Hungry yet? Gourmet chef Robert Burcenski of Tallgrass Restaurant and the Public Landing in Lockport, describing his experience in the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois’ Preservation Brief (June): “Historic restoration, like the pumpkin, sadly has been a long neglected community resource. Here is a recipe for a delicious building–the Norton Building–a building made from Limestone, Virgin Timbers, Bricks, Mortar, Concrete and Steel, and served on Limestone Bedrock. This particularly delicious type of building rarely appears in American cookbooks, yet is far less expensive to make than a shopping center, and infinitely more elegant. Substantial yet lite–every eyeful is a poem. This is the kind of building you might see in the very best of European cities and it is one that you cannot duplicate or even improve upon because it was originally created in 1848 when there was no skimping on time, ingredients, or quality.”
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“People become involved in helping the river when they get to know the river,” according to the River Reporter (Summer), newsletter of the Friends of the Chicago River–and canoeing is one of the best ways. “It’s one thing to read about what lives in the river, it’s another to see a foot-long goldfish feeding, or a snapping turtle floating, or a bullfrog splashing into the water….It’s one thing to hear about the pockets of native vegetation along the river’s banks, and another to see a carpet of trout lilies blooming in LaBagh Woods in early spring.”
Do all man-made chemicals cause cancer if you eat enough of them? Nope–but half of the American public believes so, according to a National Opinion Research Center survey of scientific and environmental knowledge (University of Chicago Magazine, June). Even more curiously, one-third of those polled believe that all radioactive substances are man-made.
