This Week’s Day-by-Day Picks

Thursday, March 6, 2003

Her first book, The Boyfriend Test, explained to women what they should look for in a man. In her latest quiz-happy installment, The Girlfriend Test, Wendy Walsh tells women what behaviors they should curb to attract “commitment-minded men.” (A tendency to menstruate is one of them: “Are you aware of how your menstrual cycle can sabotage relationships?”) Walsh, a self-proclaimed feminist with an Emmy and a master’s degree in psychology, used the not-so-scientific method of interviewing 100 men to create a man-friendly female prototype. Finally, sage advice from “Man, 24, New Hampshire,” “Man, 29, California” and “Man, 30, Tennessee.” To ask Wendy about your score on her “Meeting and Hooking-Up” quiz, go to Unity Temple (707 West 47th Street) at 7:30 p.m. For information, call Rainy Day Books at 913-384-3126.

Friday, March 7, 2003

In honor of Oscar season, the raunchy improvisational group Full Frontal Comedy pokes fun at Hollywood and the entertainment industry with Fame, Fortune, and Freaks. The troupe, known for discussing double-headed dildos and launching the f-bomb with little regard for innocent civilians, presents the unscripted comedy sketches at 8 p.m. at the Chestnut Fine Arts Center (234 North Chestnut in Olathe). Tickets cost $10 and afford audience members the right to shout out their own perverse improv suggestions. Call 913-403-4340.

Adults who are genetically predisposed to wild imaginations might enjoy this weekend’s DNA Litfest, the Reading Reptile’s seventh annual children’s literature festival. Children and their parents can interact with seven top authors and illustrators, including Southwest desert woman Byrd Baylor and picture-book creator Janet Stevens. The authors present at “Kids Day,” 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Rockhurst University (1100 Rockhurst Road), and sign books from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Reading Reptile (328 West 63rd Street) after Paul Mesner’s puppet performance saluting the guests’ work. Tomorrow, folks interested in creating their own children’s literature can attend a daylong conference with the authors, four of whom have earned that fabulous Caldecott Medal. “Kids Day” costs $5 for children and $10 for adults, and the puppet show costs $2; conference fees are $35 to $60. Call 816-753-0441.

Saturday, March 8, 2003

If Jewel can have A Night Without Armor and Marky Mark can have Boogie Nights, can’t Lawrence rockers have a night as hip gallery artists? Brave & Small combines small (hence the name) photographs, jewelry, paintings, digital work and more by area musicians and artists at the Pink House (1131 Tennessee in Lawrence), which typically hosts rock performances. The collaboration is an effort to adjoin the art and music communities, whose creative sensibilities presumably flow from the same well of anguish and torment. The show, the second Pink House art outing organized by the Lawrence Art Collective and Lawrencerock.com, starts at 8 p.m. and offers spinning by DJs Omnes and Kid*fresh. For information, e-mail info@lawrencerock.com

Kansas City, fair though she may be, is not a premier destination for vacation planners around the globe. We’ll likely never have to maneuver our cars around bright-red double-decker buses with the Liberty Memorial painted on the sides, or assist map toters demanding “Ou est l’Hall de Bartle?” at street crossings. But, hey, why not be a tourist in your own town? Today, the Historic Kansas City Foundation offers spring bus tours exploring historic parks and boulevards from 9:30 a.m. to noon and the homes of KC celebs like Ernest Hemingway and Walt Disney from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Call 816-931-8448 for information and tickets, which cost $13 to $15.

Sunday, March 9, 2003

The only thing more splendidly hoity-toity than brunch at Powell Gardens is brunch at Powell Gardens with free wine tasting. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Café Thyme (1609 Northwest Highway 50 in Kingsville), day trippers can sample reds and whites from Bynum Winery, the 6-acre vineyard in nearby Lone Jack. The sprawling, weekly brunch costs $9.95. For more information, call 816-697-2600, extension 272.

Monday, March 10, 2003

David Macaulay, the host of the PBS architecture series Building Big, brings three-dimensional applications of the concepts in his best-selling The Way Things Work to St. Paul’s Episcopal Day School (4041 Main), where the gym is now a miniature city of hands-on exhibits. In his book, the author and illustrator make the physics of light bulbs and pulleys interesting with quirky drawings of a multitalented woolly mammoth, but tonight from 6 to 8 p.m. Macaulay (sans mammoth) focuses on architecture. At The Way Things Work for CUBE, benefiting the Center for Understanding the Built Environment, Macaulay will mingle with exhibit tinkerers and give a presentation. Tickets for admission, food and drinks cost $50. Call 913-262-8222, extension 3.

Tuesday, March 11, 2003

A society so awash in cynicism might do well to revisit the foundation of its optimistic ideals. Even cranky CNN-ophiles ought to swoon over an original draft of the Declaration of Independence, on display at Union Station (30 West Pershing Road) through March 16. The document, part of the traveling exhibit American Originals: Treasures From the Nation’s Archives, is one of two dozen “Dunlap Broadsides.” Horseback riders traversed the countryside with these typeset documents to read Thomas Jefferson’s words to colonists before the Founding Fathers scripted the famous signed version. It’s not even a dirty corporate ploy — admission is free. For information, call 816-460-2020.

Wednesday, March 12, 2003

Ghandi said, “Live as if to die tomorrow; learn as if to live forever.” Holocaust survivor Zev Kedem shares his thoughts on the precious nature of our time here on earth with the lecture “Schindler’s List: A Survivor Celebrates Life.” Kedem, whose name showed up on Oskar Schindler’s famous list, was liberated from the Auschwitz concentration camp at age eleven and grew to be a documentary filmmaker. (He consulted on and appeared in the Spielberg movie.) Today, there’s no little girl in a red coat, no interactive exhibit based on a fictitious young boy — just a man and his tale. The free lecture starts at noon in room 233 of the General Education Building at Johnson County Community College (12345 College Boulevard in Overland Park). Call 913-469-3807.