The joys of community
It took a broken leg to get Lola Lucas moving on her book A Home in the Park: Loving a Neighborhood Back to Life, a collection of columns originally published in the Banner, the newsletter of the Enos Park Neighborhood Improvement Association. “It was a lucky break,” Lucas quips. Holing up at her mother’s house…
Quicktakes
GET THE LEAD OUT For decades, Doe Run, the nation’s top producer of lead, has exposed its workers and neighbors to unsafe levels of lead and other heavy metals. The St. Louis-based company, controlled by billionaire Ira Rennert, added to its community of victims in the 1990s when it acquired a sprawling lead-smelting operation in…
It’s all Ellen’s fault
Those who are promoting the notion of “intelligent design” contend that human beings are the product of a supreme intelligent designer. If that’s so, how do they explain Pat Robertson? Goofier than a whole barrelful of monkeys, this guy keeps making absolutely moronic statements that defy the existence of any intelligence whatsoever. The televangelist’s latest…
Trees for the landscape
Two things will determine your happiness with a tree selection: matching the tree to your site conditions and picking a tree with characteristics that you like. Remember: Right tree, right place. Here’s a short list of trees that are sure to add beauty and character to your landscape. These selections, which may all be successfully…
Guy Noir meets El Presidente
It was a strange, serendipitous Springfield moment, an unlikely conjunction of comets and pinto beans. But it happened last Tuesday afternoon, just as the downtown parking garages relieved themselves and the September sun dipped below the capitol minarets. Garrison Keillor — bestselling author, national columnist, and rhapsodic host of A Prairie Home Companion and The…
No setting Suns
The Suns of Circumstance got their start more than 18 years ago, when Mike Burnett and John Walter, two Springfield High School music chums, teamed up to play songs for a party. Burnett, a friendly sort, held large parties with many attendees, and the duo soon found it necessary to add fellow Springfield High grad…
Game of charrettes
Here are some of the ideas proposed last week for the old Pillsbury Mill site: fancy apartments, an agricultural museum, a biodiesel plant, a casino, a movie theater, a biotechnology-research center, a skate park, a clinic, an amphitheater, a microbrewery, a storage area, a grocery store, and a vocational-training center. A Methodist minister tossed in…
Sandpaper dipped in sorghum
As everyone from Homer to Oprah can attest, people love comeback stories, the heartwarming testimonials of odds-beaters and fate-cheaters, the inspirational tales of prodigal sons and hard-luck daughters. To call I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise a comeback album might make for a better story, but it wouldn’t be accurate. Bettye LaVette, the 59-year-old singer…
Wouldn’t it be great if. . .?
Lately Springfield seems to be in a “Wouldn’t it be great if. . . ?” mood, as opposed to the “there’s no money” mood that prevails most of the time. It’s hard to explain, because there’s still no money. The president is bogged down in Iraq and Louisiana, the governor is both unpopular and unbeatable,…
Jacqueline Jackson
grandchildpoem # 3 little brother nether naked capers with a spangly scarf I cinderella I cinderella big sister says I don’t think cinderella had a pe-nuss and a pacifier © Jacqueline Jackson 2005
Wild blue yonder
Does anyone ever have a pleasant airplane ride in the movies? If more than a moment is devoted to this form of transportation, something bad happens. If it isn’t mechanical failure, the culprit is the human element, as in the current films Red Eye and Flightplan. An even more serious problem is the spate of…
Cart before the horse
In the nomenclature of the nuclear industry, it’s called an early site permit, or ESP. It’s an apt acronym: You have to be clairvoyant to figure out what’s going to happen if the feds grant such a permit for a new reactor in Clinton, 60 miles north of Springfield. But opponents of the pending permit…
Locked out
Kelly Street can barely be heard over the chorus of his chanting comrades and the din of car horns honking in support. “Scabs! Scabs!” they shout. Beep . . . beep . . . beeeeep. It’s shift change at the Celanese Emulsions plant in Meredosia, where replacement workers taunt picketers by waving their paychecks in…
Earth Talk
Dear “Earth Talk”: What are the ramifications for wildlife of cross-breeding species and creating animals such as the “zorse” (horse/zebra mix) and the “beefalo” (cow/buffalo)? — Kiernan Warble, San Francisco, Calif. In 1986, a 14-foot-long male false killer whale and a 6-foot-long female Atlantic bottlenose dolphin at Honolulu’s Sea Life Park Hawaii became the proud…
Waiting for the Shoe to drop
Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette play Maggie and Rose, the most unlikely pair of sisters you’re ever likely to meet, in this film adaptation of the popular novel by Jennifer Weiner. Getting by on her good looks and inherent charm, Maggie has never had to earn anything she’s ever needed and has come to rely…
Letters to the editor
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 STATE FAILED TO KEEP PROMISE TO KIDS In February 2005, state Sen.…
American Life in Poetry
Emily Dickinson said that poems come at the truth at a slant. Here a birdbath and some overturned chairs on a nursing home lawn suggest the frailties of old age. Masterful poems choose the very best words and put them in the very best places, and Michigan poet Rodney Torreson has deftly chosen “ministers” for…
Karyn’s killers?
