Archive for the 'Local' Category

But beyond that, I felt nothing. Others, and others in St. Louis felt a little more. The epicenter wasn’t that close.

The magnitude was 5.4 (which apparently ties the ‘historical record’ set in 1968 for the region)

Today is April 18th
5.4 is a multiple of 1.8

Update: they seem to have downgraded it to 5.2

There are some great postcards and photographs at the St. Louis Time Portal. (If the postcard above is confusing, it’s from 1912, and makes reference to Ragtime music, I believe)

I’ve mentioned it before here several times. It’s my favorite bookstore here in St. Louis. The Book House.. I can’t visit without leaving with a book.

No, I didn’t go there this past weekend. However, this month’s Stlbloggers Blog Carnival asks for local paranormal events. And The Book House is haunted by at least one ghost.

We are located in a charming Historic Victorian House, built in 1865, about 15 minutes from downtown St. Louis where an eclectic mix of quality rare, out-of-print, new, and used books are tucked into nine rooms on three floors of winding staircases, filled with nooks and crannies and a dungeon we call the “Bargain Basement”. Our house is patrolled by two store cats Chaucer and Blake as well as at least one documented ghost.

That comes from the store website.

As legend has it, there is a small chamber on the second floor of the Book House in Rock Hill that was the favorite playroom of a little redheaded girl. It’s said she was the daughter of a nineteenth-century prostitute and may have drowned in a creek that once ran alongside the drafty farmhouse. Her restless spirit lives on, or so the story goes.

That’s from a June 2006 Riverfront Times article. That article’s main focus was the store’s pending closure. As I posted in October of 2006, the closure had been delayed “about a year or so.” We’re up to the “year or so” mark, and there are no hints on the website at least that it is pending.

I think perhaps the Ghost (whose name is apparently Valerie) not only helps patrons find books, but is helping the store stay alive.

On January 30th and 31st 1982, a 1-in-70 year snow event occurred from the eastern Ozarks to central Illinois with the heaviest axis of snow blanketing St. Louis, Missouri. The snow began during the evening of January 30th, a Saturday, and ended during the afternoon of Sunday, January 31st.

If you were here back then, you remember it. The weather forecasters were still saying 2-3 inches at about the time you could go outside and see there was already 8-9 and scratch your head in confusion about what the forecasters were smoking. Over 20 inches in spots by the time it ended.

I had turned 13 a little over a week before.

It’s snowing outside right now. I doubt it will approach 20 inches. They’re only predicting 8. But they were only predicting 2-3 that night 26 years ago.

Apparently however, despite the accumulation, it wasn’t a blizzard. (”What the heck was it?” I hear a few people ask.)

For a blizzard to have occurred, the following conditions must have prevailed for a period of 3 or more consecutive hours:

• Sustained wind or frequent gusts to 35 miles an hour or greater, and
• Considerable falling and/or b>lowing snow that reduces visibility frequently to less than 1/4 mile.

The second of those two requirements happened. The first one did not. It was just a snowstorm.

As seen at the Blog on the Edge of Forever:

Find out census information for your zipcode at ZipSkinny

My results:

Where I work:

High school or higher: 73.2%
Bachelors or higher: 18%
Median Household Income: $17,852
Unemployed 7.9%
Below Poverty Line 34.1%
Population: 4603
Density: 2102.88 (people per sq mile)

Where I Live

High school or higher: 92%
Bachelors or higher: 54.7%
Unemployed 1.6%
Below Poverty Line 5.9%
Median Household Income: $49,054
Population: 9072
Density: 3900.9

Where I grew up
High school or higher: 96.7%
Bachelors or higher: 70.3%
Unemployed 2.1%
Below Poverty Line 8.7%
Median Household Income: $62,252
Population: 14490
Density: 4889.22

(for those who know where I grew up and have large question marks in their mind right now. Here’s a hint: Washington University’s college dormitories fall within the zip code.)

