Tracy dares Tony: see this ONE play at Fringe/Just Off Broadway: Phil Kinen's BEEN FINN, The story of Huckleberry Finn at age 50 meeting his bastard son

I challenge Tony to change his mind.  Fringe Festival, thru July 31, makes a terrific 'staycation'.  For $10 a ticket, (the cost of one great New York City bagel), I'm staying home and spending now thru Sunday July 31 seeing GREAT theatre in a truly great theatre town: KC.

Tony has just poopooed Fringe in the past because he saw the wrong, weaker shows.  Whereas I've invested five hours just researching your options.   This year's 108 choices include many biographies.

 Huck Finn if he were 50 meeting his bastard son.  (There is a great swordfight.)  Annie Oakley, Crazy Horse--and two one acts by Tennessee Williams.  Plus the standing-ovation receiving "Mama's Boy"--at Fishtank--the true story of Blake Friis and his mother's suicide--by a charming, talented and wise comic writer with impeccable timing and great heart.
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BEEN FINN

This show is brilliant.... playwright Phil Kinen has woven in a Jungian interpretation of Huckleberry Finn...the Puer Aeternus boy who never grows up.  And when you see these two characters each do their transformations in personality it is remarkable, believable and breathtaking!

Greg Butell and Jake Leet deliver performances good enough to go straight to Broadway.  Trust me, Butell will have to fend off mega-star actors like Hugh Jackman who would covet the role Kinen wrote and Butell has created.  And Jake Leet is so perfect that he inspired Kinen to complete THIS play out of his series of five Huckleberry Finn plays just so he could co-star in it.  The Johnson County Library is so keen on these plays they pay Kinen a stipend to do monthly updated readings.  This is a big deal.  We've never had a local playwright be so supported.

Read the attached notes, and go see Been Finn.

So far, and this is early in the 11 day Fringe Festival 2016 season, 

Phil Kinen's Been Finn is the best show I've seen yet 

out of six of the 13 tickets I've purchased.  I also screened 30 teaser performances.  Email me for the rest of my picks.

Been Finn performances thru July 30, 2016:

Monday 8 p.m.; Wednesday 6:30 p.m.; Friday 11 p.m; Saturday 4:30 p.m.
And it may win a bonus performance Sunday July 31.  Check the web site.
Note!  Just Off Broadway Theater is at 3015 Penn Valley Drive--but you cannot get there direcly from 31st St.unless you rapell down the cliff.  ou must come in via Wyandotte.  
Either take 31st to Main south by the car dealership at 32nd to Wyandotte.
Or, from the south, via Linwood to Wyandotte.  Then it's behind the orange barricade!!!  But worth it.

Tickets available at the door. 

They do have snacks and they sell drinks.

Tickets are $10...available at the door since it is a large venue...it won't be sold out.

But you must have a current 2016 Fringe button: this costs $5 so if it's your first or only Fringe Festival event you have to buy the $5 button as well.  But then you can use it for other great $10 performances and "Fringe" coffeehouse benefits throughout the year.

www.kcfringe.org

You may also buy tix, or print out the tix you bought online, in the lower level of Union Station.  Warning, the arrogant dummies at the station turned off the 3 story escalator "to save utilities".  There is a very hidden elevator. Park in Union Station's front elliptical circle and pretend to go to the Post Office, so you don't have to pay $5 just to park and run in to print out tix. Don't get me started.

--Tracy Thomas

Former intern, National Endowment for the Arts; former art tzar of KCMO; and Doubleday co-author.

Sam Brownback's crazy cousin Charlotte is trying to sneak her PTSD boyfriend Greg Goode into the halls of Congress--with a gun!!! Election fixing and bribery charges??

The dumbest serial campaigner in Johnson County is Charlotte O'Hara.  As a three time failed candidate for various offices, and newly divorced from Mr. Sun Tea (aged 83??) now she is trying to get her new handsome unvetted PTSD veteran boyfriend, Greg Goode, elected to replace respected member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, Kevin Yoder in Congress.

But did Charlotte O'Hara bother to "vet" her boyfriend as a suitable candidate first?  Is he a dangerous Manchurian Candidate?  Might his reported psychiatric issues cause him to grab his gun and shoot up the halls of Congress?

