Car dealer pursues Piper Glen
Frank Simpson, who says that recent improvements are noticeable, enjoys a around at Piper Glen on Tuesday. PHOTO BY BRUCE RUSHTON Car dealer Todd Green is bullish on golf courses, and Piper Glen is on his buy list. “I have not made a formal offer,” Green said of the financially troubled course in Chatham. “I…
A little knowledge . . . No, 8 in a series
I am obliged to Steve Benen for pointing out the results of the newest Washington Post/ABC News poll. While Hillary Clinton has only a modest advantage over Donald Trump — 46% to 43% — Clinton has a 26-point advantage among college graduates, while Americans who do not have a degree prefer Trump by nine points.
We have a Houston problem
Reuters confirms what began to look inevitable some years go: According to official data from both states, Houston’s growing population is expected to exceed that of Chicago within 8 to 10 years, making the Texas city that nation’s third largest after New York and Los Angeles. Houston is projected to have a population of 2.54…
Confidential To The Grammar Nazi
There are few things that we here at Illinois Times enjoy more than letters from readers. Nary a week goes by that an envelope sans return address doesn’t show up in my mailbox. Usually, the sender takes great care to write my name and address in block letters, almost childlike, that would mystify the most…
Vigesaa’s Cabaret performance a triumph
Andrew Mayernich, center, as the Emcee of the Kit Kat Club. PHOTO BY Donna Lounsbury The dark, highly-sexualized Cabaret is an interesting choice for the Muni, that stalwart of wholesome outdoor musical theater where the audience is invited to sing the national anthem before every performance. They went out on a limb, and their ambition…
Dunking the Democrats
Rep. Esther Golar (D-Chicago) There was a reason why state Rep. Esther Golar (D-Chicago) showed up late for session last Wednesday. She’s been quite ill. Unbeknownst to many of her colleagues, Rep. Golar was brought into the Statehouse Wednesday afternoon via wheelchair. With a weak and halting voice, Golar asked for assistance putting on a light jacket…
A kinder, gentler juvenile justice system
Nine years after splitting from its parent agency, the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice continues to struggle at fulfilling its mission. However, a new action plan released earlier this year seems to be pushing the agency in the right direction. The plan calls for both legislative and procedural changes that would see fewer young people…
CaveofswordS
Based out of South City, St. Louis, CaveofswordS travels in otherworldly ways in the sound sphere, spending time in advancing the cause of art, dance, poetry and music. Calling their genre DubWave, band mates Sunyatta, Eric, Zagk and KVN develop sincere electronic music full of mood-manipulating sounds and image-based lyrics. Defying categorization but encouraging participation…
Off the menu
Marquette Inn in Chicago, IL. A few years ago, I met an old pal from Springfield in Chicago. We grabbed a bite at the Marquette Inn, the ground-floor diner named after the magnificent 1895 Loop building of that name which housed it, a place sentimental for both of us for different reasons. It was just…
FLOOD ZONE
Remember those nifty faux bricks on State Street we wrote about recently? They were mighty hard to see on Tuesday when a rainstorm, relatively mild as Springfield downpours go, made the street made from fancy-schmantzy stamped concrete (“Stamping Out The Old,” Aug. 27) look just like it looked before the city spent something north of…
Bug-off poem #1
Bug-off poem #1 Do I see you pout? Do I see you cry?Do you dance about? I’m telling you why The bad bed bugs have come into town. Have you made a list? It’s surely not mice Cannot be fleas, mosquitoes or lice The bad bed bugs have come into town They’ll bite you when…
Ratatouille
PHOTO BY PETER GLATZ Ratatouille got me my first new kitchen floor. I’m not talking about the 2007 Disney movie but the classic French vegetable stew (pronounced ra-ta-TOO-ee) that gave the movie its name. We’d moved into our historic farmhouse a month before. Farm kitchens are usually envisioned as large, warm and welcoming, but the…
Cycle through Springfield’s sites
