Interfaith Fast for Peace Will Culminate in Fountain Square Vigil Sept. 21

By Victoria Scott

Members of five Evanston faith-based groups have taken turns in a "rolling fast" that began Aug. 6. In solidarity with the movement "Troops Home Fast," participants are protesting U.S. involvement in Iraq and demanding the immediate return of American soldiers.

For many the fast is also a cry for universal peace.

The Evanston fast, in which individuals ingest only water for 12 or more hours during a week chosen by their congregation, continues through Saturday. The effort will culminate with a candlelight vigil at Fountain Square at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 21.

The vigil, co-sponsored by the North Shore Coalition for Peace and Justice and American Friends Service Committee, also marks the International Day of Peace (IDP) designated by the United Nations in 2001.

Mary Dudek, who first proposed the rolling fast at a meeting of the Coalition, says the intent was to extend the fast through Sept. 21.

Its actual conclusion, Sept. 23, happens to be the first day of both the Jewish High Holidays and Muslim Ramadan. The fast's beginning, Aug. 6, was the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. Sept. 11 marked the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's first nonviolent action. "The confluence," says Ms. Dudek, "seems to say we're doing this at the right time."

On one level, she says, "the personal sacrifice [of fasting] helps individuals identify with the suffering and deprivation of others." On another level, she says, "the collective fast demonstrates our united voices as we demand an end to this war and that our troops be brought home."

In addition to emphasizing "the importance of ending the war and sending the peace message on," says Ms. Dudek, "we wanted to test the waters of interfaith cooperation."

Participating faith communities include the Unitarian Church of Evanston (UCE), the Friends Evanston Meeting, the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation (JRC), Lake Street Church (LSC) and St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church. All five are Coalition members.

The fast began at the UCE, where Ms. Dudek is a member. The church's involvement was an extension of a congregational vote to oppose the Iraq War before it began, says Ms. Dudek, and an illustration of the first principle of Unitarian Universalism, "affirming the worth and dignity of every human being."

At the conclusion of each segment of the fast, representatives from the group finishing their portion "rolled over" the fast, exchanging a pitcher of water and a loaf of bread with the next group in a "hand-off" ceremony.

Some individuals observed the rollover as well. Friends' coordinator Mary Theis says about 10 members took turns fasting between Aug. 20 and Sept. 2. "Whoever was fasting on a particular day called the next person ....to talk about their experience," she says. The Friends, she says, "focused on fasting for peace in general rather than Bring the Troops Home Fast."

The JRC covered Sept. 3-9, says member Elliot Zashin. He and coordinator Sallie Gratch found six JRC volunteers. An Evanston Ethical Humanist joined them, fasting the day the JRC celebrated the bar mitzvah of the rabbi's son.

Mr. Zashin compares the Interfaith Fast to Judaism's main fast day, Yom Kippur. On that Day of Repentance, he says, "Jews reflect on their actions of the past year and attempt ....to re-commit to a life full of deeds of compassion, justice and loving-kindness."

Mr. Zashin reflected further on the purpose of the fast at the JRC hand-over to LSC on Sept. 10 at the church. Linda Dienberg, who organized the fast at LSC with Kate Zilla, was struck by his message: that we who know the food will be there tomorrow can fast to reinforce our fundamental belief that war, the resultant hunger and related human folly should be neither ignored nor tolerated.

During the exchange of bread and water, Autumn Franger, chair of the LSC Peace and Justice Committee, read part of the prayer of St. Francis: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace." She comments that "using the prayer of a Christian Catholic to commemorate the unity of a Jewish and a Christian Protestant endeavor" is very much "in keeping with the traditions of LSC." By week's end, 35 LSC members had joined the fast.

Though Interfaith Fast organizers emphasize that participants need not be faith-based, they affirm the link between faith and action. "It is my belief and the belief of many others," says Ms. Dienberg, "that communities of faith should act on the values they support."