Haven't we had enough wrong-thinking armed veterans with PTSD or NPD/Narcissistic Personality Disorder from the Kansas City area for one month?   (eg Cosmo Long, the Baton Rouge cop killer, who changed his name to an Egyptian version of Jesus and the slayer of Ramses II?)

How does this craziness happen?  Follow the money, honey.  And the mortgage.  If you've just divorced your Honey Pot millionnaire hubby, and want to get outta Dodge, or rather your palatial Montana style southern OP mansion, well, Annie get yourself a gun-toting hunky boyfriend, prop his *ss up and why not gallop to Washington DC.

You can fool some of the people some of the time.
--Abraham Lincoln at the 1856 National Republican Convention

Just how 3D:ditsy/delusional and dumb is Charlotte O'Hara, the campaign manager and fixer for Greg Goode?

1.  Well, many recall Jeff Roe's former politico pal, the late Pat Gray.  When Charlotte ran against Annabeth Surbaugh for chairman of the Johnson County BOCC/Commission, the FIRST time out of two, Gray hustled Charlotte and the aging Mr. Sun Tea hubby, out of $675,000!!!  Gray mailed postcards with virtually no copy.  Just cupcakes on the cover art.  Huh?  She came in third, spending an estimated $33.75 PER VOTE!

2.  I know.  I came in fourth in that race in 2002.  I spent a measly $7 grand, and received 10,000 votes.  A cost of 70 pennies per vote.  Pat Gray used to work for me.  I said at the time, "If I had just spent $500 on an ad in The Pitch to land me a rich sugar daddy husband, I'd have won."

3.  Charlotte O'Hara, a lovely woman in person and a good mom,  five adopted kids, is known as the "Queen of Gallop-polling Ambition".  She has told me twice about the
BROWNBACK FAMILY DYNASTY PLAN!! 

I have a dream....of no taxes...

Cousin Sam was in the US Senate at the time.  He realized how jacked up that was, so he was coming home to Kansas, would run and serve as Governor twice, (which he now has) then ascend to the Presidency from here. (Oops.)  She would run for Ks. Senate, (oops, third loss in a row) and then take the Governorship.  (How's that workin' for ya?)

Oops.  Time for Plan B.  So like Scarlett O'Hara at Tara, Charlotte O'Hara divorces--or is divorced by--the Sun Tea Sugar Daddy. (Think Anna Nicole Smith.)

Scarlett/I mean Charlotte loses mansion!!!! 
Stalks and finds boyfriend Greg Goode.  Retired Army Lt. Colonel.  And if she can just manage to fool enough voters to get her Manchurian Candidate through the Aug. R. primary, she can escape Tara, I mean her plans to move to Topeka, and gallop into Washington DC society.

"I'll think of it all tomorrow.  On K Street."

4.  So O'Hara skips the vetting process, well, maybe a couch audition.

Gotta love a man in camo.

Oops--she didn't see this on Match.com!

 She runs the new boyfriend for Congress, on a strategy of voting out all incumbents.  Reportedly, it was Charlotte O'Hara who sought out Kansans for Life for Goode's endorsement.  Instead he took the fake version, a volunteer ministry fraught with a dreadful past history, called Kansas Coalition for Life.  Ks. Coalition for Life is a small group in Wichita who are the Troy Newman group of folks who refuse to get along with anyone, and as you may recall, his secretary CHERYL Sullinger's phone number was found in GEORGE TILLER'S murderer car when he was arrested. If you google CHERYL, you will find she is a FEDERAL FELON FOR ATTEMPTING TO BLOW UP A WEST COAST ABORTION CLINIC.

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To read about serial rageaholic veteran and candidate for Congress, Greg Goode, read the companion story on our sister political satire and commentary site: www.JocoPost.com

There is a 170 page investigative report of his past.

RIP, Pat Gray.  You woulda loved this campaign.
--Tracy Thomas

Staycation alert! Best singers in town, coldest A/C, former 8 Tony award blockbuster BIG RIVER, at Crown Center's Musical Theater Heritage thru Sunday! Kids attend free. Plus free movie night on First Fri.

Do you and your date--or entire family--need a great night out, a "staycation"?  Something that gives you goosebumps?  And not just because their A/C is set at 67??  My playwright/Hollywood promoter friend Bill Doty is my guru for music and theatre and film.  When it's good, he sees performances multiple times.  We agree: "KC is remarkable for its talent for singers and actors.  Much better than Denver, rivaled in the Midwest only by Chicago."  

