Making It, in which a young, black, upstart politician rises through the Chicago political scene by having his opposition stricken from the ballot, turning against his endorser, and redistricting himself into a fundraising monster.
posted on Jul 14, 2008 - View this thread

"The Photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard (May 15, 1925 - May 7, 1972) suffered a fate common to artists who are very much of but also very far ahead of their time. Everything about his life and his art ran counter to the usual and expected patterns. He was an optician, happily married, a father of three, president of the Parent-Teacher Association, and coach of a boy's baseball team." "His images had nothing to do with the gritty "street photography" of the east coast or the romantic view camera realism of the west coast. His best known images were populated with dolls and masks, with family, friends and neighbors pictured in abandoned buildings or in ordinary suburban backyards." His most well known and last photography series "The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater" (1972) was based on the short story by Flannery O'Connor, "The Life You Save May Be Your Own."
posted on May 28, 2008 - View this thread

Upon the Nazi invasion of Poland, pediatrician Eugeniusz Łazowski and his friend Stanisław Matulewicz fabricated a fake typhus epidemic to save Polish Jews from the Nazis. Knowing that typhus-infected Jews would be summarily executed, non-Jews were injected with the harmless Proteus OX19, which would generate false positives for typhus.
posted on Oct 19, 2007 - View this thread

During the 1858 senatorial campaign, Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas faced each other in a series of seven official political debates. The first debate took place in this north-central Illinois town on August 21.
posted on Oct 7, 2007 - View this thread

Digitized Book of the Week. An eclectic collection of works digitized from the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They include books and serials from its collections that focus on Illinois history, literature, and natural resources; rural life and agriculture; railroad history and engineering; and works in translation. A project of MsMolly.
posted on Aug 8, 2007 - View this thread

Geologists have discovered the remains of one of the world's oldest tropical rainforests , near Danville IL. The four square miles of fossils are in a coal mine 250 feet below the surface.
posted on Apr 24, 2007 - View this thread

Kaskaskia: The western Illinois town stuck in eastern Missouri. First state capital, bustling economic center and a leading town in the state. That is, until the flood of 1881 cut a new river channel, destroying most of the town and leaving the remnants on the Missouri side of the Mississippi. Whether or not the disaster was due to a murdered lover's curse, the (remaining) residents petitioned that the state line be kept along the older riverbed. The town's population, once about 7000, now consists of a meager nine. [wiki]
posted on Mar 30, 2007 - View this thread

Veterans of Foreign Wars rejects veteran of foreign war. The election has passed, and the voters of Illinois' 6th Congressional District decided that 16-year veteran Maj. Tammy Duckworth will not represent them in the United States House of Representatives. A story worth highlighting, lost amongst the sturm und drang of pre-election coverage, is that Veterans of Foreign Wars chose to endorse Duckworth's opponent, Representative-Elect Peter Roskam, who never performed any military service, in contrast to Duckworth, who had both of her legs blown off and her right arm shattered when a rocket-propelled grenade hit her Black Hawk less than two years ago and still serves in the Army Reserve. [more inside]
posted on Nov 8, 2006 - View this thread

"Calling it a museum is really a misnomer". The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum opens today in Springfield, Ill., with a silicone Lincoln posing in the rotunda and Tim Russert introducing mock TV attack ads from the campaign of 1860. In the Union Theater, an abolitionist roars "Lincoln was no friend of the black man" as hologram cannons boom to signal the start of the Civil War. Strobe lights flash; the plush seats jerk and rumble like a ride at Universal Studios. When Atlanta burns, the air feels hot. This is history, Hollywood style: A $90-million look at Honest Abe's life and times — with special effects created by the "Jurassic Park" and "Terminator 3" team of Stan Winston Studios (link with sound).
posted on Apr 16, 2005 - View this thread

Guilty or innocent? Thanks to the work of the Northwestern University Center on Wrongful Convictions, an organization with a long history of assisting in the exoneration of the innocent, the case of Alan Beaman, convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend in 1993, may be reopened soon. [mi]
posted on Feb 16, 2005 - View this thread

Republican Congressman Jerry Weller of Illinois just got married-- to Zury Rios Sosa, a current member of congress in Guatemala. "The U.S. Congressional Historian in the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives confirmed this would be the first ever inter-parliamentary marriage between a sitting U.S. Representative and someone currently serving in national legislative body abroad. "

What Rep. Weller's own site omits is that his new wife is the daughter of former Guatemalan dictator Efraim Rios Montt, friend of Ronald Reagan, born-again Christian, and, according to many, genocidal thug.

