#Illinois
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The Decatur Daily Review, Illinois, October 29, 1933
#1933#1930s#halloween#decatur#illinois#spooky#ghost story#ghosts#ghost#1930's#spook#newspapers#history#vintage#historic#scary
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Mike Hixenbaugh at NBC News:
METROPOLIS, Ill. — The pastor began his sermon with a warning.
Satan was winning territory across America, and now he was coming for their small town on the banks of the Ohio River in southern Illinois.
“Evil is moving and motivated,” Brian Anderson told his congregation at Eastland Life Church on the evening of Jan. 13. “And the church is asleep.”
But there was still time to fight back, Anderson said. He called on the God-fearing people of Metropolis to meet the enemy where Satan was planning his assault: at their town’s library.
A public meeting was scheduled there that Tuesday, and Christians needed to make their voices heard. Otherwise, Anderson said, the library would soon resemble a scene “straight out of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
The pastor’s call to action three months ago helped ignite a bitter fight that some locals have described as “a battle for the soul” of Metropolis.
The dispute has pitted the city’s mayor, a member of Eastland Life Church, against his own library board of trustees. It led to the abrupt dismissal of the library director, who accused the board of punishing her for her faith. And last month, it drew scrutiny from the state’s Democratic secretary of state, who said the events in Metropolis “should frighten and insult all Americans who believe in the freedom of speech and in our democracy.”
Similar conflicts have rocked towns and suburbs across the country, as some conservatives — convinced that Democrats want to "sexualize" and indoctrinate children — have sought to purge libraries of books featuring LGBTQ characters and storylines. Republican state legislatures have taken up a wave of bills making it easier to remove books and threatening librarians with criminal charges if they allow minors to access titles that include depictions of sex.
To counter this movement, Illinois Democrats last year adopted the first state law in the nation aimed at preventing book bans— which ended up feeding the unrest in Metropolis. Under the law, public libraries can receive state grant funding only if they adhere to the Library Bill of Rights, a set of policies long promoted by the American Library Association to prevent censorship.
Many longtime residents were stunned when these national fissures erupted in Metropolis, a quirky, conservative city of about 6,000 people that has a reputation for welcoming outsiders.
Because of its shared name with the fictional city from DC Comics, Metropolis has for the past half century marketed itself as “Superman's hometown.” Tens of thousands of tourists stop off Interstate 24 each year to pose beneath a 15-foot Superman statue at the center of town, to attend the summertime Superman Celebration, or to browse one of the world’s largest collections of Superman paraphernalia at the Super Museum.
“Where heroes and history meet on the shores of the majestic Ohio River,” the visitor’s bureau beckons, “Metropolis offers the best small-town America has to offer.”
But lately, the pages of the Metropolis Planet — yes, even the masthead of the local newspaper pays homage to Clark Kent — have been filled with strife.
Unlike in comic books and the Bible, the fight in Metropolis doesn’t break along simple ideological lines. Virtually everyone on either side of the conflict identifies as a Christian, and most folks here vote Republican. The real divide is between residents who believe the public library should adhere to their personal religious convictions, and those who argue that it should instead reflect a wide range of ideas and identities.
During his sermon in January and in the months since, Anderson has cast his congregation and their God as righteous defenders of Metropolis — and the Library Bill of Rights and its supporters as forces of evil.
If Christians didn’t take a stand, Anderson warned, there would soon be an entire children’s section at the library “dedicated to sexual immorality and perversion.” And before long, he said, the town would be hosting “story hour with some guy that thinks he’s a girl.”
[...]
A week later, the board went into a closed session and presented Baxter with an ultimatum: If she wanted to keep her job, she needed to sign a performance improvement plan. It stipulated that she would abide by the Library Bill of Rights, seek state grant funding and discontinue praying aloud with children and other religious activities at the library.
Baxter refused to sign and began to criticize the board. Voices were raised, according to three members.
After a few minutes, James, the board president, slammed her fist on the table.
“This is not up for debate, Rosemary,” she said. “Either sign it, or don’t.”
Baxter stood up and left.
Minutes later, the board came out of closed session.
By a vote of 5-3, they terminated Baxter’s employment.
Baxter’s departure left the library in turmoil. Four employees resigned soon after, and the board got to work picking up the pieces.
They brought on a former library employee to serve as interim director and embarked on top-to-bottom reviews of the library’s catalog and finances.
“Our focus,” James said, “is making sure our library is strong and healthy and there to serve everyone.”
Then, on March 19, the story of Baxter’s firing was picked up by Blaze Media, a national conservative outlet. In a column titled, “A librarian’s faithful service is silenced by a secularist takeover,” conservative talk radio host Steve Deace interviewed Baxter and Anderson and reported that both had come under fire for their Christian beliefs.
Deace presented the local saga as a warning that evil forces were now coming for small-town America and blamed the problems in Metropolis, in part, on “a California transplant who is living with another man,” referring to Loverin, the library board member.