Ms. Franger agrees, saying, "Each faith community has an obligation to further causes of peace and to oppose violence and war ....because a faith community, by its very nature, professes that there is something larger than ourselves and our small circle."

As to the many "terrible things" done in the name of religion, Mr. Zashin says, "We have to help ensure that people do not gain the impression that faith generally works in that negative direction."

"We live in complicated times," says Ms. Dudek. "The solution is people-to-people dialogue....in which the faith-based, spiritual community has to be a part." The "connection between people" evidenced by the rollover service at LSC moved Sallie Gratch to tears. "Working for a peaceful world can take many different paths," she says.

Those who participated in the Interfaith Fast should feel proud, she says; others "missed a rare opportunity to be part of something bigger than we could ever have dreamed of."

St. Nick coordinator Anna Boekstegan says 16 parishoners will carry the fast Sept. 17-23. They hope to "create keener awareness of the spiritual dimension of being peacemakers...Peace starts with me," she says.

At the end of the fast the parish will write letters to local synagogues and a nearby mosque conveying St. Nick's "prayers and best wishes ... during their sacred season," she says.

The International Day of Peace Vigil will take place at 7 p.m. on Sept. 21 at Fountain Square.

ETHS's Chip Brady Among State's Best Teachers

By Nick Churchill

Charles "Chip" Brady has been recognized as one of ten finalists for the 2006-07 Illinois Teacher of the Year award. Mr. Brady, who currently teaches U.S. History and Economics at Evanston Township High School, was selected from a pool of nearly 160 nominees through the Illinois State Board of Education's (ISBE) Those Who Excel educator-recognition program.

Each nomination is reviewed and scored three times by a panel that includes school board members, teachers, administrators and former ISBE teachers of the year.

Mr. Brady has not been a lifelong teacher; before starting at ETHS in 1990 he traded Euro-dollar options at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Mr. Brady insists that the "high-pressure workload is much greater in teaching," but also notes similarities between the two fields: "You're dealing with situations beyond your control, keeping your calm." His career change was dictated by a life ambition "to work with the families and the students."

As for his own success as a teacher, Mr. Brady gives credit to the ETHS history department. "Being nominated from this department is a real honor," he says.

Mr. Brady points to his colleagues and their ideas as a major effect on his own teaching style, and notes the collective efforts of the history teachers to create a challenging curriculum for students. "We like making history complex for students," Mr. Brady says.

One way the history department has kept raising the bar for themselves and their students is through Mr. Brady's Teaching American History grant, which he received three years ago in conjunction with Northwestern University.

Teachers from ETHS and District 65 and from many other schools across the country met with NU professors to address one issue: how to teach students more effectively.

This grant works by "connecting teachers to content experts, and tons of resources and documents."

Mr. Brady and his colleagues are trying to use these resources to improve the critical thinking of every student, and to make sure the quality of teaching is equal across the board regardless of level. Mr. Brady says that for teachers, "it's about rethinking and reframing questions that can drive a course in an engaging and powerful way."

Both the university professors and the public school teachers have reported that they found the week of lectures, workshops and brainstorming to be personally exciting and professionally stimulating.

"Friendship: An Expose"

It is fitting that Joseph Epstein's latest book is on the subject of friendship. The long-time Evanston resident has, in the course of a distinguished 40-year literary career, come to seem like a special friend to his readers: wise, witty, urbane, often profound, sometimes disputatious, and, occasionally and engagingly, catty. In other words, someone you would love to spend an hour or two shmoozing and dishing with as you sip espresso together at Peet's.

What Mr. Epstein has to say about the nature of friendship is that it has changed, and not for the better. Unlike his earlier collections of "familiar essays," culled from the columns he wrote during his 23-year editorship of the American Scholar, his most recent books have been single-topic disquisitions on envy and snobbery and a wonderful short-story collection, "Fabulous Small Jews," populated by colorful Chicago characters. While they were, as always, top drawer, "Friendship: An Expose" (Houghton Mifflin) is that much-claimed but rarely achieved thing, a "must-read." For who among us has not wondered about our friends, whether they are there for us, and if not, why not?

