summer theater is upon us and there’s quite an exciting list of possibilities for area theater-goers over the next three months. Theatre in the Park at New Salem outside Petersburg opens its season June 3 with Romeo and Juliet (in a co-production with Over the Moon Productions), running June 3-5 and 9-11. The production features…
Park district raises draw union complaints
Tensions are running high over raises for Springfield Park District administrators amid layoffs last year and recent union complaints filed against the park district. Raises for at least 15 park district supervisors were not revealed until the day before the Springfield Park Board voted to pass the $11.16 million budget May 18. Raises include a…
A Springfield author’s likeable murderers
She’s done it again! Martha Miller, our local crime-fiction author whose two previous Springfield detective books are so stellar, has a newcomer. It’s the best yet. It’s titled Retirement Plan: A Crime Novel, and in a recent talk at the Sangamo Club Literary Circle, Martha said of it, “It’s ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ but with…
What’s inside Big Oil’s head?
The big five of Big Oil might want to mull over a bit of advice that baseball great Ted Williams once offered to rookies: “If you don’t think too good, don’t think too much.” Apparently, the chieftains of BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and Shell thought that a bit of gruff, CEO bluster would be just…
School’s out, but there’s plenty for children to do
For at least a few students, the countdown to summer vacation began last August. Others maybe waited until January, by which time the bitter cold and recent memories of semester finals started giving way to daydreams of summer sunshine and three months of test-free bliss. But Illinois summers also come with high humidity, and, come…
Summerguide 2011
Big Summer Events Excursions Benton and the Shawnee National Forest St. James Farm Activities Theater Children Illinois wine Sports Ultimate Frisbee Swim, bike, run
Too much mapmaking mischief
Statehouse paranoia and angst are always at an all-time high every 10 years in Springfield. Why? The new state legislative district maps are drawn, and that highly political process always involves generous amounts of partisan mischief-making and revenge. This year is no different. The Democrats control both legislative chambers and the governor’s office, so they…
In memory of lives lost to war
The last Monday of every May is devoted to the memory of an estimated 3.5 million (according to the U.S. Census Bureau) Americans who have fought and died for this country. Created in 1868 to honor the approximate 400,000 Confederate and Union soldiers who valiantly defended opposite ideals, the genesis of Memorial Day derives from…
Taking to the streets
A people’s willingness to walk determines the shape of their towns – and their towns have a lot to do in determining the shape of the people who live in them. University of Tennessee researchers strapped pedometers on 1,136 American adults of various ages living in different kinds of places and compared the results to…
Springfield goes Dutch
She can still remember not knowing what to say when her college roommates asked, “What’s your cultural heritage?” Cheryl Wycoff, a Springfield resident of 25 years, identified as a “farm girl” from central Illinois growing up, but didn’t know much about her ancestry. It wasn’t until her father and great-uncle started sifting through old family…
Defenders of the innocent
It’s not every day that a serial killer helps a writer solve a crime, so when Diane Fanning, a Texas true-crime author, received a letter from convicted killer Tommy Lynn Sells admitting to a murder in Illinois, she knew she was on to something big. Fanning convinced Sells to give more details about the1997 murder…
Smart grid or smart grab?
The state’s largest electric utility is asking lawmakers for a series of automatic rate increases to upgrade infrastructure, but consumer advocates say it’s an unfair deal. Commonwealth Edison, which delivers electricity to about 70 percent of the state’s population, is pushing legislation that would allow them to skip the ICC’s approval for automatic yearly rate…
Illinois winemaking on the rise
More than 100 years ago, Illinois was the fourth largest wine-producing state in the nation. Now the Treasury Department holds Illinois responsible for just a fraction of the 40 million gallons bottled each month. Other states may have passed Illinois in production, but wineries and vineyards continue to sprout all across the Land of Lincoln.…
A worthy adventure for Pirates
Disney is back to add to its coffers with yet another entry in the most successful franchise the Mouse House has ever produced. With the bloated, convoluted nature of the last two entries in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, I was not looking forward to it. However, I wound up being pleasantly surprised by…
Cures for the summertime blues
Here we go again into the summer months with a load of good live music going on out of doors and hopefully some inside when the heat and humidity rises to usual unbearable levels and thunderstorms and precipitation contribute to the cause. All the festivals and fairs have their charms, but I still prefer the…
Star-crossed lovers
Theatre in the Park, Over the Moon Productions and Lincoln Land Community College present the classic Shakespeare play about love gone wrong in the outdoor amphitheater at Lincoln’s New Salem State Historical Site for two weekends. Directed by Kevin Purcell, the stage combat is choreographed by LLCC associate professor and Society of American Fight Directors…
Tapped into technology
On this First Friday downtown, June 3, visit Gallery II for its opening of a new exhibit based on the Internet and hypercontemporary art. The name of the exhibit is an Internet term derived from missing the caps lock key when typing “omg” and instead hitting the “z” key. Four artists: Melanie Edmonson, Chris Martin,…
Flick fun
Here’s a club that might interest you. The Movie Geeks Club meets the last Tuesday of every month at Capital City Bar and Grill to screen a classic, independent or foreign film that you might not see at the theater. Each month members vote from a number of films on the one they want to…
