Pet pieces
Here you will find a collection of my favorite pieces. Not a best of” list exactly (although quality is a criterion) but pieces on topics that I found interesting or important and that turned out well.
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There are more explainers than I expected, and fewer polemics, on all sorts of topics. Not much in common, in short, although I did notice that most involve actual reporting. I should have gotten out and mingled much more than I did; when I bothered to get up from my desk, the results were usually good. Young reporters might take note.
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This list is not in any particular order, nor is it complete.
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How one woman’s mistake may have doomed ERA
The Weekly (Champaign-Urbana) June 19, 1981
Touring Springfield As It Was 150 Years Ago
The Town Branch of Spring Creek, rediscovered
Illinois Times December 24, 1976
How I Became an Historian
Unpublished essay 2016
The Old State Capitol: Tarnished Jewel
Springfield squabbles over an inheritance
"Prejudices" Illinois Times January 30, 1981
Taking the anthropological view in Chicago
“Prejudices” Illinois Times May 3, 1990
The risks of asking strangers for directions
“Prejudices” Illinois Times September 7, 1989
The Young Man and the Suburb
Oak Park welcomes Hemingway back home, at last
Reader March 30, 1990
Charlie Boon, Logger, of Goofy Ridge
A tinkering entrepreneur in the old Illinois style
Illinois Times November 24, 1978
The Family Farmer: An Endangered Species?
A “typical” family farmer of central Illinois in the 1970s.
Across the Board September 1978
Craig Findley of the Gazette-Times
Trying to make a good country weekly very good
Illinois Times August 12, 1977
A Day in the Life of the Havana River Research Laboratory
Public science on the Illinois River
The Nature of Illinois Fall 1988
The devastation of Gulf fisheries by Illinois farm runoff
Illinois Issues July/August 2006
Nature and nativism in the prairie restoration movement
Illinois Issues July/August 2007
Illinois legislators get their cults confused
“Prejudices” Illinois Times June 15, 1979
Saving History from the Wrecking Ball
Richard Nickel and Louis Sullivan's legacy
Illinois Issues October 1986
The Natural History of an Unnatural Lake
Lake Springfield, this is your life
Illinois Times May 27, 1977
Local arts critics show courage under fire
“Prejudices” Illinois Times April 10, 1981
I look back at public school and see myself
“Prejudices” Illinois Times March 5, 1987
My Life as a Guide at the Lincoln Law Offices
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times November 5, 2009
Kirk Dillard mixes his messages about family
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times June 13, 2013
Dragooning jurors to serve justice is unjust
"Dyspepsiana" Illinois Times January 30, 2014
If you liked Dan Walker, you’ll love Gov. Bruce Rauner
“Dyspepsiana” Illinois Times March 13, 2014
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