Mr. Epstein's conclusion is that friendship simply ain't what it used to be. In childhood, he says, "....time itself seems inexhaustible, and life's pressures are well off in the distance. Friendship can be explored, friends cultivated, unambiguously enjoyed, luxuriated in." The problem, as Epstein sees it, is that we expect our adult friendships to be equally strong, enduring, satisfying.

But pressures of all sorts - from high divorce rates and heavier workloads to the increasing demands of family life - tend to crowd out the time and cut off the proximity needed to cultivate and enjoy friends.

Mr. Epstein's father was a man who did not need friends. A self-made Chicago businessman (Mr. Epstein grew up in Rogers Park), he seemed to derive all the society he needed going out with his wife's friends and their husbands. Aristotle, on the other hand, writing in his "Ethics," says "without friends, no one would choose to live." Both attitudes may seem a little extreme. Most of us inhabit a world in between, having a few good friends, wanting more, and wanting more from our few good friends.

But Mr. Epstein spends a lot of time - perhaps too much - bemoaning a different problem with friends: he has too many. He reproaches himself for being a "friendship slut," "the equivalent, in the world of sex, of that too fast high school girl who finds herself in the back of a Chevy, staring up at her saddle shoes and asking herself how she got here, again." This is funny stuff, but a little off-putting for being both self-aggrandizing and missing the point. Most people crave more and better friendships. So be forewarned: This is not a how-to book.

Still, as Dizzy Dean would say, "It ain't braggin' if you can do it," and it is easy to forgive Mr. Epstein his overflowing dance card and inbox. Like his other essay collections, this one consists of roughly equal parts other people's views and his own. And it is one of the great pleasures of Epsteiniana that, by virtue of his wicked humor, easy-to-take erudition, wonderful clarity and graceful language (the essayists' Fred Astaire), his writing dazzles and delights every bit as much as the stellar cast of characters, famous and obscure, who crowd his pages. So in the span of a short chapter on "Best Friends" we hear from or about Santayana, Plutarch, Cicero (as quoted by Montaigne), the novelist Cesare Pavese and his own best friend, Edward Shils.

Mr. Epstein's friendship with Mr. Shils is one of several he treats at some length. He met Mr.Shils, a distinguished fellow academic at the University of Chicago, through Saul Bellow, who was also teaching there. Thus Mr. Epstein got to see first-hand the dissolution of the Shils-Bellow friendship, with its "fissures, cracks and lots of fallen plaster." The whole mess is perversely fascinating, especially as the edifice begins to collapse and we witness the principals heaving chunks of drywall at each other.

Another high spot is the lengthy and loving portrait of Mr. Epstein's devoted parents, who, he is astonished to learn near the end of his mother's life, kept the same intimate secret from each other throughout the 57 years of their marriage. But perhaps the most poignant story relates to a friend dying from ALS that Mr. Epstein knew from school days. "Neither [of us] thought of the other as a best friend or a particularly close friend," Epstein muses. "Yet, considered selfishly, his death diminishes me, depopulates my life, is a brick removed from the edifice of my past."

Do yourself a favor and make friends of Joseph Epstein's books. They and he are a national treasure and a civic asset, and if you see him sipping espresso at Peet's, you can tell him so. You might even be lucky enough to strike up a friendship.

"Across A Hundred Mountains"

A Book Review By Sue Brooke

"Across A Hundred Mountains" by Reyna Grande is a beautiful novel. Written from the heart, with much soul-searching honesty, it tells a story of illegal immigration from Mexico. The author was herself 10 years of age when she came to California.

