On the South Side

I wish I could express the hundreds of different emotions that went through my head last night. We went up to the Fox Theatre for the annual St. Louis Public School Music Night. Kids from the music programs of all the City Schools get to perform on the big stage for the night. They spend the whole day there getting ready. A couple professional organizations volunteer their time, so it results in a great evening. Emotion #1: I spent my youth in those school bands and loved every second of it. It all started when, at age 11 or so, I asked my Dad if I could play drums. Well, what I really asked him was could I have a drum set? His answer was that if I took lessons, he'd buy me "a drum." Well, I went straight to the music director at Woodward Elementary the next day and announced, "I'd like to play the drums." He said, "I don't need any drummers, how about the trumpet?" I responded immediately, "sure! When do I start?" He gave me a little...

63 years ago today a bunch of big airplanes loaded with bombs took off from an American aircraft carrier, flew over Tokyo and managed to drop a few of those bombs before crash-landing in China. The Doolittle Raid, as it has come to be known, was credited with lifting morale in this country after Pearl Harbor, and has been immortalized by Hollywood in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo starring Spencer Tracy as James Doolittle. Most commentaries, like this one , stop there. A brave, spirited poke in the eye to the Empire of Japan, but militarily not much more. That couldn't be more wrong. At the very moment of the American bombing attack, the Japanese were debating whether or not to invade and take control of the little island of Midway. (So named because it was midway between Pearl Harbor and Tokyo.) It was held by the U.S., but had just a tiny airstrip and not much more. Would it even be worth the trouble? It would be easy to take, but then again, the Americans just might decide to take ...

Yes, the trees on Dover Place are turning green and the evening air is just warm enough that you can sit out without a jacket. After a evening of socializing and getting home with just enough time to walk up the steps before Emily called to get a ride home from work, I had the pleasure of sitting out with a neighbor for an hour or so. In case you missed it from an earlier blog entry, this is pretty much what I view as the meaning of life: sitting on the front porch on a warm summer evening, chatting with the folks from the south-side. From the great philosopher Barney Fife: "Yeah, I think I'll go home...take a nap...go over to Thelma Lou's and watch a little TV." Greater thoughts have never been thunk. Well, this neighbor and I, we got to talking about our childhood homes. And, instead of boring him with all the little details, I'm going to bore you with them: I spent the first 9 years of my life on the north side...of the south side; in what we now would call ...

Well, I sat down tonight to watch 2 hours of NBC. Hour number 1: An in-depth exploration of ``The DaVinci Code'' to separate fact from fiction. Hour number 2: Revelations Episode 1. I was expecting the worse for the DaVinci Code, but it was surprisingly good. Not great, but good. It was informative and fairly balanced. I think it presented the book and the phenomenon that has followed in a realistic way. What does that mean? For me, it means that it placed it properly along side such classics as Chariots of the Gods and Crop Circles: Signs of Contact. In other words it's a hoax that sounds cool to people searching for some meaning in this life. Many people will spend more time examining this ridiculous hoax than they will reading and studying the Bible or books about the Bible. Which brings us to Hour number 2. Revelatons is a mini-series produced by NBC and starring Bill Pullman of Independence Day fame. It, as the title suggests, gives us a look at the "end of...

I've come out of semi-retirement to report this breaking news story: Scientists Create Remote-Controlled Flies Yale University researchers say their study that used lasers to create remote-controlled fruit flies... read more

One of the things I'm responsible for at work is to electronically send the "Draw" down to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Newsaper for all "Single Copy" outlets in the greater St. Louis Area. "Draw" is just newspaper-speak for "request for papers" and "Single Copy" just means retail outlets, boxes that sit on the street and "hawkers," which are the kids that sell from the corners. So, yesterday (Friday), in addition to the entire world being focused on us due the NCAA Final Four being hosted by St. Louis, the Pope was sliding towards death. Since it sounded for a while that he might pass during the day on Friday, the Post-Dispatch understandably wanted to print more papers for the Saturday edition. If he died. I had to have both scenarios ready for the final decision by the Post that would come at around 10:45 pm. I left work thinking that he was going to die before then and Annette and I went out to eat. During that time I r...