Three days later, Metropolis Mayor Don Canada — who in 2021 had appointed Anderson, his pastor, to an open seat on the City Council — took a stand of his own.
In letters addressed to James and two other board members, Canada announced that he’d “lost faith in the Board in its current state.” As a result, he was removing James and two others who’d voted to terminate Baxter.
In Superman's alleged hometown of Metropolis, Illinois, the town has been engulfed with strife over conflicts on the direction of the town's public library, with Eastland Life Church Pastor Brian Anderson leading a war against the library as part of the faux moral panic about LGBTQ+ books that right-wingers falsely claim such books "sexualize" children.
#Metropolis Illinois#Illinois#Libraries#Book Bans#Book Banning#Public Libraries#Anti LGBTQ+ Extremism#Eastland Life Church#Brian Anderson#Alexi Giannoulias#Illinois HB2789#American Library Association#Metropolis Public Library#Rhonda James#Rosemary Baxter#Library Bill of Rights#Culture Wars#Steve Deace#Don Canada#Library Boards
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Wood Wakerobin
Trillium viride
Endemic to east-central Missouri and south-west Illinois, this trillium species can be found growing in woods with rich soils and on rocky slopes. It blooms in mid to late spring and there are lookalike trilliums; however, T. viride has a characteristic unique only to it - tiny, yet visible stomata that look like white dots all over the top of its leaves.
April 17th, 2024
St. Louis County, Missouri, USA
Olivia R. Myers
@oliviarosaline
#botany#plants#trillium#trillium viride#wakerobin#trilliums#nature#woods#forest#naturecore#missouri#Illinois#ozarks#the ozarks#goblincore#forest floor#nature photography#plant photography#flower photography#photography#green flowers#exploring the woods#the woods#woodlands#hiking missouri#fairycore#plantcore#wildflowers#spring#native plants
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people looooove to act like the ocean is so special and sexy. "ohhh it's so wide open you can see seven miles to the horizon!" yeah illinois is like that too. "you can see the curve of the earth!!" i've seen it over harvested cornfields in illinois. "but there's waves on the ocean!" corn has waves too. there's even eldrich creatures as yet unidentified by biologists living in the corn. you're not special, ocean. you're not special.
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mojo dojo casa house
Howdy folks! Sorry for the delay, I was, uhhhh covering the Tour de France. Anyway, I'm back in Chicago which means this blog has returned to the Chicago suburbs. I'm sure you've all seen Barbie at this point so this 2019 not-so-dream house will come as a pleasant (?) surprise.
Yeah. So this $2.4 million, 7 bed, 8.5+ bath house is over 15,000 square feet and let me be frank: that square footage is not allocated in any kind of efficient or rational manner. It's just kind of there, like a suburban Ramada Inn banquet hall. You think that by reading this you are prepared for this, but no, you are not.
Scale (especially the human one) is unfathomable to the people who built this house. They must have some kind of rare spatial reasoning problem where they perceive themselves to be the size of at least a sedan, maybe a small aircraft. Also as you can see they only know of the existence of a single color.
Ok, but if you were eating a single bowl of cereal alone where would you sit? Personally I am a head of the table type person but I understand that others might be more discreet.
It is undeniable that they put the "great" in great room. You could race bicycles in here. Do roller derby. If you gave this space to three anarchists you would have a functioning bookshop and small press in about a week.
The island bit is so funny. It's literally so far away it's hard to get them in the same image. It is the most functionally useless space ever. You need to walk half a mile to get from the island to the sink or stove.
Of course, every McMansion has a room just for television (if not more than one room) and yet this house fails even to execute that in a way that matters. Honestly impressive.
The rug placement here is physical comedy. Like, they know they messed up.
Bling had a weird second incarnation in the 2010s HomeGoods scene. Few talk about this.
Honestly I think they should have scrapped all of this and built a bowling alley or maybe a hockey rink. Basketball court. A space this grand is wasted on sports of the table variety.
You would also think that seeing the rear exterior of this house would help to rationalize how it's planned but:
Not really.
Anyways, thanks for coming along for another edition of McMansion Hell. I'll be back to regular posting schedule now that the summer is over so keep your eyes peeled for more of the greatest houses to ever exist. Be sure to check the Patreon for today's bonus posts.
Also P.S. - I'm the architecture critic for The Nation now, so check that out, too!
If you like this post and want more like it, support McMansion Hell on Patreon for as little as $1/month for access to great bonus content including a discord server, extra posts, and livestreams.
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#architecture#design#mcmansion#mcmansions#ugly houses#interior design#bad architecture#2010s#2019#Illinois
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It was a really, really good political news day today in the US (4/4/23)
For anyone who hasn't heard, not only did Trump get arrested, but also:
-We found out that the legal case against him in this prosecution (stormy daniels hush money case) is SIGNIFICANTLY stronger than people had speculated. Like, wow do they have receipts.
-In fact, the evidence was so entirely there that the new question on prime time news (well, at least on msnbc lol) is "Hey, why didn't the federal courts prosecute him for this already???)
