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Volume VIII Number 25 December 14, 2005 |
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Local Catholic Schools Aid Mississippi School Evanston Township High School Presents "The Crucible." Offerings of Music for the Holiday Season Evanston Township High School Presents "The Crucible."
Tickets are available for Evanston Township High school's production of "The Crucible." The show will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Dec.15, 16 and 17 in the Upstairs Theatre of the high school, 1600 Dodge Ave. Written by Arthur Miller, the drama concerns the purging of witchcraft
in old Salem and is a parable for modern times. The Upstairs Theatre is handicapped-accessible by elevator, and hearing devices for the hearing-disabled can be obtained through the box office. Parking for the Upstairs Theatre is best in the school's rear lot; enter through the Bacon/South entrance. Local Catholic Schools Aid Mississippi School St. James School is the only Catholic school left standing in Gulfport, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the Gulf coast late last summer. The two other schools were demolished, and, with the addition of students from those schools, St. James is now about three times its original size, Rosa Musiale, principal of Pope John XXIII in Evanston, told the RoundTable. So last month Pope John XXIII collaborated with the three other schools in Catholic Council 23A – St. Joan of Arc in Evanston-Skokie, St. Joseph in Wilmette and St. Catherine Labourre in Glenview – to send books, furniture and supplies to the now-overcrowded school. School officials raided school closets and storerooms for extra desks, textbooks and supplies; parents donated new items; and children raised about $2,000 on their own. Some of the kids held bake sales; others sold lemonade on the weekends; some sold "Katrina cares" bracelets; and a brother and sister raised funds by playing their violins, Ms. Musiale added. Glass milk bottles in the classrooms were receptacles for spare change, netting more than $1,100. "I'm totally blown away by the generosity of the parents and the creativity of the kids in coming up with so many ideas," she said. The months-long project paid off on Nov. 30, when a Golan moving truck stopped at each of the schools. At Pope John, volunteers loaded 58 boxes of books, 43 desks and pounds of school supplies, sending them on their way to their sister school in Mississippi. Ms. Musiale says Pope John plans to keep in touch with St. James. "It's a school-to-school campaign: one school helping another," she said. Offerings of Music for the Holiday Season. The Musical Offering, 743 Custer Ave., offers a variety of music classes that allow children to learn music- making skills and processes, such as keeping a steady beat, developing a singing voice and learning percussion skills. Children in more advanced classes will learn note-reading and composition along with singing. Visit www.themusicaloffering.org or call 847- 866-6260 for class schedules and information. |
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Trees aRound Town Hickory. The word brings to mind much more than a tree. Hickory chips; hickory-smoked turkeys and hams; hickory nuts; light, flexible hickory sticks for whipping up discipline in "School Days"; hickory burned for stills ("Bring me a pile of hickory, hickory and ash and oak," from the moonshiners' lyrics from Prohibition days); hickory dickory dock (probably no connection to the tree); Andrew Jackson, our seventh president, nicknamed "Old Hickory." Because of his strict discipline on the march to Tennessee during the war of 1812, General Jackson's troops declared he was as tough and resilient as hickory. Speculation about the origin of the word "hickory" takes us back to the Algonquin tribe. Possibly the Algonquins used the word to describe "all nuts requiring a stone to crack." Other sources suggest hickory is derived from powcohiccora, an Algonquin word for a fermented drink made by pounding the nuts and letting the mash "set." Standing tall, dark and straight with a rounded crown against the backdrop of a pale gray sky, the leafless shagbark hickory is a most picturesque winter tree. It can reach heights of 120 