Dear School Board…
It was clear from the minute the bell rang that something was up. My advanced-placement English students came in buzzing, asking whether I’d read Dan Healy’s essay yet. Someone had finally scored a “six”! After much ballyhooing, Dan read aloud what he’d submitted to the Holt, Rinehart & Winston online essay grader. A six is…
The Wise Choice
When she became president of the District 186 Board of Education, Cheryl Wise shifted her seat three spaces to the right. Her old seat, at the end of the board table, is now occupied by outgoing board President Judy Johnson. Now, whether she or anyone else likes it, Wise is front and center — and…
The fan
John awoke to searing pain, running from behind both eyes to the middle of his forehead: a migraine triangle. He pressed his palms hard against both temples, went to the bathroom, turned the shower to very cold, and stuck his head under the frigid water. When the pain subsided some, he stumbled toward the kitchen…
The return of Joe Cooke
I was nearly 16 years old and heading out to the old racetrack at Clearlake and Dirksen with my sister, her boyfriend, and a few friends. Someone, probably Len Trumper, was hosting an outdoor music concert with local groups and maybe a regional headliner. I don’t remember too clearly all of those events from back…
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. KITTEN REFERENCE WAS DEMEANING Bruce Rushton did an excellent job on his article on the Goodwill,…
This search party is a private affair
At the Vatican, a puff of white smoke signals the selection of a new pontiff, with no one but the coziest of insiders ever being privy to the winnowing process. What, exactly, is going on at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is at least as difficult to figure out, one month after Richard…
Three times a charm
I wasn’t impressed with the big-screen adaptation of Mission: Impossible and its sequel. Director Brian De Palma’s take on Ethan Hunt and his Impossible Missions Force was needlessly convoluted and employed so many plot twists and turns that it made a Slinky look like an exercise in linear design by comparison. Even though John Woo’s…
Snitch glitch
Springfield police detective Paul Carpenter must reveal the name of an informant whose weekly tips led to “numerous arrests and convictions” over the past two years, according to an order entered Monday by Robert Eggers, chief judge of the Sangamon County Circuit Court. Carpenter and his former partner, Detective Jim Graham, are on paid administrative…
Jacqueline Jackson
aroundtownpoem #10 our campus is a little eden joannie is its goddess it’s here my lines were going to end after a few words about the fragrant linden aisle bluestem grass purple coneflowers prairie dropseed joe pye weed with a few dandelions thrown in as well and how blissful to have a job whose purpose…
CAP CITY
WE’RE NO. 14! Batten down the hatches: May is danger time when it comes to tornadoes in these parts. Just ask Frank Tatom, founder of VorTek, an Alabama company that uses National Weather Service statistics to figure out which towns are most likely to be hit by tornadoes. In any given May, Springfield ranks 14th…
The tallest Elk in Springfield
John Kenneth Galbraith was 43 years old and already had a national reputation when he arrived in Springfield in the summer of 1952 to work as a speechwriter for Gov. Adlai Stevenson’s presidential campaign. American Capitalism, his first book (of the 33 he would eventually write), had been published earlier that year and had become…
The Hype
Drinking, competition Just think: apple martinis at Apple River Fort; Jack-and-Cokes at Cahokia Mounds — delicious, educational, and an additional source of revenue for Illinois. Senate Bill 2454, which allows booze to be sold at private soirees at facilities under the purview of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, is awaiting the signature of Gov. Rod BlagojevicH.…
Earth Talk
Dear “Earth Talk”: Several tragic accidents recently have brought to light the lethal dangers of mines to mine workers. What are the environmental issues with mining, including their long-term impact on both public and mine workers’ health? — Ed Kelley, Albuquerque, N.M. Mining is an inherently nasty practice when looked at from either an environmental…
Needed: a threat that works
Whenever there’s a big story, a calamity of some sort, an outrage, or some type of disaster, you can bet that a lobbyist or special-interest group will try to take advantage of the situation to push some kind of legislation in Springfield. That’s pretty much what’s happening in the wake of the George Ryan conviction.…
Vinyl Static
CD exchange: Neil Young for president. What’s that, you say? Neil Young is Canadian! So Neil Young couldn’t be the leader of our fair democracy, but at least, we can muse, “What would Neil Young do?” With his newest release, Living in War, one can certainly formulate a solid hypothesis. The protest album unleashes Young’s…
No reinvention, no imitation
Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs Under the Covers, Vol. 1 (Shout! Factory) When it comes to covers, there are two schools of thought. Adherents of the first try to re-create the original song as closely as possible, which is pointless in theory yet rather lucrative in practice (could a gazillion tribute bands be wrong?). Those…
People’s poetry
This poem was among several penned by local writer Barb Olson about the tornadoes that tore through the Springfield area on March 12. After the Tornado, March 2006 A storm came from out around Curran and Loami, east past Parkway Point and hit the Wabash Corner hard. Twister or straight winds, whatever it was, tore…
A better approach
A statewide universal preschool program appears ready for passage. However, the precise shape the program will take remains unarticulated. Those most effusive in their praise for “Preschool for All” have remained mum when asked to expand on the narrow campaign rhetoric that has thus far served as the sole information the administration has been willing…
