respublica

Hillcrest Neighborhood Parade 2008

Each 4th of July the Hillcrest neighborhood of Clayton holds a parade for everyone and anyone in the area who wants to participate.  Even dogs.  Hillcrest is an area roughly bounded by Wydown on the north, Dartford on the west, the Concordia Seminary campus on the south and almost Skinker to the east.  The parade begins on DeMun and Arundel heads north to Aberdeen where everyone turns west and heads to Dartford and then back down Arundel to Demun.

Each year everyone dresses in red, white and blue, kids decorate their bikes and adults decorate their dogs.  Kids are given big chunks of chalk in order to make a giant American flag on the surface of DeMun.

Alderman Judy Goodman on the right in the photo below, represents Ward 1 in which Hillcrest is located, always attends the parade and helps hand out small goodies to the kids.

Here they all come, parading back to the start point on DeMun.

Let's see some of the dogs who took part.

Ben's in the passenger seat of the golf cart and Georgia has to stand beside it.

Here come a couple of good sports. It's pretty cool out today so they're lucky they're not hotter.

Little dogs walk too.

Lola!

After the parade the kids could have horseback rides

Donkey cart rides

And a tour of Clayton's fire department vehicles

All the bikes and wagons got parked neatly

All took place under the watchful eye of one of Clayton's finest.

Happy Birthday USA.  From one neighborhood in America's heartland, Clayton Missouri.

A 4th of July tradition-hot dog eating contest

Nathan's Hot Dogs on Coney Island each 4th of July sponsors a hot dog eating contest.  Contestants see how many hot dogs and buns they can consume in 12 minutes.  This year the time limit will be shortened to 10 minutes in a nod to what someone discovered was the actual historical time frame.

Until last year, Takeru Kobayashi of Japan won the prized "Mustard Belt" and a check for $10,000, several years in a row.  It was thought no one was going to be able to scarf down enough hot dogs take Takeru down.  But last year, American Joey Chestnut won by swallowing 66 dogs and buns.

The contest will be shown on ESPN's Sports Center at 11 and 12 EST.

St Louis Fireworks

Flickr has a photo section given over to the images St. Louisans took of last year's fireworks.

Very cool, and, very well photographed.

Personal fireworks

This is the time of year when too many individuals head for those fireworks stands along interstates in places where it is legal to buy them and take them back to their neighborhoods where it is not legal to shoot them off.  But they do.

They were already going off in Collinsville last weekend.  In the St. Louis area, unincorporated St. Charles County, a family shooting off fireworks yesterday had their garage destroyed and the siding of the home next door melt after a smoldering firework dropped on the bag filled with other fireworks, igniting into a big blasting fire.

Everyone got out of the house, including the hamster and cat.  The thing is people who buy these things set them off at all times of the day and night, days before the 4th and days after.  Not only can terrible things happen to body and property, but it's truly annoying.  And, they scare dogs so badly they have been known to jump through windows, run off for miles, hang themselves by whatever rope type thing they've been hooked to, trying to escape the noise.

We often wake up the day after the 4th and see all kinds of spent firework stuff on roofs of garages and homes, in bushes, littering the lawn.  It's unsettling, especially in dry times to realize just how easy it is for fires to ignite.

We see crackdowns on speeding, drunk driving, seatbelt use and all manner of things over the 4th of July weekend, but it seems impossible to put a stop to these residential fireworks explosions. We stop buying tomatoes because they might make us sick, but we keep buying things that can blind us or burn our house down.

Did you know department

The city of Clayton has only two gas stations.  And both are so close to the boundary of two other municipalities you might even question whether Clayton has any gas stations at all.  One, a Mobile, is in the middle of Clayton road at Big Bend.  The south side of Clayton Road is in Richmond Heights and the north side is Clayton.  So the middle is?

The other is a BP Amoco on Forsyth near the old Famous Barr building, now a Wash U satellite.  Could almost be in University City.

I just found it interesting that a city as large as Clayton and a city which gets visitors from all over each day because of the county building and major offices, would not have more gas stations. 

Like every other city.

