Death Wing-dings
Seth tells the story so well of what happened after I tried the Death Wings at Grinder's that I'll just point you to his blog entry rather than waste any time re-telling the tale.
Page 6 of 6
March 21, 2006
March 13, 2006
Yesterday's storms
There must be some sort of invisible dome over me that causes cool weather to skip around me. I was out and about for 10 hours on Saturday yet never encountered any of the severe weather that plagued the area yesterday.
I slept through the first round in the morning, oblivious to the sirens, even though there was minor wind damage at the City Market (only a block away), and within a 1 mile radius an abadononed 5-story building downtown collapsed and the Rib Shack in North Kansas City was destroyed. Once I was awake, all I ever encountered was about 2 minutes of moderate rain and about 15 seconds of tiny hail.
Now, I did have an interesting experience while I was out shopping. I was in the fitting room in a department store trying on pants when an alarm sounded and they evacuated everyone to a hallway in the corner of the building. So I put my pants back on and headed to the hallway... where people were making nervous comments about the facts that the area they put us in was where mirrors and cutlery were on display.
Within 5 minutes of arriving in the designated area, the all clear was sounded, so I returned to the fitting room to try on my pants. Within moments, another tornado alarm was called.
This time I ignored it and finished trying on my pants. I then ermerged from the fitting room and continued browsing. Most customers were doing the same, very few heeded the warning that time. After several minutes some store employees finally herded us all back to the hallway. But, just as I arrived, the all clear sounded again.
I started looking at shirts when I heard the sirens start up outside. Not wanting to be herded again, I abandoned my planned purchases and left the store.
I stepped outsidde to an ominous sky and sirens sounding all about. But what struck me was that people, lots of people, were paying no attention and going about their normal shopping. (You know you're in Kansas City when tornado sirens are no cause for alarm.) Sure enough, nothing ever happened -- not even rain.
So while everyone else in the metro was getting pummeled, I attended a cookout that happened completely unencumbered while storms passed on all sides but nothing came near me.
February 20, 2006
Firestarter
Coincidence?
On Friday night I went out to dinner and then was going to go to the Cinemark Palace to see Freedomland. But it was so unbelievably cold that we decided to forget about the movie and head back. While returning home from the direction of the theater, I drove past the HOK Building, which just opened a couple of months ago. It was surrounded by fire trucks, its alarms were sounding, and the sprinkler systems inside the building were discharging.
On Sunday afternoon I went on a reschedueld trip to the Cinemark Palace to see Freedomland. After the movie, got some dinner and headed home. While returning home I passed the Hotel President, which just re-opened a couple of months ago. It was surrounded by trucks, its alarms were sounding, and the sprinkler systems inside the building her discharging.
I swear, I didn't do it!
PS - Don't waste your time or money seeing Freedomland.
January 30, 2006
Things I wish I could buy in the River Market
Learning today that a chocolate shop is opening in the old River City Books location, it got me thinking about other things I wish I could buy without having to leave my immediate neighborhood:
- Yesterday I bought everything I needed to make a salad in the City Market. But when it came to a hunt for croutons, I was SOL. Many of the shops sell everything you need to make a salad, but none of them sell anything to put on top of a salad.
- In a pinch I can get eggs, milk, and butter from Chinatown or from a combination of al-Habashi and KC Seafood & Meat. But no one carries more than a bare minimum assortment of cheese. A cheese shop would fit in nicely.
- Lots of places sell seafood, but none sell fresh fish that's already cut into filets or fresh shrimp that's already beheaded, delegged, and deshelled. I'd buy a lot more seafood locally if the hard/disgusting work was already done for me.
- None of the stores, at least none open after work (Discounts Unilimited, I'm talking about you) carries basic paper products or laundry detergent. Chinatown, you're open late, you'd do well to add these things.
- There should be an informal restaurant that sells fried chicken or seafood.
- The Cup and Saucer must be the only place with a coffee shop downtown that waits until 7am to open. I have walked by its darkened doors numerous times on my way to work and had to get coffee inside the loop at shops that open at 6am.
- A year-round full service bakery would be awesome.
Dat is all.
December 06, 2005
Goodknight
The Kansas City Knights basketball team is now officially defunct, being booted from the ABA early this morning. This marks the (hopefully temporary) end of professional basketball in Kansas City.
The Knights were the first team established when the ABA re-formed back in 2000 and by the end of the 2004-2005 season were the only charter team still in the league.
In their inaugural season they played at Kemper Arena under coach Kevin Pritchard, had a fairly good following, and sent many players to the NBA. During the playoffs (which were held in KC) they were defeated in the second round in a controversial game, controversial because after the scoresheets had been signed an error was discovered in which the game should have gone into overtime. The Knights accepted the loss gracefully and vowed to win fair and square the next season.
And win they did. In 2001-2002 the league shattered the record for longest winning streak by any professional sports team in Kansas City history. They went on to the playoffs in Las Vegas and a small contingent of fans (myself included) followed to root them on. The final games were exciting and intense and the Knights secured the championship trophy. Several players from this team also went on to the NBA.
In 2003-2003 the league suspended operations to re-organize. When the league re-opened for 2003-2004, the Knights move across the parking lot to Hale Arena. Hale was a better fit for the team in terms of size, but something was lost in the move... likely the bleacher seats and the poorer acoustics made it seem a little less professional. Despite the best efforts of the new coach, Scott Wedman, the team faltered and lost most of its games in the opening weeks. The team did recover and ended with a winning record but were eliminated in the playoffs.
The 2004-2005 season began oddly. Under new management (but the same owner), the team decided they needed to make the dance team a little more sexy so they hired pole dancers. At the home opener, scantily-clad girls danced erotically along the sidelines during the timeouts. Responding to audience outrage (and, purportedly, a phone call from the league commissioner after a shocked fan telephoned him), the dance team was disbanded halfway through the game. The Knights played the next several weeks without a dance team of any kind before finding a handful of girls to provide tame entertainment. Now under coach Bob Sundvold, the Knights performed somewhat better this season but lacked the standout players that had built fan interest in earlier seasons. With a month remaining in the season, the Knights left Hale for JCCC. In the opinion of many this move is what killed the team, as it became a diversion isolated to southern Overland Park rather than a team representing the entire metro area. Fan interest had already diminished to tepid at best, and now that the games were no longer centrally-located, fans outside of southern JoCo just weren't interested enough to drive the extra distance. On top of that, now that they were playing at a community college, the image of a "professional" team was further eroded.
The JCCC move had been intended to be temporary, as the Knights had planned to become tenants of the proposed Overland Park Arena. (A project I had been opposed to, as KC already has a surplus of existing/planned arena space and doesn't need to diffuse it any further.) However the Overland Park city government is also a fiscally responsible government and refused to give the project the tax breaks developers demanded after their studies showed that the arena would not generate a return on the investment. This effectively killed the arena and left the Knights without a permanant home in their future.
When the 2005-2006 started the struggling team was unable to get off the ground and kept delaying its home opener. Two road games have been played at Lincoln (one on November 26 wherethey lost 132 to 144 and one on December 1 where they lost 90 to 167), but rumor has it the team consisted of players borrowed from other ABA teams. Finally this morning, December 6, 2005, the Knights were de-listed from the ABA's Web site.
Goodbye, Knights.
2000-2005. RIP