On the South Side

Well, it's all over. The Astros convincingly beat the Cardinals in 6 games of the NLCS and they're on their way to their first ever World Series. They're a class team and I'll be rooting for them in the Series. I guess the poignancy of the end of Busch Stadium, the only stadium I've ever known, somewhat overshadows the loss and the end of the season. There'll be another season; just not in this ballpark. My dad put some perspective on it the other day when he commented that he remembers feeling like this over the old Sportsman Park, but then he realized that the Cardinals had more years in this Busch Stadium than the old park. Turns out he may be off by a couple of years, but his point hit home with me. Ball parks, like most everything in this life, come and go; it's just a building. Kinda like a church. It's time for a new generation to capture some new memories in the new ballpark. We're lucky here in St. Louis; we have a good team most every yea

It all started Friday afternoon. I left work a little early so as to renew my license plates. They were already overdue, of course. The DMV near my house has closed, so I happily drove to the nearest location, which is not-so-near my house. I joined the line of similarly natured folks and soon enough noticed a hand-written sign on the wall reading, “We not accept Credit or Debit Cards.” Now, first of all, can the state of Missouri not afford a real sign? And second of all, why not? Anyway, I left. What do I care, I have a pleasant evening and weekend ahead of me, I’ll just come back in the morning and get this all straightened out. So, the evening rolls around; Annette is visiting her sister, Emily is coming home tomorrow (Sat.) for a family wedding, and I have the evening to myself. And thus is began. Still Friday evening the phone rings and it’s Emily. She had told us that she had a ride to St. Charles and we would then pick her up there sometime Saturday. She tells me that she’s ar

A quote from Peggy Noonan today: Here are some maybes. Maybe the president has simply concluded he has no more elections to face and no longer needs his own troops to wage the ground war and contribute money. Maybe with no more elections to face he's indulging a desire to show them who's boss. Maybe he has concluded he has a deep and unwavering strain of support within the party that, come what may, will stick with him no matter what. Maybe he isn't all that conservative a fellow, or at least all that conservative in the old, usual ways, and has been waiting for someone to notice. Maybe he has decided the era of hoping for small government is over. Maybe he is a big-government Republican who has a shrewder and more deeply informed sense of the right than his father did, but who ultimately sees the right not as a thing he is of but a thing he must appease, defy, please or manipulate. Maybe after five years he is fully revealing himself. Maybe he is unveiling a new path that

This is the first time I've disagreed with so many conservatives. I'm talking, of course, of the nomination to the Supreme Court of Harriet Miers. Most conservative pundits; and that is most, not all, have been "deflated" as a result of this nomination. I use the word deflated because it seems to appear most in the editorials I've been reading, and I think it describes what all these conservatives are feeling. "Angry" is another word; yes, cheated and angry. They don't know where she stands on abortion? Oh, gosh, let's see... I'll bet she's pro-choice! Yeah, right. But she's never been a judge! Good, I say. It'll do the Court good to have someone who's worked for a living serving. And besides, it won't be the first time a nominee has never worked as a judge and it won't be the last time. It's cronyism I tell ya! Oooh, that one really hurts! Why, I've never heard of such a thing! (Do I sound like Jon Stewart

Yes, people stopped working and were nice to each other, bosses left early, trials were recessed; everyone just took a break today from their daily grind to take in the 1st play-off game between the Cardinals and the Padres. While listening to the game on the radio, the fans were roaring so loud, they were drowning out the announcers. It's the last post-season that will ever be played at the beautiful post-modern Busch Stadium and we all hope it will last until the end of October when the Redbirds will win their 10th World Championship under the steady hand of #10 Tony LaRussa. (Watch for the movie about Tony based on the book Three Nights in August.) It would be hard to describe the atmosphere in St. Louis during these times if one was not familiar with it. One of the women I work with is a devout Muslim and she wore a big bright red Cardinal T-shirt today. Very unusual. The Cardinals won against the hapless Padres; it was 8-to-1 most of the game but then in the top of the 9th