What are they hiding?
If you want to know what percentage of city employees are white and what percentage are minority, all you have to do is call the city personnel office and talk to assistant director Lori Bluhm. She’ll tell you that 87 percent of employees are white. Ask about their sex, and she’ll tell you that 38…
Arts harvest
From dance performances to art shows, from theater productions to Halloween fun, the Springfield arts scene bursts with offerings this fall. In Chicago, the Art Institute is featuring an exhibit centered on the Georges Seurat masterpiece A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884. Springfield boasts its own Seurat-related exhibit: Visitors to the Que Sera,…
Grace about town 9-2-04
“You can write about fall for this issue, if you want,” said my editor. Fall? Fall? Is anybody thinking about fall right now? Are you kidding me? I mean, it was suddenly strangely chilly for a few days, but where’s the rest of summer? My Boyfriend and I were taking a walk the other night,…
letters 9-2-04
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 WHAT, ME WORRY? The article “Dark clouds ahead” [J.R. Pegg, Aug. 19]…
The struggle
The dates are engraved in Leslie Orear’s memory. Some years are worthy of celebration: 1867, workdays are limited to eight hours; 1911, Workmen’s Compensation Act becomes law; 1929, children are required to finish elementary school before going to work. Others are more somber: 1886, a bomb kills eight police officers during a labor rally in…
knoepfle 9-2-04
sandalwood poem #17 I circle this table I do not come back to the place where I began though I want to say that I do perhaps you are the one who is constant really a red warning light that never changes I want to go a long way where I will find myself not…
Best bets
Where to go, and what to do when you get there? These are age-old questions that never go away, so here are a few wheres, whats, and whens for planning a successful fall season. • If you can’t have the real thing, settle for a good imitation, my screwy Uncle Albert used to say. Let’s…
Wal-Mart buys respectability
Wal-Mart has a problem. People all across America and the world are learning that it’s a beast of a corporation that — among other things — pays poverty wages, engages in massive sexual discrimination, exploits sweatshop labor, bullies its suppliers, muscles local competitors out of business, and tries to buy its way into cities that…
quick takes 9-2-04
RAINBOW COALITION Of the 143 Illinois Republican delegates who attended the national convention in New York City this week, more than 82 percent were white. The state’s minority delegates included 14 Hispanics, six African Americans, and five Asians. Mary Mitchell of the Chicago Sun-Times pointed this out in her column on Tuesday, which featured Candice…
movie review
Lush adaptation of Vanity Fair succeeds despite a few discordant notes Mira Nair’s adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair generally adheres to the novel’s theme and plot and even survives Nair’s decision to inject a touch of modern feminism. For those who haven’t read the book or seen earlier film adaptations, Vanity Fair tells…
Illinois fall getaways
llinois. It is a land of more than corn. From the gritty sprawl of Chicagoland to the silent forests of the Shawnee National Forest to the rolling western plains, Illinois encompasses 55,000 square miles, many of them exquisite. It’s the kind of place featured on postcards — the kind of place you might want to…
Barnfest moves to newer, permanent digs
This weekend, 16 bands and more than 1,000 people are expected to travel to a field outside the small town of Beecher City to enjoy some of the area’s finest rock music. It’s the sixth year for Barnfest, a Taylorville-area tradition. John Hicks, frontman for Pana-area rockers Hot Iron Skillet, was there at the beginning.…
now playing 9-2-04
Get out! Get out! Like some frazzled stay-at-home parent yelling at the kids, I’m ordering you to get out of the house. Go see something. Go do something. Go play with some friends — or play with yourself, for heaven sakes! — but get out and see if you can find something to do, like…
The other Abe’s house
The shovel ceremony marking the opening of Millard Fuller Place last Wednesday was a groundbreaking in more ways than one. For starters, it heralded the creation of a 12-lot subdivision to be filled entirely with Habitat for Humanity homes. But the first Millard Fuller Place home to be built will also break new ground –…
All that’s fall
Harvest festivals are as old as agriculture itself, and Illinois is a farm state. Of course, folks these days will celebrate just about anything at all — and fall remains the season for festivals. Although many here are likely to spend this weekend sweating out the nationally ranked Springfield Mile or munching out at the…
Get out the map
“If a map is accurate and you can read it, you won’t get lost. If you know a culture, you will know your way around in the life of a society.” — Dr. Clyde Kluckhohn, Mirror for Man (1952). In a recent article in the New York Times Magazine, 19-year-old Hyder Akbar recounts the interrogation…
Chips off of an old block
As a tide of “getting back to our roots” sweeps the country, woodcarving is gaining in popularity. The phenomenon will be in evidence this weekend at the 14th annual Sangamon Valley Woodcarvers Show, dubbed “Go Ahead, Make My Day!” Carvers will converge to display and sell their works and teach their craft, and vendors will…
Before and after the fall
“Consider Icarus, pasting those sticky wings on, testing that strange little tug at his shoulder blade, and think of that first flawless moment over the lawn of the labyrinth. Think of the difference it made!” — Anne Sexton, To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph How much did Howard Dean’s supporters love him?…
Apple appeal
School has started, cooler temperatures are just around the corner, and apple-picking time has begun. Your idea of a fresh apple may be a Red Delicious from the grocery store — if so, expand your horizons this year and take a trip to a local apple orchard. Picking apples is an enjoyable activity for the…
Waiting list
A group of 21 white police officers filed a lawsuit Tuesday attempting to block the Springfield Police Department from choosing new sergeants using a promotional list that was extended after its expiration date. In response, a group of black officers who are already plaintiffs in a race discrimination case against SPD plans to file a…
