Dancing hippos
Each year about this time, when the first snow threatens, local police urge caution upon drivers who apparently have forgotten everything they ever learned about how to drive on snow-slicked pavements last winter and all the winters before it. Part of the fun of living on Chicago’s North Shore was provided by SUV drivers whose…
A little knowledge . . . No. 4 in a series
Danielle Kurtzleben at Vox alerted me to this: Pollsters for Ipsos-MORI recently asked 1,001 Americans, “Out of every 100 people of working age, how many do you think are unemployed and looking for work?” Their average response was 32, or 32 percent. The actual unemplouyment rate in the U.S. in August, when the poll was conducted,…
Leading lambs to slaughter
Bruce Rauner not only must learn how to be a governor – every new governor does – but how to be a politician. He made a good start in the campaign. He promised things he cannot deliver and pandered to voters by telling them what they want to hear like any hack politician of the…
Stone magic
It was August and the ripening corn stood taller than we did. The field was bounded by the old Illinois Terminal tracks, South Grand, Cook and the 66 bypass, as it then was still known, Everett Dirksen not having done anything to merit it being renamed in his honor. In that time of year, of…
BGA invites Rauner to ‘begin the conversation’
Dear Governor-elect Rauner, Please join us at a Better Government Association luncheon in Springfield on Tuesday, Nov. 18, for a conversation about fiscal and ethical reform in Illinois. I’ll give you the details in a minute, but first, congratulations on your victory, after a bruising campaign that consumed a lot of energy, airtime and money,…
Reduce your carbon footprint this holiday season
The holiday season is typically one when everything is done bigger and better. Excess may run supreme, and for those who are concerned about how their actions impact the environment, such excess can clash with their ideals. Here are some effects the holidays can have on the environment and changes anyone can make to still…
Rauner, shaker-upper in chief
Governor-elect Bruce Rauner visited Springfield last week to say thanks for electing him. You would never have guessed the election was over, with Rauner winning by a bigger margin than most pundits and pollsters had predicted, if they had envisioned a Republican win at all. Three days after the polls closed, the governor-elect spoke at…
Fracking rules advance as environmentalists cry ‘foul’
Photo By Stephanie Davis/Tribune Media Service A panel of state lawmakers approved controversial regulations for high-volume hydraulic fracturing on Nov. 6, prompting environmental groups to level allegations of secrecy and undue influence by oil and gas interests. One environmental group has filed a lawsuit to challenge the rules, claiming the state didn’t follow its own…
Pot policy
Curses, foiled againFive beachgoers who were robbed at gunpoint in Dania Beach, Fla., identified Jonathan Warrenfeltz, 24, as one of two suspects by the word “Misunderstood” clearly tattooed on his forehead. Police tracked Warrenfeltz and Joshua Zeaya, 23, because while fleeing they “started throwing (stolen) property out of the vehicle” that led to the motel…
Editor’s Note 11/13/14
This week’s cover story by Scott Faingold, “Punk paradise in Southtown,” p. 12, brings to light a little-known cultural phenomenon in Springfield. A half dozen youth-oriented enterprises have sprung up clustered together near 11th and South Grand. There, near the venerable Skank Skates skateboard venue, the under-21 crowd goes for live music at the Black…
Save our species
Biodiversity Blitz Celebrate the biodiversity of Illinois at the Illinois State Museum on Saturday, Nov. 15, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. This free event is designed to raise awareness for the wide variety of plant and animal species in our state and highlight those species that have made a triumphant return from near-extinction. Children…
Fireside Relics
Fireside Relics Starting out as mainly a cover band in 2009 after members met at an open mic, by 2013 Fireside Relics had undergone a few personnel changes while setting a new direction toward original music. They’re still known to pull out the covers from time to time, but the seven-piece ensemble of Kristi Lecocq…
Election 2014: The rise of a stealth oligarchy
A stunning surprise coming out of this year’s elections is that the most dominant contenders were not glad-handing braggarts, but the least likely of participants: shy people. Indeed, these were not the candidates listed on your ballot, but shadow candidates that are not even people. They are corporations that have been empowered by the Frankenstein-majority…
poetrywall poem # 1
poetrywall poem # 1 My granddaughter, Cressida, wrote this poem on the Poetry Wall of our summer cabin when she was 10. She added a drawing of a cat calmly walking away, a dead bird on the ground behind it. the sleek cat stalks its prey silent feet creep up closer closer closer to its…
African arts for Ebola awareness
An Evening of Cultural Experience On Saturday, Nov. 15, from 5-7 p.m., join Africans in Central Illinois and Grace United Methodist church for a night of African culture, fun and support of a worthy cause, the Doctors Without Borders Ebola Fund. Take in an African fashion show, bid on authentic African artifacts via silent auction,…
