Living in the Scoot Utopia

Just wondering if any of you are going to start bothering to show up at any of the places you got smoking banned at. Because it's been a week now and I haven't seen any of you at any of my regular haunts yet... just empty tables and barstools sitting waiting for you. One of the servers mentioned she'd like to thank you for her customers (and hence tips) being WAY down this week compared to the week before, and the regulars are starting to wonder if they can just go ahead and light up again since so far you haven't been dropping by to potentially complain.

Again, just curious where these hordes are that you all claimed would pack the bars once they were smoke-free. A lot of jobs are on the line.

Posted by ScooterJ at 08:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

As many of you know, one of my friends and I occasionally take weekend road trips to find small out-of-the way dive bars and pay them a visit. Over the past few years I've amassed hundreds of reports. But, since my past write-ups have covered the entire trip, each place would only get a couple of sentences of mention.

To correct that I am launching a new blog called The Weekly Dive that will allow me to write about these visits in much greater detail. Each week I'll pick just one place and make it the focus.

The site is now open, and this coming Monday I'll kick off the weekly feature.

Enjoy!

TheWeeklyDive.com

Posted by ScooterJ at 09:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's well known among most in town that KCTV thrives on fear-mongering, distortions, and hysteria. (After all, this is thee station infamous for The Fertilizer Story and for Katie Horner telling parents to put helmets on their kids and make them sleep in the basement under a mattress any time there's a blip on the radar within a 6 county radius.)

Early last November there was a shooting on 71 Highway near the Emmanuel Cleaver exit. The local media reported it for what it was. All the local media except KCTV, who instead reported it as a Plaza shooting. Nevermind that this shooting took place 2 miles east of the Plaza. But a Plaza shooting is scarier.

Now they're at it again.

Apparently at 3:30am this past Saturday morning, two people were shot and robbed near 8th & Grand. This location is 3 blocks inside the downtown loop. So how did KCTV portray it? As a shooting in the River Market (which is 3 blocks plus an interstate highway crossing away) to a couple who had just left Harry's Country Club. Which is amazing, since Harry's would have been closed for 2 hours by then.

KCTV could have reported the facts of the story and it would still have been a tragic story about a senseless crime. Instead they decided to make it scarier by changing the location to a popular destination area and by tying it in with a favorite neighborhood spot.

Inexcusable. Shame on KCTV!

Posted by ScooterJ at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While walking back from the P&L last night I came across the worst parallel parking job I've ever seen, on the 1200 block of Walnut.:

I wish I had been present to see how many times this person backed up, angled, pulled back out, backed up, turned the wheels, pulled back out, tried again, tried again, tried again, before finally giving up and deciding that this was good enough.

I don't know if they eventually got a ticket for this, but if they did I'm sure we'll see a letter to the editor soon about our "ruthless" traffic cops and how "unfair" they are and how this person will just go to Legends from now on.

Posted by ScooterJ at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ok I know I'm going to take heat for this because people died last night, but does anyone else find it amusing that K State's WIND EROSION LAB was destroyed by a tornado last night?

http://www.kmbc.com/weather/16583897/detail.html (Third paragraph)

I am sad about the destruction of Chapman, KS. It's a charming little country town. I had a beer there on May 5, 2007 and took a few pictures: [see post]. (I'm hearing now that the bar in the photos may have survived, with broken windows and cosmetic damage rather than total destruction.)

Posted by ScooterJ at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I love the amusing placement of a news headline and an unrelated photo on the front of KansasCity.com right now:

(For those outside the area, a bolt of lightning struck a tank containing over a million gallons of gasoline last night.)

Posted by ScooterJ at 02:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few nights ago I was outside with several other people when one of them noticed a large beetle crawling on the ground next to her.

"Eeew! A big bug!" she screamed. "Someone kill it!"

"Don't kill it!", I said, "it's not hurting anyone."

The beetle crawling towards me, then behind me.

"Kill it, it's nasty!" someone else said.

"No, it's in it's natural environment and minding it's own business," I said, taking a step backward. "There's no reason to ki..." [CRUNCH!]

"Ummm.... uh... never mind," I finished. :)

Posted by ScooterJ at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday I was at Crown Center for a bit and took some pictures of kids playing in the fountains.

In doing so I caught an amusing sequence of images. The following two pictures were taken seconds apart... I cropped these down to make it easier to see what to look for:

(1) Dad taking kid into the fountain...

(2) Less than 10 seconds later, Dad comforting screaming crying kid :)

Posted by ScooterJ at 10:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)