More Veep talk

While some republicans are pushing Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin for McCain's vice-presidential choice, the Obama campaign is seeing a groundswell of interest in another female governor, Kansas' Kathleen Sibelius.

Thought to be a successful democratic governor in an overwhelming republican state, Sibelius is thought by some democrats "that Sebelius could help Obama form a ticket that appeals to moderate Republicans and independent voters in search of a new kind of politics."

Interesting stuff.  In the end, we'll all be surprised by whoever the two candidates choose.  Surprised or disappointed.

Sauce Reader's Choice awards for 2008

The July issue of St. Louis' Sauce Magazine has their annual insert section on this year's winners in the readers choice of favorite restaurants by category.  I put it down after reading it last night when it occurred to me something was obviously missing.

Only one Illinois eatery was listed in any category, the 17th Street Bar and Grill received an honorable mention for barbeque.  The 17th Street Bar and Grill is in Murphysboro!  That's it for the Illinois Metro East as far as favorite places to eat in the entire St. Louis area.  No doubt this place has outstanding ribs, it's nationally known, but how can this be?  You have to drive all the way to Murphysboro to find a favorite place in Illinois?

Do Metro East readers not bother filling out the Sauce entries?  Certainly Sauce has many readers on that side of the river and certainly there are good restaurants which have many fans.  I just don't get it. 

I can think of at least one place which should get either first, second, third or honorable mention in its category and that is Bobby's Frozen Custard.  It's a given that Ted Drewes will always take first, but Bobby's is as good as any, better than most others, and is always packed. 

There are good restaurants and bars and hamburgers and pizza and etc all over the Metro East.  This year's Sauce awards has a huge void and will lead many on the west side of the river to continue to believe the metro east has nothing worth the drive.

The highest sales tax in the nation is...

in Chicago after the Cook County Board adopted a one percent increase to "fill a hole in the budget."  It is now at 10.25%. 

What is the sales tax locally?  It varies from city to city.  Here's St. Louis city.

The Eyes of History 2008

The White House News Photographers Association has the winning photo entries for 2008's competition online.  Click any category at the top of the page to see the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners along with a short explanation of the shot.

Disposing of those CFL's

Pat of Chicago Bungalow has a post on how regulated and convoluted the use and disposal of the soon to be required compact fluorescent lightbulbs are including some quotes from the EPA on how to do it.

Another example of how absurd over regulation can be.  Maybe consumers ought to take a look at LED bulbs instead of the much touted, mercury filled, CFL's.

Ballpark Village-Baghdad on Broadway

The only question most residents of the St. Louis metro area might have is why did it take so long for aldermen and the mayor to get tough on the stagnant hole next to Busch Stadium?

Alderman Fred Wessel wrote a letter to the Cardinal owners a couple of weeks ago in which he said, "For more than two years, the owners have allowed the property to remain the largest mud hole in any downtown in the Midwest," Wessels said in his letter. "I consider the condition of the property to be an insult to the citizens of the St. Louis metropolitan area — the same people who helped to fund the new baseball stadium."

Shortly after that letter, Mayor Slay wrote on his website, "Nobody, including me, likes That Hole. Please do something with it now," Slay said. "City inspectors will be visiting That Hole this week. Please let them know your plans for it."

After two years and two letters late in coming: "The weeds have been cut and the trash picked up from around the chain-link fence. Water is being pumped from a large hole that has turned into a pond. But what will happen beyond that is unclear."

This embarrassing mess has been the topic of complaint from many in the area for two years, including many discussions by KMOX's Charlie Brennan.  Why did it take so long for city leaders to finally reach the end of their patience?

Not so soft styling

The New York Times has a story on the Paris fashion show featuring the men's collection for spring 2009.  The reporter doesn't care much for the entries and describes them as "soft-touches, too heavy handed and meaningless."

Looking through the photos of the clothing worn by the male models in the show, I'd be more inclined to call the collection cartoonish.  The print version of the NYT's has many more examples from this show than the website, but the online version is enough to see the designers entered the world of the absurd this season.

Another walk

When you walk west on Ellenwood, you end up leaving the neighborhood and enter the Washington University dormitories on the South 40.  It is an obvious entry or exit.

