respublica

"They're tailgating, screaming and letting fingers fly."

The Post Dispatch updates readers on the progress of the Poplar Street Bridge re-surfacing and finds that drivers are becoming unglued after 2 months of sitting in long jams. 

"They're tailgating, screaming and letting fingers fly. They're refusing to let others merge, and they're crashing more often."

This I can believe, traveling over that bridge numerous times a week.  The worst moment for me was the days just after the power went out all over the St. Louis area.  While two thirds of the population of this area were struggling with no electricity, buying food meal by meal, trying to keep cool, the construction on the bridge continued unabated throwing drivers attempting to get across the river into massive jams.

Insult to injury.  Now it seems everyone is fed up with the constant mess on that bridge.  Supposedly, according to MoDOT, things will "flow better this week because crews will move resurfacing to the outer lanes from the center lanes."  I'll believe that when I see it.  It is just not possible. 

An additional story in the P-D brings up the next horror looming over the St. Louis traffic horizon, the complete re-structuring of Highway 40 and a possible complete shutdown for 3 years.  Some workplace expert, Daniel G. Jay, believes the road shut down will cause "heads down" workers to turn their dining rooms into their offices and work from home.

Those MoDOT experts need to pay attention to what has happened to the patience of drivers trying to get across the Poplar each day and multiply that frustration by a thousand in order to predict what they will be dealing with in the event of a 3 year Highway 40 closure.

Foul weather friends

The MAtH (man about the house) and I are pleased to see that Dianne Isbell's Monday Etiquette column in the Belleville News Democrat is back online and ready to be linked.

Me: Dianne is back!

MAtH:  Oh, good.

Me:  She has a letter from someone who was helped by neighbors during last week's power outage.

MAtH:  So, I was right last week when I predicted she'd have some power outage etiquette.

Me:  You're prescient and Dianne is always relevent.

MAtH:  hahaha.  And you're just too funny too early in the morning.

"It simply can't be done."

Paul Salopek, a Pulitzer Prize winning correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, did what "they" said couldn't be done, he tracked some crude oil from its beginnings in the ground somewhere in the Middle East to its end point at a specific gas station in South Elgin, Illinois. 

After months of discussions with oil companies and a refinery in Robinson, Illinois, as well as a stint working as an attendent in the afore mentioned Elgin station, Salopek became convinced he had "followed that oil" from it source all the way to the pump.  I think I may have read that story somewhere before....

No, I'm thinking of a Food Network program, "Follow that Food".  Maybe Salopek's early detractors who told him his oil story couldn't be done were only partly right.  Is this a story that needed to be done?

Pizza tossing

Could this be one of those "throw away" posts?  Something light in aid of nothing more than finding something to write about after a long hot car ride back home?  Nah

I've always wanted to know how to toss pizza dough in the air like the expert pizza makers have always done in their store fronts or in back by the ovens.  Tried it in the kitchen a few times, but it always tears.  It looks like I'm not alone in this because some pizza throwing experts who even have a U.S. Pizza Team, have invented the "Throw Dough", a disc which imitates the texture and weight of real pizza dough.  Practice with the Throw Dough, then amaze your friends with the real thing.

Out on the town of Emporia

Finishing up the Emporia trilogy are a few photos of some points of interest in the city which make it unique.

Our first stop after a tour of the Emporia State U campus was the best antique place I have ever been in for pure quantity of merchandise, uniqueness of merchandise and price.  Poehler Merchantile was so much fun I wished I had known about it on Friday.  One room in the building is given over to Kansas sports memorablilia complete with a lifesize cutout of Wilt Chamberline.  click continue to see more of our tour of this interesting city.

Daytripping through Emporia State University

The bank thermometer may have read 103 at 1 this afternoon, but my sister took my mom and I to a few 'must see' areas in Emporia.  We began at Emporia State University where she teaches, a university which has as its undergraduate specialty, education.

The main entrance to the campus is filled with lush, crispy, flowers which show no sign of the heat and dry weather.

Click continue for more ESU photos.  Believe me, they're worth a look.

Downtown Emporia kansas

Wouldn't it just figure that the weekend we move my mother turns out to be the hottest weekend of the year in Kansas.  The Kansas city tv weather guy had a graphic I have never seen before, a huge section of the middle of the country colored in black...for vicious heat.  Normally high temperatures are shown in dark red, but around here they use black.  Sort of reflects the mood of most people as they hunker down inside, venturing out only in the early morning or around dusk. 

But I, I ventured out around noon to take a look at downtown Emporia Kansas.  The stores are all open, but very few folks are out on the sidewalks.  With that black weather graphic in mind, some photos....click continue to have a look see.  click the photos to enlarge

News from Kansas

Spending the weekend at an undisclosed location in Kansas while my sister and I move my mother into a smaller apartment which is lovely and brand new. What's new in Kansas? Here's what I found interesting this morning

Worst date ever.

A jury in a case of a man who shoved a cell phone down his girlfriends throat deliberated for 3 hours and then stopped for the night. Will resume today. How is it possible to get a cell phone down a throat?

Kansas City Royals got 14 hits last night and still lost to Baltimore.

72 percent

From Gateway Pundit: 72 percent of responders to a question on the Democratic Underground discussion board which asked whether they are dealing with severe mental illness in their homes, answered yes.

This was a very unscientific survey put up on one particular blog which focuses on hard left political issues, so it cannot be said to reflect anything at all about democrats in particular. But, it does reflect what might be the reasons for so much of the hateful speech found in the comments on those particular blogs.

Another conviction for Ellis

Vote buying became more than handing out ten dollar bills in East St. Louis during the run-up to the 2004 election as city director of regulatory affairs and democratic party leader, was sentenced to ten years in prison for plotting to kill a government witness.

This miserable story finally ends with Ellis, who has been in prison since January of 2005 for vote fraud and tax evasion, expected toserve this latest sentence at the same time as the others and will be elibible for parole in 2013.

Paying for votes is not an innocuous thing. Don't believe for a minute it doesn't hurt anyone. Arizona just may want to rethink their grand plan to make their September primary and November general elections a million dollar lottery.