Opa!
Untitled Document From the outside, St. Anthony’s looks like hundreds of other small churches built in the 1950s and ’60s: simple design, blond brick, window-sized panes of stained glass in primary colors. It could be a cousin of my childhood Methodist church. Only after you’ve seen the sanctuary and met some of the folks who…
Cap City
Untitled Document WRONG NUMBER Jane Connelly was so fed up with getting “bad” phone calls that she disconnected her home phone and, at age 55, decided to get herself one of those newfangled cellular phones. She was happy with her decision, until she realized that the number AT&T assigned to her phone had previously belonged…
“Hot air”
Untitled Document Seven years before the Wright Brothers’ first flight, Americans were boggled by strange objects in the sky. The phrase “unidentified flying object” hadn’t been invented, so many observers called them “airships.” The Great Airship Wave of 1896-1897, which has spawned books and contemporary UFO studies, started in November 1896 when an airship with…
Pay and go
Untitled Document The state legislative pay-raise issue was a big reason the Illinois Senate Democrats wanted to avoid another prolonged, bitter overtime session like last year’s and wrap things up by the May 31 deadline. There was no stomach for another war like the all-out brawl of 2007, which pitted Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan…
Who’ll unplug big media? Stay tuned…
Untitled Document On a Thursday in mid-May, the U.S. Senate did something that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. Led by Democrat Byron Dorgan, the senators — Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives — gave Rupert Murdoch and his fellow media moguls the sort of slap that masters of the universe don’t expect from…
Draining and paving paradise
Untitled Document Development and urban sprawl have caused the loss of millions of acres of wetlands. What is the status of wetlands in North America? Wetlands serve as primary habitat for thousands of wildlife species — from ducks to beavers to insects — and form an important ecosystem link between land and water. They also…
That wilting feeling
Untitled Document Drive through town, and you might get confused about the seasons. Under some trees, it looks like fall. Other trees seem to be just getting started on spring. Most sycamores, for example, have lost their mature leaves and are now producing new ones. The cause of this odd phenomenon is anthracnose, a group…
Plan of action
Untitled Document The members of a group seeking improved regulation of factory farming voiced their concerns in a two-hour meeting with federal Environmental Protection Agency officials on Tuesday and came away believing that the agency may investigate allegations that Illinois EPA has neglected its duties. Illinois Citizens for Clean Air and Water petitioned EPA in…
Herbert Hoover revisited
Untitled Document The official story of the Great Depression is that it began with the stock-market crash of 1929. Wrong. Depressions don’t instantaneously explode in a country — they creep up. The big financial crash was preceded by years of financial manipulation by Wall Street hucksters, wage declines for the majority of workers, a growing…
Booty call
Untitled Document You don’t expect a story that begins: “The brassiere is off, Louella” to gently break your heart, and that’s precisely what makes Springfield writer Carol Manley’s first collection of short stories irresistible. Church Booty, the runner-up for the third annual Tartt Fiction Award, has just been published by the University of West Alabama’s…
Spears of goodness
Untitled Document Yes, I know that asparagus is available in groceries these days pretty much year ’round, but it’s still something best enjoyed in spring, just plucked as it shoots from the earth in nearby fields. Grocery asparagus that’s been stored for long periods and shipped thousands of miles may be OK to satisfy off-season…
Behind closed doors
Untitled Document The Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce will host a closed-door meeting Friday in the hope that city officials and community leaders will find common ground over an ordinance requiring new guidelines for local building projects involving at least $500,000 in city, state, or federal funds. Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson, on behalf of…
Letters to the Editor
Untitled Document We welcome letters. Please include your full name, address, and telephone number. We edit all letters. Send them to Letters, Illinois Times, P.O. Box 5256, Springfield, IL 62705; fax 217-753-3958; e-mail editor@illinoistimes.com. WHY FOOD COSTS MORE Corn is getting a lot of attention these days, especially as it has played a growing role…
People’s Poetry
Untitled Document ypoolpoem #8 there’s a lot of good to be said for swimming every dawn at the y the bad part is the insufferable music and the inane talk show two people without a brain between them but once in a while joe the lifeguard a doughty scotsman plays the soundtrack to braveheart…
So far, so good for SOHO fest
Untitled Document Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages, it’s time once again for the SOHO Music Festival, or what I like to call “the Little Fest That Could.” From humble beginnings as the dream of Eric Welch and Tara McKenzie, the downtown charity music festival is now in its fourth year and looking stronger…
Defying the odds
Untitled Document The people who know Katie Jasmon say that she lives every hour of her life to accomplish something. As a student at Sacred Heart-Griffin High School, she was a four-time state qualifier in swimming, a two-time state qualifier in track, and a state-qualifier in cross-country. In 2006 Jasmon received a scholarship to Division…
Pity the fuel
Untitled Document Not even $4-per-gallon-gas has been able to resuscitate the nation’s corn-ethanol industry, which slumped in 2007 as the price of corn, the country’s main feedstock, rose to record levels. “These ethanol plants are making money, but they’re not making a lot, not as much as they were one or two years ago,” says…
Panda doesn’t have to pander
Untitled Document A reporter once asked legendary movie producer Sam Goldwyn to name the three most important elements in a successful movie. His reply: “Story, story, story.” Directors Mark Osborne and John Stevenson have taken this piece of advice to heart with their charming new feature, Kung Fu Panda. Writers Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger…
Still trapped
Untitled Document At least until the Legislature reconvenes in November, or Gov. Rod Blagojevich calls lawmakers back to Springfield for special meetings, Illinois residents will still be able to take out high-interest payday loans that many consumer-rights advocates deem predatory. Passed unanimously by the Senate in April, a bill that sought to strengthen the state’s…
Building the new Springfield High School
The idea of replacing Springfield High School with a $57 million new building in a cornfield on Springfield’s west side is so lame, so yesterday, so pre-Obama, that it should hardly be called an idea at all. It would be just like Springfield to build a suburban-type school just as high energy prices, the collapse…
