Backdraft
I feel sorry for Mark Dyment’s first-grade teacher. I’ve never met the lady and don’t know who she is; I just know she had her hands full. Dyment has a full-throttle personality. Perpetually revved up and endlessly enthusiastic, he must have spent half of every semester sentenced to stand in the corner for rambunctious behavior.…
now playing 10-14-04
During a recent excursion to a downtown nightclub, I was accosted by a local musician who was more than a little disturbed at the prevalence of karaoke nights in our Pub Crawl calendar. “That’s not live music,” he declared. “It shouldn’t be in with the bands.” For fear that I might not get the full…
Life interrupted
I travel 500 miles from Springfield to Little Rock, Ark., to tack a note on the conference message board: “I would like to talk with anyone from Rohwer who knew Shizu Yoshimura, Ayako Arishita, or the Nagatanis. Please contact Yosh Golden . . . .” Some 600 people are expected, but more than 1,300 register…
music notes 10-14-04
• Tony Bennett is bringing his large intestine, his small intestine, his liver, and all of his other organs — except his heart, which remains in San Francisco — to the fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis on Saturday, Oct. 16. On Tuesday, Oct. 19, the Fox hosts R.E.M., simultaneously the world’s most hated and…
The not-so-mighty Quinn
Not long ago, Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s office threatened Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn with political divorce. Quinn has been a critic of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority for years, but he was completely cut out of the governor’s massive restructuring-and-reform plan. This did not please the formerly outspoken lieutenant governor, and when he made plans…
quick takes 10-14-04
GIVE ABE AND MARY A HAND More than 200 volunteers are expected this Saturday, Oct. 16, to help replace wooden fences, build gates, install boardwalks, and paint at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. To participate, go to the conference center at the Lincoln Home visitor center between 8:30-9 a.m. Activities continue until 1 p.m.…
backstage pass 10-14-04
The community has lost another champion of the arts with the passing of Martha Jackson of Petersburg. Jackson and her partner, Linda Nordeman, owned the City Arts Venue art gallery, a space dedicated to new artists and their work, downtown on South Sixth Street. The first time I met Marty, she asked, “Why don’t you…
Grace about town 10-14-04
I’m looking for Lisa Pauley’s office, and she is giving me directions on the phone: “Go three miles, past a brown house, and then, on Bruns Lane, take a right.” I try to envision this, but for some reason, it won’t compute. Lisa senses my confusion at once. “A right,” she repeats in a firm…
common sense 10-14-04
Thank you, Monsanto. Thank you, Scotts. These two pesticide giants have inadvertently demonstrated the scientific insanity of using Mother Nature as a lab rat in their rush to market bioengineered products. Monsanto and Scotts recently teamed up to genetically alter a turfgrass called creeping bentgrass, primarily used on golf courses. The two corporations artificially manipulated…
letters 10-14-04
Letters policy We welcome letters, but please include your full name, address and a daytime telephone number. We edit all letters for libel, length and clarity. Send letters to: Letters, Illinois Times. P.O. Box 5256. Springfield, Illinois 62705. Fax: (217) 753-3958. E-mail: editor@illinoistimes.com MAKE CORPORATIONS ACCOUNTABLE In reference to Geri L. Dreiling’s article describing how…
movie review
Learning life’s lessons on a dance floor There will be those who will dismiss Shall We Dance? sight unseen as a simplistic chick flick. That’s too bad, because they’ll be missing out on one of the year’s most delightful films, a reaffirmation of life and love. Richard Gere plays John Clark, a world-weary Chicago attorney…
Knoepfle 10-14-04
notebook poem #2 he wrote the worlds greatest poem everybody threw up © John Knoepfle 2004
Share your gardening knowledge
If you have a desire to learn more about gardening and share your knowledge with others, the University of Illinois Extension master-gardener volunteer program may be for you. You don’t have to be a gardening expert to become a master gardener. All you need is an interest in gardening, a willingness to learn about horticulture,…
Broadcast ooze
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which is ordering its 62 stations to air an anti-John Kerry documentary next week, is so conservative that it makes Fox News look, well, fair and balanced. So far this year, Sinclair executives have given nearly 98 percent of their political contributions to Republican candidates. Sinclair newscasts, including those on WICS-TV in…
Be afraid . . . very afraid
Longtime peace activist Dr. Helen Caldicott arrived at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington last week with a doomsday message intended to spur students to action. “You live in a very, very dangerous area, and most people don’t even understand that,” said Caldicott, referring to the nuclear-power plant that sits a mere 24 miles away in…
people’s poetry
Best Buy Yes, I’ve watched them come and go. They’re not talking of Michaelangelo; just to someone on their cell phones — as they wander to and fro at Best Buy. They come in droves like a first night Broadway crowd, like lemmings gone down to the sea, like children after the Pied Piper. It’s…
Sole man
In high school, Joey McMakin began assembling a collection of fashionable 1950s and ’60s shoes, salvaged from thrift stores or purposely purchased in their original tissue wrapping from older downtown department stores. For his senior project at Springfield High School, he created one beautifully styled original shoe, decorated like a piece of sculpture, recalls art…
Trouble in the air
Crumbled asbestos left on the roof of a St. John’s Hospital office building in August and September posed an “imminent threat to human health and the environment,” according to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. In a certified letter dated Sept. 15, the IEPA charged the hospital with eight violations and warned of possible litigation and…
sound patrol 10-14-04
Elvis Costello and the Imposters The Delivery Man (Lost Highway) On the title track of his latest album, Elvis Costello sings, “I want to be your delivery man.” True to form, he’s layered the line with several coats of irony, taking the perspective of a murderer who served time for a minor offense and is…
Plain’s folks
If you’re like me, maybe you’ve wondered about the derivation of the “Aristocracy Hill” designation given to the historic neighborhood bounded by South Grand Avenue and Jackson, Second, and Eighth streets. Perhaps you’ve wondered (as I have) about the “hill” part of it — there doesn’t seem to be much of a hill there at…
