4 reasons I believe it's Jeff Roe, Ted Cruz's sociopathic dirty trickster campaign manager, who paid for the KKK robocalls endorsing Trump.

1.  Think about it...Donald Trump would not want a last minute negative story right before Super Tuesday linking him to David Duke, founder of the Louisiana based KKK.  Worst thing that could happen.  And awkward, because even disassociating himself from it makes it an even bigger news story.  Broken earpiece?  Whatever...Trump did not want to talk about it.  So that is how I know Trump didn't do this.  Because he wants to talk about everything else, and ends up winning.

The David Duke/KKK story has the potential to peel just enough votes away from Trump to who else?  In Texas, Ted Cruz!  So it makes far more sense to connect the dots:

Jeff Roe orchestrated this to hurt Trump, hoping to once more (like Iowa, with the fake Ben Carson is out of the race robocall) edge Cruz over the top to win the state.

2.  There's a corollary to the adage, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."  That would be, "If you can't get folks to love YOUR candidate, make them HATE on your opponent."  
That is totally in Jeff Roe's wheelhouse.  In this case, by pretending to BE the opponent's supporters.

Dirty tricks are by definition, untraceable.  So there is virtually no way to trace a robocall.  The contractor uses a fake name.  Or pays cash.  Or both.  Robocalls are incredibly cheap.  Around 1.7 cents apiece.  So using chump change, Jeff Roe could and certainly would be inclined to send out those red herrings --because regardless of how many he paid for, he would finally achieve FREE media, by shifting the daily news cycle to an anti-Trump message.  After all, the news media has pretty much written off Cruz as a nut case, even less likeable than Trump.  Hard to do, I know!  But yes...Ted Cruz is all that.

How unlikeable is Ted Cruz?  Let me quote Sen. Lindsay Graham at a roast last weekend in WDC: "If Ted Cruz were murdered on the floor of the US Senate, and the trial were held within those Senate chambers, you could not get a conviction."

3.  The sneaky sleazy unexpected factor of this stunt is exactly the kind of dirty trick that Jeff Roe delights in.  One of his idols was Dick Puck.  The original dirty trickster, who delivered West Virginia for Jack Kennedy.  Puck then taught his tricks to one of his aides who idolized the Puckster: Jerry Jette (who went on to be campaign meister for 1970's Mayor Charles B. Wheeler, MD, JD in KCMO).  Jette was my first business partner.  He taught all he knew to our other partner, the late Pat Gray, who then became Jeff Roe's pollster and partner on so many big campaigns in KC.  I called them the Cash Cows of Campaigns.  They only worked for the guys with the deep pockets.  Never gratis, like I often do.

And sometimes, they even finagled contracts where they worked for BOTH sides at once!  Jeff Roe and Pat Gray were mobsters.  "Pay us, and we'll only break ONE of your legs.  We'll go easy on our hate mailers."

Roe's predecessor Jette often told me his favorite Dick Puck stunt: the 4:30 am bullhorn on the ice cream truck through the neighborhoods.

Bells a clanging!  Bullhorn blaring!
"Vote for Joe!  Get out of bed! Joe is on your side!
Wake up!! Get your lazy asshole kids up!  Make America Great!  Go vote for Joe!"

Of course Joe was the opponent.  The point was to rudely and insensitively awaken and alarm voters and piss them off.  A little mild cursing was the cherry on top of the sundae.  Demonstrating such bad judgment proved Joe had no common sense.  It mobilized turnout!  Talk about GetOutTheVote!!!! The ANTI-vote.  And, of course it was an untraceable expense.  And it worked.  Joe lost.

4.  Jeff Roe is a sociopath.  He has no conscience.  And will stop at nothing.  In fact, he is proud of it.  Those who naively believe or hope Roe will not break the law?  Sadly misled.  Roe is an addict, and dirty tricks are his game.
Watch Jeff Roe near tears, Fox News Power Player of the week
Watch him, near tears in his big Fox TV interview.   especially from 2:50 to 3:15. The insecure bully, the fat boy from a Missouri pig farm, is so thrilled to finally have made it to the big time, sitting on the bus with a national candidate, Ted Cruz.
Politico story on trickster Jeff Roe, click here
So with the whole campaign teetering on pulling out a win for Cruz in Texas, would Jeff Roe do anything?  My guess is: yes.

I am not endorsing any candidate.  This is based on my experiences with Jeff Roe.  First, my team lost the race where my ad agency worked for Cathy Reinhardt against Sam Graves for Congress north of the river--when Roe's operatives broke into her apartment, and then accosted her in a parade, camera in face, hoping to get a scary picture of her for the Graves hate mail postcards.  And then, more recently, while I worked for free, my valiant team successfully beat Jeff Roe on two major campaigns here in Kansas City:  BiState II and Big Soccer.  Even tho Roe lied his ass off, and we were outspent 112 to 1.  We beat Jeff Roe twice.  And saved KC area taxpayers $2.5 billion dollars in taxes and bonds to build stadiums for billionnaires.

I have always felt that Jeff Roe will bring down Ted Cruz.  Couldn't happen to two less likeable guys. And if not this week, then soon.

Tracy Thomas
Publisher, KcmoPost.com

Oh brother. Missouri's Clarence Thomas may now have to write a dissenting Supreme Court opinion. Only he can't write.

What's the Missouri connection to the impact of the unexpected mid-session death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia?  Scalia generally wrote the dissenting opinions for the Supreme Court, which has often delivered 5/4 decisions.