Along came polygraph
I’m an aspiring comedian – seriously aspiring – so I’m out most nights doing stand-up. My girlfriend gets upset about all the time I put into this and expects my nights off to be spent with her. Recently, I was going to an open mic when a friend called and invited me to a birthday…
Chef, the movie
Emjay Anthony and Jon Favreau in Chef. PHOTO COURTESY OPEN ROAD FILMS I first heard about Chef, the movie, months ago from Springfield native and Chicago restaurateur extraordinaire, Kevin Boehm. “It’s about the restaurant business,” he said. “Hope they get it right. Almost none do.” Boehm understands chefs and restaurant life. And he was right.…
GREEN TREES
Roy Green loves trees. The New York state native is director of stewardship and sustainability at materials company Gunlocke, and he says growing up around his grandfather’s heavily forested estate made him realize forests are “special places that need to be preserved and protected.” In early October, Green traveled to Springfield to speak at the…
Punk paradise in Southtown
Engineer and musician Brandon Carnes with equine friend at Southtown Recording Studios. PHOTOS BY PATRICK YEAGLE “We needed a place for kids to go in Springfield,” says Kevin Bradford, 31, cofounder of all-ages music venue Black Sheep Café, located near the corner of 11th Street and South Grand in the Southtown neighborhood of Springfield. “It…
Please speak louder into my lapel
A local police officer has learned firsthand that it pays to watch what you say now that the state’s antiquated eavesdropping statute has been ruled unconstitutional. Sgt. Sam Gool of the Buffalo-Mechanisburg Police Department resigned last summer, Illinois Times has learned, after he told a woman that a driving under the influence case against her…
Ten ways to de-stress Thanksgiving
You can have a memorable Thanksgiving meal with delicious food, a beautiful table and appreciative guests, but with a fraction of the usual work. If you pare your to-do list to emphasize the season’s bounty and at the same time streamline food preparation, you’ll enjoy the celebration as much as your guests do. “For Thanksgiving…
Kitchen gift-giving made easy
Rachael Ray Cucina 16-Piece Dinnerware Set and Cake Boss Cake Carrier and Anolon Nouvelle Copper 12-Inch Covered Wok; Rachael Ray 4-Piece Party Plate Set. Those names on your holiday gift list are more than just people – they’re personalities. This simple shift in perspective can go a long way to help narrow down gift selections.…
Weekend workings
The Harmans play the Bluegrass for Tallgrass fundraiser for Friends of Sangamon Valley this Sat., Nov. 15 in the indoor theater at New Salem State Park. The skies may go gray and the world darkens as November seeps into the soul, but look for enlightenment and excitement – or at least a drink and live…
The harvest of a lifetime
Jacqueline Jackson is professor emeritus of English at the University of Illinois Springfield where she specialized in teaching creative writing. Her poems appear weekly in Illinois Times. The Round Barn: Volume Three. Beloit City Press, 475 pp. $24.95 Upon finishing volume three of The Round Barn, a Biography of an American Farm, I am envious.…
A city divided
Doris Turner doesn’t need a map to know where the Democratic votes come from in Springfield. Turner is in her second two-year term as chairwoman of the Sangamon County Democratic Party, so she knows that her party’s base is mostly concentrated in Springfield’s northeast quadrant. Republican candidates averaged more support than Democrats in 147 of…
Letters to the Editor 11/13/14
Springfield residents have mixed opinions on the Second Street bike lanes, which were installed this past September. PHOTO BY DAVID HINE MORE BIKE LANES As one who would do a lot more riding, how about putting bikes lanes all over town, not just downtown? Like on the overpass between Sangamon Avenue and Ridgley Avenue (North…
Compete for cash
The Price is Right Live Come on down to Sangamon Auditorium on Monday, Nov. 17, at 7:30 p.m. for The Price is Right Live, an interactive production of the hit TV game show by the same name. This high-energy stage show has been touring nationally for more than nine years and has given away more…
Money, message, mug vital to Rauner victory
Bruce Rauner out-performed his fellow Republican Bill Brady’s 2010 gubernatorial election performance in every region of the state last week. As I write this, with less than half a percent of the vote yet to be counted, Rauner has a big five-point margin over Gov. Pat Quinn and appears to have won a majority vote…
Cast brings life to familiar Lights
Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Noni Jean and Nate Parker as Kaz in Beyond the Lights. There’s never been a shortage of behind-the-scenes showbiz melodramas in film history, but it has been a while since we’ve had a good one. So until the fourth version of A Star is Born hits the screen – to be directed…
FAST-TRACKING ALPLM
Abraham Lincoln and the state lottery go together like, well, let’s face it. They don’t go together at all. But that hasn’t stopped House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, from tacking an overhaul of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum onto a bill that heretofore would have established a new scratch-off lottery game with proceeds…