I’ve blogged in the past about how much I like Everest Cafe, which is downtown on Washington Avenue and 19th streets. Excellent Nepalese and Korean food at economical prices. (e.g. an all you can eat lunch buffet for $6.95)

Was there for lunch today and noticed two things.
1) they now have a website.
2) They’re moving to 4145 Manchester in a couple months. (This is just west of Vandeventer, before Manchester becomes Choteau.)

The following statement was true in 2003

“Albert Pujols is the only player in Major League history to bat .300 or better with at least 30 home runs, 100 runs scored and 100 RBI in his first three Major League seasons”

After 2006, all you had to do was change the ‘three Major League seasons’ to six.

8 games out, I don’t have much hope in the Cards staging another comeback. They had a chance for a moment there, but lost it. Right now, I’m rooting for the Cubs to beat the Brewers in our division (still don’t feel the Brewers belong in the National League, and Cubs fans deserve something to cheer about occasionally.) I would like the Cardinals to finish over 500, but that will be a challenge too. Mostly, I want Albert to continue his streak, and he’s cutting it close. He has the homeruns and without doing any math, I’m pretty sure the batting average will stay over 300. But he only has 93 runs, and 95 rbis, and the season ends as September ends. He can do it, he’s just cutting it closer than he usually does.

Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream.
Throw your teacher overboard and listen to her scream!

There were eight contributions to the initial StlBlogger Blog Carnival, and I consider this a great turnout, considering the theme I chose probably disappointed some people.  I found all the entries interesting reading.  Thanks to everyone who participated!

Homemade Sin welcomed us to the Freak Show as she talked about her experiences as a non-native St.Louisan, and dealing with The Question she kept getting asked.

Kathy at Five Dollar Camera talked about her high school years in fashion.  She had me hooked with the Catholic Schoolgirl uniform.  Especially since it was illustrated.

High School brings back Autumnal memories for many.  Fluidpudding wrote about four separate fall memories..

Kat of Plays With Yarn, another non-native, writes of making up an answer to The Question.

HK Muse of Cat and Muse in Farming 101 talks about a shock she received, which led to a bout of paranoia, and ultimately a realization about her friends.

Rev Matt  in I’m Losing Status at the High School  recalls the music he used to listen to, and how he finally came to his senses.

Sarah Lynn  at Yeah, But Houdini Didn’t have these Hips, also writes about The Question from a non-native point of view as well as addressing her concerns as a parent and picking a school district for her children.
 
And I, at TransylvanianDutch  recall a handful of my high school experiences, from a four month stay in a hospital, to 4-years in the National Forensic League.

Thanks to all who participated.

The winner of a free packet of hot sauce is Kat of Plays With Yarn.  If she is interested in receiving the packet she should email me an address for me to send it to.

STLBlogger Carnival #2 will be hosted by HK Muse, and the topic will be “What was the most important day of your life.”  She’ll be responsible for posting the details.

She will post them at StlBloggers.com.

In St. Louis it is a common question to ask someone you’ve first met where they went to high school.

Some people claim this is just a way to see if you might have any shared acquaintances — as a means of finding something to talk about. Of course — asking them where they live and work now, as opposed to where they lived 5, 10, 20, 30 years ago might be better for this purpose.

The only thing the question really does well, at least in St. Louis with people who have always been St. Louisans, is classify your parents by socio-economic or religious background. Of course, few people who like asking the question want to admit that that is what it is best for.

I think a better question would be “So, Where did you go to Nursery School.” Not better in the information gleaned, but I would just like to see the reaction on someone’s face as I asked that question.

I went to The Ethical Society. At least, I am told I did. I have no recollection. Interestingly, I live closer to The Ethical Society today than I do to any other school I have ever attended.

Later this month I will write a post about high school. Several other St. Louis area bloggers will be doing so as well. It’s my fault. I started a Blog Carnival at StlBloggers.com, and I made High School the first theme. It seemed appropriate for St. Louis.