In "Across a Hundred Mountains" two women tell their stories. Juana grew up in Guerrero near a river prone to flooding. One day while her father worked in a neighboring cornfield, the river started to rise into their tiny shanty. Juana and her mother climbed onto a table with Juana's infant sister Anita and stayed there for most of a day, waiting for the water to subside. When it became apparent that no help was coming, Juana's mother left Juana in charge of her little sister while she went in search of a boat. Exhausted, hungry and alone, Juana fell asleep, and little Anita drowned. When the parents returned, they did not blame Juana, but their pain was everywhere. Soon after, her father left to go to El Otro Lado, "the other side," promising to send money for Anita's funeral expenses. They never heard from him again, and Juana blamed herself for everything.

Two years later, 13-year-old Juana sets out to find her father. In Tijuana she meets Adelina, who has her own story to tell. Their friendship changes each of their lives irrevocably. Juana follows the footsteps of her father, paying all her savings to a "coyote" to lead her across the border. Seven immigrants walk through sagebrush, snakes and scorpions, eating hurriedly and sleeping little. They run when they hear helicopters and hide when they hear Migra patrols. It is an arduous journey, but no one turns back. They have nothing to go back to; there is only El Otro Lado.

This is a timely tale of desperate immigrants with poignant stories. This novel grips readers and pulls them along with an urgancy like that the immigrants feel for El Otro Lado.

Hollywoodland

A Film Review By Brian Murphy

The glitz and glamour of 1950s Hollywood is cast in shadows in the neo-noir"Hollywoodland." Paul Bernbaum's script is loosely based on the mystery surrounding the apparent suicide of George Reeves (played here by Ben Affleck), better known as television's first Superman.

Former television director Allen Coulter's ("The Sopranos," "Sex and the City") film debut is technically stylized. Mr. Coulter and cinematographer Jonathan Freeman alternate between the past and the present. The present involves the sleuthing of fictional private investigator Louis Simo (Adrien Brody), as he tries to uncover the truth of Reeves' death and his life, which is presented in a series of extended flashbacks.

While many of the performances are commendable, Mr. Brody's is the high point. The subplot of which Louis Simo is the protagonist upstages Mr. Reeves' tale. A complex character, Louis becomes gradually more sympathetic through his desire to upend the system, a result of his growing understanding of Reeves. He is willing to take money from suckers, like the poor sap who continually pays Louis to tail his wife (he believes she is cheating), and he exploits Reeves' mother to get the attention of the L.A. media. Louis' attempts to be involved with his son's life, however, despite his ex-wife's (Molly Parker of "Deadwood") doubts are a catalyst for his re-humanization.

Mr. Affleck's take on Mr. Reeves is apt -- dashing and charismatic at the start, pitiful and worn by the end. Mr. Reeves sleeps with Toni Mannix (Diane Lane and Affleck generate some sparks), wife of Hollywood mogul Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins is superb), who buys him a house and hands him the role of Superman. When she cannot further his career, he pouts and eventually leaves her. The most disconcerting aspect of this story is that it actually happened: Eddie Mannix allowed their affair so he could continue his own.

The tragedy is a condemnation of a society whose inhabitants seek the approval of others to validate their worth. Hollywood, then, becomes an unreal world that sucks the souls from its inhabitants. Mr. Reeves is portrayed as a man depressed by being stuck in a role he grows to despise, forever typecast and unable to gain the respect he desires. Toni lives in fear of the physical signs of aging, which in this town, are the same as dying. Eddie, while at the pinnacle of success, is incapable of joy. Even Louis is dragged into the muck, losing his wife and possibly his son, in the process. Despite a forced redemptive ending, the overall feel of the film lingers like a bad hangover.

"Hollywoodland," hot on the heels of "Superman Returns," is bound to benefit from an opportune release date, as well as America's infatuation with classic Hollywood. The film industry has long been fascinated with itself. Brian De Palma's "The Black Dahlia," about a notorious Hollywood murder, is currently in theaters. Other self-reflexive films include David Lynch's "Mulholland Drive" and Curtis Hanson's "L.A. Confidential." "Hollywoodland" is neither as artistic as "Mulholland Drive nor as smart as "L.A. Confidential." It, like George Reeves, shoots for the stars but falls short.

