MetaFilter posts tagged with illinois

Perry Van Arsdale's maps of US historic events

filthy light thief — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 19:43:17 -0800

In 1960 or so, Professor Perry C. Van Arsdale was helping his 7-year-old granddaughter researching the Santa Fe trail. He found his granddaughter's textbook to have some number of errors. He set off to create a map of pioneer history (prior to the 1900's), using his own knowledge and information from judges, sheriffs, and descendants of historical figures. This was his start in creating the Pioneer New Mexico map, which would contain 300 towns that no longer exist, old trails of all sorts (including the three historic Santa Fe trails and various camel routes), locations of minor squabbles and major battles, and because he couldn't fit everything on the maps, he also included extensive notes in the corner of the map. According to an article in the Albuquerque Tribune from 1975, Van Arsdale had a Ph. D. in romance languages and another in mechanical engineering. He retired at 45, and was able to devote time to researching forgotten moments of history. That article includes his summary of the three historic routes of the Santa Fe trail, and his thoughts on Colonel Krzyżanowski (spelled Grzlekowsky in the article) and his unsung role in the Battle of Glorietta Pass, then known as Apache Pass. In total, he created 8 more maps (Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Illinois, NorthWest, SouthWest, East South, and a US map of the territory inhabited by American Indian). He kept updating his maps until the mid 1970s, when he passed away. Unfortunately, there aren't any good large-scale images of these maps online, but they can be found in some libraries and local museums, and the links in this paragraph include some more detailed clips of the maps, plus small scale views of the complete maps.

They could be talking smack about seals

filthy light thief — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 19:22:10 -0800

For this April the first, NPR has a touching story on the efforts to record the stories of retired Navy dolphins.

Canoeing down the Mississippi

jiawen — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:02:33 -0800

Between July 28 and November 10, 2003, Ron Haines canoed down the entire length of the Mississippi. Eight years later, he wrote it up as a series of blog posts with lots of interesting photos and observations: Lake Itasca to Minneapolis-St. Paul. Minneapolis-St. Paul to St. Louis. St. Louis to New Orleans. He also wrote up his logistics and some of the press coverage he got along the way. The website of the Sabula, IA Castle on the River B&B has changed.

Farewell to the "schoolmarm who drinks and smokes."

zooropa — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 07:31:41 -0800

Dawn Clark Netsch dies at 86. Dawn Clark Netsch was a woman of many firsts: she integrated the dorms of Northwestern University in 1949, graduated first in her class from Northwestern's School of Law (as the only female graduate), joined the Law School faculty in 1965 as the first woman law professor in the United States, elected Comptroller as the first woman to a state-wide office in Illinois in 1972, and was the first woman to run for governor in Illinois. Netsch was a force of nature and a character of many contraditions. Described by her biographer as "a schoolmarm who drinks and smokes, a powerful woman who has never learned to drive, a feminist who thought of herself as one of the boys, a well-to-do woman who is frugal to a fault." There is serious talk of the current Attorney General in Illinois running for governor in the next election. If she does, she will have Dawn Clark Netsch to thank for paving the way "as a woman in the legal profession, legal academy and politics ... and a pioneer."

Snakes on the [Great] Plains

obscurator — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:13:39 -0800

The state of Illinois is facing a $95 billion (and rising) unfunded pension liability. Governor Pat Quinn, in a bold attempt to get Illinoisians excited about pension reform, has unveiled a new mascot: Squeezy the Pension Python [YouTube]

Chicago gang violence

shakespeherian — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 09:19:15 -0800

Chicago's WBEZ has created an interactive map of the city and where its various gangs operate, using data provided by the Chicago Police Department. Chicagoist considers the map and its implications while Progress Illinois discusses the changing nature of gang violence.

The Curious Case of the Missing Congressman

Hollywood Upstairs Medical College — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 11:30:05 -0800

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., son of revered civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, Sr., has been missing from the public eye since June 10th, failing to cast votes and making no public appearances. After weeks of vague statements raising more questions than answers about his mystery illness, Jackson's office has stated that he is seeking treatment for "debilitating" depression at the Mayo Clinic. Jackson's office denies alcoholism or drug addiction. Treatment for depression is rarely good for political careers, perhaps the most high-profile disaster was in 1972 when Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton was dumped from the ill-fated ticket after his treatment history surfaced. Jackson's handling of his health contrasts with fellow Illinois politician Sen. Mark Kirk's open handling of his stroke this year. With only weeks to go until the November election, if Jackson were to resign as Democratic nominee in this safe blue seat, his successor would be hand-picked by the Cook County Democratic Party chair instead of at a primary. Chicago politicos have begun comparing this episode to 2006, when Cook County Board President John Stoger suffered a stroke one week before the primary, only to hide the condition until he could be replaced by his son.

My Name is John Daker

East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 09:39:36 -0800

John Daker is going to sing a song that's very popular nowadays, it's Christ The Lord Is Risen Today, and he's going to do Amore too, okay? There is a subtitled and animated version also.