The problem is, who will write those decisions now?  It may fall to the arch conservative from under the St. Louis Arch, Justice Clarence Thomas.

We all remember Thomas's horrible confirmation hearing, where his cohorts dragged Professor Anita Hill through the mud.  The jokes.  The Coke can.    The Saturday Night Live spoofs.

He was a joke.  But still made it to the bench, promoted by his lobbyist wife.  Thomas was largely considered to have been finally and reluctantly confirmed by the Senate as America's first token black--in order to provide at least one black vote on the Supreme Court.  Even tho he was promoted by his former boss, Sen. Jack Danforth, Thomas was never heralded by anyone as a brilliant mind, a widely respected jurist--or a good writer.  

And I doubt he has spent any time improving his writing or reasoning skills since he was handed this lifetime appointment. He has sat back and let Antonin Scalia, the smartest most facile mind on the court, do all the work, the heavy intellectual lifting for his team.

So I asked an attorney who has appeared before the Supreme Court.  Follows the cases, is up to date on what this can all mean for America.  He wisely chose to remain anonymous, but here is what he shared:

"I disagree with Scalia's interpretation of the Constitution.  An 'originalist' takes the position that if it wasn't in the Constitution when it was written, it is not a Constitutional question. Ergo, abortion did not exist as an issue when the Constitution was written so it is not a Constitutional question.   

Think of the things that did not exist then. Telephones, the internet, etc.  And of course, abortion has been used quietly since caveman days, as a backup to birth control or a very sad emergency remedy for a faulty or dangerous late term pregnancy.  Never ideal, never any woman's first choice.  Never any doctor's first choice. The very rare medical or moral option, including cases of rape and incest and medical necessity for the life of the mother.  And not the business of a bunch of politicians, who have persisted in using the issue as a GOTV/Get out the vote strategy, just like gun control is misused.

Scalia was bright and charming (just ask Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.)  But Scalia boxed himself in, with his obsession with being an Originalist.  When he got stuck, logic wise, he would revert to his interpretation of the Federalist papers. 

Only one other person on the court shared his Originalist view, Justice Clarence Thomas.  

Thomas probably joined every opinion that Scalia wrote. Thomas will be left in the lurch. He might have to write an opinion. This is an awful thought--as he can't write."

Now we are all waiting for the stunned 'Supremes' to review those tentative votes they took right after hearing oral arguments last fall.  To see if they are deadlocked at 4/4 decisions.  Dead men can't vote, so now Scalia's ballots will be discarded.  Not sure if the Court will reveal those.  

In some cases, if they issue their decision at 4/4, later this year, then the lower court's ruling that had been appealed to the Supreme Court of the land, will stand.  

That would be the case of a Texas abortion case.  So no wonder Presidential contender, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, is threatening to filibuster.  That's exactly what he wants...

Meanwhile, somebody send Justice Thomas a copy of Stephen King's book.  No, not the horror novels.  

Instead, send him King's book 

about how to be a better writer, 

practicing his craft.  

It's called "On Writing--a memoir of the craft".  

It's very good.  

Thomas may need it this summer.  

He's no longer warming the bench.  

He's gonna have to put on his pads 

and get on the field.

For a related story about the Supreme Court, and Obama's dilemma, and the secret idea some Republicans may soon realize is their solution for defeating Hillary Clinton, see www.JoCoPost.com

Why service this month at KC's good restaurants could be slower than Sly James' Toy Train

The norovirus has scared the bejeesus out of the owners of our town's best restaurants.  Not to mention the chain restaurants.  (Buffalo Wild Wings lost 15% in their stock value in one week--all over the US, based on a norovirus outbreak in Kansas City.) Chipotle may never recover from their episodes of food poisoning issues.  They closed every restaurant in the US from noon to 3pm the other day, to retrain all their staff on cootie control.  And the New Theatre has lost its luster in Johnson County--no longer are women listing them at the top of their list for a birthday or holiday or anniversary outing.

Expect the management of YOUR favorite dining establishments to already have issued an edict to their staff: do not come to work if you are sick in the least.

The problem is: they can't call a temp agency for a waiter or a chef.  So restaurant managers are frazzled and scrambling.  Yelling at them won't help.  Let me ask you this...does getting loud ever help you get laid?

Last Saturday night, my movie club from the Glenwood Arts went for dinner to Macaroni Grill.  We arrived at 7:08pm.  I left at 9:15.  Afterward, I phoned the manager.  I said, "You can't fix what you don't know about.  So what the heck happened?  We had one great waitress, Jena.  She hustled her ass off.  But we had 25 people!  She was 'in the weeds' all night.  How many diners do you usually assign to one server?"

Joe, the manager, replied, "Twelve.  But the fact is: corporate told us: no marginally healthy servers or chefs may clock in.  No sniffles, no coughs, no nuthin.  So I was short four servers and two chefs."

He apologized profusely.  And we will give him another chance.  Just not on Valentine's Day weekend, which is way overbooked everywhere in town.

I do appreciate any corporation learning from the mistakes of others.  I would have liked to have had the manager explain the situation.

OK, Kansas City, you've been warned.  We just got thru a sensational KC Restaurant Week, ten glorious days.  But Feb. 12, 13 and 14 is even tighter to score a table, because most fourtops are used to seat just two people.

If you already have a reservation, anywhere, maybe ask about moving it up in the day.  The later it is, the longer it will take for your table to open up.

An 8pm table might not even open up until 10pm.

Your wait could be longer than this town has waited for Sly James to deliver his Toy Train.
It's not romantic to spend all evening standing in the bar, in uncomfortable shoes, (date nights are when gals wear shoes that hurt), or glowering at your watch.