Brian recommends it at the theatre.

"Hollywoodland"

A Film Review By Joe Linstroth

"Hollywoodland" explores the mysterious 1959 death of George Reeves, television's first Superman. Though a stylish murder mystery with some excellent performances, the film, like its bloated, cape-clad protagonist, only manages to get off the ground for a few fleeting moments.

Adrien Brody plays the fictional private investigator, Louis Simo, hired by Reeves' mother (Lois Smith) to investigate her son's death, ruled a suicide by the L.A. police. A low-level hack accustomed to stringing along paranoid spouses for their miniscule retainers, Louis finds in his death his biggest case by far. At first, he does not think much about the alternatives of his new investigation and he is mostly in it for the publicity, but as bits of evidence and the backgrounds of the players involved come to light, he begins to formulate other possible scenarios for the death of Superman.

Director Allen Coulter flashes back and forth from Louis's investigation to the life of George Reeves (Ben Affleck) leading up to his death. Despite a bit role in "Gone with the Wind" early in his career, Mr. Reeves is struggling to find his niche in Tinseltown. Things change when he meets Toni Mannix, the wife of MGM Vice President Eddie Mannix. Beautiful but significantly older, Toni is taken with George's youthful optimism and charm, eventually putting him up in a house and helping him land his fateful role.

The acting in "Hollywoodland" is noteworthy. Ben Affleck gives an admirable performance as the pudgy, hard- drinking George Reeves. Though he doesn't resemble Mr. Reeves physically, he adopts his mannerisms and speech patterns, and with the state of his career in the last few years, Mr. Affleck has had plenty of experience to channel into his character's struggles with fading popularity and typecasting. Diane Lane tarnishes her considerable beauty with weary desperation as an unhappy wife in a marriage that permits her to find extracurricular happiness; and Robin Tunney is sexy and nasty as Leonore Lemmon, George Reeves' gold-digging fiancée who eventually supplants Toni and becomes a suspect in Louis' investigation.

Despite the performances, "Hollywoodland" remains flat by failing to create any real suspense or to rise to an identifiable climax. The tension created by the side stories involving Louis' ex-wife (Molly Parker) and his distant young son (Zachary Mills), as well as a crazy client and his faithful wife, seems manufactured and unnecessary, especially when the real meat of the film is in the depiction of Hollywood's dark side during the golden contract years and the retelling of George Reeves' complicated demise.

In the end, "Hollywoodland" offers three explanations for the real-life death of Superman, but sparks little satisfaction in learning this much - and zero interest in wanting to know more.

Joe recommends it as a DVD.

2 hrs. 6 min. Rated R for violence, language, and sexual content.

"God's Gonna Trouble the Waters" Sings the Angel

Pictured above left to right are, back row, Raina Long, Ms. Joy, Karren Brown and Darren Jones; front row, Sherrice Eaglin, Trumaine Hunter and Shundrice Tucker.

In revisiting the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, audience and actors alike can find catharsis in "The Dark Water After."

Ebony Joy, program director of the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Theatre, created the play from the stories of some of the survivors of the devastating hurricane that hit the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Louisiana and nearly destroyed New Orleans.

The audience follows five of the six characters' stories from the sunny Sunday before the storm hit through the rain and wind, the flood from the breaking of the levees that held back Lake Ponchartrain, the storm surge and the devastatingly incomplete and incompetent rescue efforts. The sixth is both figuratively and literally the chorus, a capella, at times echoing the characters' words, at times singing parts of spirituals.

In unison, the cast members count off the days, then begin their stories of what happened - sometimes conversing with each other, sometimes passionately decrying what happened to them.

Eye on Evanston

To Lead or To Follow?

By John Macsai

To be an alderman is to have dual and sometimes conflicting responsibilities. This is certainly true in Evanston, where the electorate is very active, has strong opinions and is cultured, though not always in matters of aesthetics.

