TRASH IT, THE RIGHT WAY
Medicine cabinet overflowing with expired prescriptions? Don’t know what to do with the bulky television you replaced with a sleek flatscreen? Consider October your lucky month. The Sangamon County Department of Public Health and Vintage Tech Recyclers are hosting a free household electronics collection on Saturday, Oct. 22, from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. at…
Classical character
Violinist Midori performs at Sangamon Auditorium Oct. 25. She is joined on stage by Pianist Özgür Aydin. On the repertoire for the evening: Mozart: Sonata in E-flat Major K.380; Shostakovich: Sonata Op.134; Schumann: Sonata in A minor, Op.105; and Schubert: Fantasy in C Major, D.934. Sometimes the beauty of a musician as a human being…
Rounding out her career
Jacqueline Jackson still tends a herd of cows but nowadays they’re figurines on her mantle. Raised on the Dougan Guernsey Dairy Farm near Beloit, Wis., in the 1930s and 40s, Jackie decided at age 14 to chronicle her family’s business. In the decades since, she’s published more than a dozen books, had several plays and…
Trail treats
A safe place to trick-or-treat with the little ones this Halloween season is at Henson Robinson Zoo for the Springfield Park District’s Zoolie Ghoulie. The zoo opens at 2 p.m. on four Saturdays and Sundays, Oct. 22, 23, 29 and 30, for costumed crusaders and creatures. A popular and beloved event, stations are set up…
Roasted pumpkin 5-spice ice cream
Jeni Britton Bauer uses a 1 1/2 qt. Cuisinart ice cream maker, with an electric base and frozen canister for her recipes. Other models are available; all range from around $40 – $60. Using Chinese 5-spice powder gives this ice cream an Asian twist and touch of heat. Traditionally it includes Szechwan peppercorns, although in…
Playing Washington’s inside game
And then there were 12. When the 435 House members and 100 senators failed in July to agree on a long-term deficit reduction plan, congressional leaders did what they often do when they don’t know what to do: They appointed a committee. But don’t sneer, for this is – cue the trumpets – a…
A derivative, misguided Thing
I came to Matthijs van Heijningen’s The Thing with a bit of trepidation. This is the third go-around for this shape-shifting alien tale and both of the previous versions are considered classics of their time. The 1951 Christian Nyby/Howard Hawks adaptation of John W. Campbell’s pulp classic, Who Goes There?, was a taut exercise in…
Letters to the Editor 10/20/11
MUSIAL MEMORY Bob Hall’s review of the book, Stan Musial, An American Life, by George Vecsey [Sept. 15] reminds me of a spring day in 1945 when I received generosity from Stan the Man. I was an 18-year-old seaman first class, temporarily stationed at Camp Shoemaker, Calif., awaiting deployment to the South Pacific. Musial was…
chickenfeed poem #1
chickenfeed poem #1 friends a chicken is an omnivore needsprotein that’s why so many kids’ books of earlier centuries are heavy on boys hunting and trapping – pitch that deadbunny in the chicken yard when bugs areunder the snow my daughter and son-in-lawkeep a 5-gallon covered can in their trunkbeat the crows to fresh nevada…
Status quo to remain in coroner’s office
After hearing from a consultant who says that replacing the Sangamon County coroner with a medical examiner would cost more than $300,000 a year, county board chairman Andy Van Meter says the county will keep a coroner system that is vulnerable to the whims of whomever gets elected to the office. The county is already…
Ice cream art and science
I tasted Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream just minutes after being introduced to my first grandson. Stepping through the doorway, I was totally focused on him. But soon other priorities reared their heads. I’d driven more than 16 hours, mostly through rain, sleet and snow. I needed a bathroom and some water. When I emerged from…
Boys and Girls Club recharging
The Boys and Girls Club of Central Illinois is back and moving forward, says Douglas King, the organization’s new full-time executive director and the first since Jill Schurtz left the organization in February 2010. King became executive director of the organization, known for its youth development programs, in January. He retired in 2009 from a…
All work and no foreplay
My husband and I are entrepreneurs, developing a new product. We’re both working long hours. He’s miserable because he has no time for his art (painting), and our sex life is in shambles. There isn’t a lot of blame or anger. We simply go about our entire days with little or no flirting and fall…
Good ol’ boy government