OpenTable.com may have some options--you might be able to search by area of town, and reserve elsewhere.  OpenTable is THE way all good restaurants now want you to book a table nowadays.  Don't call the hostess--she's already stressed. Humoring the plate pounders or the dates at the bar who have been overserved.   Get the app now.  Use it from now on.

And here's an even better idea: treat Valentine's Day like New Year's Eve.  Chalk it up to amateur night.  Push your celebration to another date.  If your love is not strong enough to withstand a slight delay, you're with the wrong person.

Or get creative.  Grab an array of exotic goodies from warm climates, at Trader Joe's.
Have a mini-vacation. On a blanket in your living room, followed by a backrub.

By far, the best of 7 restaurants I tried during KC Restaurant Week: Le Fou Frog in River Market

I made it, in the ice storm, to Le Fou Frog for KC Restaurant, and it was worth risking the highways and streets for their generous and delicious dinner.  Out of seven restaurants I have visited this week for KC Restaurant, Le Fou Frog was by far my #1 choice.  Food and ambiance.  Value.

Think of it as a trip to Paris, without ISIS.  And very affordable.

I didn't want to be all tourist or foodie, so I did not keep whipping out my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge to photograph each dish.  I figured they would be online.  Alas.  Ironically, out of 105 photos on line, the dishes I just tasted and loved were not there.  Use your imagination, or go and take your own pics.

In addition to the great food, the restaurant exudes a unique charm through the pink brick exterior, the chalkboard menus and the single-room dining area.  Le Fou Frog is kind of funky, there with its eternal Christmas lights, (hey, Paris is the City of Lights) at 400 E. 5th in the River Market.

An online photo of the dining room shows daytime lighting.  That's not what you want.  Go at night. imagine a scene out of my favorite date movie, "Midnight in Paris" with Owen Wilson, time travelling into a magical bistro with perfectly dimmed lights, where he hangs out with the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemingway and Gertrude Stein.  At Le Fou Frog, somehow everyone in the room just seems more interesting and full of joie de vivre.

Now a great French restaurant serves an amuse bouche, a little unannounced appetizer, meant to be one bite that amuses your mouth.  Le Fou Frog does not disappoint.  Mine was a liver pate with a tiny crouton.  Served in the little square two inch dish, shown below with a different mouth teaser.

For starters, I needed something warm.  I chose gratin with smoked chicken, potatotes, leeks, Gruyere cheese and cream.  Or you might try smoked duck salade with raspberry vinaigrette.

And for dessert, there is no way to show this perfect dish.  Pot de creme, which is a coffee pudding with Frangelica, (hazelnut liqueur).  So here it is:

SCRATCH AND SNIFF:

POT DE CREME AU CAFE

Now the whole point of KC Restaurant Week is sampling new places.  It's also a charity event, tho I'm not sure how they manage that.  Selfishly, choose the best, go for $33 dinners.  The couple next to us had scored a last minute reservation when someone else cancelled.  Be unstoppable.  And it's fine to take and post your photos.  Tho you'll never get it right to capture the candlelight...and if anyone needs to know what to do re Valentine's week, birthday, anniversary or Better Nookie Night:

  book now.

  

Day 2 of KC Restaurant Week: Grunauer's Viennese decadence--be sure to order the Esterhazy Torte. Book your res on OpenTable.com

How lucky are we to have Grunauer Restaurant in the Crossroads?  Because their second location is not just across town, it's the other side of the planet: in Austria.  And this week, thru Sun. Jan. 24, during KC Restaurant Week, you may choose pork roast,  Schnitzel or Hungarian goulash, for lunch for $15, and more choices for dinner, $33.

Now usually I skip desserts at lunch.  Not at Grunauer.  I can't say it loud enough: Instead of the healthy and light winter salad, go straight to Valhalla.  Choose their most popular dessert ever, the Esterhazy Torte!

Trevor Ashby, a most personable gent with a great sense of humor, is the GM.  He described this signature dessert as pure decadence.  "It's almost too much," Ashby said.  And I replied, "Actually, it's like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  It's JUST RIGHT."

I admit, I was a bit rusty on my history of the Esterhazy family, until I googled it when I danced a waltz in my kitchen upon returning home.  I was reminded that Franz Joseph Haydn, one of the big six classical composers of Europe, was born just outside Vienna. He worked for three of the Esterhazy princes.

"The Esterházy family was one of the richest and most powerful in the Hapsburg monarchy. In addition to their palace in Vienna, they owned palaces throughout Hungary and in today`s Austrian province of Burgenland. The Esterházy princes led a regal life and governed as sovereigns over their principality. A significant period in Haydn`s life commenced as Prince Esterházy`s “deputy kapellmeister´´ in Eisenstadt, “...where I wish to live and die,´´ Haydn wrote in a letter dated 6 July 1776.  

Think of that--he penned that letter two days after America's founding, July 4, 1776.

Esterházy I, had converted a glasshouse into a theatre in the palace park. The family's motto was: Lovers of splendor.  Esterhazy palace was known as a Hungarian Versailles, containing an opera house, puppet theatre and numerous adjacent buildings – a cultural centre on par with European standards. Haydn lived and wrote and conducted there for 11 summers, from 1766/77.

You know who would have loved Haydn?  Taylor Swift.  He was 250 years ahead of her time.  Because he negotiated owner's rights to his music.  He was allowed by the three Esterhazy princes to sell his work elsewhere.  And that is what led to his wider fame and popularity.

