Columnist

Back to basics with holiday cocktails

Published by admin on Wed, 11/01/2017 - 9:00am

    November is here! The Christmas décor is on display at many stores and morning shows are flooded with recipes, all of them using pumpkin spice.
    In years past I would have taken this opportunity to feature a seasonal cocktail to serve with Thanksgiving dinner. Rather than give you my take on the trendy turkey day cocktails currently blowing up your social media newsfeed, I figured this year we would go back to basics.

Enforcing the law, we need a marshal

Published by admin on Wed, 11/01/2017 - 9:00am

    When prosperity hit Wilmington in the 1860's and 1870's it brought with it more than money. Between the coal mines and opening of navigation on the river many young men moved into the area for the jobs.
    With them they brought the typical problems of civilization, including crime.
    At the time there was no permanent police force, just part-time law officers.  There were several of them, and they were called when problems arose.

Women ask for clear, universal, fair boundaries

Published by admin on Mon, 10/30/2017 - 10:57am

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen House Speaker Michael Madigan move faster to get in front of a legislative issue than he did last week when he vowed action to address the climate of sexual harassment at the Illinois Statehouse.
     The decision came the morning after an “open letter” was published on Facebook by women who work in and around the Statehouse who claimed: “Misogyny is alive and well in this industry.”  The letter has roiled Springfield in a manner that I’ve never seen before.

An old fashioned root beer that originated in Chicago

Published by admin on Wed, 10/25/2017 - 9:00am

 

Of all the soda bottles crowding the table, The White Glove settled on one first produced 80 years ago close to home.

The circa 1950s “junior” size bottle of Dad’s Old Fashioned Root Beer was discovered at the  Trinity Knot antique mall in downtown Wilmington.

The Pisco Sour is made with egg white

Published by admin on Wed, 10/25/2017 - 9:00am

    Which came first: the chicken or the egg white cocktail?
     Once upon a time all sours (including Whiskey Sours) were made with egg whites. Somewhere between the end of prohibition and the 1950s egg whites disappeared from most bars.
    These days it's rare to find a bar that serves Whiskey Sours, Gin Sours and other classics with egg whites.
    There is one classic cocktail that absolutely, positively must be made with an egg white, the Peruvian-born Pisco Sour.

Butter not miss this one, an early Wilmington enterprise

Published by admin on Wed, 10/25/2017 - 9:00am

    Today we talk about one of my favorite vices. No, not that one - it's a food vice - butter.
    It must run in the family because my great-grandmother, Katerina, won a medal for her butter making abilities back in Sweden
    Butter was also important to Wilmingtonians back in the 19th century. Let's take a look.

Let me entertain you, or what we did before television

Published by admin on Wed, 10/25/2017 - 9:00am

    Actually, it's more than television, isn't it? So, let us say that our entertainment comes from a screen, whether it's hand held or a giant one sitting in our living room.
    Time was, when folks had to go somewhere to see images on a screen. Today we look at the world of images for entertainment.
    Braidwood had its first taste of images on a “screen” in 1871, and it was called a panorama.

Pritzker’s $21 million leads, for now

Published by admin on Mon, 10/23/2017 - 9:50am

    Democrat JB Pritzker spent $21 million on his gubernatorial campaign through the end of September and recently opened his 10th campaign field office.  The billionaire spent more money on staff and consultants last quarter ($1.5 million) than any of his primary opponents raised.
    The spending appears to be paying off.  A new Capitol Fax/We Ask America poll of 1,154 likely Democratic primary voters has Pritzker with 39 percent of the vote, far ahead of the rest of the pack.

Not the best name for a tire mascot

Published by admin on Wed, 10/18/2017 - 9:00am

 

Of all the Latin words they could have chosen, Bibendum, which means drink, may not have been the best for a tire company mascot.

The ultimate root beer float

Published by admin on Wed, 10/18/2017 - 9:00am

    America, we have a bit of a sweet tooth. In fact, we could possibly have the sweetest tooth in the entire world.
    We invented the chocolate chip cookie, the Tootsie Roll and Coca-Cola. We combined soda with beer brewed from sassafras root to create the modern version of root beer, and eventually poured it on vanilla ice cream giving birth to the root beer float.
    This week we are going to toast root beer lovers everywhere with the rum and Kahlua powered Ultimate Root Beer Float.