4 1/2 notes from a road trip
1) if you are ever in the st. louis area and have children or want to act like children, you simply MUST visit the city museum. it's a great place to play and, if i do say so myself, not a bad place to take a date.
2) there are at least 6 former royals in the play-offs this year. it's the little things that keep me going.
3) i'm trying to set a world record for how many varying illnesses a single human can sustain at one time. the count so far: 3.
4) yesterday, i bought the soundtracks from "herbie: fully loaded" AND "ice princess." i feel dirty.
1/2) kansas city still feels a little bit like home...and i think that scares me.
2) there are at least 6 former royals in the play-offs this year. it's the little things that keep me going.
3) i'm trying to set a world record for how many varying illnesses a single human can sustain at one time. the count so far: 3.
4) yesterday, i bought the soundtracks from "herbie: fully loaded" AND "ice princess." i feel dirty.
1/2) kansas city still feels a little bit like home...and i think that scares me.
posted by cade at 10:39 PM
12 Comments:
1. ...especially such a cute date!
4. BTW, I should get an award for standing next to you while you made those CD purchases.
cade, KC stopped feeling like home for me about 5 years after I moved away...it was surreal, here was a place I spent 20+ years, and now it just feels like another city, no different than any other place except that I know where everything is and how to get there, but it just FEELS different...hard to explain, easy to live with
I can't BELIEVE you had nice things to say about St. Louis...a city I may call home soon...I will now drop dead. have a nice day
ahbahsean vs. muffin in a fight to the death...and....go!
Reasons to love St. Louis - by Ahbahsean.
Muffin there are lots of reasons to like St. Louis, although my #1 reason to love St. Louis will be your #1 reason to hate it.
1. The Cardinal Fans. St. Louis is a baseball town, tried and true. You can hate the team, but our fans our devote. If you hate Cards fans, become a Blues Fan. We (and i mean ME) have put up with a lot of stupidity when it comes to hockey and i still will always say "Let's Go BLUEEESS!!!!"
2. "What high school are you from?"**
An entire city pulled together by our high school affiliations. St. Louis takes this question to new extremes. It is bizarre.
3. Saint Louis Art Museum (specifially on the east side facing the Grand Basin where the boats tootle on the lakes amid the fountains). This is one of my favorite St. Louis spots. No contest.
4. A night out: The Loop (dinner and music), The Hill (italian food), The Landing (dancing), Westport (more dancing), South Grand (asian food), Soulard (pubs, good conversation) and the Central West End (for your more "liberal" side). Our nitch areas keep growing and growing. Ooh, also Lafayette Square - 'date night' at the Chocolate Bar.
5. Ted Drewes - some of the best ice cream EVER.
6. Kid Friendly. As Cade would attest too, the tikes will adore the City Museum, but where the CM cost money, the Zoo, Science Center, History Museum and Art Musuem are all free. Plus the Botanical Gardens now has a butterfly house, and the Magic House will always be cool to kids. Also, the park behind my house. For some reason the 3 tier monster playground draws little ones to my house for continual days of playtime.
7. Did I mention the 600+ foot ARCH overlooking the river?
If you notice things were left off as being rosy and wonderful and by that I mean The Rams, Becky the Queen of Carpets and Beatle Bob.
This currently concludes the wonders of St. Louis essay by
Ahbahsean.
**Gibault Catholic High School. Class of 1994.
I'll be with you in a moment...
this took me a while...here you go...all in fun
Ok. Well, I’m not sure what direction I want to take this because I wasn’t looking for a death fight a la Karate Kid II where Daniel-san is fighting Sato’s nephew in the run down castle...
“Daniel-san, this no tournament. This for real!”
Anyways, instead of turning this into a KC v. STL debate, I think I’ll just respond to each of the six points ahbahsean made and maybe add a couple of others at the end.
From the outset, let me say that while I think KC is a great town, it is no longer home to me and I don’t feel the need to defend it the way I would defend KU or the necessary abolishment of NASA. I concede that there are many worse places to find yourself than STL...but I personally don’t like the city, and here is why, starting with a response to point #1.
