So an Illinois chapter of the Ku Klux Klan is recommending that their pasty brothers and sisters boycott Hallmark ’cause Hallmark likes the gays and “homo sexuals.” Klan spelling, not mine. Our sister blog in St. Louis — the St. Log — received a press release succinctly explaining the reasons for such a boycott. See, Hallmark’s “trying to corrupt the…
Until yesterday, I had never even thought of calling the Kellogg Consumer Response Center (but in case you do, it’s 888-314-2060). But two days ago, that Michigan-based Kellogg’s announced it was “taking the precautionary measure” of putting a hold on some of its best-selling snack crackers: those cellophane-wrapped Austin brand and Keebler brand Toasted Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, Peanut Butter and…
Heads up, Missouri National Guard and Reserve members. If you like your boss (and who doesn’t?), you might want to click here. The secretary of defense wants your nominees for the Freedom Award, which I’m told is “the highest recognition given by the U.S. government to employers for their outstanding support of their employees who serve in the Nation Guard…
This picture looks kind of like Spidermums songs sound. Photo courtesy myspace.com/spidermums. The Spidermums may be six months dead, but as promised, frontman Josh Thomas has finished up one final batch of songs. “This was an album that the full band had rehearsed for, but just as we were getting ready to record, everyone moved out of town. So Gaurav…
Mental Floss has a list of the stories behind 11 famous cocktails. Mostly, they’re named after notorious people (as in the negroni, after Count Camillo Negroni) or famous clubs like the Manhattan. But Tom Collins is different and reading the list reminded me of its hilarious history. The name comes from a popular prank. Over the holidays I read the…
Or, more accurately, where was it? Hint: fritters. No, not Stephenson’s Old Apple Farm. Categories: Dining, Food & Drink
Jane Butel is the guru of Southwestern cooking: She’s written 19 books about the cuisine of the wild, wild west, with a special focus on chiles which are, in her opinion, more than just a pungent pod. Chiles, says Butel, help maintain one’s metabolism, create an endorphin reaction that excites body tissue, are good for the skin and heart, have…
I’m really looking forward to Metro Sports’ documentary series on the tough skating and fighting chicks in the Kansas City Roller Warriors. The series debuts tonight at 9, replays at 9:30 and airs Thursday nights at 9:30 for seven weeks. Roller Warriors recalls the 2008 season (the 2009 gets rolling next weekend). Last month, I talked with Charlie Parker, the…
A view of Chateau 24 before the furniture was moved in. (From Boulter’s Facebook.) Dave Boulter is best known as the often-present owner of Henry’s on Eighth in Lawrence. Whether working in the upstairs bar area or the downstairs coffee area, he always has time for a word or two with patrons. Tonight, Boulter opens a new bar called Chateau…
%{}% As mentioned in Pitch Forks this week, tonight at 7:30 KCPT debuts its version of Check Please! a television show that puts restaurant reviews in the hands of normal joes, for better or worse. Here’s the basic set-up: Three people each pick a local restaurant. It can be fancy or a truck stop, pretty much whatever that person likes….
I’m at the VooDoo Lounge last night and I’ve got my first whiskey and Coke and I’m off to the side of the stage watching the Architects perform. I’d never seen them before. I’ve heard their name thrown around a lot, but never heard any of their songs. And I think to myself – there’s nothing about this band I…
The confusing sign outside the grocery store at 43rd and Main says it’s a Wild Oats but it’s actually a Whole Foods. But if the Federal Trade Commission gets its way, it could be a Wild Oats again after all. After years of legal wrangling over antitrust allegations, Whole Foods was allowed to buy out its biggest competitor, Wild Oats,…
Despite having already been on The View and the Rosie O’Donnell show, local stratospheric YouTube belter Von Smith still has to work his way through the ranks of American Idol. Or does he? The Greenwood, MO, native singer appeared on Idol’s Kansas City stop last night and danced around all wacky and sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and was unanimously…
The Ad Hoc Group Against Crime will hold the year’s first vigil for a homicide victim tonight at 5. The family and friends of Richard Revels (pictured) and community members will meet at the site of his murder — Linwood Boulevard and Walrond Avenue. The public is invited to what unfortunately won’t be the last vigil for a murder victim…
Decemberism: n. A mental condition that causes 30-something American male rock songwriters to relapse to a state of their own early adolescence that is marked by a preoccupation with fantasy, Anglophilia, knights, maidens, The Hobbit and the British folk revival of the late 1960s. Or maybe I’m just projecting. After all, judging by the latest word from the Decemberists’ camp,…
As if the restaurant industry — and American diners — needed any more hits to the pocketbook: Looks like 2009 will be an expensive year for avocados. According to a story in last month’s Los Angeles Times, the California avocado crop is expected to be “the smallest since 1990 and possibly even as far back as 1980.” The reason? Last…
There are spokespeople and then there was Ricardo Montalban, who died yesterday at age 88. Between his debonair looks and Spanish accent, he could sell anything and often did. Here he is in 1983 extolling the virtues of Maxwell House ground coffee. Notice the way he twirls the cup of coffee below his nose and elongates “superb.” He takes a…
%{}% Well that didn’t take long, Burger King’s Facebook application, the Whopper Sacrifice, has been shutdown gutted by Facebook. An in-depth story on France’s most famous and influential food critic: François Simon. In recessions people drift towards comfort foods (a.k.a unhealthy but good-tasting). So naturally scientists are trying to change it so consumers will drift to healthy foods. I know…
Each Thursday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from area basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets. I do this for one reason: Knowledge is power. Weep No More, My Lady Author: W.E. Debnam Publisher: The Graphic Press, Raleigh, North Carolina Date: 1950 Discovered at: Charity Thrift Mart on Noland Road in…
Author Joe R. Lansdale may be a legendary figure amongst readers of genre fiction and fans of Elvis-y Bruce Campbell movies, but Brookside artist Nathan Fox had never heard of him before being asked to illustrate Lansdale’s Pigeons From Hell, adapted from the short horror story by Robert E. Howard. “Actually, I’d only known of Howard’s stuff from the Conan…
Author Joe R. Lansdale may be a legendary figure amongst readers of genre fiction and fans of Elvis-y Bruce Campbell movies, but Brookside artist Nathan Fox had never heard of him before being asked to illustrate Lansdale’s Pigeons From Hell, adapted from the short horror story by Robert E. Howard. “Actually, I’d only known of Howard’s stuff from the Conan…
Jazz music just doesn’t connect with our nation’s youth like R. Kelly and T-Pain. The Simpsons succinctly explained this phenomenon with the show’s famous parody of Bill Cosby: Ya see, the kids, they listen to the rap music, which gives them the brain damage. With their hippin’ and their hoppin’ and their bippin’ and their boppin’ … so they don’t…
Premiering tonight, at Kansas City’s most unpredictable community theater: your favorite big Jesus musical extravaganza! No, not the old religious one, with the jillion Hallelujahs. And not the one where He’s a superstar. Or that other Lloyd-Webber “Requiem” thing, the one with no rollerskates or neon or anything. And certainly not the one where He’s going to Rock You Sexy…
In college basketball, there’s nothing sweeter than a home-court advantage with a packed house of raucous, air-ball-jeering fans. Unfortunately for the University of Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos, Municipal Auditorium (301 West 13th Street) has provided as many pitfalls as slam dunks for the men’s squad in the early going. Despite promising road victories against respected Bradley and Wichita State squads, the…