As a precursor to Sunday’s 100-mile Capital City Century bike race, enjoy a free, 8-mile bike ride led by Naomi Greene and Jim Hajek of the Springfield Bicycle Club. The ride will occur on Saturday, Sept. 12, from 1-3 p.m. Cruise past the Lincoln Home, Lincoln’s Tomb, the Lincoln Herndon-Law Office, and other historical sites…
A monument fit for a robber baron
Jim Hightower PHOTO BY LARRY D. MOORE Occasionally I see something that is so bizarre, so out of place, so wrong that I have to assume I’m hallucinating. For example, I could have sworn I was delusional when I heard about the National Park Service’s Pullman National Monument in Chicago. George Pullman? My mind boggled.…
Eliminating barriers
After being sued by a parent who uses a wheelchair, Springfield School District 186 is taking steps to improve access for the disabled to the Lanphier basketball gym. Photo by PATRICK YEAGLE Faced with a federal lawsuit, Springfield School District 186 is making the Lanphier High School basketball gymnasium more accessible to people with disabilities.…
Health insurance rates could jump in 2016
Some consumers may pay significantly higher health insurance premiums in 2016 if insurers in Illinois get their way. At least 14 plans on the Illinois health insurance exchange could see double-digit rate hikes next year, some in excess of 30 percent. While the federal health insurance reforms known as “Obamacare” give federal and state governments…
The philosopher-postman, revisited at 65
Thirty-seven years ago, Peggy Boyer, then a reporter for the young Illinois Times, wrote an article on delivering the U.S. mail. I was the subject; young and brash, like a teen who knows more than his parents ever will, I was sure I was giving Peggy great insights into postal delivery. I can only say…
Getting more exorcise
PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon I went through a horrible divorce several years ago. Our marriage got very ugly, and I was mainly at fault. I’ve since worked very hard to get my life together and become a better person, but this past Saturday night, out of the blue, I got a slew of…
Redford and Nolte make for a pleasant Walk
Robert Redford as Bill Bryson and Nick Nolte as Katz in A Walk in the Woods. Much like its two main characters, A Walk in the Woods is a film that’s comfortable and familiar. There are no surprises to be had while watching it; the platitudes it espouses we’ve heard ad nauseum and the events…
Artists from all across America
Enjoy art, music and children’s activities this weekend during the Art Spectacular at Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon in Washington Park. The tenth-annual art fair is ranked as the “Best Fine Art Fair in Springfield” according to Greg Lawler’s 2010 Art Fair Sourcebook, and is considered one of the “Best 100 Fine Art Fairs in the…
Presidential pets
Nancy Stone/Chicago Tribune/MCT American presidents love their pets. The Obamas adopted a dog named Bo shortly after Barack’s election in 2009, the Clintons brought Socks the cat and Buddy the dog to Washington, and John F. Kennedy kept a pony named Macaroni on White House grounds. What other typical and atypical pets have called the…
Letters to the Editor 9/10/15
Photo by Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/MCT CRIMINALIZING SPEECH The headline for James Krohe Jr.’s editorial in the Aug. 27 Illinois Times reads “Aggressive behavior.” The sub-header reads “Will the high court leave Americans vulnerable to corporate panhandling?” This suggests that the Springfield panhandling case, Norton, et al. v. City of Springfield, is about hectoring, threatening beggars. Nothing could be…
Ghost of a library
ILLUSTRATION by CHRIS BRITT While tourists bustled in and around the museum side of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum on a recent summer day, the library portion was quiet. Just two people perused newspapers in the Steve Neal Reading Room, named after the late Chicago Sun-Times columnist who crusaded against the ALPLM becoming…
Bustin’ out all over
Joe and Joey Tenuto play father and son blues all around town this weekend. Oh my goodness, where do we begin? TheSeptember run on getting all the happenings in before autumn falls upon us is in full swing. Look out! The Krannert Center at the University of Illinois Urbana hosts the Ellnora Guitar Festival this…
