Archives: July 2011

Music Forecast for the week

Blitzen Trapper, with Ages and Ages Many Blitzen Trapper songs follow a loose formula: Hijack a melody from Dylan or the Beatles, then toss in a blazing guitar à la Bowie or Queen to imbue it with dramatic flair. I care less for those than I do for their more streamlined meditative folk songs, which tend to do away with…

Pho Hoa is off the chain

Don’t hate Spike Nguyen for opening a franchise restaurant. The 40-year-old entrepreneur from Vietnam wanted to go into business by himself — he used to run a burger place in Houston with his brother — and he was impressed by the operation of the Sacramento-based Pho Hoa Noodle Soup chain. After Nguyen moved to Kansas City, he bought the franchise…

Jason Whitlock wants you all to know he’s responsible for Nick Wright’s ratings win

Kansas City’s media watchers all have a take on why Nick Wright’s ratings have improved this summer. Detractors say he’s riding the temporary swell of Royals’ games to a few fractions of a point’s lead in a small, yet significant, demographic. Fans say rival and longtime rating’s champ Kevin Kietzman’s show has become stale and predictable. Real journalists, however, look…

Three Kansas City, Kansas, police officers indicted for stealing video games and money

%{}% A federal grand jury has indicted Kansas City, Kansas, tactical team members Jeffrey Bell, Darryl Forrest and Dustin Sillings for allegedly stealing a PlayStation Portable and a Flip cam while serving a search warrant at a resident’s home last July, according to KMBC. The federal indictment unsealed Monday also accuses the three of stealing money, video games, a Nintendo…

Forget Trader Joe’s, let’s hear it for Aldi!

Last week’s opening of the two local Trader Joe’s stores in the metro — reported in Fat City by Jonathan Bender — got lots of media hoopla, including an excellent radio report on KCUR 89.3’s KC Currents program yesterday. (It will be rebroadcast tonight at 8.) The Ward Parkway store was wildly crowded on Sunday morning — two days after…

Ozzie Guillen wants MLB to mandate visits to Negro Leagues Hall of Fame

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen is known for running his mouth to reporters. He uses slurs. He rants. And he complains. But Guillen may have finally said something worth listening to. The skipper told ESPN reporter Doug Padilla that he likes to visit the Negro Leagues Hall of Fame when he’s in Kansas City. Taking his appreciation of the…

Marijuana donations are not being accepted at Goodwill — even in Lawrence

Of all of the places in Kansas, I’d peg Lawrence as the one open-minded enough to accept a donation of marijuana. But apparently the Goodwill there is too stuffy to accept some free bud. Some goodhearted, thoughtful, caring, charitable person dropped a small amount of pot in a Goodwill dropbox in Lawrence, according to the Lawrence Journal-World (via the Wichita…

The world’s largest tonsils belong to ex-Kansas State basketball player

Justin Werner is the pride of Topeka, Kansas. How could he not be? The 21-year-old is the world record holder for having the biggest tonsils. No need to call Guinness. They already know. The Topeka Capital-Journal spotlighted Werner’s gigantic tonsils — one measured in at 2.1 inches long, 1.1 inches wide and 0.7 inch thick and the other at 1.9…

Grunauer deserves points for its honesty

In an era when seemingly every restaurant is attempting to find ways to incorporate the latest trends or bring in badly needed revenue, it’s nice to see somebody deciding to do one thing very well. The above tweet from Grunauer is a funny reminder that the Viennese restaurant in the Freight House District does exactly that. Here’s to sticking to…

Bernard Jackson convicted in 1980s Waldo-area rapes

This came in late Friday afternoon: A jury convicted Bernard Jackson of all 18 charges of rape, sodomy and robbery from incidents in 1983 and ’84. The jury found the 53-year-old Jackson guilty of seven counts of rape, seven counts of sodomy and four counts of robbery. Categories: News Tags: Bernard Jackson, Waldo rapes

Joe Accurso sells his namesake restaurant

Nearly three decades after restaurateur Joe Accurso took over the old Main Street Deli at 5044 Main and transformed it into a popular neighborhood Italian restaurant, he’s getting out of the day-to-day restaurant operation. Accurso, who opened his current restaurant at 4980 Main in 2009, sold the restaurant to his cousins on July 1. Craig Accurso — senior vice president…