Note: Kids come free, if you sit in the more affordable side seats, which are great: I know from experience.  You are close to the action!   Get tix here.  Today.  Since you won't be seeing Hamilton till 2018, for $1200 a ticket, LOL.

Doty's latest pick?  He writes, "Go see BIG RIVER, at Crown Center's Musical Theater Heritage, on the 3rd floor of Crown Center Shops.  Their concert-style performance is THE best performed piece of  exciting, fast-paced theatre I’ve seen in years (or ever).  

BIG RIVER is an absolute killer – in which every single song is a show stopper.  

Concert-style performances allow the Director to choose fantastic voices – not having to worry about “selling” the tune, marching back and forth to use the entire stage, using props, painted sets and so forth.  

These performers, including Kip Niven, are absolute virtuoso’s – the likes of which we’d like to see on Broadway.  Incidentally, this show could be picked up and put on Broadway, as it stands, without changing a word.

BIG RIVER is a musical that I had seen once before by the national company, based on Mark Twain’s 1884 book “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”   It's the first musical the late Roger Miller ever wrote and, he said at the time, the most difficult music he ever wrote.  Musical Theater Heritage Founder and Executive Producer George Harter said that the first production won 7 Tony Awards and then the revival garnered another 9 nominations and won another Tony for Excellence in Theatre.  So that's as many nominations as Hamilton got.

'Big River' is described as one of the few, if not the only American musical in the Eighties to rise above a failing Broadway, invaded by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s smash hits, the “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Evita,” “Phantom...,” “Joseph/Technicolor Dreamcoat,” “CATS” phenomena and the venerable “Les Miserables” (Schonberg-Boubil).  {Doty should know.  He spent a dinner in London seated next to Andrew Lloyd Webber, and was offered house seats to CATS.}

I will be going again.  “Big River” will play through this Sunday, June 26 on Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun’s.  If you like theatre and haven’t seen this one – you haven’t seen what theatre can be... The Best!" 

MTHKC.com

816/221-6987

Tell 'em Tracy and Tony sent you..you must call box office to get the free kid deal.

==
Plus, now Musical Theater Heritage has a FREE event on First Fridays, including July 1:
Since you'll already be in the Crossroads, hot and thirsty since the galleries are very chintzy with the wine any more, enjoy the free parking at Crown Center, find the 3rd floor of Crown Center SHOPS, buy a drink and sit down and watch free movies--the shorts.  Perfect for your attention span!  And remember to bring a scarf or wrap or jacket, because the A/C is incredible.  Did you see Snowpiercer, where Tilda Swinton put the man's arm out the hole in the ice train for 7 minutes???  Freezing cold like that!!....MTHKC even keeps blankies on a shelf, if you forget.

First Friday Film Festival - Kansas City - 2016 is the inaugural season of the FIRST FRIDAY FILM FESTIVAL. FREE TO THE PUBLIC, short film festival recurring every first Friday, after most of the galleries have closed. The doors to the venue and bar open at 8:30pm, the screening begins at 9:30 and runs until 11pm. Admission is always FREE. Seating is first come, first served.  You may reserve a free seat in advance...at MTHKC.com.  Ha, much better than fighting the downtown rowdies for a seat in a noisy bar.  

Protestors at VAXXED, the controversial autism/vaccine expose at Glenwood Arts, refused offers of free tickets to see what they were protesting.

One of the most important films you will ever see: VAXXED: From Coverup to Catastrophe is showing ONLY at the Glenwood Arts, ONLY thru Thursday.  12:05, 2:30, 4:40 and 7:05pm.  It was banned at the Tribeca Film Festival, by Sloan Kettering Hospital, a big sponsor who threatened to cancel their sponsorship.  Then AFTER the festival, founder Robert DeNiro, (who has a child with autism but was outvoted) said on the Today Show, "I think this film is something everyone should see."

Class act Glenwood Theatre co-owner Brian Mossman offered free tickets to half a dozen protesters of VAXXED.  The refused to watch the movie, or learn about what they were protesting.  Did Merck the vaccine manufacturer just pay them or their families to protest???