I may or may not mention in my blog post that I went to Clayton High.

…just kidding. (I guess I shouldn’t joke. There are still 3 more hours left, it could happen.)

For those who haven’t been reading any of my blog posts for the past couple weeks (and why haven’t you?!) there’s a performance tonight of several Slam Poets from the Wabash Triangle Cafe era (along with a few members of the current St. Louis Slam Team). It all starts at 8 pm at the Regional Arts Commission, which is on Delmar, Across the Street from The Pageant. (And The Pageant was built on the ashes of The Wabash.) I will be one of the poets performing. There will be explicit content and explicit language in the poems. I can guarantee that. So parents should keep that in mind. I have no idea whether I will be scheduled first, last, or in the middle. There is a $5 admission fee, which is miniscule for an evening of quality Performance Poetry.

AG Edwards is being bought out by Wachovia Bank.

I worked there for 10 years. Yeah, they basically kicked me out on the street in 2002, in a major ‘workforce reduction’. I shouldn’t be sad about this. But I worked there for ten years, and it’s been a St. Louis institution for 120 years. The “Wachovia Securities” division will be moving here, so it’s not like all the St. Louis jobs will be lost. No one’s saying right now, naturally, what the plans are for consolidation. The deal won’t likely be completed until October. But my suspicion is a lot of jobs will be lost, as much of the “back office” work (like IT where I was) will likely be moved to the Wachovia headquarters, where the work’s already being done by someone else.

There may be a few champagne bottles being uncorked at Edward Jones. No one will ever confuse them again with another brokerage, and they’ll likely get a few AGE customers who like the idea of an independent brokerage.

I attend the St. Louis Renaissance Festival every year. Over the years I’ve been working on putting together a jester outfit. A colleague asked me if there were jesters in Renaissance Europe — he thought they were more medieval.

A little research suggests they ended in England in the 16th century, but were existent in France up to the French Revolution (late 18th). The Wentzville Faire is set in France, under the reign of Francis I, early 16th century. He ushered in the Renaissance for France, and his court Jester was perhaps one of the more famous court jesters — at least in literature. Triboulet, star of Victor Hugo’s Le Roi s’Amuse (The King’s Diversion), and Verdi’s remake into an opera - Rigoletto.

Hugo took liberties with the real individual, but here’s a few illustrations for his character:

What isn’t clear from the illustrations is he’s a hunchback. Hugo liked characters with that deformity apparently. Not sure if I’ll work that into my costume, but I already have the beard.

No, I have not been appointed a sysop of Wikipedia. I don’t believe I have the time to take on that task anyway. Way too much work.

I have been appointed as sysop for WikiLou - the St. Louis Wiki I’ve mentioned before. There are approximately 1150 articles at WikiLou, which is miniscule compared to Wikipedia, but WikiLou is less than a year old. Anyone who enjoys the power of Wiki, and has stuff to say about people, places or things in the St. Louis area should check it out and see if there is anything they wish to add/edit. With growing contributors it could become a great local resource.

The list of active Sysops for Wikilou is pretty short at this time. The creator of the site, Michael Peters, who is not the cartoonist, and myself.

A couple months ago I mentioned The Roof is on Fire a documentary on the St. Louis Poetry Scene. The trailer video I included featured Slam Poet, Paul Stewart, but the documentary is actually, it appears, focused more broadly.

I have been asked to perform 2-3 poems at a poetry showcase that will become part of the documentary. Here are the details I know so far:

What: Up from the Ashes: Poets of the Wabash Triangle Café
When: Saturday, June 16, 7:30pm
Where: Regional Arts Commission 6128 Delmar Blvd.

I don’t know who will be on the list of poets. I can come up with a list of who I would send invitations to if I were putting this together. I remember the names of most of the poets who performed at the Wabash, and have remained in touch with a handful. Who will be available is not a question I can answer at this time. But I will be there.