The unholy union was reported in the local press, but one reporter who had been following the congressman's connections turned up brutally beaten outside his apartment under mysterious circumstances.
posted on Nov 20, 2004 - View this thread

Superman lookalikes or, more accurately, Jimmy Corrigan lookalikes at the Metropolis, IL Superman Celebration.
posted on Jul 15, 2004 - View this thread

Wag the dog. No fat cats can save Gov. Ryan now. An update on the MIFI hero former IL Gov. Jim Ryan and perhaps why he issued a death penal moratorium in 2000. [more inside]
posted on Dec 17, 2003 - View this thread

Farnsworth house saved! Friday's auction resulted in a successful campaign to save the Farnsworth house. While Miguel will not be able to live there, we can all at least visit.
posted on Dec 15, 2003 - View this thread

I So Want This House It Hurts. Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House is up for sale. If price was no object and location wasn't a problem, where would you choose to really live? What architect, living or dead; what building, available or not, would you choose? [NYT reg. required for main link..]
posted on May 31, 2003 - View this thread

Multiculturalism v/s Democracy On this day in 1858, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and Abraham Lincoln, a Kentucky-born lawyer and one-time U.S. Representative from Illinois, began a series of famous public debates on the issue of slavery, during the course of which Lincoln said:

"They [Founding Fathers] meant to set up a standard maxim for free society which should be familiar to all: constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and augmenting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, every where."

I argue that when a culture values slavery, when a culture is built upon a system of basic inequality, regardless of the reasons, that culture is incompatible with Democracy and the ideals of American society, and can not and should not be embraced by Americans. Is it possible that part of the anger at the US stems from the "spreading and deepening" influence of American principles, and not just at our economic and military mistakes?
posted on Aug 21, 2002 - View this thread

Mailbox bomber at large. "More than a half-dozen pipe bombs were placed in rural mailboxes in Illinois and Iowa on Friday, and at least two people were injured in explosions, the post office said." Part of the note that accompanied the bomb said "PS. More info. will be delivered to various locations around the country." If you live in the midwest, be careful.
posted on May 3, 2002 - View this thread

Chicagoans fight new stadium proposal. The Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois and other organizations have their reasons to stop the construction. Many are against the loss of lakefront public parkland, desecration of a National Historic Landmark, and the use of public funds for a for-profit venture. [Trib update] [friends of the parks petition]
posted on Jan 17, 2002 - View this thread

Pre-Fab George. In a fascinating sidelight, it turns out George Harrison and his brother Pete actually visited the U.S. for a couple of weeks in 1963, visiting George's sister, who lived in a small town in rural southern Illinois. Lots of history was made there: He bought the album containing the original version of "Got My Mind Set On You," which he would cover 25 years later; he bought his first Rickenbacker guitar, the sound of which would change rock music, and little WFRX, West Frankfort, became the first U.S. radio station to play the Beatles, thanks to lobbying by George and his sister. Not to mention he played a nearby VFW dance, sitting in with local rockers the Four Vests. There's a Tom Hanks movie in here somewhere. Not to mention the obligatory "George Slept Here" bed and breakfast.
posted on Dec 3, 2001 - View this thread

"I don't live in this state, your laws don't apply to me." The Supreme Court of Illinois threw out a traffic ticket because the driver is not a resident of Illinois. Granted its just a no-insurance ticket but this looks like a very bad precedent.
posted on Oct 12, 2001 - View this thread

And I thought Florida only had this problem. The Chicago Tribune reports that nearly 8% of votes in Illinois' 1st Congressional District went uncounted in the 2000 presidential election. It also adds: voters in low-income, high-minority districts nationwide were more likely to have undercounted ballots than were those in affluent, predominantly white districts, the study showed. Is there a nation-wide epidemic of undercounting? Or is it a problem limited to few localized areas? Or is it an underhanded way to deny the underprivileged of their vote? From the looks of it, at least additional investigation needs to be done.
posted on Jul 9, 2001 - View this thread

A Man, A Mower and a Mission.
An unknown man mowed a huge '420' sign into two hills in Peoria this week. From the article, an entertaining quote:

"That's strange that somebody would put ("420" in 20-foot-long digits) on our right-of-way," Illinois Department of Transportation engineer George Ryan said said. "I don't think there's any marijuana growing out there."

Maybe he received a shipment too? [*]
posted on Jun 29, 2001 - View this thread

Whoo! I live on the fourth most dangerous intersection in Illinois.

4. Bolingbrook State Route 53 & Boughton Road 1408

Do you live next to an intersection of DEATH?
posted on Jun 27, 2001 - View this thread

Apparently, the Lt. Governor of Illinois has WAY too much time on her hands.... Of course, rallying public support for a boycott of Abercrombie & Fitch doesn't really seem like what she was elected to do, but hey, never hurts to throw your title around when your teenagers are going ga-ga over half-naked muscle-boys, huh?
posted on Jun 15, 2001 - View this thread

Dem's let Nader on Ill. ballot, finally. Maybe I'll see some metafilter readers at the Oct 10 Rally at UIC. Ummm, wear a pink rose and use the secret MiFi handshake.
posted on Sep 29, 2000 - View this thread

Along the same lines as Meg's post about the Panty Raider game, the governor or Illinois is trying, and succeeding, to get retailers to pull "M" rated games off the shelves. Makes you wonder when people are gonna wake up and stop blaming societal problems on all of our various forms of entertainment.
posted on May 9, 2000 - View this thread