feet, although 70-80 feet is more common. Its unkempt-looking bark is its most arresting feature. The bark of the young tree is smooth and gray. When the tree matures to 30-40 years old, its trunk will measure about 4 inches in diameter and its bark will begin to fissure. It separates into long, wide plates that curl away from the trunk in no particular design, remaining attached to the trunk at mid-plate. The look is shredded, hence, "shagbark." (Scientifically, the process of tree trunks shedding their bark is known as "exfoliating.") Although Evanston at one time was home to many shagbark hickories, few are left, mostly in back yards or parks. Larry Perkins, architect, planner and Evanston resident, once commented that the group of hickories in his yard was unable to survive the exuberant antics of the many children who played there, including himself. Shagbark hickory is native throughout the Eastern United States, extending from Nebraska and Minnesota east to Maine, southern Ontario and southern Quebec, and south almost to the Gulf coast. It thrives under a variety of conditions, in deep forest as well as open woods. When settlers arrived in the midwest, they found prairie, forest and what they often called "oak openings." Trees of the oak openings were predominately oak with a strong component of shagbark hickory, thus the common designation "oak-hickory" woodland. Another designation, "prairie-oak-hickory," is particularly apt in our region, where we are on the ever-shifting interface, or "ecotone" between tall-grass prairie and woodland. Oak openings, today referred to as "savannas," are characterized by widely scattered trees with low grassy, floral and shrubby undergrowth. They were a welcome sight to travelers weary of deep woods and uncomfortable on the open prairie. Oak-hickory savannas are common in Lake and McHenry counties on the well-drained upland moraines. Here in Evanston, oak-hickory savannas would have occurred on the three north-south well-drained ridges (Hinman and Ridge avenues and Grosse Point Road). But shagbark hickories also grew in the lowland Big Woods of what is now northwest Evanston, on poorly drained soil. Two specimens remain in Perkins Woods at Colfax and Ewing. Oak openings provided the pioneers with shelter plus much-needed wood for warmth and construction. Hickories are known for their particularly high (and fragrant) heat and were often cut down to warm settlers' hearths. The flexible wood was perfect for ax handles and wagon wheels. Shagbark hickories (Carya Ovata), cousins to pecan trees, are in the walnut, or Juglandaceae family. Carya is derived from the Greek karya, meaning walnut. Ovata, meaning "egg-shaped," refers to the shape of the leaflets. The distinctive leaves are pinnately compound, averaging 11 inches long, usually with five oblong leaflets. Last month's tree, the buckeye, had palmately compound leaves, with leaflets radiating out from a single point. Pinnately compound leaflets branch from a central midrib at several points, the side leaflets emerging at right angles to the midrib in a featherlike pattern. On the shagbark hickory, the three end leaflets are considerably larger than the laterals. The leaflet edges are finely toothed. The leaves turn a rich gold in fall. The shagbark begins producing nuts at around age 40. The nut varies in
size and form, from egg-shaped to round. The thick green husks turn a dark
brown when ripe and, when mature, split to reveal the brownish-white hickory
nut. Removal of this nut covering, which is not easy, releases the sweet
white edible treat. Hickory nuts peppered the ground this fall at the triangle park where Elm, Lincoln and Pioneer come together in Northwest Evanston. Here, in the southwest corner of the park, three shagbark hickories create a handsome tableau. Empty Bowls Feed the HungryBy Zach Brennan Students, faculty, and staff of Evanston Township High School made and bought ceramic bowls and hot soup on Dec. 7 in the sixth nnual Empty Bowl project to help raise money for local soup kitchens. Ceramics students constructed the $10 and $15 bowls that could be filled with soup made by students in the culinary arts program and cooking club, while community service volunteers distributed donated treats and collected money.