In 'unusual' turn, Cook County state's attorney supports lawsuits questioning constitutionality of gay marriage ban

nooneyouknow — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 08:14:34 -0800

"The fight for same-sex marriage rights in Illinois took an unprecedented turn Thursday as Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez conceded that the state's ban on gay marriage violates the Illinois Constitution, essentially agreeing with a pair of lawsuits her office was expected to oppose. It marks the first time a state has refused to contest a lawsuit questioning the constitutionality of a gay marriage ban. The Illinois attorney general's office, which would be next in line to defend the state's constitution, already had announced plans to file a brief in support of the lawsuits brought by Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois."

From The Great State of...Cook County?

SisterHavana — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:22:14 -0800

"Downstate families are tired of Chicago dictating its views to the rest of us." Two Downstate Illinois state legislators, Rep. Bill Mitchell (R-Forsyth) and Rep. Adam Brown (R-Decatur), have proposed a bill to make Cook County its own state. Of course, this is a lot easier said than done.

The Black Damp

timsteil — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 16:47:46 -0800

On the morning of November 13, 1909 there were around 500 men and boys working in the St. Paul mine in Cherry, IL. It would be more than six months before the last body was recovered. The Cherry Mine Disaster remains one of the worst in US history claiming 259 lives, and decimating the male population of a small town. One small group, realizing there was no way out, sealed them selves off, from the fumes, hoping for rescue. A song from a grandson, a book from a granddaughter. The people of Cherry, still remember.

Burton Holmes, Inventor of the Travelogue

Kattullus — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 07:30:08 -0800

The Burton Holmes Archive has information about Burton Holmes, the travel writer who became the first person to make filmic travelogues. More importantly, they also have a lot of film clips by Holmes and his associate, André de la Varre, who was also a great travelogue maker himself. Watching these clips is not quite time travel, but it is as close as we can get. Take a look at Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1926, Lake Michigan in 20s, Cairo in 1932 and the 1955 Rio de Janeiro carnival. The later films have sound and narration, but I prefer the silent ones. [Burton Holmes previously, André de la Varre previously, and the Travel Film Archive, which runs Burton Holmes site, previously]

Law Schools Found Misrepresenting Jobs Data

reenum — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 09:27:20 -0800

Over the past couple of months, there have been a series of scandals that have rocked the legal education community. First, there were tandem lawsuits against Thomas M. Cooley School of Law and New York Law School for misrepresenting jobs data. Then, Villanova University and the University of Illinois were found to be fudging their employment numbers. A legal team is now preparing to sue 15 different law schools because of misrepresentations made to students regarding job and salary data.

Blagojavitch Guilty on 17 counts

longsleeves — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 13:30:55 -0800

Former Illinois governor Rod "Blogo" Blagojavich has been convicted of 17 counts, including trying sell to sell President Obama's vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder. This links to the Chicago Sun-Times. Former Illinois governor Rod "Blogo" Blagojavich has been convicted on 17 counts, including trying sell to sell President Obama's vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder. A "not guilty" verdict was returned on one count. Richard Roeper's column and the Editorial reaction links are good reads. And the home page has photos up currently.

A Step In The Right Direction

gman — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 15:50:47 -0800

Tomorrow will be the first time gay and lesbian couples will be able to enjoy civil-unions in the state of Illinois. The full text of the Bill can be read here. In response, Catholic Charities is ending foster care and adoption services to avoid serving same-sex parents.

The other Cairo

gjc — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 05:45:35 -0800

It's not quite the Nile, but there is political strife there too. The Illinois river town of Cairo (KAY-row), IL, is surrounded by the Ohio and the Mississippi, and is in danger of being flooded. The Army Corps of Engineers wants to activate a flood mitigation plan by breaching some levees into spillways designed to mitigate such a flood. Unfortunately, those floodways are in Missouri, and they would rather not have a bunch of farmland flooded just to save some little town in Illinois. Judge Limbaugh (yes) gave the OK, but the battle isn't over yet.

Interchange reform is necessary and it is long overdue.

boo_radley — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 11:42:57 -0800

Open Letter TO JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. The Democrat from Springfield responds to the Chase CEO's letter to shareholders.

"Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history": Illinois abolishes the death penalty

scody — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 16:09:01 -0800

IL Gov. Pat Quinn—formerly a strong supporter of capital punishment—today signed into law the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois. This comes eleven years after Gov. George Ryan—also a former supporter of capital punishment—signed a moratorium on the death penalty, commuting the sentences of 167 death row inmates to life (including ten men who had made false confessions under torture directed by police commander Jon Burge [previously here and here]). Between 1977 and 1999, Illinois executed 12 inmates, while freeing 13 innocent men from Death Row. One of the 13 men freed from Death Row, Anthony Porter, came within two days of execution amid growing public protests; a stay was issued based on the question of Porter’s IQ, during which journalism students at Northwestern University were able to conduct their own investigation and find the man who actually committed the crime. Of the 12 men executed between 1977 and 1999, at least one, Girvies Davis, is widely considered to have been innocent, having been convicted and sentenced based on a false confession. Illinois now becomes the 16th state to ban the death penalty. Nationwide, opposition to capital punishment continues to grow. (final link requires a little bit of a scroll-down.) (Disclaimer: I was an activist around the Death Row 10 case and a founding member of the organization in the second-to-last link.)

