Outta here
In “Going for the fences” (Oct. 2, 2014) I noted that the moguls who rule the game were in a sweat. Both home runs-per-game and runs-per-game were 20 percent lower than the record-setting pace of the early 2000s. Attendance and TV ratings are down in consequence. The end was nigh. What is wrong with our game?…
Baseball by moonlight
As much as I enjoy watching them, I dreaded the Cubs’ entry into the playoffs, because that would mean I would be compelled to watch them in every game. I am offended by any team that decorates its players so they look like an 8-year-old’s bedroom, for one thing. For another, I detest watching night…
Breakfast of a champion
PHOTO COURTESY CHARLIE PARKER’S To such names as A.L. Ide, Ira Weaver and George Celani (who in the 1980s invented an express air package service out of thin air!), we should now add to Springfield’s roster of distinguished inventors that of Mike Murphy, who devised a process to turn an English muffin into a $25,000…
How much ‘free speech’ can you buy?
Jim Hightower PHOTO BY LARRY D. MOORE In today’s so-called “democratic” election process, Big Money doesn’t talk, it roars – usually drowning out the people’s voice. Bizarrely, the Supreme Court decreed in its 2010 Citizens United ruling that money is a form of “free speech.” Thus, declared the learned justices, people and corporations are henceforth…
Prevailing wage debate rooted in ideology
PHOTO BY ALAN SOLOMON/TNS For months now, Gov. Bruce Rauner has said he won’t negotiate a state budget unless his “Turnaround Agenda” demands are met. In the meantime, he has slashed funding for the child care assistance program, homeless services have been decimated, mental health services are going without cash, universities are struggling and even…
Letters to the Editor 11/5/15
OFF THE RAILS I was quite taken by Chris Britt’s cartoon in the Oct. 22-29 Illinois Times. It gives Gov. Rauner credit for going into the gorge but fails to show the people responsible for building the faulty tracks and trestle. Namely, Michael Madigan and the legislature he has led for the past 30 years…
Editor’s note 11/5/15
When Donald Trump makes a stop in Springfield next week, he and the national media will get a glimpse of a government run by a wealthy businessman with no political experience. The state is at a standstill, with no political deal in the works, no day care for low-income women and no holiday lights at…
Edmund Fitzgerald sank 40 years ago
It was far from the deadliest shipwreck in the history of the Great Lakes. But none is more enduring. Nov. 10 marks the 40th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, a 729-foot ore carrier in Lake Superior that was lost amid one of the worst storms in Great Lakes history. All 29 men…
Walk among dinosaurs
T-Rex Planet If you’ve ever wanted to walk among the dinosaurs, this event is for you. This Saturday and Sunday, the Illinois State Fairgrounds Exposition Building will host T-Rex Planet, a traveling dinosaur exhibition and your opportunity to experience the Jurassic, Triassic and Cretaceous periods first hand. The exhibit consists of more than 40 life-size…
A touring comedy troupe
Second City: Fully Loaded The Second City meets the capital city on Saturday, Nov. 7, when their “Blue Team” touring cast performs at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. The Second City, based in Chicago, consists of comedy stars in the making using scripted and improvisational elements, plus the audience. The Fully Loaded production draws…
The hurt and confused locker
PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon I was dating a sociopathic compulsive liar for three months. I had a gut feeling that he was lying about his work, education and finances, but I had no real proof. This allowed him to manipulate me and convince me that I was crazy, insecure and paranoid. Finally, through…
Modern fur traders
Greg Schroeder demonstrates the art of skinning beaver. PHOTO BY BRUCE RUSHTON With the speedometer at 85 and fingers crossed, I fly toward the Macon County Fairgrounds in Decatur. I have gotten a late start, and so am risking a speeding ticket to see something that I might never have the chance to witness again:…
At 92, a Springfield poet faces the future
The Aloe of Evening by John Knoepfle. Indian Paintbrush Poets, 2015. In his 23rd book of poetry, Springfield poet John Knoepfle uses his voice – customarily cagey and perhaps even more intimate than usual – to deliver quietly crucial insights about what it is to be a thoughtful nonagenarian in the U.S. in the 21st…
Workers’ comp changes cut costs
Changes to the Illinois workers’ compensation system enacted four years ago have reduced the system’s costs, according to a new report. The findings come amid wrangling in the Illinois Statehouse over whether workers’ compensation and other issues should be addressed before the state’s budget impasse is resolved. While the Democrat-controlled Illinois General Assembly is loath…
Historic changes
The staff of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln project is being cut by one-third due to a money crunch. In a September memo to supporters of the project that is digitizing every document read or written by Lincoln, project director Daniel Stowell said that the project’s funds had been frozen and that the executive inspector…
From Russia with gloves
Petr Kuznetsov of Moscow, Russia, came to the U.S. to play for the Springfield Jr. Blues. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE Petr Kuznetsov doesn’t say much. “Hockey is my life,” he says, summing up why he made the 5,000-mile journey from his hometown of Moscow, Russia, to play for the Springfield Jr. Blues. Kuznetsov is one…
ONE LESS SPEED TRAP
The Jerome Police Department has one less place to catch traffic scofflaws since Michael Lopez, president of the village board, was caught using his cellphone while driving last month. Sgt. Daniel Skaggs was parked in the driveway of a former village board member on Iles Avenue, looking for law breakers, when he spotted Lopez drive…
COAL ASH CONUNDRUM
Sitting just across East Lake Shore Drive from Lake Springfield and the city’s electrical utility are a few ponds you wouldn’t want to swim in. They contain coal ash, the byproduct of burning coal for energy, and they’ve long been seeping toxic substances like arsenic, lead, boron and cadmium into the groundwater. Concerned environmental groups…
Gross miscalculation buries Truth
Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes in Truth. There’s never any doubt as to what James Vanderbilt’s intent is with his new film Truth. Based on the memoir Truth and Duty: The Press, the President and the Privilege of Power, the movie goes out of its way to martyr all women who strive to get ahead…
Sangamon Auditorium
The staff that makes the Sangamon Auditorium the Best of Springfield Large Venue winner by readers of Illinois Times for 2015. PHOTO BY CARYN MCDANIEL BROOMBY Along with our listings of usual and incredible music shows around town this week, we have an apology to make and an award to give. In last week’s Best…
Guts Club
Guts Club PHOTO BY DEVIN BREWSTER Lindsay Baker, a former child beauty queen and inventor of incredibly adventurous and artistic videos with songs attached, is Guts Club, all by her lonesome. For a look into the life and times of this gifted and gallant singer and songwriter, check out the YouTube video of “Marine Biologist”…
Arizona’s lifetime welfare limit
CARTOON BY JEN SORENSON
Paul Prudhomme, in memoriam
Paul Prudhomme Emeril Lagasse may be a more familiar household name these days. But it was another chef who introduced Cajun cuisine to America, creating a popularity that still exists: Paul Prudhomme, who passed away on Oct. 8 at the age of 75. Have you ever eaten blackened fish? Blackened chicken? Blackened steak? Credit Prudhomme,…
flowerpoem #3
flowerpoem #3 the u.s. poet laureatesaid he liked the worddaffodil then recited apoem with that flowerwithin plus a lot of wordsunrelated he must havealso liked those well Ilike hollyhocks – theword and the flowerbut where have allthe hollyhocks goneoh favorite blossomof my childhood thedolly gowns we madethe bumble bees wetrapped inside freedthem anon but now…