OK, local lovers of splendor.  Book a reservation right now, from your computer, at OpenTable.com.  See the menus, pick your choice of 94 restaurants during KC Restaurant Week.  I hope you love the Esterhazy Torte as much as I did.

Republica on the Plaza shines on opening night of KC Restaurant Week...thru next Sunday, book a meal on OpenTable.com NOW!

Friday was the first night of KC Restaurant Week, which runs thru Sunday, Jan. 24th.  The best week of the food year.  I've found some great new haunts this way.  I try to sample the upper tier restaurants for $33 for dinner or $15 for lunch.  This year I will visit five places in the ten days, then back to my Aldi budget and my low-carb diet.  So I can once again zip up my snakeskin leather slacks.  But not this week!

     

The Country Club Plaza is a mini-me of Barcelona, Spain.  (Miller Nichols came home from vacation, and ordered his architects to recreate the Giralda Tower, etc.)  And now thanks to the fine folks who also brought us Urban Table in Prairie Village, and half a dozen other remarkable restaurants, finally there's a decent Spanish restaurant on the Plaza. You don't need to fly Iberia Airlines for a memorable meal.

SO THERE I WAS, at Republica, the new Spanish tapas restaurant on the Plaza.  4807 Jefferson, where Ingredient used to be.  (Catty corner southeast of Capital Grille.)    For dinner, each diner selects one tapa (hot or cold), one entree and one dessert.  Since tapas are small plates meant for sharing, a smart plan for two people is to order six things and share them all.

A perfect starter, for my tastes, were one cold: the beet salad (with lots of ladidah extras)  and the meatballs.  Some frisky radishes are nestled in.  Never saw that coming.  But it was delish.

For entrees, Julie, my almost sister and I chose swordfish with Northern beans and little bits of some special ham.  Yowser--perfecto.  And grilled Wagyu with green beans.  Since I hate disempowering table talk that can spoil an appetite, I managed to resist making a joke at the table, about Wagyu being the tails of little abandoned puppies.  It's actually like Kobe beef from Japan.  Like buttah.  But of course, now you will be able to remember the name.  

Of course every dish has special Spanish ingredients, fancy cheese in the meatballs, etc.  You may read up on the special menu for 100 local restaurants participating in KC Restaurant Week, when you go to OpenTable.com.  That's the way all restaurants these days want you to book a table.  Rather than bugging the harried greeter at the front desk when she is way too busy, and does not have time or the knowledge to answer any questions about gluten, for God's sake.  People: stop with the gluten obsession, at least for ten days!  Shut up and order.  Eat something without lecturing the world about your gut and your bowels and how Monsanto is poisoning the world.  

For the rest of your lives, you don't need to check your watch.  Never phone any restaurant at rush hour.  Always go to OpenTable (they have an app.)  Pick date and time, and possibly filter for cuisine or neighborhood.  Then the website filters out what reservations are available.  (Bluestem booked up in October for this special week.  Foodies love that place.)  The regular menus are always available, but the website also shows the KCRW specials for lunch and dinner.

Ah but I digress.  

For dessert at Republica, do not go to jail, go straight to heaven.  Skip any other choices and get two helpings of the lemon cake, with rose-flavored whipped cream--heavenly right there--and paired with clove ice cream!

I once dined at a picnic table in Amagansett in the Hamptons, with Paul McCartney.  Just the two of us, for 45 minutes.  But that's for another blog post.  But I had told Sir Paul I was inventing French vanilla cilantro ice cream, and he said it sounded delicious.  

When I shared that story with Patrick, the perfectly attentive and knowledgeable waiter at Republica, he went to the kitchen.  And the chef sent him out with two extra scoops of clove ice cream.  Definitely worth the little upcharge.

There are many theories about life after death.  And about past lives, multiple incarnations, etc.  How would I know?  This time around, I'm just a gal who escaped Iowa and then Wichita and so far have only ventured to Kansas City.  Though I am open to something new.

 I favor the theories of Dr. Brian Weiss of Yale, but who knows.  I am also inspired by the accounts of Esther and Jerry Hicks.  She channels an entity labelled as Abraham.  It's shared as Abraham-Hicks.com.  Ram Dass--another inspiration of late---my friend Rev. Mary Omwake's buddy on Maui.  

And best-selling author Mike Dooley from Tut.com writes about "embracing today", especially the physical, the sensory.  Because even if you experience 10 thousand lives, or sit on the sidelines of non-physical for eons of time, there is nothing that calls one to Earth like the sensations we can taste and feel.

I want to spend the next ten days savoring whatever comes my way.   Because even in 10,000 lifetimes, the meal I ate at Republica, and that clove ice cream, may never return.

So how come nobody has published the Top 10 Snobbiest Cities in KCMO??? Pull out this Top 11 Worst Dinner Subjects list...and plan your post-dinner road trip thru the Golden Ghetto

Once again, what Tony Botello calls the Golden Ghetto, is winning the war for what is safe to talk about at Christmas dinner.

Read the Top 10 Snobbiest Cities in Kansas list, here:

There are two reasons to print out this list:

To change the subject.
And to drive your overstuffed relatives around, after dinner, to see how the other half lives.

So before you put on your ugly sweater, and attempt to protect it with your napkin, get this list ready.