"The ceramics students came together in the free periods, art classes, and lunch periods to make these bowls," said senior Tessa Perutz. The project plans to donate about $2500 to soup kitchens including Soup at Six, Beth Emmett The Free Synagogue, Evanston Ecumenical Action Counci's hospitality center for those who spend the night at Hilda's Place shelter, and Good News North of Howard. But this year's project was so well orchestrated that it may exceed that goal of $2500, said community service coordinator of ETHS Barbara Zimmer. The project also included a silent auction with donations from local merchants. The Empty Bowl project has been successful in raising money and awareness for soup kitchens across the country and Emily Larson started it at ETHS as her senior project six years ago, said Ms. Zimmer. This year, the bowls, soup, and silent auction items were sold to a mix of hungry students, faculty, and a few parents. At the LibraryAudrey Niffenegger Monday Movie Library Closed All locations of the Evanston Public Library are closed Dec. 24-26. All locations will be open for regular hours on Dec. 27. For information, call 847-866-0300. School Holiday Story Special at North Branch
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Book Review "Missing Mom" by Joyce Carol Oates is a thought-provoking yet tender story about mothers and daughters, about sisters and the angst they can suffer over each other and about marriages. Nikki, 32 years old, has been having an affair with a married man for four years. Wally is legally separated from his wife. He says he is getting divorced, but somehow there is always a "crisis at home" and the divorce keeps getting postponed. Nikki's mother, Gwen, doesn't approve of the affair. But Nikki is an adult and Gwen cannot do much about it. Gwen, a widow for several years, lives in the suburban house to which she moved right after marriage. It is the house in which she raised Nikki and Nikki's sister, Clare. Clare, who married after college, stayed close by. But Nikki, always slightly wild, has never married. On Mother's Day, the girls want to take Gwen out, but she refuses. The girls know she likes to do her own cooking and the expense of a dinner out would only make her unhappy. She prides herself on being able to make most everything better and cheaper herself. Gwen has always been this way. She befriends strangers and is always inviting people in for meals. In fact, this Mother's Day Nikki and Clare find that their mother, who promised it would be just a family affair, has invited three other people – one of whom was probably intended as a potential suitor for Nikki. It is a typical dinner at their mother's house with "perfect Clare" doing all the right things, while Nikki longs for escape. As it turns out, this evening is the last time either daughter sees their mother alive. Over the next year, Nikki learns a lot about Gwen and, through her grief, starts to emulate her mother. She does favors for the elderly and befriends the lonely, making other people happy. Gwen used to say that, if she couldn't be happy herself, she liked to make other people happy. Nikki wonders if her mother was really happy. She had always seemed so
content and happy, yet she had at times made strange comments. FILM REVIEW Behind the high gas prices at the pump and the promises of democracy in Iraq lies the tangled web of corruption and power-brokering that is Big Oil. In "Syriana," writer/director Stephen Gaghan tackles this complex world with an engrossing, unapologetic whirl through the layers of corruption that are destined to perpetuate until, in the words of one of the many characters, "cars can run on water." Based on the memoir "See No Evil," by former CIA operative Robert Baer, "Syriana" portrays the wide-ranging effects of Black Gold through a series of interlocking stories so intricate that they are difficult to summarize. George Clooney, sporting a beard and a gut, is fantastic as Bob Barnes, a CIA operative in the Middle East who has been used his entire career and is left hanging out to dry by the Company after a failed assassination attempt on Prince Nasir (Alexander Siddig). An up-and-coming energy analyst, Bryan Woodman (Matt Damon), parlays the accidental death of his son into a lucrative position as Prince Nasir's economic adviser. A disenfranchised Pakistani youth (Mazhar Munir) in the Persian Gulf is slowly indoctrinated by a radical Islamic cleric. And the always superb Jeffrey Wright plays a quiet Washington lawyer named Bennett Holiday who is assigned by power broker Dean Whiting (Christopher Plummer) to grease the wheels of a shady merger between two Texas oil companies. Mr. Gaghan directs his script in the same documentary style as his Oscar winning screenplay for "Traffic," lending a powerful realism to the stories. The pace is fast and furious, bouncing around from Tehran to Texas to Washington, D.C., to Beirut, and the detailed script makes it difficult to imbibe everything in just one viewing. But Mr. Gaghan refuses to insult our intelligence by reducing speed or adding water just so that we can keep up. Though fictional, "Syriana" skillfully portrays the intricate, and often unrecognized, influence that oil, and the endless struggle for control of it, has on everything from foreign policy and capitalism, right on down to personal morality and quality of life. "Syriana" is not a passive cinematic escape from daily life, but a challenging look at how human dependence on oil shapes it. The film demands that we use our brains, and it rewards us by provoking thoughts and questions well beyond the final credits. 2hrs 6min. Rated R for language and violence. ---------------------- see our film reviews...
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