[st. louis]
Everyone has taken a picture of the Gateway Arch at one point or another … haven’t you? When it comes to our iconic national monument, gawking just isn’t enough. You have to capture it for posterity. Maybe you still have family shots on a slide carousel in the attic? Or, you fancy yourself a serious photographer, and have taken some seriously arty shots of the swooping, elegant catenary form. Perhaps you ventured down to the riverfront one foggy morning and got an image of two legs disappearing into clouds, with the apex, 630 feet above the ground, invisible. At least you wish you had. No two shots are alike, of course, depending on the weather or the time of day. Sunrise, sunset. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the stainless-steel behemoth’s completion on Oct. 28, 1965, the Gateway Arch has announced a call for photos. Fans and visitors may submit their best personal photos of the Arch for potential use in a permanent, digital photo exhibit debuting in the Arch’s tram loading zones in March 2016. Come one, come all to the Missouri History Museum two weeks from today … 2 to 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 28 … with your fine photos or dog-eared snapshots to have them digitally scanned for consideration. Ideal would be photos from back in the day, during the construction phase that began in February 1963 and continued for the next “two-and-three-quarter years. So are any shots taken yesterday with a ‘smart’ phone’s digital camera. Eero Saarinen’s design for our amazing Arch is timeless, and perhaps one of your photos will be, too. At the submitters’ request, event staff will offer a digital copy of scanned photos via email. Images also will be submitted to the Arch Perspectives exhibit, a collaboration between the History Museum and UMSL. Meanwhile, anyone with a scanner (or otherwise tech-savvy enough to take matters into their own hands) may upload their images to gatewayarch.com/submitphotos.
[chesterfield]
In polite company you’re not supposed to talk about religion and politics. But corn is OK. Along with any number of other things, a tribute from the National Corn Growers Association probably made former House Speaker John Boehner cry. The association, based in Chesterfield, released a statement expressing gratitude for Boehner’s “service on the House Agriculture Committee, and his work for a more transparent and productive Congress.” We won’t argue with his work to promote agriculture, but the powerful rep from Ohio, a few heartbeats from the Oval Office, was less than ‘productive’ more than a few times when President Obama had something important to say to Congress and/or the country. His scowl was unmistakable, so I’ll agree he was ‘transparent.’ On to religion … Boehner invited Pope Francis to address a joint session of the august body, and the pontiff called politics “an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life.” Perhaps our legislators will take that to heart and not waste time on dozens of votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act. In his statement, Chip Bowling, president of the Corn Growers Association, issued a plea that could have come from either side of the aisle: “We ask Congress to set aside partisan interests and work together to solve important issues such as the federal budget, tax reform, and investing in our roads and bridges. Let’s come to the table with constructive solutions to move our country forward.” That happening would be enough to make any grown man cry these days.
[frontenac]
The Missouri governor’s race is not as crowded on the right as the national contest is with Republican hopefuls. Plus, it lacks a female CEO and a black neurosurgeon; still, it now has expanded to five candidates. The newest entry is John Brunner, 63, of Frontenac, who notes his business experience as his chief asset—he has never held public office, and you can be assured his hands will be clean: Brunner is former CEO of Vi-John, a hand-sanitizer company. He’s not fond of ‘career politicians.’ (Criminy, people—it’s supposed to be all about public service!) Brunner is no stranger to the nastiness of political campaigning, yet he’s up to the challenge again. He lost to former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin in a 2012 primary bid for U.S. Senate in the eventual failed attempt to defeat Claire McCaskill. (Meanwhile, Gov. Jay Nixon cannot run again because of term limits.) The field of candidates, pre-primary season, is not as crowded on the left as it is in the national contest, either. The only Democrat, at this point, is State Attorney General Chris Koster. (Hey, you could run! Or I could. But wait … does Jeff. City have a Church’s fried chicken?)
[kirkwood]
Eighth-grader and Irish dancer extraordinaire Mary Clare Muehlemann, a 2014 graduate of Villa di Maria Montessori in Kirkwood, will compete in the Mid-America Oireachtas Nov. 27 to 29 in Minneapolis. Mary Clare, 13, qualified for this regional competition in late July at the St. Louis An Samhra Feis, held at the Hilton St. Louis Frontenac and sponsored by Clarkson School of Irish Dance. Although now at the College School in Webster Groves, she holds her experience at Villa close to her heart, as that’s where she started cutting a rug. Well, no rugs involved in her specialties, where shoes hit floor very rapidly and with frequency. Mary Clare excels at the Slip Jig, a soft shoe dance, and the Treble Jig, a hard shoe, or heavy step, dance. She is practicing rigorously for the oireachtas, which brings Irish dancers from 14 states together in the largest regional competition in North America. From there, select dancers go on to the 2016 North American Irish Dance Nationals in Orlando, Florida, next July. No off-season for her! We wish for Mary Clare to be fleet of feet. (Want to get your Gaelic on? Oireachtas means ‘gathering,’ and in modern Irish dance refers to an annual championship competition; Feis is a traditional arts and culture festival; Samhra is the word for ‘summer.’)
[ladue]
The statistics are stark: A child dies every six seconds from malnutrition and related illnesses. But many of the ‘haves’ have taken it upon themselves to help alleviate this unimaginable suffering and will come together at John Burroughs School the end of this week—9 a.m. to 7 p.m on Friday, Oct. 16 to mark St. Louis World Food Day. Adults and children (as young as 7 with an adult) are invited to be part of teams that assemble packets of food. More than 1,500 of your friends and neighbors are anticipated to gather for packaging thousands of meals destined to feed 300,000 people. World Food Day marks the founding of the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization and is designed to increase awareness and understanding and encourage people to take informed, year-round action to alleviate hunger. Volunteers at Burroughs, 755 S. Price Road in Ladue, will package rice/bean/soy protein meals to be sent to critically malnourished people in sub-Saharan Africa, plus fortified macaroni and cheese meals for distribution in the metro and elsewhere in the region. Each meal packaged will feed up to six children. The food is designed to reverse the starvation process, help restore health, and improve mental and physical alertness. The sealed packages have a shelf life of two years. The cost of each life-sustaining meal is approximately 25 cents, which covers the ingredients, packaging, administration and international shipping costs. Across the United States, a growing network of organizations hosts World Food Day commemorations, ranging from hands-on activities for hunger relief to academic programming and opportunities to learn more about the work of farmers in the U.S. and beyond. Globally, more than 150 countries host observations to bring hunger challenges into focus.