Pull out the list whenever a relative brings up any of the following topics guaranteed to force you to put the Pepto Bismol on your holiday dinner table:

The Top 11 WORST subjects for Christmas dinner in KCMO:
Is our murder rate making us a little Chicago?
The Toy Train
The downtown hotel's catering contract
Shirley Helzberg's TIF
Hillary v. Bernie
Trump v. Cruz
Muslims, Planned Parenthood and Obamacare
Second Amendment v. Gun control
Former Royals players who ditched us for mega-millions--where are they eating tonight?

Do Black Lives matter more than other lives?

How about those Chiefs...is this Marty Schottenheimer time again??

Then, load up the FamDamily in your Oldsmobile, and take a tour of nine of the Snobbiest Cities in Kansas.  They're all in JoCo.  You can skip Andover, outside of Wichita.  It ain't all that.

Come see ladidah Leawood, where Mayor Peggy Dunn finally let the little boy keep his Little Free Library this year.  All it took was being chided on the Today Show to get Dunn to back off.

And spoiler alert:
There are no mountains in Prairie Village.  Yet.  Heck, they're still figuring out what to do with Meadowbrook Golf Course.

Note, there is more info on our sister site: JocoPost.com.  Please sign up to follow these two blogs. Think of it as your Christmas miracle courtesy of Blogger.

Chute and...techie job ladders = curtains for the Star. Yet another cyber-nail in their coffin as KCNext free tech job portal proves the Star is irrelevant to business community.

Hooray for Chute.  The suits who own KC's technology businesses have now launched the free job portal to recruit the best tech talent to support our Silicon Prairie.

Old paradigm:  (from My Fair Lady, the movie based on George Bernard Shaw's play, in case you don't recall), sing it with me now....
"The rain 
in Spain
stays mainly
on the plain..."

New paradigm:
The suits
from Chutes 
are in kahoots
since the STAR's business coverage 
is kaput... 

KCNext is the technology council of greater Kansas City.
Chutekc.com is their new web site.
(I'd have named it chutes, plural, But they didn't ask me.  Oh well, if you Google 'chutes kc' it takes you there anyway.  Maybe they'll buy the second domain and link it.  They have techies who can figger that out.)

Facts:  Nobody reads the KC STAR, especially folks 18-34.  I'm not talking classifieds, I'm talking news stories, even online.  Free or not.  McClatchey, the owners, clearly just don't care about local coverage. Do we really think tomorrow's leaders are reading their gulag section ?  the  online press release section of the Star?  Right, after playing a fast game of SuperMarioBrothers.

The STAR is really just USA Today for geezers who can't drink enough coffee to have their morning BM without newsprint ink on their hands.

The STAR's business coverage is thinner than Joe Biden's hair.  And as for editorials, does anyone care what Yael Abouhalkah or Steve Rose thinks?  I think not.  The Star used to lead this town.  Not at all nowadays.

Our local tech businesses have stuck a spear in that dinosaur, and invented a far more effective way to share news and recruit tech talent.  Chutekc.com is the fast free way to get news and find jobs.  It also promotes our hipster Crossroads lifestyle for that generation that loves to hunt for a parking space.

(Come to think of it...why doesn't the KCMO City Council allow the vote to stop the Helzberg TIF for an architectural firm, which is what voters will say, and then invite know it all noblesse oblige rich gal Shirley "First Time Developer" Helzberg to pony up and lead: just pay her taxes and build a great HQ for a tech firm instead??)

Here are the FAQ's from Chutekc.com

and:
Lookie here! 15 groups that connect you with tech jobs, w/o reading the STAR

This could be big.  They are rolling out here, but this will spread faster than a new app for deep discounts on Viagra, to every tech village in the US.

Now the only thing left is:

Can KCNext figure out what to do NEXT with the STAR's glass HQ off Truman Road at Grand?  Maybe a Chutes and Ladders style indoor waterpark, ala Schlitterbahn?

Don Pepe--former Onassis chef at Cascone's only Sat. nights; gas pumper at Lenexa Costco six days a week: just grateful to be alive

One of the men I so admire is Chef Don Pepe.  And now you can see him and taste his great food, only on Saturday nights, at Johnny Cascone's, 91st just east of Metcalf.

Many of you recall his delicious cooking at his restaurant in the 80's on SW Blvd: Don Pepe's.  I have no idea how he made it to KC, because for three years, he was Executive Chef on the Christina, Aristotle Onassis' yacht in the Mediterranean Sea.

Usually folks who migrate from Europe to KC come for love.  Perhaps that drew our "Pepe" here. You'll have to ask him.

Now many chefs have a great gift: cooking.  Not so much with Quicken.  So in the 80's, Pepe lost his way, in the accounting and spending division, and we all lost a great place to eat.  But now, he's back.  But just four hours a week: at Cascone's.

On Saturday nights, in addition to their regular menu, and the live easy listening band, lots of Sinatra, tunes I actually know, the big thing is: Don Pepe comes out of the kitchen, in his chef whites, and tells you about HIS specials, on a separate sheet of paper.  And they are "delicioso".
My Saturday night movie group, from the Glenwood Arts and the Ks. International film festival, KIFF, dines there often, all 20 of us.  And when Pepe told us there were only 24 more servings left of his mega-giant fresh Scallops Spedini, well, 17 of our group ordered those.  I am allergic to garlic (hence my inability to repel single vampire men??) so I dined on one of Pepe's other remarkable specials, Salmon Piccata.  Not overcooked or dry like most restaurants.  Perfection.  With a side of noodles alfredo.  And caesar salad.  So generous I took half home.

But here is the rest of the story on this day of thanksgiving:
The rest of the week, you will find Don Pepe pumping gas for handicapped folks at the Lenexa Costco.  Now many would feel sorry for themselves, if they could only share their true gift from God a scant four hours a week.  Not Pepe.

