IT’S ALL GRAVY
Maybe it’s the elegant lemon cream cake. Maybe it’s the recipe for Roast Raccoon. Or maybe it’s the multiple references to both Abraham Lincoln and Velveeta processed cheese product within the covers of the same bound volume — undoubtedly a historic first. It’s hard to say exactly what accounts for the unexpected popularity of the…
Mean Streets of Springfield
At just past seven o’clock on a Wednesday night, they head for Jamal’s. New moms hugging babies to each hip, teenagers in hoodies and on bikes and small boys sporting T-shirts and shorts despite the chilly air filter down the sidewalk. Cars boom and bounce beside them, spilling their passengers into the mix. Most aren’t…
How Sangamon County pols went to the poles in 1844
During modern elections, Democrats and Republicans show their loyalty with lawn signs. In the 1800s, it was tree poles. They were erected on main streets and lawns around the country during rambunctious “pole raisings,” which attracted large numbers of party faithful and faithful partiers. In the 1844 presidential election, which pitted Democrat James K. Polk…
My mother, the columnist, journalist and historian
Why would Naperville commission a life-size bronze statue of an elderly woman in a cardigan, place it on a downtown stone bench, and have a city ceremony in 1999 in her honor? Why, in a 2005 article by Susan Frick Carlman, is this woman described, “her pen eternally poised above an open tablet, she gazes…
DANDY HANDY
Lowney Handy, founder and namesake of the Marshall, Ill., Handy Writers’ Colony, believed that the literary potential of writers could best be achieved by firmly controlling every facet of their creative and social lives. Many pupils left not long after arrival, unwilling to tolerate Handy’s authoritarianism; others she was able to mold into award-winning novelists.…
The science behind
Fall leaf colors, pumpkins and cool temperatures are all signs of fall. As the temperatures become cooler, leaf color changes will become more dynamic. So, why do leaves turn from green to vibrant red, orange, yellow or purple? Leaf color comes from pigments. There are three pigments that color leaves: Chlorophyll are green pigments. Carotenoids…
THEY ARE LEGEND
You’re a college-bound high school junior or senior, but your parents’ 401K has imploded and the ongoing credit crunch is making it tougher to take out student loans. So what do you do? You do what you’ve been doing to teachers, coaches, and prospective prom dates for the past three or four years: you suck…
IT Picks
Halloween debut Dress the kids to win as they debut their costumes during “Halloween at the Market.” Springfield Moms is holding a costume contest complete with prizes. First place in each category receives a $40 gift card, second-place winners receive a $20 gift card and third-place winners receive a $15 gift card. Categories are ages…
From Bug Tussle to Henpeck, it’s a trip
The 1821 Sangamon County commissioners established the temporary county seat on Spring Creek, so they named it Springfield. But the town’s real founders — Elijah Iles, Pascal Enos and Thomas Cox — liked the name “Calhoun,” for John C. Calhoun, the pro-slavery U. S. senator and one-time vice president from South Carolina. When southern politics…
Letters to the Editor
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. DIRECTOR SHOOK UP How amazing is it to be overseas and get an e-mail saying you need to check out the Illinois Times…
STICK A FORK IN HIM… WE HOPE
The lawsuit that put the tort in tortuous —- Carl Madison v. Renatta Frazier et al —- has finally ended. On Oct. 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals denied Madison’s petition for rehearing, thus concluding the quest of Madison (former president of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)…
Rebutting the best arguments of the anti-Con-Con crowd
Illinoisans are asked every 20 years whether they want to call a constitutional convention. I firmly believe that our gridlocked, broken state government is in such desperate need of change and reform that a “Yes” vote is self-evident. The points below are taken directly from the Alliance to Protect the Illinois Constitution’s Website. APIC is…
When it rains, it pours for the poor
Contrary to the belief of many in our society, poverty is not the result of laziness. Rather, a study published recently by the Heartland Alliance Mid-America Institute on Poverty finds that disability, job loss, earnings decline, having children, not finishing high school and living in a female-headed household are most likely to push to people…
Pride and Glory: Cops caught up in clichés
There’s a great deal of energy in Gavin O’Connor’s Pride and Glory, a cop drama that delves into corruption in the New York police department and deception within the families that serve in it. Handheld cameras are used to put us right in the middle of its grisly action, and the film’s stars, Edward Norton…
Food’s four-letter word
It’s time we had a little talk. Warning: It’s about something that has negative connotations and that some folks think is disgusting, but we’re all adults here, right? We need to talk about…lard. Yes, I know. I can hear the cries of “Yuck!” and “Eeyoo!” But I’m hoping that since I’ve summoned the courage to…
Good news of the Blues
Blues music, a major influence on jazz, rock-n-roll, rhythm & blues, rock, soul, and country, and the source of the many variations of blues styles, is alive and well in Springfield. Much of the local credit for supporting this foundational music goes to the Illinois Central Blues Club for staying focused on keeping blues in…
Stop voter-suppression drives
Vote! Editorialists remind us that it’s our privilege and patriotic duty to vote. Candidates of all stripes plead with us to vote. But not everyone is in the civic spirit. Rather than urging folks everywhere to join in America’s festive democratic exercise, there are ugly and aggressive efforts across the land to harass, intimidate and…
This and That
Best Green-Friendly Business Food Fantasies 1512 W. Wabash Ave. www.foodfantasies.com If you’ve ever “fantasized” about free-range turkeys and locally harvested tomatoes, you may not be surprised to learn our readers’ choice for Best Green Business, Food Fantasies, began as as a gourmet food specialty shop in 1989. The founder still works at the Wabash store.…
