Unbuilding your way out of a problem
The State Journal-Register on Sunday published a useful report by reporter Jamie Monk about the efforts by the Springfield Metro Sanitary District to cope with flooding from “rain events” that seem to be ever more frequent and severe. Many millions are being spent, but most of that money will go, as it must, to merely…
The screen, perfectly executed
Parking lot screening. Yes, I know it’s on your mind. That’s why, in my travels around this great commonwealth, keep the Krohe eye peeled for edifying examples of the art that might act as models for those who regulate them. Here are two recent examples from suburban Chicago. This is the view of a large…
Back to the Town Branch
The Y block in downtown Springfield lies along the now-buried course of the Town Branch of Spring Creek. That has implications for the redevelopment of that block, as I noted in Wet Dream. In our paper of Dec. 24-Jan. 6, 1977, I published a feature article in which the old Town Branch was described and…
Madness and humor
Shakespeare’s classic play Hamlet comes to the Hoogland Center for the Arts. What’s great about this performance is that local actress Aasne Vigesaa is playing the role of Hamlet. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, but Springfield is coming up roses with Vigesaa taking the lead. Vigesaa’s talent is sure to make this…
A fight against forgetting
Dr. Thomas Ala, interim director of the Center for Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (CADRD) at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield, is heading a trial of an experimental Alzheimer’s drug as part of a larger study nationwide. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE More than 100 years after it was first medically recognized, Alzheimer’s disease still…
September daze
The Reverend Horton Heat rocks the house at Donnie’s Homespun on Wed., Sept. 10. Here we are a-moseying along through 2014 like nobody’s business, knocking on autumn’s door with a full week of September live music shows in our laps. The fairs are over, school is in session and the warm-weather-outdoor festivals nearly finish up…
Craft brew tastings
The fifth annual Springfield Oyster and Beer Festival will be held Saturday, Sept. 6, rain or shine at the Inn at 835. Enjoy craft beer from more than 30 brewers across the Midwest and nationally, as well as oyster dishes, a variety of food trucks and live music. In the first four years the event…
Rick Perry’s clown show
Trial lawyers will tell you that any good prosecutor could convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. Well, meet that ham sandwich! Here in my burg of Austin, Texas, the grand jury has just indicted Gov. Rick “Rooti-Toot-Toot” Perry, a real ham – only not as smart. He’s charged with official abuse of…
Another letter from Dominican sisters in Iraq
Last week Illinois Times published in this op/ed space “A letter of anguish from Dominican sisters in Iraq”, who have developed a bond with the Dominican Sisters of Springfield over the past 15 years. This week we follow with their letter from a week later, saying conditions have not improved for the persecuted Christians and…
Comedic concert
Blue Man Group is a wildly popular stage act consisting of three guys who paint themselves blue and perform a theatrical show that combines comedy, music and multimedia. If you’ve never seen Blue Man Group, they take the stage in Springfield, Sept. 5-6, at Sangamon Auditorium UIS. The New York Times touted the group’s concert…
Rauner ruse or candor
“We should have billions of dollars every year as part of our budget process … (to) maintain and expand our infrastructure,” Bruce Rauner said last week, according to the Chicago Tribune. Rauner has been doing his best to woo the road builders all year, and he was speaking to the Illinois Farm Bureau, which has…
Virginia works to save its endangered landmark
Virginia Square One is raising funds to save the c. 1897 Robertson Building and rehabilitate it into a new community center. The heart of Virginia, Illinois, about 30 miles northwest of Springfield on Rt. 125, is its town square. The anchor of the square’s southwest corner is the Robertson Building, built in 1897. Once a…
Wheels in motion
This year’s Capital City Century is headed for new territory – historic Clayville, just east of Pleasant Plains. Riders can do loops from the Clayville food stop to add mileage before returning to the Knights of Columbus on Meadowbrook Road. In addition to 40, 56 and 100-mile route options, riders will have a first-ever 125-mile…
