A new outlook
Untitled Document In a give-and-take world, Shana Stine knows only how to give. The University of Illinois-Springfield junior has volunteered more than 300 hours of her time to local organizations like Big Brothers, Big Sisters and spent last year’s winter break building a new home for a deserving family in Mexico — but, she says,…
Playmates
Untitled Document At first glance, Eric and Missy Thibodeaux-Thompson don’t betray their years lived on the stage and in the director’s chair. They don’t pepper conversations with Shakespearean monologues or obscure theater lingo. No spotlight shines on the couple. Small details betray the seasoned theater veterans’ identities: Eric and Missy refer to most jobs as…
You’ve seen this before
Untitled Document Thanks to the runaway success of the Harry Potter films and The Lord of the Rings, it seems as though every movie studio is busily adapting books populated by witches, talking animals, and other weird folk. The latest fantasy title headed to theaters is The Golden Compass, the first in Philip Pullman’s His…
A boomer for Obama
Untitled Document When Hillary Clinton scolded Barack Obama the other day in Iowa, talking about his inexperience and listing his mistakes, I saw a picture of a mother lecturing her grown son. That may not be fair, because Clinton is only 14 years older than Obama, but she is of a different generation. In his…
Calm before the storm
Untitled Document For now the Springfield forecast is bright and sunny, but there may be dark clouds looming ahead. In a special session held on Monday, Mayor Tim Davlin told aldermen that the fiscal year 2009 budget will closely resemble the current year’s $97.6 million budget, plus an additional $3.1 million in salaries and health…
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. REQUIRED READING I had been meaning to write a letter earlier regarding Dusty Rhodes’ story on former police officer Tara Borders…
People’s poetry
Untitled Document personalpoem #4 I once knew an elderly manbasil de selicourt who could do the times crossword in penin ten minutes I mean of coursethe london times for just likethe british stamp the only oneworldwide without its countryon it there is only one times nopurpose to this rambling but to say even easy sudoku…
Exodus
Untitled Document At the end of next week, State Journal-Register editor Barry Locher, who started interning at paper before he graduated from the University of Missouri in 1977, will be gone. Joining him will be his second-in-command, veteran managing editor Robert Pope, and his boss, publisher Sue Schmitt, who’s been in Springfield for about a…
Ooh . . . cookies!
Untitled Document Cookies and Christmas. Is there any more universally traditional food of the holiday season? Sure, there’s fruitcake, though many people regard it as something best avoided rather than embraced — but everybody loves cookies. Even folks like my dentist husband, Peter, who don’t care for sweets, eat cookies during the holidays. For years,…
Slacker
Untitled Document The decision by Gov. Rod Blagojevich to attend a Chicago Blackhawks game last Wednesday night instead of remaining at the Statehouse while the Illinois House defeated his proposed bailout of mass transit says a lot about the governor on several different levels, none of it positive. Blagojevich knew that Chicago TV station WBBM…
Playing with Fire & Flux
Untitled Document Let’s get the jokes out of the way right now. Free jazz is a music art form, not an announcement of a music giveaway, and the price of free jazz is not something everyone is willing to pay. Now, let’s get down to business. We recognize that the abstract strains of free jazz…
Lend a hand
Untitled Document Illinois Times invites local nonprofit organizations to tell our readers what they need — in addition to financial support — for the holidays. If your organization’s not included here, please e-mail your request to editor@illinoistimes.com. This list will be updated weekly through Dec. 20. Contact Ministries 1100 East Adams St., 217-753-3939 Contact Ministries is…
The Austen industry
Untitled Document You don’t read just anything when you’re really sick. C.S. Lewis said that at his lowest all that would suffice was The Wind in the Willows. I agree, but, laid up these last few weeks, I’ve been exclusively rereading Jane Austen, occasionally breaking the print paralysis to stumble downstairs and view a BBC Austen…
The view from Kyoto
Untitled Document Ten years. In geological time, 10 years is hardly noticed — a speck of dust. But for sentient beings, much happens in 10 years. Children grow up, parents and friends pass away, wars start and end, presidents are elected and disgraced, political parties rise and fall. In the last 10 years around 1.2…
You’re getting warmer
Untitled Document I remember so well the final hours of the Kyoto conference. The negotiations had gone on long past their scheduled evening close, and the convention-center management was frantic — a trade show for children’s clothing was about to begin, and every corner of the vast hall still was littered with the carcasses of…
Mmmm . . . pancakey
Untitled Document We were four undergrad gals in the mid-’80s, sharing a three-bedroom apartment while studying at the University of Pennsylvania. Sarah introduced me to coffee — Maxwell House brewed automatic-drip-style, served with one teaspoon of Coffee-mate and one Sweet ’n Low. In return, I introduced the girls to Saturday-morning pancakes. Inspired by the Paul…
What cities can do
Untitled Document If you wish there were something you could do about some of the worst abuses of corporate globalization, check out a fast-spreading grassroots movement called SweatFree Communities. Its concept is simple: Although one shopper can’t make a dent in the ethics of global manufacturers, each of us can have an impact if we…
His last score
John Larry Ray has been pitching this story for nearly a decade — but until now few have been willing to listen. On March 30, 1998, Ray says, less than a month before his brother died, he wrote a letter to Janet Reno. The then-U.S. attorney general gave him no consideration. Then the brother of…
