respublica

The Festival of St. Andrew the Apostle

November 30 is set aside as St. Andrew's Day in myriad world countries, as St. Andrew, one of the 12 apostles and brother of Peter is remembered.

To learn more about Andrew, head to Paul McCain's site.

We have our own St. Andrew namesake.

St Louis the butt of a joke

The famous satirical humor website, The Onion, made St. Louis the object of laughs yesterday.

"The Labor Department reported Monday that the U.S. economy created a staggering 4 million jobs in October, though government officials hastened to add that the new positions are all located in the St. Louis metropolitan area."

Finish the satire written as news bulletin here.

Broke?

Maybe this is part of the reason why.

True and funny because, admit it, you've been taken with some of these things at one time or another.

A literary Christmas Tree

Right smack in the middle of the main floor of Concordia Seminary's library stands an enormous Christmas Tree.  But this is no ordinary Christmas Tree made of fir or pine or plastic.  This one is made out of books created and built by Jill Oschwald, wife of Professor Jeff Oschwald with some help from their daughter and maybe one or two others.

Amazing technical feat and a backache at the end, I'd wager.  Those books look heavy.  What books are they?

They're catelogs of a kind I do not recognize.  

And on top...

The angel.

A job well done, Jill.  I can't even imagine what it took to do this.  

Another loss for St. Louis

Since 1953 Anheuser Busch has entered a float pulled by the Clydesdales in the Rose Parade, normally titled The City of St. Louis.

Now we learn that the new owners have decided not to enter this year because they want to invest in events which reach a higher concentration of beer drinkers.  

They don't think the millions of people who attend or watch the parade on television drink beer?

Sad times.

I wish Billy Busch well, the son of Gussie Busch has started a new brewery, The William K. Busch Brewing Company which is turning out beer under the Kraftig label.  Kraftig, the German word for powerful, is a lager and a lager light.  Maybe if he succeeds, St. Louis will have another well meaning promoter.  

I plan to buy some of this beer, give the new company a boost in hopes that the brewery will give St. Louis a boost.

American Airlines files for bankrupcy

Great.  Just one more problem for St. Louis flyers.  I hate to make this a local, personal thing, but ever since TWA was taken over by American, St. Louis travelers have seen the number of flights drop, fewer non stop flights and fewer destination cities.  

But American has been the main airline out at Lambert, if they go, will we be able to go?  

Thankfully Southwest has slowly begun filling the void, but they can't do it all.

Crestwood Missouri is for kids

Bloomberg Businessweek has published a study which resulted in locating the best city in each state for raising kids.  

The recognition for high academic achievement was part of what helped Crestwood get the title of Best Place to Raise Kids in Missouri. "I think all young folks know, the home comes second and its really education, education, education and so the fact that Lindbergh has the highest test scores in the state two years in a row, that certainly resonates with parents," said Superintendent Dr. Jim Simpson.

According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek magazine, Lindbergh students have an average math score of 83.79, while the state average is 54.13.

In reading, students have an average of 76.91, beating the state average of 51.68.

The city is also credited with having one of the lowest property tax rates in the St. Louis area, and one of the best municipal services in St. Louis County.

If you can find Watson Road, you'll find Crestwood.  Kudos to that city.

Morton Grove wins the title in Illinois.

Well well, hello down there Kansas

The latest NCAA men's basketball rankings are out and Missouri now sits at 13 and Kansas is 15.  How about them apples?  How long has it been since MU was ranked ahead of Kansas?  Or even had a stable ranking?  

Good going Tigers!  And St. Louis University!  They're now in the top 25 albeit number 25, but they've been on a winning tear these days, beating teams you'd never have expected them to beat.  

A product fail

Does anyone else have issues with present day hand held can openers?  I keep buying these things because they keep failing.  They'll work for a while but suddenly they won't turn around the can.  I don't know if this is because they're making them poorly these days or the cans are made of different metals but they quit or break.

I've purchased every brand of hand held can opener sold except for the really expensive restaurant types. I don't want an electric can opener sitting on the counter because I don't like clutter and the cutting circle gets dirty.  

Saturday night my last opener quit working when I was trying to open a can of olives so after church yesterday I went on the hunt for another one.  Got the typical kind which will break down and a funny egg shaped one which works on batteries and opens by itself.  

Put the egg on top of the can, push a button and off it goes, around the can til the lid is free.  It works, it's kind of weird, but it works for now.  

Kids tablet update

Yesterday I moaned about not being able to find any retailer online or in-store with the LeapPad tablet.  All completely sold out.  But this morning I got a text from my sister telling me to take a look at the Nabi Tablet for kids.

Wow.  Thanks Kathy!  I stopped everything (reading the paper and watching the morning news) and went to the computer and ordered the Nabi.  It is made for kids but works on the Android system which means it has access to lots of apps and has parental controls.  It also has a camera which can shoot video and an sd slot so that photos can be downloaded to a computer.  

Lots of games ( comes with Angry Birds, Cut the Rope and 13 others, educational programs, movies, music, mini usb port, microphone etc.  

All in all if you can't get the LeapPad, you night want to look at the Nabi.  It appears that Toys R Us has first dibs on selling it and they are doing pre orders right now.