You may think you know what you believe.  I did.  This film changed my mind: I am not against all vaccines.  But we should spread them out, especially for black kids.  I watched with an open mind.  See the pediatrician (they are the vaccine distributors/administrators following the CDC mandated schedule) admit: "I've been lied to by our government.  I've endangered my young patients' lives."

Now I kinda expected controversial Dr. Andrew Wakefield to be a clone of wild-eyed crazy man Clay Chastain, former KC resident zealot for light rail.  He is not!   Wakefield is thoughtful, respectful, and he has strategic suggestions.

Space out the vaccines.  Separate Measles from Mumps from Rubella like we did in the 50's--when autism was 1 in 150,000.  Now its 1 in 67.  Administer one vaccine a year.   Rather than a toxic cocktail of three live virusses.  What could go wrong!  And delay innoculations--not at 15 months for black kids.  A bit later.  Congress needs to call the CDC whistleblower who admits exactly how they fraudulently deleted data and cooked the books.  And, end Vaccine Court, the 1986 US law that exempts Big Pharma from all damages, based on the CDC's corrupt data.  Those ideas all make great sense, don't they?

The black Mom in the film was compelling--she has twins.  The son had the vaccine and became dangerously disabled autistic.  His twin sister did not receive the vaccine.  She's a genius, playing concertos on the piano.

Hey, Minnie--are those polka dots?  Or measles??  But at least you are not autistic for life!!!!  675 cases of measles vs 1 million kids and families lives ruined by the CDC coverup that subsidizes Merck and other vaccine Big Pharma manufacturers.  One vaccine on the market equals $30 billion in profits.  No wonder Congress sold out to Big Pharma.

I love how the Disney lobby is upset that 675 kids got measles last year at Disneyland.  Well, what about the 1 million kids, mostly boys, who contracted autism the same year?  Where's their lobby???
And now California wants to mandate following the CDC schedule?  Hear the facts.  Change your mind.

Maybe families should wait till their kids are older to be vaccinated, and THEN take 'em to Disneyland.  Or the halls of Congress--to watch the horror show called "Big Pharma Zombies Buy Your Congressman and Suck His Blood."  (Maybe that will play this fall, Nov. 4-10 at the Ks. International Film Festival at the Glenwood Arts.)

MANY thanks to www. tonyskansascity.com for posting a 30 min. review video.  You may see it at his post for Sunday at 5:30am.


For more stories, see www.jocopost.com.

Hugely controversial documentary at Glenwood Arts starts Fri: VAXXED: Autism//Vaccination/CDC Coverup --with Dr. Andrew Wakefield. 613 tickets presold!

Tell everyone you know who has a child with autism: VAXXED:From Coverup to Catastrophe is showing one week only at the Glenwood Arts.

Jenny McCarthy (dated Jim Carrey and Mark Wahlberg) is the mother of a child with autism.  She says her healthy son contracted it immediately after he received  the MMR/live triple virus measles vaccine.  She wrote the forward for "Callous Disregard" defending Dr. Wakefield for pursuing the CDC in covering up the link of too many live vaccines at once, and the MMR in particular, to autism.

In 2016, then Dr. Andrew Wakefield, author of "Callous Disregard", (with the forward by Jenny McCarthy), directed the documentary film Vaxxed:From Coverup to Catastrophe. The film reports "an appalling cover-up committed by the CDC, our government agency/Center for Disease Control, charged with protecting the health of American citizens.   Staffers deleted evidence showing the long-suspected link between the triple live MMR measles vaccine and autism.  This alarming deception has contributed to the skyrocketing increase of autism and potentially the most catastrophic epidemic of our lifetime.  By 2030, 80% of all boys could have autism or Aspergers Syndrome--be "on the spectrum" as the community of exasperated parents calls it.

Skeptical???  Worth noting: The CDC already covered up the AIDS virus for a decade till it jumped from gays to Ryan White.  Then Lyme Disease.  And let's not forget the Tuskegee Airmen, our US Army secretly gave them venereal disease, and studied them for decades!

VAXXED is controversial.  

Open your ears--before you open up your kids' veins.  

At least consider spacing out your vaccines.

The film was withdrawn from the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival.  Local New York festival sponsors had threatened to stop their financial support.  Wakefield called this action CENSORSHIP.  