If you should turn and look back you'll see the longest, straightest, sidewalk ever.  Well, maybe not the longest, but it's among the straightest.

Back onto Wydown, the parkway between the east and west driving lanes are being watered tonight.

Storm water planters

At a recent meeting of Clayton's EEAC committee, we were shown a large poster which had a rendering of the planned changes to downtown.  One of the items of note was the addition of storm water planters which will be placed next to storm drain openings.  Storm water planters are used to catch much of the rain water runoff before it gets to the drain. 

The water goes into the planter's soil and is contained.  Any water which flows out of the planter when the soil is saturated, is much less that without the planter and, has had many of the bad chemicals filtered out. This link shows how they are used in Portland, Oregon.

This is an especially good idea for Clayton, a city in which many of the storm and sewer lines are combined.

Irritated by Fourth of July events

The MAtH (man about the house)and I and see the always relevant Dianne Isbell staying right on current events in her Monday Etiquette column in the Belleville News-Democrat today.

Me:  Dianne is highlighting letters from people about the 4th of July today.

MAtH:  Always on the cutting edge of current events, that's Dianne.  It's nice to know we don't have to read about weddings again today.

Me:  Well....not so fast concluding that.

MAtH:  You're kidding, right?

Me:  Nope.

Are you a bread knife buying chump?

Bill Burge of Stl. Bites, has an informative post on cooking knives and bread knifes in particular. 

The bread knife, "a knife people either don't own or a knife they get bamboozled on."

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

What's happening on the Washington Mall these days?  The Smithsonian is holding their annual Folklife Festivals and today was given over to Texas.  Texas music, Texas food, Texas wine.  Our older daughter and son-in-law took the two little boys to celebrate the Texas half of their heritage.

Christian found the only weed growing on the Washington Mall.  Unless that is one of the famous Texas Blue Bonnets.

No Shiner Bock for Connor.  Are we noticing a pattern here?  Cardinal fans!  Both boys. 

Texas is so much fun.

Where will the price of oil go?

Via Jerry Pournelle:  Scroll down to June 28

Five years ago we were told that increased refinery and oil pumping capability in the US would do no good because it would take five years for those to affect gas pump prices. Query: if we had greatly increased supply over the past five years, would not oil be at about $75/bbl, still high, but not headed to $200? And if we do nothing to increase supply now, where will oil go?

What will happen to the US economy in a time of $7/gallon gasoline and diesel fuel? And how long can we continue to send trillions to the Near East where it is used to buy the most profitable parts of the United States?

Are any politicians actually addressing these problems? Obama would hit the oil companies with new taxes. I do not recall a time when increasing a tax on a business caused a lowering of prices for that  business's goods.

The US does not need to be crippled. We have enormous energy resources in the US. We need to develop them: or we will soon have a very green, very clean, US -- only we won't own much of it. And as energy prices rise, we won't commute and we can't afford to change jobs. Like peasants.

Top 50 travel destinations

For the Fourth of July .  Via Priceline

St. Louis is number 7.  Fair St. Louis and Live on the Levee gave the city its high marks.

We're ahead of Boston which came in at number 8.  How surprising great is that?

Private golf courses-the last bastion of male only

The New York Times has a story on the Phoenix Country Club, a private golf club which remains tightly bound to its traditional "men only" grill.  The grill appears to be the only place a golfer can get a drink and talk with others.  There is a dining room which is only open during meal times and women may eat there.  But the rest of the time women members are relegated to a womens grill room:

"As teenage boys saunter into the sumptuously appointed men’s grill room, their mothers are relegated to the ladies’ grill, down the hall with a hot plate, some card tables and no bar."  Additionally, "Women at the club are not permitted to have lunch in the men’s grill room with their husbands after a round of golf; they have been barred from trophy ceremonies after tournaments, even ones they have sponsored, and may not participate in one of the most sacred rituals of the men’s grill room — sealing a deal over a beer with a client."

Augusta National is well known for not allowing women as members, but Phoenix does.  However, they are made to feel less than welcome.  Women are involved in everything these days, working in every possible occupation, running for highest office, but yet, private golf courses seem to be the last places on earth where they may not participate fully.

This is just such a weird golfing community philosophy.