Letters to the Editor 10/14/10
GLASS RECYCLING In response to Mary Perkinton’s recent letter questioning glass collection in Springfield, allow me to offer a few thoughts. It is very easy to recycle glass in Springfield. Glass bottles and jars that contained food or drink, of any color: clear, brown, green or blue, are accepted in the regular citywide curbside recycling…
Lincoln didn’t sleep here
No, Lincoln didn’t sleep here. And, in the case of Edwards Place, the Springfield Art Association’s antebellum Italianate mansion, Lincoln didn’t court here. Abraham Lincoln actually called on Mary Todd at the home of her brother-in-law, Ninian W. Edwards, and married her there on Nov. 4, 1842. That house used to stand on South Second…
Ponzi scheme benefited Senate Dems’ lawyer
Victims of Springfield Ponzi scheme operator James U. Dodge are calling for his son, a lawyer for the Illinois Senate Democrats, to pay back the money gained from the scheme that his father spent on him and his family. Dodge’s son, James W. Dodge, serves as deputy legal counsel for the Illinois Senate Democrats, specializing…
Censored in a brave new world
The world was a different place in 1976 when Carl Jensen, a professor of communications at Sonoma State University, founded Project Censored to highlight important national news stories that were underreported or outright ignored by the mainstream press. Back then, there were few good alternatives to television networks or major newspapers and magazines, and stories…
Lincoln stories
Pulitzer Prize winning author and renowned presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin visits Springfield to open the new Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum “Team of Rivals” exhibit, titled after her book about Lincoln and his Cabinet. Following the 9 a.m. ceremony, Goodwin signs books from 10 a.m. to noon in the museum book store. Later in the…
China could bring us together
Many of our political leaders are acting like children playing with fire. A more incendiary simile might compare them to children playing in a sandbox with no minds focused on the future. Pick your problem – unemployment, global warming, debt, the looming revenue shortfall for entitlement programs, trade with China – and you can find…
Life an unexpected delight
I have to admit, I was dreading Life as We Know It. The last thing I wanted to sit through was another simple-minded romantic comedy where opposites meet cute and eventually learn to love each other after a series of misadventures. Turns out, the ad campaign for the film doesn’t do it justice as Life…
How chefs with families get both their jobs done
When I called Curtis Duffy, the 2010 Hope School Celebrity Chef, to arrange an interview, I assured him that I’d work around his schedule. But Duffy, executive chef of Chicago’s Avenues restaurant and the youngest four-star chef in America didn’t see a problem. “I’m at the restaurant by 10 every morning, so anytime before service…
Speaker Madigan acts like he’s running scared
The race for governor appears to be seriously tightening. The U.S. Senate race has been close all along. Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Secretary of State Jesse White, both Democrats, are surely heading for big wins next month. But Republicans are doing quite well in congressional and state legislative races pretty much all over Illinois…
5 Flavors signature house potatoes
Chip Kennedy’s signature potato gratin recipe proves that the best preparations are often the simplest. “One of my cooking class students came up to me not long ago and said, ‘That potato recipe has changed my life!’” he says. You could gussie it up with a little minced garlic, a sprinkle of freshly grated nutmeg,…
Anne, Bucky and Mother Jones
Lots of happening things are going on this weekend like the Damwell Betters christening the reopening of Charlie’s Club under Andiamo, Russel Brazzel playing a cool classical guitar concert, Dan Keding storytelling and playing music with the Unitarians and other area delights. But trumping all in my world is folksinger Bucky Halker paying tribute to…
Inspiring investigation
A 90-minute documentary on the connectedness between human health and the wellness of the environment, “Living Downstream” takes a scientific look at the distribution of three chemicals – atrazine, chlorine and PCBs – into the North American air, water and land and their possible link to cancer. Based on a book by Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D.,…
Best of balladists
Internationally acclaimed storyteller, folk musician and author, Dan Keding returns to Springfield sharing his vibrant music and storytelling at a Prairie Grapevine Concert taking place at the ALUUC. Not many tell it in the way Dan does; he’s powerfully engaging. He performs his own songs and other well-known ballads. Prairie Grapevine Concert: Dan KedingTuesday, Oct.…
GEOTHERMAL GRAVE
Not only is it green but it’s easy on the eyes. That’s what state officials are saying about a new geothermal temperature control system planned for Lincoln Tomb State Historic Site in Oak Ridge Cemetery. Contractors are expected to begin installation later this month. By next spring, the system’s 300-foot deep pipes, filled with antifreeze…
Cross-country runner
John Radich laughs as he recalls being “pulled over” by a state trooper on the highway in New Mexico. The police had gotten several calls that a man was running down the road, pushing a baby stroller. “I showed him there was no baby – it’s just my shoes, clothes and supplies in the baby…
Feds censure state on farm waste
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says Illinois fails to regulate manure from certain livestock farms, calling on the state to completely revamp its system of oversight or risk losing its enforcement authority. In a report released in late September, the U.S. EPA says the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency has not fully implemented a federally mandated…
What good are public libraries?
A library used to be one of the first things to be established by any town that wished to call itself advanced. Of late, spending on the library is one of the first things a town cuts back. Many a mayor faces fiscal dilemmas such as those that once prompted Springfield’s Mr. Davlin to muse…
Springfield man celebrates 25 years with transplanted heart
For most people, taking second in a foot race would only be cause to try harder. For Ryan Louis of Springfield, it was a warning sign that would change his life. “My mom asked me what happened, and I just said that I had gotten tired,” says the 32-year-old Louis, recalling a race that he…
The ReJuvenilz
Not so long ago, vocalist Rod Grant, guitarist Johnny Johnson and bass player Doug Antonacci, all former members of Late Arrival (a previous winner in IT’s Best of Springfield for band duties, by the way) and vets of other bands, began planning for another foray into the music scene by searching for drummers who could…
Northend neighborhood
Find out about the lost history of Springfield’s vibrant north side neighborhood from Reservoir Street from Ninth to 15th Street at the October Sangamon County Historical Society meeting at Lincoln Library. Ken Mitchell, Springfield native, businessman and writer of the book, Growing Up in Rabbit Row, shares family stories about Rabbit Row, a section of…
Executive excess: The rewards of being bad
Look out, they’re angry. Foaming-at-the-mouth angry. And they’re lashing out, saying they won’t take it anymore. As one of their leaders angrily cried, “It’s a war.” Indeed – they’re on the move to take their country back. Forget the tea party rowdies, this is the champagne party! More precisely, it’s the Dom Perignon-$1,000-a-bottle-champagne-party, propelled by…
Red shoots at familiar targets
You know how frustrating it is when you go to the movies, psyched to see a film, only to realize they’ve already shown you all of the good parts in the trailer? That’s the kind of experience you get with Red, an adaptation of the DC Comics series about a group of former assassins forced…
DIABOLICAL DIARY
Nary a soul can look back at their days of youth without at least a little embarrassment. Those of us who sported the grade-school bowl cut hairdo (with optional rattail) know humiliation as well as those who donned tight-rolled jeans as teens in the 1980s. Every generation has its own styles, quirks and idiosyncrasies that…
