Page 1

Off the menu
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.

The philosopherpostman, revisited at 65
The Post Office is a part of the fabric of our nation, but the U.S. Postal Service incarnation is a relatively modern enterprise. It was birthed from the pains of the St. Patrick’s Day postal strike of 1970. Before that great strike, the wages of a full-time carrier still made you eligible for food stamps.

A monument fit for a robber baron
George Pullman? My mind boggled. Our tax dollars are being spent to build a national park in tribute to a narcissistic, paternalistic, brutalistic 19th-century robber baron? Incredibly, yes.

LETTERS
In Mr. Cahnman’s latest go-round with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC), he was charged with a conflict of interest for representing Mr. Calvin Christian in unrelated traffic cases while Mr. Christian was suing the city and Mr.

Dunking the Democrats
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 while chatting with a smattering of well-wishers before bravely walking to her seat on the House floor.

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 Springfi eld downpours go, made the street made from fancy-schmantzy stamped concrete (“Stamping Out The Old,” Aug.

Eliminating barriers
At the plaintiff’s request, an architect for the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice visited Lanphier last year and documented dozens of places where the school is not accessible to the disabled.

Health insurance rates could jump in 2016
At least 14 plans on the Illinois health insurance exchange could see double-digit rate hikes next year, some in excess of 30 percent.

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.

Ghost of a library
The library side of ALPLM is also the state’s historical library, which celebrated its 125 th anniversary last year.

Vigesaa’s Cabaret performance a triumph
Cliff to Berlin’s nightlife and his writing falls by the wayside. Fraulein Schneider runs the boarding house where Cliff and Sally stay, along with the cheerfully promiscuous Fraulein Kost (played by the delightful Meredith Durall) and Herr Schultz, a kindly Jewish fruit seller who courts the old maid Fraulein Schneider.

Ratatouille
Farm kitchens are usually envisioned as large, warm and welcoming, but the folks who’d built our house more than 150 years ago didn’t share that vision. The kitchen was too small for even a four-top table.

CuisineScene
JT Costelloe’s Pizza Pub Grill.

Redford and Nolte make for a pleasant Walk
Based on the memoir by Bill Bryson, the film takes a lighthearted look at his mid-life crisis as well as the radical act he takes to cure his malaise.

Bustin’ out all over
The Krannert Center at the University of Illinois Urbana hosts the Ellnora Guitar Festival this Thursday through Saturday, Sept. 10, 11 and 12.

PUB CRAWL
Dates, times and locations are subject to change, so we suggest calling before attending an event..

BAND SPOTLIGHT | 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.

THE CALENDAR
Seufert and Sherri Mitchell. Free. The Old School Museum, 110 E. Cherry St., Winchester, 742-8090. Spoken Word Southtown Poetry Slam.

HISTORY | Presidential pets
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.

HISTORY | 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.

ART | 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,.