The other day I got an e-mail from an old friend, a guy with whom I studied in Japan, completely out of the blue. Made my day. There were two key elements that made the e-mail so great: It was unexpected. It’s still nice if you see it coming or if you initiated, but getting … Read more
It’s almost a pet please to find a parking spot during the lunch rush. So when you finally find that spot, you’re already feeling a little lucky. You fish out a few quarters and a mangy nickel from your center console and walk over to the parking meter, only to find… …that there’s time remaining … Read more
Tomorrow night, millions of people across America who have a holiday Friday will forget to turn off their alarm for the following morning. When the sun rises, millions of alarms will disrupt REM cycles. Millions of people will wake up to turn off those alarms, grumbling to themselves because they have to get ready for … Read more
Many of you live in cities where all bars and restaurants are nonsmoking. St. Louis is not one of those cities–not yet. So a true pet please for me is finding a fun bar that’s nonsmoking. A place in which you can breathe. A place where you can walk out of smelling the same way … Read more
You know what really makes my day? When someone turns what appears to be insurmountable odds into something manageable. Specifically: Every day when I leave work, I am faced with a solid wall of cars in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Forsyth. The nearby highway in St. Louis is closed, so everyone uses this tiny road instead. … Read more
I had the pleasure of going to St. Louis’ shining star in the north of the city, Crown Candy Kitchen, on Saturday morning. The place was packed, and many people who were in line before the restaurant even opened were stranded outside for over an hour. As with any olde fashioned candy shoppe, Crown Candy’s … Read more
I don’t know how often other people wash their cars; for me, it’s about twice a year. A good rain keeps the outside clean enough. Like it or not, though, grime accumulates. It builds up so slowly that I don’t even notice that my vision through the windshield is become decreasingly worse. Then, usually by … Read more
I’m not a coffee drinker. Floofy coffee drinks I enjoy; frappacinos, mocha latte chills (thank you, Cinnabun), that sort of thing. But coffee–no thank you. Tastes like dirt. But it smells heavenly. If coffee tasted like it smelled, I’d drink it every day. But it doesn’t. So I’m left with this tantalizingly delicious smell and no … Read more