Five years ago, he had a brain tumor.  And of course, doctors describe all tumors as being either the size of a sports ball, or a fruit.  So, out of respect, perhaps, Pepe's brain tumor was not a softball; it was "the size of a grapefruit".

"Tracy, I am so grateful every day--just to be alive.  The good doctors at KU Med Center saved me.  So wherever I am, here at Lenexa Costco, where I get to enjoy the fresh air and helping people, or cooking Saturday nights, at Johnny Cascone's, where I get to smell the garlic and butter and ultra-fresh ingredients, and feed people--I am always happy.  Come see me.  I'll give you a hug."
--Don Pepe

The Edge of Hell and The Beast are open late--P&L Royals fans can visit after games Sat and Sun nights--support our World Class home town haunted houses too

I used to do the advertising for The Edge of Hell and The Beast--for several decades.  And I know how hard it was on Monty Summers' family owned business, back in 1985--when the Royals were in the I-70 World Series.

These are world class operations--the Summers family, including Monty's brilliant niece, Amber Bequeaith, (yep, she used up all the vowels in Scrabble) have taken the haunted house industry to new heights of technology and psychological thriller entertainment.  They are the best operators of the undisputed best haunted houses in the country.  Just like our Royals team.

When you operate a seasonal business, and your target market is glued to the TV--and even the streets of Kansas City are deserted--it's very hard to survive.Fortunately, Halloween is not the biggest night of the year for haunted houses.  Many families are trick or treating, going for the free candy.

That said, I note that The Edge of Hell and The Beast--plus Macabre Cinema, the third haunted house owned by Full Moon Productions, are all open both this Sat. and Sun. nights.

They do not LIST how late.  (That saves you a phone call.  Trust me, they will keep the doors open as long as there are customers in line.)

I have been down there with Rat Man and BeetleJuice and all those screaming teens until 1am--so if you want some fun, and being scared really IS fun, well, just head from the P&L down the 12th St. Bridge, and show up.

Friday night's game was over at a very reasonable time--gosh, just 9 innings!  And win or lose, it's not like you can just go to sleep.  Royals fans have pent up energy.

Now personally, The Beast has long been my favorite, because getting lost in that Werewolf Forest for 20 minutes really drives up my abandonment anxiety.  They do finally send it staff to escort you to the next path.  And at the Edge of Hell, those vertigo bridges freak me out every time.

Live giant anacondas, hauled here from the Amazon.  Oh and that squeezing tunnel--a real heart-pounder.

Tell the Rat Man that Tracy sent you...

Queen Elizabeth in her Royals suit--and hat! I wonder which grandson got her into social media and baseball?

This picture is worth 1000 treaties.  

I love her special chair, her circle pin with real diamonds.

Her gloves.  Her smile.  Her body language.

We are so fortunate her Canadian subjects in Toronto didn't prevail.

But wait!

There's no way the milliner could have appliqued the KC logo 

atop the bow

on her Phillip Treacy hat.

And that Royals logo splashed across her chest.

Is it remotely possible this was Photoshopped?

And do we care?

Heavens, no.

Go Royals.

Deffenbaugh customers: save $1.50 per week by reading this one post! Instead of buying paper bags, just label a trash can with YW, one per week allowed

I hate paying for those paper trash bags.  So I was thrilled to learn I can put all my twigs and a few leaves in my ratty old trash can, max. 30 gallons, and the third Deffenbaugh truck--the one just for Yard Waste will empty it and leave it.  (So not the black lid bin for trash, and not the yellow lid bin for some recyclables but not glass).  This is the third truck: YW.

That saves any smart homeowner $1.50 per week.  At least during what they call "yard waste season" which is everything except January thru March.  Nine full months, same as a full term baby!

Now you might wonder, why not January thru March?  Don't we all have brush and twigs from winter winds?  Of course we do.  But a little know fact I gleaned when I was on the Shawnee City Council for five long years, was this:  Many workers at Deffenbaugh are Mexicans, not US citizens.  They are allowed to come here on temporary visas.  They live in very bare bones communal housing, often small homes, ten workers to a home, ringing the landfill which is in Shawnee.

And their visas are stored in the company safe.  That was all set up by Dennis Moore, when he was Ron Deffenbaugh's attorney, long before he became the Congressman representing Johnson and Wyandotte Counties.

And the Mexicans must return home for three months, and then return, like monarch butterflies.  So, they go home January through March each year.  (And who wouldn't like a vacation in a warmer clime?)

So Deffenbaugh's staffing is down, every year in first quarter.  And that is the secret reason why no yard waste pickups, other than their special Christmas tree collection.  If there is an ice storm, cities make extra provisions for a special "drag it to the curb" pickup.

Of course, it depends on exactly what contract you or your HOA have with Deffenbaugh.  Forget the website, save time and just call and they look up your address.  913/631-3300.  

I am grateful for Deffenbaugh's Yard Waste trash can policy.  It keeps some people from cheating--eg hiding yard waste in a black bin.  The supervisor explained, you can even use a little five gallon bucket for twigs--but if you don't use a marker to write YW on the side, for YARD WASTE--then you won't get your bucket back.

This is in fact my happiest trash time of the year.  From October thru December, here in Shawnee I can leave a total of 10 yard waste items, rather than the usual eight.  So, nine bundles of limbs (I am a champion lopper) plus my dependable turquoise YW trash barrel.

Life is good.  Thank you, Deffenbaugh.  Miss you Ronnie...