-Trump FAILED UTTERLY in his attempts to rally mass protests and demands for "death and destruction" if he was arrested. There was no violence at the arrest at all, and as for Trump supporters? They failed to show up in any kind of numbers--reportedly only about a hundred people were protesting the arrest
-We (aka Judge Janet Protasiewicz) WON what is widely considered to be the most consequential election of 2023, a Wisconsin state supreme court election that handed control of the state supreme court to the left
-Because of that election win, it is now extremely likely that abortion will be legal in Wisconsin, and that Wisconsin won't be able to throw out electors in the 2024 presidential election
-ALSO bc of this, Wisconsin, the most gerrymandered state in the country, will probably get nonpartisan, accurate maps, which COULD FLIP THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES in 2024
-In Chicago, Brandon Johnson, union organizer and former teacher, won the election for mayor, in a decisive win progressives, esp for meaningful criminal justice reform and investment in mental health (whereas the other guy was campaigning on hiring hundreds of new cops and being super tough on crime)
#united states#us politics#wisconsin#supreme court#criminal justice reform#progressive politics#democrats#VOTING MATTERS#brandon johnson#janet protasiewicz#state supreme court#elections#gerrymandering#chicago#illinois#mayor#donald trump#trump indictment#trump arrest#alvin bragg#grand jury#manhattan#stormy daniels#good news#hope
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Motörhead, Chicago (1983)
#motorhead#lemmy kilmister#phil taylor#brian robertson#chicago#illinois#mc donalds#music#1980s#80s#80's#1983
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Weinhardt Mansion, Chicago, Illinois, United States,
Photo By: @nathanielintransit
#art#design#architecture#history#luxury lifestyle#style#luxury house#luxury home#mansion#chicago#united states#weinhardt mansion#nathanielintransit#luxury homes#illinois
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"have more gay sex!"
Chicago, Illinois, USA
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The Decatur Daily Review, Illinois, May 17, 1936
Just jumping around from one party to another...
#1936#1930s#history#comics#newspapers#cartoons#j norman lynd#1930s fashion#1930's fashion#historic#vintage#1930's#decatur#illinois#partying#party#rushing#running#jumping
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The Great American Eclipse passing over Carbondale, IL
Taken April 8, 2024
#eclipse#solar eclipse#sun#sunlight#abandoned places#towns#buildings#railroad tracks#water towers#illinois#southern illinois#my photos#my places
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Spring Woodland Flowers of Illinois poster by Robert F. Eschenfeldt (1930-2005)
I'm slowly collecting these gorgeous posters from the 70s/80s that the Department of Natural Resources put out. I've had luck with nature centers digging in their back closets
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ode to a faux grecian urn
Howdy everyone,
Today's house, built in 2001, comes to you from, you guessed it, the Chicago suburbs. The house is a testimony to traditional craftsmanship and traditional values (having lots of money.) The cost of painting this house greige is approximately the GDP of Slovenia so the owners have decided to keep it period perfect (beige.) Anyway.
This 5 bedroom, 7.5 bathroom house clocks in at a completely reasonable 12,700 square feet. If you like hulking masses and all-tile interiors, it could be all yours for the reasonable price of $2.65 million.
The problem with having a house that is 12,700 square feet is that they have to go somewhere. At least 500 of them were devoted to this foyer. Despite the size, I consider this a rather cold and lackluster welcome. Cold feet anyone?
The theme of this house is, vaguely, "old stuff." Kind of like if Chuck E Cheese did the sets for Spartacus. Why the dining room is on a platform is a good question. The answer: the American mind desires clearly demarcated space, which, sadly, is verboten in our culture.
The other problem with a 12,700 square foot house is that even huge furniture looks tiny in it.
Entering cheat codes in "Kitchen Building Sim 2000" because I spent my entire $70,000 budget on the island.
Of course, a second sitting room (without television) is warranted. Personally, speaking, I'm team Prince.
I wonder why rich people do this. Surely they must know it's tacky right? That it's giving Liberace? (Ask your parents, kids.) That it's giving Art.com 75% off sale if you enter the code ROMANEMPIRE.
Something about the bathroom really just says "You know what, I give up. Who cares?" But this is not even the worst part of the bathroom...
Not gonna lie, this activates my flight or fight response.
If you remember Raggedy Ann you should probably schedule your first colonoscopy.
Anyways, that does it for the interior. Let's take a nice peek at what's out back.
I love mowing in a line. I love monomaniacal tasks that are lethal to gophers.
Alright, that does it for this edition of McMansion Hell. Back to the book mines for me. Bonus posts up on Patreon soon.
If you like this post and want more like it, support McMansion Hell on Patreon for as little as $1/month for access to great bonus content including a discord server, extra posts, and livestreams.
Not into recurring payments? Try the tip jar! Student loans just started back up!
#architecture#design#mcmansion#mcmansions#ugly houses#interior design#bad architecture#mcmansion hell#illinois#2000s
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