Does an alderman look for a consensus of opinion and vote accordingly or convince the constituents about the validity of his/her stand when it differs from that of the voters? Is he or she to lead or to represent?

Most public opinions are self-serving, because residents worry about problems ("How will this affect the value of my property?"), are informed in making decisions about a building's appearance by persons who are untutored about architecture, or are guided by resistance to change ("It will block the view from my window").

To have informed opinions, residents first need to be informed. This process could start with inviting professionals (planners, architects) to community meetings and giving them a chance to explain the positives of a project, then having discussions.

But the nine aldermen (at present, five lawyers, two educators and two in real estate or finance) rarely have a design education, yet are responsible for the fate of a community and reflect the equally untutored views of their constituents.

Let me review four projects that I find good examples of the problem. Start with the incredibly dense townhouses at the corner of South Boulevard and Chicago Avenue (30 units per acre, when the national norm is closer to 20).

Simply following the Zoning Ordinance, a seven-story apartment building would have left adequate space for townhouses and landscaped space, as well as proper setbacks on the site. The neighbors, however, insisted on not more than three stories. The alderman represented them, and the results speak for themselves.

Another example is the proposed high-rise by Optima Builders at Chicago Avenue and Davis Street, a beautiful design by David Hovey. The potential traffic problem in the alley and the height (17 stories or so) created such an uproar in the community that when Mr. Hovey submitted a revised scheme widening the alley to 24 feet and significantly reducing the height, the City Council unanimously voted it down without even introducing it in a public meeting for discussion - not a great example of the democratic process.

At the same time a grossly oversized high-rise of mediocre design was approved by the Council for the corner of Oak Avenue and Emerson Street. The objectors in the neighborhood were not well enough organized to make a difference. The objections by Design Evanston, an organization of design professionals, were also disregarded. At the least the developer should have provided five to 10 percent of the units for affordable housing in exchange for the concession in height he received, if for nothing more than to soothe his conscience.

Instead, he donated far too little money to the City's affordable-housing fund. The three Aldermen - Moran, Wollin and Wynne - who voted against the building are to be complimented.

Just a few weeks ago, a majority of the Council killed a 27-unit, well-designed, three-story apartment building at Church Street and Darrow Avenue, composed entirely of affordable units, greatly needed in the area, and costing the City not a dime. The loud objection was led by local real estate interests fearing that poor renters would threaten the value of their property. The four aldermen supporting the project - Aldermen Holmes, Jean-Baptiste, Moran and Wollin - deserve our support and thanks.

Some years ago I was encouraged to run for alderman, but I turned it down because I thought someone younger should run. I realize now that my campaign slogan "I Do Not Need to Be Re-Elected" would surely have helped to defeat me.

Evanston Eats

A Is for Apple

Apples relate to the fall, spiritually, metaphorically and climatically. The reds, greens and gold of the fruits blend with the multicolored, changing leaves and with the bronze, purples and day-glo oranges of storm clouds and sunsets.

The apple is also the metaphor for knowledge - knocking the principles of gravity into the head of Isaac Newton, as well as being the "sinful" fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Biblical book of Genesis.

Apples also represent beginnings. The Latin phrase ab malo usque ad ovum - from the apple all the way to the egg - was the Roman equivalent of "from soup to nuts," an entire festive meal.

And apples were the original comfort food. Song of Solomon (Song of Songs) in the Old Testament: Chapter 2, verse 5 of the King James Version reads, "Comfort me with apples, for I am sick of [with] love."

Apples are a part of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah (Sept. 23 this year). In "From Apples to Pomegranates, It's All Jewish Soul Food" (Jewish News Weekly, Sept. 14, 2001), Chana Falik describes their part in the Rosh Hashanah meal: "The next blessing is for a new fruit dipped in honey, and of all the fruits we always choose apples. The reason for this is the four references to apples as the people of Israel in the Song of Songs, the romantic love poem of God and the People of Israel: ‘As an apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons.' (Song of Songs 2:3)....Eating apples dipped in honey on Rosh Hashanah reminds us of the ‘thin skin' surrounding our souls and the need to keep well away from ‘bad apples.'"