Greatest movie in 30 years, the hit of OmFilmFest.com, one final showing this year: 7:30pm Thursday Oct 15, Standees in PV: the Slumdog/ET/GodsMustBeCrazy/BeingThere/Bollywood extravaganza comedy adventure for thinking people. Thank you Jerome van Wert for wrassling Disney to allow just one more encore showing.

"PK" has emerged as the highest-grossing Indian film of all time.  No wonder Disney bought the US rights. "PK" was the first Indian film to gross INR 6 billion worldwide.  It took heroic efforts by Hyde Park's Jerome van Wert to wrangle the rights to show it one last time this year in KC.  Don't miss it: Thursday 7:30pm, Standees in the Prairie Village Shops, $10.  OMFilmfest.com

This movie is Hindi with English subtitles.  But worth it!!  Riotously funny and engrossing and moving.  If you loved Slumdog Millionaire, or The Gods Must Be Crazy, or Being There, or ET, this is for you.“A stranger in the city asks questions no one has asked before. Known only by his initials, P.K.'s innocent questions and childlike curiosity take him on a journey of love, laughter and letting-go.”

“PK (PeeKay) movie is a political satire, hitting out at corruption in the country.”

“P. K. is a comedy of ideas about a stranger in the city, who asks questions that no one has asked before. Innocent, child-like questions, but they bring about catastrophic answers. People who are set in their ways for generations, are forced to reappraise their world when they see it from PK's innocent eyes. 

---

I saw this in September at OMFilmFest, on the Plaza--and am going again--have never visited Standee's in PV, I hear it's special.  You can't buy PK as a DVD and it's not on Netflix, to my knowledge.  Disney has the rights all locked up like one of their princesses. So hooray for Hyde Park's Jerome van Wert (of the famed art patron duo 'Steve and Jerome') for negotiating this encore.    KC is so blessed to have the OMFilmFest each September, plus KIFF, with its 80 docs, narratives and shorts, which is Nov. 6-12 at Glenwood Arts.  (kansasfilm.com).  And now this encore final airing of PK.  

If you see only one movie the next two years, make it PK.

Hooray for Chris Kemper--first in the nation to use school ID for access to the public library

Chris Kemper set an example for the nation.  Hooray!  And it took three years, but as director of the Kansas City Public Library, he finally got the library's log-in system changed, so kids in the Kansas City Public Schools can do their homework, online, and just log in with their school-issued and verified ID number.  

No need for a stupid and easy to lose library card!  Thank you to Tonyskansascity.com for alerting me to Michael Mahoney's story on KMBC.com.

See Mahoney's story on student ID access to the Library, online and in their buildings.

We can send Matt Damon to Mars, in four years.  But it only took three years for Kemper to be first in America to let school kids into the library without a separate card.

Of course, Chris Kemper is super smart.  He didn't attend KC Public Schools; he went to Pembroke.  And beyond, Yale I believe.  As R. Crosby Kemper III.  The scion of United Missouri Bank wealth.  Now serving out the rest of his life as Kansas City's modern day Medici-in-residence.

 

Kemper also weighed in on the crazy downtown hotel issue, attempting to get the city's secret report showing that it will never pay for itself.  To date, that project is still incomplete, but at least he is leading!  Good for you, Mr. Kemper.

Did SM Schools use Ouija boards to secretly violate Open Meeting Law re Meadowbrook? Why do their lawyers claim they are broke, when they just walked on $1 million in taxes?

The Shawnee Mission School District needs to learn from the Kansas City School District--you can't lie to the public and the legislators about your finances.  Because when your district starts to slide downward, homeowners will vote with their feet.  That's why many families, especially whites, originally fled decades ago to SM.  And are now migrating south to Blue Valley.  Not just for the "children", but for the resale value of their homes, even retirees.

So this week, SMSD got caught talking out of both sides of their mouths.  On Wednesday, they failed their elected duties to protect the finances, by refusing to VETO the goofy "reverse TIF" for Meadowbrook, PV's free Recreational Welfare Rec Center.  They walked away from over a million dollars of property taxes the next 20 years.  Saying in essence, "We don't really need the money."

The very next day, their lawyers filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in Kansas, claiming that the state funding formula has unfairly tied their hands, canceled important classes and increased class size.  "We need millions more in money!"

Shawnee Mission honchos: you can't have it both ways.  Either you're too rich to need the money, or you are broke.  Chocolate or vanilla: choose.

  Click to read PVPost and amicus brief

Hats off to Cindy Neighbor and Patty Mach on SMSD who at least TRIED to force a veto vote on the Recreational Welfare.  But they must have read the tea leaves, or received a ration of crap calling them out, so when the Wed. 7:30am meeting bell rang, they'd been muzzled.  Put in Time Out. Silenced.  And I do mean silenced, since the public was not allowed to speak.

My question is, was KOMA violated?  By whom and how often?  How many secret conversations ensued in the last week?  District Attorney Steve Howe would be inundated if he had to review all the emails and texts from elected officials from BOCC, Ed Eilert, Hannes Zaccharias, to the commissioners, Mayor Laura Wassmer (who was reportedly so gobsmacked at any hint of opposition to her free community center that her page boy came uncurled), the lawyers for the VanTrust car dealers who snagged the TIF, and then the SMSD staff and school board members.

My guess?  Of course there were violations.  Or else how would the district folks have known, walking into the meeting, that they HAD the votes to defeat the proposed veto?  Unless they had secretly counted the votes in the back room and over their I-phone 6's???  (of course they have 'em.  They gave tablets and laptops to every kid in the district this September.  Trust me, these folks have Frequent Flier Miles at the Apple store.)

