I haven’t been to St. Joseph for almost 20 years. Long time ago St. Joe was the first to get a riverboat casino and it seemed like a good idea to drive for an hour and a half to gamble away my meager earnings. I haven’t been back since. Either I wasn’t that impressed or more money-wasting venues propped up nearby, whatever the reason, St. Joe just never again appeared on my list of places to visit.  Then the Pitch wrote about a new pizza place, the last weekend of nice fall weather was coming up, and suddenly it seemed like why not St. Joe.

St. Joe is famous for its Glore Psychiatric Museum.

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Now that the ETAX got extended for at least another 5 years, Kansas City,MO won’t have to scramble to find alternative sources of revenue for some time. While I am clearly not a supporter of the Etax and have outlined my reasoning in multiple posts and comments, I think that the City and its residents should spend the next 5 years making the Etax more palatable to the non-residents (and even themselves) who currently contribute 40% to 50% of it.

1.Dial down the hate and resentment.

Whatever you might think of Johnson County (ironically not the only county who contributes the Etax,but the one which gets the most hate), it is the source of a large part of KCMO revenues, both in the form of Etax and various economic and philanthropic activities. Johnson Countians and other non-residents contribute by spending on food and entertainment, patronizing P&L district, Plaza, Sprint Center, other venues that you are so proud of. Additionally, multiple sponsorships and contributions come from the other side of the State Line to support the arts and causes based in Kansas City. Sprint center carries the name (and sponsorship) of an Overland Park,KS company, and the major benefactor and the Chairwoman of the Center for the Performing Arts lives in Mission Hills. There is a significant number of Friends of the Zoo, Nelson-Atkins sponsors, theater supporters who live outside the KCMO. I don’t even have to mention the Chiefs and Royals fans, who pay for the tickets, parking and every logo item they can get their hands on. You don’t have to like us, but you might consider stifling yourselves a little.

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Queue the soundtrack:

[audio:https://www.kcmeesha.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/21-Along-The-Santa-Fe-Trail.mp3]

Long time ago, when the native prairie didn’t yet need to be restored…

…and the Santa Fe Trail wasn’t a tourist attraction…

…the Barlow-Sanderson Overland Mail Company was operating a stage line from Missouri to California, stopping at the Mahaffie Farm in Olathe to rest.

150 years later a local sculptor recreated the stagecoach in a full-scale bronze sculpture “Going West”.

The sculpture stands out for its attention to detail, from the tackle on the horses, to the people in the scene, who were apparently modeled after some Mahaffie employees.

Free-standing figures add another dimension to the scene.


This sculpture represents Olathe  among the other cities with monumental art like Dallas’ famous Cattle Drive.

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Reader Tracy asks in reference to one of my previous posts:

what we really wanna know is that dance!

We answer: Tracy, what you see is a traditional Russian folk dance. Although I personally never observed anyone dance that way at home without beforehand consuming “mass quantities” , it doesn’t mean it never happened. Maybe the fact that all of my relatives and most of my friends were Jewish explains my lack of personal encounters with the Russian folk dancing, but the fact remains.

It doesn’t mean that I was immune to some folksy dance moves. The photograph below depicts me in a Russian-style shirt ( I am the one next to a girl, if you have trouble locating me) at some kindergarten event. Of course you may wonder what was a Jewish kid doing wearing a Russian folk shirt. Well, that makes two of us, but on the other hand what does a Jewish shirt look like? I don’t know either. So much for multiculturalism…

Old joke: A Jewish girl comes home and tells her parents she needs to wear a national outfit to school the next day. Her Mom says to her Dad: “You hear? She wants a fur coat already!”

But I digress, if you want to find out more about Russian and Eastern European Folk Dancing, there are plenty of photos and videos on this website.

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* disclaimer: I have no idea who Bob Shaw is, and I was too lazy to Google him.

As an outdoor advertising collector and billboard connoisseur I especially appreciate the home-made signs frequently seen along the streets and state highways. Judging by the effort and expense needed to produce these signs, someone has a real problem with that Bob Shaw guy. The least I could do was to get out of my car somewhere on the NW Barry Rd. (I think) and take some pictures.

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