Nice Bum

TUE 11/9
Ski bums are hot. When they’re not schussing down the slopes, they’re just the right amount of lazy (we hate those ambitious types), plus they have good hair and pink cheeks. Even though we don’t, um, ski, we’re still heading to the Snow Creek Ski Area informational meeting at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday just to check them out. The resort is off Highway 45 in Weston, 15 miles northwest of KC. Those who are interested can find out what skills or training would be required to date us — oops, we mean, to be a ski or snowboarding instructor. No experience is necessary; call 816-640-2200. — Annie Fischer

Marathon Man
This barista’s bravery is no caffeine daydream.

11/4-11/5
Show up at Muddy’s coffeehouse with a buck or two, and the cycle of paying it forward may commence. Coffee-shop owner Oliver Burnette runs the New York City Marathon on Sunday, and he’s challenging people to pay a dollar to guess his finishing time. The closest guess (or guesses, in the event of a tie) earns two months of free java, and all the money goes to the DeLaSalle Education Center, which helps students who have trouble learning in traditional school settings. Burnette has raised $6,000 for the center already, biking across Missouri and hiking Costa Rica with his previous Move for a Cause fund-raisers.

Place your bets at 318 East 51st Street, where Burnette works the counter from 6:30 to 11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, call 816-756-3121. — Sarah Smarsh

Pecanoclast
Celebrate the only pie that comes from trees.

SAT 11/6

We vowed not to mention another festival, but for pecan lovers, we’ll make an exception. We know how lonely it is being the only person at Thanksgiving (not wearing Depends) to request a generous portion of pecan pie, eliciting disgusted grimaces as we relish the drippy, caramel-like filling. We know what it means to admire the pecan’s divine symmetry, imagining heaven as an orchard with tubfuls of the sacred nut beckoning us to cast aside our earthly raiments and dive in.

The call to worship is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Pecan Pie Festival, three miles south of Virginia, Missouri, on V Highway. Urban pecanophiles should take U.S. Highway 71 south to Butler, then go east on Highway 52 to Virginia. It’s worth the 75-mile drive. Call 660-925-3253. — Jason Harper