Welcome to Kansas City where we went from drought season to flood season Friday night in about 2 hours.
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Ryan Lochte is confirmed as a contestant on the next season of Dancing with the Stars. He won’t have a dance partner, he’ll just dance around the truth.
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The Nelson-Atkins is planning a new expansion to make room for more office and storage space. They were hoping to expand in front of the building but they got shuttlecock-blocked.
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Eric Berry is now the NFL’s highest-paid safety. He signed a $10.8 million deal with a Chiefs franchise tag. He says he is thrilled to be staying with the Chiefs but he was hoping for more money because this will cover about half his Obamacare.
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“Tell me a story of Christmas,” she said.
The television mumbled faint inanities in the next room. From a few houses down the block came the sound of car doors slamming and guests being greeted with large cordiality.
Her father thought awhile. His mind went back over the interminable parade of Christmas books he had read at the bedside of his children.
“Well,” he started, tentatively, “Once upon a time, it was the week before Christmas, and all the little elves at the North Pole were sad.”
“I’m tired of elves, “ she whispered. And he could tell she was tired, maybe almost as weary as he was himself after the last few feverish days.
“OK,” he said. “There was once, in a city not very far from here, the cutest wriggly little puppy you ever saw. The snow was falling, and this little puppy didn’t have a home. As he walked along the streets, he saw a house that looked quite a bit like our house. And at the window …”
“Was a little girl who looked quite a bit like me, “she said with a sigh. “I’m tired of puppies. I love Pinky, of course. I mean story puppies.”
“OK,” he said. “No puppies. This narrows the field.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I’ll think of something. Oh, sure. There was a forest, way up in the North, farther even than where Uncle Ed lives. And all the trees were talking about how each one was going to be the grandest Christmas tree of all. One said, ‘I am going to be a Christmas tree, too.’ And all the trees laughed and laughed and said: ‘A Christmas tree? You? Who would want you?’”
“No trees, Daddy, “ she said. “We have a tree at school and at Sunday school and at the supermarket and downstairs and a little one in my room. I am very tired of trees.”
“You are very spoiled, “ he said.
“Hmmm,” she replied. “Tell me a Christmas story.”
“Let’s see. All the reindeer up at the North Pole were looking forward to pulling Santa’s sleigh. All but one, and he felt sad because,” he began with a jolly ring in his voice but quickly realized that this wasn’t going to work either.
His daughter didn’t say anything; she just looked at him reproachfully.
“Tired of reindeer, too?” he asked. “Frankly, so am I. How about Christmas on the farm when I was a little boy? Would you like to hear about how it was in the olden days, when my grandfather would heat up bricks and put them in the sleigh and we’d all go for a ride?”
“Yes, Daddy,” she said, obediently. “But not right now. Not tonight.”
He was silent, thinking. His repertoire, he was afraid, was exhausted. She was quiet, too. Maybe, he thought, I’m home free.
Maybe she has gone to sleep.
“Daddy,” she murmured. “Tell me a story of Christmas.”
Then it was as though he could read the words, so firmly were they in his memory. Still holding her hand, he leaned back:
“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed …”
Her hand tightened a bit in his, and he told her a story of Christmas.
(Bill Vaughan, Starbeams, Kansas City Star)
I mean no insult, but Starbeams meant something back then. I’m from Chicago and Starbeams was consistently better than any column the Trib or Sun-Times published.
Fair enough, Laura B…
But the times they are a changing
A nameless, ruthless man (Preston Foster) who identifies himself as Mr. Big is timing to the minute the arrival of two trucks. One is an armored car routinely picking up bags containing lots of money from a bank. The other truck delivers to a flower shop next door. The man’s timing shows that, for a very few minutes, the schedule of both trucks coincidentally parks them next to each other. He is casing the armored car. He needs a gang to help him rob it. He selects three men for the gang—the addictive gambler Peter Harris (Jack Elam) wanted for murder, gum-chewing thug Boyd Kane (Neville Brand) and the womaniziing Tony Romano (Lee Van Cleef). When interviewing them, he wears a mask so they cannot identify him. He has selected them because each has a reason for fleeing the US. They will fit perfectly into Mr. Big’s complex plan, which appears to be an ordinary robbery but is much more.
I see Laura’s point; I’ve been reading this blog for 5 years. Even going as far as writing for it. It just hit me with bullet force, this doesn’t have an effing THING to do with the movie. I feel like such a fool.