When it was announced that three women would share the Nobel Peace Prize, women across the world rejoiced. In America, women have long fought for and won their rights and have become accustomed to reaching major milestones across all sectors of our society. Yet, here in Springfield and Sangamon County, women’s status in public sector…
Contemporary classics
An award-winning chamber ensemble, Soli, performs Oct. 21 at Illinois College as part of the Illinois College Fine Arts Series. With a reputation for playing 20th century classics and commissioning new works, their concert features Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time,” along with a piece written for the group by Illinois College composer…
Michael Taylor excursions
One of the nicest things about doing this column is the opportunity to write about what I think is good and interesting in music around town. What makes that part of the job particularly sweet is interviewing friends and discovering neat pieces of their lives I didn’t know. This week I am fortunate to tell…
The Big Year, light but heady
There’s a subculture of people known as birders who engage in a rather unique competition each year. This informal contest is quite simple and a bit antiquated in execution as it involves sighting as many different species of birds in North America and no definite proof is required. Operating on the honor system, these men…
SOLAR COLLECTORS
Trick or treating for pork-and-beans? Believe it. Solar Universe: Central Illinois is teaming with Central Illinois Foodbank to collect food for the needy on Halloween. The company, which helps get people off the grid by installing solar-energy systems on homes and businesses, is organizing employees and volunteers to collect donated food on Oct. 31. First,…
Putting the story in history
The Beloit University Press has just released Volume One of Springfield writer Jacqueline Dougan Jackson’s planned three-volume opus The Round Barn – The Biography of an American Farm. It is the first step toward realizing Jackson’s original vision of the work after Northwestern University press excerpted from this “big book” Stories from the Round Barn…
Ras of Headshine
Known as an “acoustic coastal, rock and roll, feel good vibe” band, Headshine keeps it poppy and positive, very refreshing for a modern rock band. Ras, the band’s singer and songwriter, pops up to play a central Illinois show after performing in Edwardsville. Ras may be bringing another player or just accompanying himself on the…
The Durbin Fee
Is it really possible – even in a nation whose congresspeople believe that laying off people creates jobs and whose wealthy believe that helping to pay to run the country that made them rich is unpatriotic – that some people still believed there is such as thing as free banking? Apparently, judging from the hoohah…
Occupy Springfield tries to decide what’s next
The march through downtown Springfield two days ago had gone well, attracting more than 200 demonstrators to an Occupy Springfield protest for a few hours of chanting and waving signs in perfect autumn weather. Now, on Monday, it is raining, and fewer than 30 occupiers have answered the call to gather outside Chase Bank at…
Democrats are worried, with good reason
Illinois Democrats can be excused for feeling more than a little spooked these days. And there’s probably no greater example about why they are so worried than the stunning announcement earlier this month that longtime Democratic Congressman Jerry Costello won’t run for reelection. Shock combined with fear was in almost every Democratic voice the day…
Everybody plays
With the end of summer come the beginning of a new school year, the harvest and the start of an area tradition that draws thousands of children away from their video games and outside onto the mown grass lawns of parks and schools across Springfield. It is the fall soccer season. “Did you have fun?”…
Blast for the past
The 10th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry marches into formation with the Springfield Art Association to fire up the Edwards Place mansion for Haunted Nights of History Oct. 20-21. Commemorating the Civil War’s 150th anniversary, the brigade is setting up the historical rooms with a light-hearted, spirited look at the past during this era. Rumor has it…
Tapping into talents
One of the more unique events that inspires and informs Springfield about the passions and talents of fellow neighbors is PechaKucha Night. A fifth installment takes place Thursday, Oct. 20 at 7:20 p.m. in the theater room at Capital City Bar and Grill. Nine locals take the stage and each present a six-minute, 40-second presentation…