A geocities website devoted to the history of apples says the first trees to produce the sweet fruit known today as apples were found "thousands of years ago near the modern city of Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan. By late 300 B.C. the Greeks were growing several varieties of apples. Researchers have even found the charred remains of apples at a Stone Age village in Switzerland. European settlers brought apple seeds and trees to the New World. Records indicate the Massachusetts Bay Company was growing apples in New England as early as 1630."

Johnny Appleseed, a.k.a. Jonathan Chapman, who was born in Massachusetts in 1774 and died in Indiana in 1845, is credited with spreading the fruit westward. According to applejuice.org, "Johnny Appleseed created apple orchards in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Ohio. After 200 years, some of those trees still bear apples."

Some believe he only planted or traded apple seeds; others believe he also carried hard cider to the prairie settlers in the heartland.

The website of Leominster, Mass., Mr. Chapman's home town, describes John Chapman as a businessman who saw a need and filled it:

"Moving ahead of the pioneers, Johnny started many nurseries throughout the Midwest by planting seeds which he bought from cider mills in Pennsylvania. In order to assure stability of the newly established homesteads, the law required each settler to plant fifty apple trees the first year. John Chapman, or Johnny Appleseed, owned many tracts of land throughout Ohio and Indiana. He used this land to plant apple seeds, transplant seedlings and set out orchards. He sold and gave trees to the pioneer settlers."

Some regard grocery-store-variety apples as mealy and boring. Though orchards are disappearing into housing developments, local farmers markets give shoppers a chance to try some of the less common varieties. The Evanston Farmers market last weekend offered a few of the hundreds of varieties of apples, including Molly Delicious, Jonagold, Grimes Golden, Yellow Delicious, Mutsu, Paula Red, Gala and Honey Crisp.

Apple pie may be the quintessential American dessert, but baked apples are more nutritious. Here is a recipe for them, with a few variations.

BAKED APPLES

6 apples
¾ cup raisins or chopped dates
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup water
2 tbsp. butter
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
½ tsp. ground nutmeg

Core apples and pare a strip around top of each apple.
Fill center with raisins or chopped dates.
Bring to a boil water, butter, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Place apples in buttered baking dish.
Bake at 350° for approximately 60 min.
Serve with warm cream or ice cream.
For microwave baking adjust baking time according to your microwave oven
Variations: For stuffing, use golden raisins, dried cranberries, dried apricots, chopped almonds or pecans.
For liquids, add cranberry juice cocktail concentrate thawed, or use ¾ cup apple juice and ¼ cup rum.

Parent/Child Workshops

Parents and children learn together as they play and talk with experts on a variety of parenting topics. The Main Library Community Room becomes a playful learning environment, with stories, music and art projects at 10 a.m. on five consecutive Saturdays, Sept. 30-Oct. 28. Parent-child workshops are for children 1-3 years old with parent or caregiver. Siblings 5 and under are also welcome. Registration is required at the Main Library Children's Room or by calling 847-448-8610.

Duck Pluck Set for Sept. 30

Once again those popular yellow ducks are flocking to the Dawes lagoon to paddle their hearts out for the annual Duck Race and Pluck. The wacky rubber-duck race takes to the water at 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, Sept. 30, in the lagoon at Dawes Park, located at Church Street and Sheridan Road. Hosted by the Evanston Environmental Association, this event raises funds for renovation work at the Evanston Ecology Center.

As they prepare for competition, the yellow fowls are looking for sponsors to support their training efforts. Sponsorship is $10/duck or pick up a "quack pack" of three ducks for $25. Ducks will go home with their new owners. Call the Ecology Center at 847-448-8256.