And oh yes. I am 99.999999% likely to perform Sick Puppy as one of the three poems. I perform it so rarely nowadays, that will be an added plus. I am also not the only poet with poetry unsuitable for youngsters. So parents should keep that in mind.

I will be at the Maryville Marriott this weekend. (Take the Maryville University exit off 40/64 West, make a right, and it will be on your left.)

ShowMeCon, the junior St. Louis Area Science Fiction Convention, is having their 5th annual convention. (Archon is the senior con, with 30 under its belt.)

Once again my responsibility is the “hospitality room”, though I will need to spend less time there than in past years, so if you make it down there, you might find me elsewhere during the day. But I will be in the hospitality room at night.

You can find very little about Micah P. Flint and his poetry on the web. Here’s a short excerpt from a biographical sketch.

When Micah was yet a boy, his father (Timothy Flint) selected the West as a field for missionary labor, and the young poet received his education, with his father for tutor, at St. Louis, New Madrid, New Orleans, and Alexandria Mississippi, to which places Rev. Mr. Flint’s engagements as a missionary successively called him. When failing health finally required his father to suspend his labors as a minister, Micah studied law and was admitted to the bar at Alexandria, but was not permitted to become known as a lawyer. His first published poem was on a mound that stood near a farm-house in Cahokia prairie, Illinois, to which for a few months, when his health required a respite from severe labors, his father took the family. It was written in 1825, and was printed in Timothy Flint’s “Ten Years in the Mississippi Valley”.

When I first read the above sketch, I stumbled over the phrasing “not permitted to become known as a lawyer.” I wondered, “did he fail a test?” “was there a scandal?” “would no one hire him?” On the contrary, I think it is one of those wacky 19th century euphemisms; he only lived to age 23.

I couldn’t find the Cahokia poem anywhere…except in a scanned in version courtesy of Google Books. And the mournful cries of a widowed turtle in the opening stanza hooked me. So I transcribed it.

(From: The Poets and Poetry of the West by William Turner Coggeshall. 1860.)

The Mounds of Cahokia

The sun’s last rays were falling from the West,
The deepening shades stole slowly o’er the plain,
The evening breeze had lulled itself to rest:
And all was silent, save the mournful strain
With which the widowed turtle wooed in vain
Her absent lover to her lonely nest.

Now, one by one, emerging to the sight,
The brighter stars assumed their seats on high,
The moon’s pale crescent glowed serenely bright,
As the last twilight fled along the sky,
And all her train in cloudless majesty
Were glittering on the dark, blue vault of night.

I lingered, by some soft enchantment bound,
And gazed, enraptured, on the lovely scene.
From the dark summit of an Indian mound
I saw the plain, outspread in softened green,
Its fringe of hoary cliffs, by moonlight sheen,
And the dark line of forest, sweeping round.

I saw the lesser mounds which round me rose,
Each was a giant mass of slumbering clay.
There slept the warriors, women, friends and foes.
There, side by side, the rival chieftains lay;
And mighty tribes, swept from the face of day,
Forgot their wars, and found a long repose.

Ye mouldering relics of departed years!
Your names have perished; not a trace remains,
Save, where the grass-grown mound its summit rears
From the green bosom of your native plains.
Say! Do your spirits wear oblivion’s chains?
Did death forever quench your hopes and fears?

Or live they, shrined in some congenial form?
What if the swan, who leaves her summer nest
Among the northern lakes, and mounts the storm,
To wing her rapid flight to climes more blest,
Should hover o’er the very spot where rest
The crumbling bones once with her spirit warm.

What if the song, so soft, so sweet, so clear,
Whose music fell so gently from on high,
In tones aerial, thrilling my rapt ear;
Though not a speck was on the cloudless sky,
Were their own soft funereal melody,
While lingering o’er the scenes that once were dear?

Or did those fairy hopes of future bliss,
Which simple Nature to your bosoms gave
Find other worlds with fairer skies than this,
Beyond the gloomy portals of the grave,
In whose bright bowers the virtuous and the brave
Rest from their toils, and all their cares dismiss?