A Lost Art of Days Gone By

netbros — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 07:19:02 -0800

Curt Teich (1877-1974) was a printer who immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1896. Curt Teich & Company, opened in 1898 in Chicago, was the world's largest printer of view and advertising postcards. Teich is best known for its "Greetings From" postcards with their big letters, vivid colors, and bold style. Flickr user amhpics has archived nearly 2000 Teich linen postcards in his set Vintage Curt Teich linen postcards 1930s-1950s. You can also view hundreds of thousands of these postcards in person in Libertyville, Illinois. The Curt Teich Postcard Archives, part of the Lake County Discovery Museum, is recognized throughout the world as the largest public collection of postcards and related materials. amhpics also has several other smaller postcard sets in his Flickr collection. [via]

I'll get you Beer Baron... no you won't.

d1rge — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:19:49 -0800

"When we started Windy City, it was a means to an end, because there wasn't a distributor in Chicago that wanted to touch craft beer," Mr. Ebel says. "We went around to bars and they said, 'Great beer. How many free cases can you give me?' We just had to walk out of those accounts, set a price, and stick to it. And nobody asks us that anymore." Pay-to-play contreversy in the Chicago beer scene, with appearances from a who's who of Midwest beermeisters: Tracy Hurst of Metropolitan Brewing Co., Deb Carey of New Glarus Brewing Co., the Ebel Brothers of Two Brothers Brewing Co., and Josh Hall of Goose Island Brewing Company

Lots of Streaming Sufjan

Rory Marinich — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:07:41 -0800

Out of the blue, Sufjan Stevens, most famous for his epic indie symphony Illinois (which can be streamed from this link), released an "EP" called All Delighted People. It's 60 minutes long, you can play it all online for free, and the title track is a deliriously gorgeous 12-minute epic. He's also announced an upcoming new album, scheduled for release this October, called The Age of Adz. You can stream its first single, I Walked. While you're at it, you should also give a listen to The BQE, his orchestral tribute to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Movements III and IV are particularly choice. And I'm sure you know this, but if you can't get enough of Illinois he released an extra 21 tracks from its recording under the name The Avalanche.

A half-hour in 1990

IvoShandor — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 01:40:43 -0800

On August 28th 1990, between 3:15 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. a devastating tornado ripped a 16.4 mile-long path through portions of Kendall and Will counties in northern Illinois. At its strongest, the tornado was rated F5, the highest rating a tornado can be given. A total of 29 people were killed and 350 more were injured. August 28, 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the deadly 1990 Plainfield tornado, which notably destroyed Plainfield Central High School. The tornado remains the only documented F5/EF5 in U.S. history. Neither the Chicago area nor Plainfield is a stranger to significant tornadoes, recent studies, one in 2008 (pdf of tornado details) and another from this summer (pdf of full study), confirm this. Despite the facts, a popular myth persists about urban tornadoes. A myth which has been shown false time and again. *Videos of the destruction. *Some photos.

You wouldn't like librarians when they're angry...

casarkos — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 16:10:43 -0800

FOX Chicago News runs a story that suggests closing down public libraries as a means of fixing the state's ongoing budget issues. The Public Library Commissioner responds.

Not just a city in Egypt

escabeche — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 20:31:56 -0800

Cairo, Illinois is mostly abandoned. It was once a thriving city of 15,000, but the Mississippi barges don't stop there anymore, and racial turmoil, including a three-year boycott of white-owned businesses that refused to hire black workers, killed the town's economy. The Cairo Project, from Southern Illinois University, is a good overview of Cairo's history and its current situation. Can punk label Plan-it-X start a rebirth by moving to Cairo and opening a coffeeshop? If it helps, there's still good barbecue.

The School House Gentlemen's Club.

kipmanley — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 16:18:51 -0800

Mr. Kearney, who says he has spent thousands of dollars renovating the leased building, said: “If these people had such fond memories of this place, then they should be ashamed — because it was falling apart.”

Bob Kearney, an out-of-work electrician, and his partner, Travis Funneman, have turned the former Pioneer Elementary School at Zike's Corner, east of Neoga, Illinois, into a strip club. There's no zoning to speak of, and the club doesn't serve liquor, so no public hearings had to be held about the intended business beforehand. Residents aren't happy about the development, and regularly stage prayer circles across the street. The county's scrambling to get an ordinance on the books that would regulate sex-oriented businesses, but has been hampered by the steep costs of accurate mapping. --Meanwhile, one of the dancers tells the Times she's making up to $700 a night. It's the only such club for 60 miles.