It was August and the ripening corn stood taller than we did. The field was bounded by the old Illinois Terminal tracks, South Grand, Cook and the 66 bypass, as it then was still known, Everett Dirksen not having done anything to merit it being renamed in his honor. In that time of year, of […]
Native Americans
Posted inFood & Drink
Crazy for cornbread
It’s more American than apple pie. The English brought apple pie to American shores. Native Americans taught the earliest European immigrants to parch, grind and mix corn with boiling water, and then bake it into thin cakes. They weren’t nearly as tasty as the cornbread into which they evolved, but made good staples for hunters […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Ranger undone by schizophrenic tone
Without question, sitting through director Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger was the most frustrating film-going experience I’ve had all year. Epic in scope, gorgeous to look at, mythic in its approach to its seminal title character, at its best the film successfully hearkens back to some of the great Westerns and at times pays homage […]