So much about the Slover family seemed just plain normal. Mike, the dad, earned his living doing construction work and running a used-car lot called Miracle Motors. Jeanette, the mom, was a homemaker and full-time babysitter to their grandson, Kolten, and another little boy. Mike and Jeanette had two grown children — a daughter, Mary,…
Jacqueline Jackson
friendquotepoem #1 my friend takes her morning walk on lake services road she carries sacks and today picked up beer cans pop cans beer bottles plastic bottles plastic straws pop cups plastic cups coffee cups coffee mugs newspaper gum paper mcdonald’s paper cigarette packs one left sneaker orange and purple adult size and a…
People’s poetry
Rained out game 6-16-2000 All washed up, Du Monde at two in the morning, in cold and wet rain, long faces of table attendants and street performers seeing little hope for late night customer quarters or tips from the storm sopped Quarters empty tables swept of powdered sugar, chicory sits bittering by the minute, tonight…
Time to pick and eat apples
We marked the first day of autumn just last week, but plenty of signs of the new season have been appearing — not the least of which the fact that the local Starbucks is featuring pumpkin-spice lattes. The number of vendors at the downtown farmer’s market is dwindling. Tables that featured fragrant white peaches and…
Where the art meets the road
Paintings by Springfield’s Mary Ellen Strack and photographs by Carlinville’s Karl Warma are featured, along with works by other area artists, at Prairie Art Alliance’s current show 6×6, timed to coincide with the city’s annual Route 66 Festival. “We wanted to take advantage of being in our downtown location and tie in with the festival,”…
Don’t abuse the animals
March of the Penguins is now the second most successful documentary ever released in the United States, and it is tops in the animal category. March is clearly the movie surprise of the year, and it is hard to understand why these odd birds would attract such a large audience. Animal and nature movies are…
The continuing madness
You’ve probably never heard of Mike Johanns, but he could make you deathly sick. Johanns was a Nebraska politico who was plucked from obscurity by corporate agribusiness early this year to be the U.S. secretary of agriculture. Apparently his chief duty there is to serve the corporate interests. Take mad-cow disease. Anyone who contracts the…
Mind matters
The Illinois Collaboration on Youth and Youth Network Council, along with members of the state’s congressional delegation, announced last week a new program to expand mental health services to children in danger of becoming repeat juvenile offenders. This, plus key moves made by the governor’s office this year, has moved forward the dialogue on childhood…
Blue is pretty, you can say that
One thing you have to say about John Stockwell’s Into the Blue and that is, it sure is pretty. With Jessica Alba prancing around most of its running time in a bikini, how could it not be? But what proves to be even more stunning are the crisp, clear images of its Caribbean locale.…
Quicktakes
EVERYTHING ABEOne of Springfield’s most significant gatherings of Lincoln scholars, historians, and enthusiasts is the annual Lincoln Colloquium, which takes place this year Oct. 7-9. Colloquium events include presentations about the places and people associated with the Lincoln presidency; open houses at historic residences, including the recently restored Elijah Iles House; and a tour of…
Thank heaven for little girls
Gary Puckett and the Union Gap were almost unfathomably popular in the late 1960s. Wearing Civil War regalia (complete with fake military ranks) and pounding out lush, almost bizarrely orchestrated pop, they had a series of enormous hits, beginning with the No. 1 single “Woman, Woman” in 1967. They reportedly sold more records than any…
Cocaine and Abel
The State of Illinois has long played tough when it comes to keeping drug offenders unemployed. The state’s drug-free workplace statute extends to contractors, who must certify that they’ve taken exhaustive measures to put zero tolerance into practice. It took years before progressive lawmakers were able to pass a measure that allows low-level drug offenders…
A moving experience
When I told my editor I wanted to write a column about Crash, he yawned. “You’re going to do a movie review?” As usual, he had a valid point. I’m no film critic; I’m a chronically sleep-deprived overworked mom. Put me in a dark room with a comfy chair and a tummy full of popcorn…
Doing it his way
Gov. Rod Blagojevich finally started showing a little of that “new way” of doing business last week that he has promised for so many years but so often failed to deliver. Since day one, Blagojevich has been deep in the pockets of the state’s utility industry. He has supported just about every major utility initiative…
We need Gandhi now
Harish G. Bhatt wanted a way to commemorate the 136th birthday of Mohandas Gandhi while raising awareness of the Mahatma’s life and “principles of nonviolence, truth, and love for all beings,” particularly for local Americans who might not know much about the Nobel Prize winner. So, he called India and ordered 140 copies of Gandhi’s…
Right tree, right place
Planting the right tree in the right place is an investment not only for you and your property but also for your community and future generations. You really don’t need a reason to plant a tree, but it’s a good a way to celebrate a special event, such as the birth of a child, a…
Washing up in Springfield
Springfield residents have held several fundraisers for Hurricane Katrina victims, but we’ve also benefited from the diaspora of New Orleans residents, taking in several talented musicians Friend and fellow musician Jason Eklund, now living in Nashville, recently received news concerning a buddy, New Orleans blues guitarist Augie Jr. After eight days in the flooded city,…
The SIU explorers
Research at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine brings in $25 million a year in funding but, scientists say, their efforts are more about hope than about dollars and cents. Working in laboratories in Springfield and Carbondale, they seek breakthroughs to ensure lifelong sharp hearing, a dependable night’s sleep, a life without cancer, and…