1. The Cardinals fans.
These fans are among the most spoiled fans around. Case in point: Mark McGwire doesn’t belong to the Cardinals. He played the majority of his career in Oakland where he hit more home runs and wasn’t on the ‘happy juice’. But all Cardinals fans still glow in the shadow of Big Mac’s becoming a Cardinal and breaking Roger Maris’ record.
Also, Cardinals fans can’t seem to let 1985 go. Don Deckinger is dead. It’s time to forgive him. Also, it’s time to forgive the players who choked off a 3-1 series lead and it’s time to remember that you were in the world series last year, where the Red Sox took a broom to the red birds.
There are loyal, devoted fans to every team (even the Expos still have fans) but that doesn’t make them great. In fact, if you’re a loyal Clippers fan, you could qualify for mental disability insurance.
Cubs fans are great. Knicks fans are great. Packers fans are great. Cardinals fans are not great.
2. An entire city pulled together by our high school affiliations ***
I’m not really sure what this means, but I’ll share my thoughts about it anyway.
College and beyond is where my true friends come from. Beyond high school, people choose to be and do what they are doing. Everyone at KU wanted to be there (at least until they graduated). Everyone at high school was there because their parents/guardians happened to live in that area. My loyalty to my high school is about equal to my loyalty to the brand of light bulbs I purchase. Thanks for the public education Shawnee Mission West High School, your diploma gained me access to the greatest university in the Midwest.
And don’t even get me started on my 10-year reunion, I was stupid to think I would enjoy myself.
3. St. Louis Art Museum
I’m sure it’s pretty. Sounds like it takes about an hour or two max. Check...next
4. A night out...
The only thing I’ll concede here is The Hill because everything else on the list you can find at most any other major city but a good Italian section of a city (where people still speak fluent Italian) is rare, and St. Louis is blessed to have one.
Also, if your nitch areas keep growing, they’re going to cease being nitch areas and start becoming mini-anarchy societies who become like viruses competing for the same limited space...it happened in LA.
5. Ted Drewes
I don’t know Ted. I’ve never met him. Next time I’m in STL, I’ll look him up. Tell him hi from me if you see him.
I like ice cream, I’m sure it’s very good, but like #4, most cities have their own version of Ted.
6. Kid friendly
All the free attractions scream one thing and one thing only to a parent...CROWDED! I prefer to pay and not let my tax dollars or money from the state lottery subsidize my children’s entertainment.
7. The Arch
Oh boy. I’m sorry you brought this up. It’s almost not fair really. I could go on and on, but I’ll confine myself.
A. If STL is supposed to be the ‘gateway to the west’ as the arch is supposed to represent, tell me, how many wagon trails and railroads to the west originated in STL?
The Oregon Trail? No, that was KC
The Santa Fe Trail? No, that was KC
The California Trail? No, that was KC
The Burlington RR? No, that was KC
The Santa Fe RR? No, that was KC
How exactly did STL get this nickname anyway? It screams of self-proclamation, like the weird guy in your gym class named Jason who tells everyone to start calling him Jell-o. You can’t give yourself a nickname. Believe me, I would have chosen something completely different besides ‘muffin’
Also, I am not impressed with a 600 foot shiny, metallic parabola which affords me a view of Missouri and Illinois.
Just a few other things
A. East St. Louis...Compton for Midwesterners, only without the mystique or rap cred
B. Flooding
C. The Rams play indoors
Like I feel every time I leave for the airport, I’m sure I’ve forgotten something. I’ll stop here and restate that, despite my overall distaste for STL and my utter contempt for the state of Missouri, I know and love some wonderful people who are from there and who currently live there (my parents fall into both categories)
I guess what I’m saying is, if we could let Canada annex Missouri, I wouldn’t be too upset if we kept STL in the deal.
Keeping it fun...
Muffin
***Shawnee Mission West High School, Class of 1992 Go Vikings...just go....away
You can't blame us for East St. Louis! Does NYC claim Jersey? NOOOO!