Brosnan shines in November Man
Pierce Brosnan as Peter Devereaux in The November Man. Could the widespread usage and acceptance of Viagra be somehow linked to the spate of action films with heroes over 60 years old in the last decade? Now that sexual virility is attainable at any age, is it such a leap to assume that movie audiences…
Editor’s Note 9/4/14
The first stage of Springfield’s rail relocation has started with groundbreaking last month on an underpass at Carpenter and 10th streets. Although funding for the full relocation project is still uncertain, the City of Springfield, Sangamon County and Hanson Professional Services of Springfield are working to ensure minority involvement in the rail relocation, with possible…
Wet dream
For years, “green space” in downtown Springfield meant a weedy parking lot. These days greenery of a handsomer sort abounds, in curbside flower beds, in planter boxes and urns, in hanging baskets and window boxes and sidewalk planting wells. By the most accommodating definition, green space is merely any public space that has green things…
Chef of celebrities
Jaime Laurita, the Hope Institute’s Celebrity Chef for this year’s benefit. The Hope Institute for Children and Families is breaking new ground this year. Their choice of chef for the 20th Annual Hope Celebrity Chef fundraiser isn’t at the helm of a highly regarded (usually Chicago) restaurant, as have been the chefs at earlier benefits.…
300 million years ago
Scientific illustrator Mary Parrish of the Smithsonian Institution created this painting of what the Danville area would have looked like 300 million years ago using real fossils for reference. Parrish worked under the direction of Smithsonian paleobiologist Bill DiMichele. Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution. Painting by M. Parrish. A warm, moist breeze blows through the swampy forest…
Letters to the Editor 9/4/14
Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene was killed in Afghanistan on Aug. 5, 2014. Greene is the highest-ranking U.S. officer to be killed in the Afghan war. THE WAR ON WAR I would not consider myself of the same political bent as IT, or certainly Jim Hightower, but I make an effort to find IT each…
John Byrne Band
Photo by Denise Foley www.irishphiladelphia.com John Byrne grew up listening to and playing the most traditional of old Irish songs in his homeland hometown of Dublin, Ireland, but also fell under the influence of American and British rock and pop. After moving to Philadelphia, Byrne pursued a teaching career while continuing to chase his musical…
Lunar event
Michael Lang, who promoted Woodstock more than 40 years ago, had Max Yasgur’s farm. The Rolling Stones, for good or ill, had Altamont Speedway. The father-and-son team of Barry and Sam Shear have Kennekuk County Park near Danville for Phases Of The Moon, a four-day music and arts festival scheduled for Sept. 11 through Sept.…
Mural interruptus
A mural depicting Abraham Lincoln saying farewell to Springfield didn’t end up as planned but nonetheless has been deemed complete. PHOTO BY BRUCE RUSHTON Gilbert Stuart never finished his portrait of George Washington. Coleridge was interrupted by a visitor before he could complete “Kubla Khan.” And then there is the mural of Abraham Lincoln, near…
We’re all homos, not all sapiens
Curses, foiled againA man who won $13,000 in Las Vegas told police, brothers Christopher Robert Bendotti, 30, and Joseph Charles Bendotti, 27, lured him to a motel in Phoenix, Ariz., and tried to rob him. While Christopher was pistol-whipping the victim, he accidentally shot himself in the hand, dropped the weapon and fled. Joseph grabbed…
Beard-death experience
This adorable, smart, funny guy I’m dating was clean-shaven when we first met, but for the past three weeks, he hasn’t shaved much. He has this really weird facial hair pattern (like patches on his cheeks that haven’t filled in well), and I don’t find it attractive. I didn’t know how to bring this up,…
grampa poem #3
grampa poem #3 in a letter to his second son my grampa writes, “If I try to tell you what you like and what you dislike I may play the role of the shoemaker who was fitting a pair of shoes to a customer. The customer said, ‘These shoes pinch.’ The cobbler replied, ‘What do…