After the festival, (when the sponsors' money had prevented the viewing), the festival's founder, Robert DeNiro, who has a child with autism, said on NBC's TODAY program, "I think the movie is something that people should see."

Come to the Glenwood Arts this weekend, 95th & Mission, and decide for yourself. To avoid long lines, fineartsgroup.com. 

Dr. Andrew Wakefield, Q&A following VAXXED documentary, this Fri. Sat. only, at 5:10pm and 8:q5 pm shows at Glenwood Arts, 95th & Metcalf.  Tix in advance: fineartsgroup.com

Former British doctor Andrew Wakefield, plus the director plus a mom of an autistic child will answer questions...Fri and Sat., 5:10 pm and 8:15 pm June 10 and 11 only.

Over 613 tickets have already been purchased for this weekend--more than any other film every shown at the Glenwood Arts since it opened in 1982.

Just please don't be one of those ninnies who threatens the owners, including Brian Mossman, saying "If you dare show that film, I'm never coming to your theatre again!"  Right, and you're moving to Canada if Trump is elected.  This is America.  Land of the First Amendment, not just the Second.  

According to Brian Mossman, co-owner, and President of KIFF, the Kansas International Film Festival (Nov. 4-10),  "To date, VAXXED has aired without incident at 25 theatres across the country.  It was banned by the Tribeca Film Festival, plus one independent theatre in Houston.  We will show this film for one week only...Fri. June 10 - Thurs. June 16.  It will not be held over.  I urge protesters to keep an open mind...and come ask questions.  This is what documentaries and film festivals like KIFF are all about."

For the record: Here's what the opposition said (per Wiki):

 Dr Ian Lipkin, professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, writing in the Wall Street Journal, said: "If “Vaxxed” had been submitted as science fiction, it would merit attention for its story line, character development and dialogue. But as a documentary it misrepresents what science knows about autism, undermines public confidence in the safety and efficacy of vaccines, and attacks the integrity of legitimate scientists and public-health officials." 

For more info: go to my full website, www.kcmopost.com.  And for related stories, also go to: www.jocopost.com.

KCMO next? Watch Detroit "Renaissance" collapse over schools and water. Ignorant union president Ivy Bailey is so lazy, she says AX instead of ASK. And 20,000 HH have water shut off this week.

So the Detroit public schools are out for a 2nd day, protesting budget cuts.  Which is sad.  They are not allowed to "strike" so it's a "sick out".

And, 20,000 households in Detroit are having their water turned off this week, in a city of 700,000, for refusal to at least go on a payment plan.  These residents just don't pay their bills, and don't take advantage of the solution.  They are defiant.  They are mad.

Click here: Watch the 2 min video, about Detroit's broke schools AND turning off the water to 20,000 HH this week.

Do you feel the "bern", Kansas City?  You may be next.

But what gripes me is when Ivy Bailey, the president of their teachers' union cannot speak good English.

Her comment on CBS News This Morning, and I am typing literally her quote:
"Nobody should be AXED to work for free.  Nobody."

Ivy Bailey's quote is at 1 min 7 sec. out of a story that is 2 min. 28 seconds long.

Perhaps, Ivy Bailey should be AXED from her job as Interim President of Detroit Federation of Teachers, if she cannot speak proper English, on national TV.  No wonder urban kids cannot find jobs, when their mentors and teachers are that lazy or culturally obstinant, and thus willing to resort to Patois or just sloppy pronunciation.

Ms. Bailey, the word is ASK. Not AXE.  Yes, it takes a skosh longer to pronounce it, for African Americans.  But it is not impossible.  I'm not sure if Asians cannot pronounce their L's.  But I do know that all Americans can pronounce ASK.

When the leaders of a movement come across as uneducated and angry, they are less likely to be persuasive in enrolling city leaders into solving the problems.  Just saying.
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The City of KCMO is not far behind Detroit.  Failing schools.  Improper English.  And the Kansas City Water Department raised the rates last week to an average of $110 a month for city water.  Due to the Council's eternal failure to fix the crumbling pipes, or to gradually raise rates to cover maintenance.

Very sad.  Glad I moved to Johnson County.  I'll come ride your little Toy Train this weekend, toot toot!...and then go home and enjoy some affordable clean water...you got any questions?  Just ASK me!

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.