I would concede your point, it's just the name, East SAINT LOUIS...whether you claim it or not, it's guilt by association...just like Tom DeLay and the Republican Party...and to be fair, every city has their East St. Louis...whether it's Newark (NYC); Gary, Indiana (CHI); Raytown (KC) or Detroit (Upper Midwest) it's a problem...
i pray that, in the event that muffin meet gentry, no blood would be shed.
to be fair (it IS my blog after all,) none of the true cardinals fans i have met a) give a rat's ass about mcgwire's record or b) still consider '85 a bigger let down than last year. they have moved on (again, the true fans i have met, not the poplar bluff hillbilly fans who still think there are only 8 teams in the majors.)
point is, every team has terrible fans, and every team has good fans (except maybe the indians) and the only reason i could ever come up with to hate on st louis is that it is mostly a mizzou fan hub. but, that is like hating on charlotte, nc for being a duke or unc hub. come to think of it, i do hate charlotte, but for other reasons.
other point is, well, i'm tired and i don't have another point. okay, maybe this:
a) east st louis doesn't count. every city has a "do-over." just like KC has wyandotte county.
b) i don't really get the HS affiliation either. however, that said, to this day, i have more than my share of close friends from high school. i may not be a "texas-like" fanatic of the blue and gold, but those are still 3 very special years to me.
c) amighetti's on the hill freakin' rules.
-end-
Becky, sorry we didn't get to meet Monday. I'm sure we'll get another opportunity at some point. I don't want to pour on the STL bashing here, just thought this story was topical.
I grew up a HUGE cardinals fan. My entire family is from the Cape Girardeau area. I grew up in Springfield and as everyone knows, Cardinals fans take up about 85% of the state of MO. I remember fondly listening to Jack Buck on the radio with my G'Pa at their trailer on Castor River. Anyway, I loved the STL Cardinals. I can probably still tell you 90% of the 1982 starting lineup. My family moved to Kansas City in '89, but I was still a Cards fan.
However...
In 1994 when baseball quit on me, I quit on baseball. I was still extremely mad in 98 when McGuire and Sosa had their race. It took an upstart, exciting Royals team in 1999 to bring me back (regretably). Since then, I've been a growing Royals fan. I still "liked" the Cards, but they weren't my team anymore. In the last 3-4 years, however, it has been Cardinals fans in KC that have driven me to hate the Cardinals. Specifically, friends that are Cards fans, that aren't very nice about the Cardinals success and the Royals failure. I can't even use the 1985 comeback because I was a Cards fan in 1985. I have nothing. These fans have not been nice and it has tainted my view of the Cards. Anyway, there is one thing I've noticed being on the other side...90% of the time that I hear "the Cardinals have the best fans" it's from a Cardinals fan. Isn't there something wrong with that? Cardinals fans are good fans, but they aren't the best. I'm sorry, but the Cardinals are like the Yankees to me now. It's easy to like a winner. The Cardinals have the 2nd most WS titles in MLB. I really don't even like the Red Sox anymore because they're a bandwagon team now (and have one of the highest payrolls), but at least their fans stuck with them through 80 something years of losing. If the Cardinals don't win a WS title until 2110, and they still sell out every game, I'll retract my statement. Peace.
Dave - the cards are like the yankees to you, man that's harsh.
Look, I am just not baseball savvy enough to tell you why the cards rock, or why their fans suck/don't suck. If you spend time with me, Gentry, etc we don't suck. Don't judge us by the squeeky wheel jerks.
I can't even claim baseball as my favorite sport. I am a hockey fan, although after watching the Blues opener last night, I won't be for long. When there's a fight on the ice and you're rooting for the other team, there's a problem.
Oh and the high school thing... It's like a locator map of sorts. I can't explain it...its just what they do. Being from the IL side (not East StL) and going to a private high school I am non-existent to most of them.
Don't worry, Becky. I don't judge you by the squeeky wheeled jerks :)
I just no longer accept the premise that "Cardinals fans are the best baseball fans". I guess that's all I was trying to say.
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