On second thought: I bet Superintendent Jim Hinson just discerned the vote using ESP!  (The Ouija boards are hidden behind the librarian's desk at every Shawnee Mission SD library.)

Not every greedy mayor lives in KCMO. Now PV Mayor/Welfare Queen Laura Wassmer is in bed with developers, hurting SM schools and property values.

Over in JoCo, the county and now the City of PV have learned from Sly James, in KCMO, how to deliver the bacon, to their friendly developers.

Remember Van Chevrolet?  They turned developer.  First they failed to invade the Plaza, when Polsinelli got a better deal around the corner, when they convinced Sly to bail out both Bob Bernstein and Terry Dunn--and lease it to them.  Now VanTrust has become a JoCo developer. So they bought Meadowbrook Country Club, 9101 Nall.  And in classic car dealer style, they took it as a "trade in" and are now double dipping profitably on TWO deals!

We at VanTrust keep the good land, and sell off the rest to JoCo,
who must build us a free detention pond.
BOCC then gives the clubhouse away for free to PV,
in return for approving this deal instead of building a new courthouse!
(plus it rewards Ron Shaffer being swing vote on King Louie...)
Would you like a free hotdog?

Now VanTrust wants to build upscale senior housing in PV--but waaaaaahhh--- they don't want to pay their property taxes!  But not even JoCo voters would fall for a TIF giveaway to a car dealer.  So,VanTrust is "parting out the car".  Parcelling off the interior half of the land, and foisting it off on JoCo government, with the first ever "reverse TIF".  Instead of jamming that property tax money into their own pocket, they used the three shell game trick.

  

VanTrust is stuffing the abated taxes into the pocket of JoCo Parks and Rec.  To cover the taxpayers' cost for the back half of this trade-in.  But ONLY if the SM Schools fall for this game.  And the big vote is this Wed.

So how does JoCo then pay off the swing voter, new Commissioner Ron Shaffer, former mayor of Prairie Village?  Brilliant!  JoCo Parks & Rec is gonna turn an aging Meadowbrook Clubhouse into the first city to receive a FREE community center, at the expense of ALL the county's taxpayers.  For the win: Prairie Village! 

But Cindy Neighbor on the SM School Board is opposing the TIF.  Wants to veto it Wed. night. How dare she!!!   Welfare Queen Mayor Laura Wassmer is furious!  She is trotting out Kay Barnes, the giveaway queen of KCMO,  and former Mayor Roe Talliaferro, everyone except Bernie Sanders. 

Roe Taliaferro, flanked by former Kansas City, Mo., mayor Kay Barnes (left) and
Prairie Village Mayor Laura Wassmer at a presentation earlier this year,
is encouraging PV residents to contact their representatives on the SM School Board.

 Wassmer is calling SM Schools need to collect property tax to keep competitive with Blue Valley Schools a "short term concern"!   Who is Wassmer's speechwriter?  Sly James??? 

The fact is this: The citizens of Prairie Village are now being lobbied by BOCC Commissioner Ron Shaffer, their former mayor who is trying to deliver the bacon, millions of dollars of JoCo tax dollars, to provide PV with a FREE community center. That is RECREATIONAL WELFARE. No other community got a free community center paid for by ALL of JoCo taxpayers. Not Shawnee, not Lenexa, not even the big dog, OP.  (They are getting one mold-filled room for yoga classes inside King Louie.  By one vote, the BOCC paid $4.5 million for the ugly asbestos filled building. A year later it appraised at $430,000, before pouring $32 million into rehabbing that pig. King Louie is smack dab between Matt Ross Community Center and the vacant Metcalf South.) 

Your home is often your single biggest asset.

Your public schools protect your property values.
So it doesn't matter if you have kids.
Bad schools, eg KCMO, equals lower resale value.

A rec center with subsidized day care COMPETES with private industry, which is well capable of offering yoga or pilates classes and day care. 
If you want the economy to improve, (so your kids and grandkids can get a job and move out of your back bedroom) then stop allowing your governmental lackies to transfer private tasks to public tax financed efforts.

SM Schools should STOP allowing businesses to demand TIF's.
The Meadowbrook TIF is a shell game.  Pretends the tax is for the county not the car dealer, when it is just an account transfer.
By one vote, the JoCo Commission refused to negotiate, and let a car dealer set the inflated price, sans appraisal.And because the car dealer is building things that don't generate much property tax, 
the TIF is a fake: it will likely never be paid off.
It's a gift disguised as an incentive.

This is a Trojan horse.  VanTrust is sneaking into NE JoCo to build what they want,
on the GOOD land, while sticking the county with the worse half, the interior in need of a giant detention pond, and then using Kay Barnes and Welfare Queen Laura Wassmer to hustle for it, 
and now trying to guilt trip the SM Schools into taking it in the yoga shorts.

If PV wants a community center, they should pay for it, and not demand RECREATIONAL WELFARE from every resident in Johnson County.
The SM School Board, led by Cindy Neighbor of Shawnee, should demand their property taxes. Period. VETO THE TIF.  

JoCo, did you learn NOTHING from KCMO???  When you go to sell your home, you don't want to have to lower your selling price by $20,000 to compete with a homebuyer who might not even have kids but wants to move to the Blue Valley School district...for the RESALE VALUE.

What is more important? Resale value of your home? Or putting on your lycra yoga pants and going to the Meadowbrook Welfare Rec Center?