Where the great hunter still pursues the chase,
And o’er the sunny mountains tracks the deer,
Or finds again each long-extinguished race,
And sees once more the mighty mammoth rear
The giant form which lies embedded here,
Of other years the sole remaining trace.

Or it may be that still ye linger near
The sleeping ashes, once your dearest pride;
And, could your forms to mortal eye appear,
Could the dark veil of death be thrown aside,
Then might I see your restless shadows glide,
With watchful care, around these relics dear.

If so, forgive the rude, unhallowed feet,
Which trode so thoughtless o’er your mighty dead.
I would not thus profane their low retreat,
Nor trample where the sleeping warrior’s head
Lay pillowed on its everlasting bed,
Age after age, still sunk in slumbers sweet.

Farewell; and may you still in peace repost.
Still o’er you may the flowers, untrodden, bloom,
And gently wave to every wind that blows,
Breathing their fragrance o’er each lonely tomb,
Where, earthward mouldering, in the same dark womb,
Ye mingle with the dust, from whence ye rose.

—

The reference to the deceased races calls to mind Longfellow’s poem The Jewish Cemetery at Newport. However, Flint must be given credit for allowing within the poem he could be wrong, and that if he were, apologizing for treading upon their graves.

Note for non-St. Louisans: The Cahokia Mounds are immediately across the Mississippi River from St. Louis.

Eugene Field (1850-1895) - was born in St. Louis, spent his first seven years here, and lived here for four years in his twenties. and you can visit Eugene Field’s boyhood home today. It’s also a toy museum.

One of my favorite poems growing up was Eugene Field’s The Duel (sometimes called, The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat). And there was no question that was my favorite poem of Field’s.

I have a new favorite Field poem, but it’s not one I would have understood completely as a lad:

The Bibliomaniac’s Prayer

KEEP me, I pray, in wisdom’s way
That I may truths eternal seek;
I need protecting care to-day,—
My purse is light, my flesh is weak.
So banish from my erring heart
All baleful appetites and hints
Of Satan’s fascinating art,
Of first editions, and of prints.
Direct me in some godly walk
Which leads away from bookish strife,
That I with pious deed and talk
May extra-illustrate my life.

But if, O Lord, it pleaseth Thee
To keep me in temptation’s way,
I humbly ask that I may be
Most notably beset to-day;
Let my temptation be a book,
Which I shall purchase, hold, and keep,
Whereon when other men shall look,
They ‘ll wail to know I got it cheap.
Oh, let it such a volume be
As in rare copperplates abounds,
Large paper, clean, and fair to see,
Uncut, unique, unknown to Lowndes.

Here’s a St. Louis Wiki I recently discovered. It’s only six months old. OK, I discovered it back in October, when it was extremely new, and then proceeded to forget about it. I recently rediscovered it.

There are a few major differences in the philosophy behind WikiLou and behind Wikipedia.

To quote from the WikiLou Vision:

The main purpose of WikiLou is to provide information. The information here can be about anything to do with the St. Louis area. Everyone knows something about the area, and if everyone puts what they know on WikiLou, we will have the most comprehensive collaborative database of knowledge about St. Louis that has ever been compiled. Don’t be afraid to make a page for the corner market, your street, even your own house. Nothing is too small to be recorded here…WikiLou is a place for everyone in St. Louis to get themselves out there.

So whereas articles will be deleted on Wikipedia if they are on something that isn’t sufficiently ‘notable‘, and contributors are cautioned against contributing to entries about themselves, this is actively encouraged at WikiLou.

There is a relatively new St. Louis Wiki under development. Lots of articles that need to be written.

This weekend several new metrolink stops are opening. One park-and-ride within minutes from my home.

Pros & Cons of Metro-link

Money:

$40/month saved on gas (figuring $3/gallon) Many St. Louisans have longer commutes than I do, and I get good mileage on my car, so many will save more on gas than I do.