st. louis
Can chess change lives? Grandmasters throughout our region, not to mention international luminaries like Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, need not reply. Your Move Chess believes the ancient board game of skill and intellect can improve lives, one student at a time. Last fall, faith-based healthcare organization Ascension launched the initiative to start chess clubs in each of the 20 elementary and middle schools of the Ferguson-Florissant School District, in concert with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis. Your Move Chess hopes to expand to other districts in the metro, or at least increase its presence in Ferguson-Florissant. With that in mind, the group will celebrate its achievements so far by holding a benefit at The Chase Park Plaza tomorrow night (Thursday, Feb. 11, 6:30 p.m.). How, exactly, does money talk here? For each $1,000 raised, the program could be expanded to an additional school for one semester or to an additional school for another day during the week. What’s your next move, St. Louis? (Better make it fast!)
chesterfield
Shoeman Water is getting a boost from Chesterfield, which has begun a 2016 shoe donation drive to benefit the indefatigable ‘shoe man.’ The city has provided donation drops for new or gently used shoes at city hall, the parks and recreation building and at various events throughout the city in the months to come. Somehow linking shoes and water makes sense when you realize how many people, often children, have to walk great distances for water from a dirty supply that they may share with livestock. In the Shoeman project, donated shoes are sold at affordable prices to entrepreneurs in secondary markets worldwide. The proceeds are used to fund clean water projects in countries struggling against dire poverty, such as Haiti, Guatemala and many other nations in Latin America and Africa. Reselling the shoes also keeps them out of landfills for the proverbial win-win.
kirkwood
If anyone can pull joy out of a hat for a child, it’s a magician. And there will be more joy than a whole bunch of bunnies can elict on Feb. 20 when the local chapter of International Brotherhood of Magicians (IBM) hosts its annual Spring Parade of Magic at Kirkwood Community Theatre, 111 S. Geyer Road. Top magicians from throughout the Midwest will converge on Kirkwood to bring fun, laughter … and, of course, magic. Let us be the first to tell you that any women sawed in half will live to tell about it—but not to reveal the secret to this timeless, baffling illusion, of course! Nothing up our sleeves here. Why, yes, there is: more details. There will be two Saturday shows only, at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., with tickets priced at $10 for adults and $5 for kids. Every month IBM’s Ring 1 chapter here in town donates time, effort and supplies at Shriners Hospitals for Children to entertain, teach and help patients with physical therapy. At this iteration of the annual IBM extravaganza, not only will you enjoy a great magic show, you also will help the local IBM chapter continue its support of children having a tough go facing orthopedic challenges. So—come one, come all!
sunset hills
In December, the mayor of Sunset Hills probably breathed a sigh of relief when a county judge declared a mistrial in his felony case, in which hizzoner Mark Furrer was charged with intentionally swerving his red Mercedes convertible into cyclist Randy Murdick on a July day in 2014. Furrer no doubt felt vindicated late last month when second-degree assault and property damage charges were dropped. Robert McCulloch, county prosecutor, announced at a news conference that Murdick had lost credibility by allegedly embellishing his claim of how much damage had been done to his racing cycle and how much the fall had affected his ability to ride. During testimony, neither man denied hurling obscenities at the other during their altercation. And McCulloch reportedly said he believed the two witnesses who had testified that the driver appeared to have turned into the cyclist on purpose. Nonetheless, both the criminal case and a civil suit brought by Murdick were dismissed. In any case, what have we learned here about motorists and cyclists in their ongoing cold war? Occasionally it heats up, and all too often people get hurt. Many drivers have fits at the cyclists who act like road hogs, and many cyclists have the same feeling when drivers travel too closely or roar around them … or hang back, passing timidly, unsure they’ve allowed enough room. Honking, yelling and bird-flipping are business as usual, and righteous anger boils over on both sides. So, who owns the road? We all do. Let’s remember that.
university city
Diners and patrons of other businesses in U. City’s Delmar Loop, beware! Bicyclists are about to splash headfirst into your coffee cup or scatter you and your merchandise all over the sidewalk. This is what a few head-scratching observers have taken from the new yellow warning signs installed on utility poles along the north and south curbs of Delmar where the Loop Trolley will one day run. The signs feature a stick rider lurching over the handlebars of his or her cycle, whose front wheel has been trapped by the tracks. Well, yes; cyclists should be wary of the tracks as they ride parallel to them—flowing with the traffic, of course. (Why is it that so many riders in the Lou flout the law and pedal, 100-percent helmet-free, in the wrong dang direction, i.e., facing the way pedestrians are supposed to walk?) But the image, which is supposed to break it down graphics-wise for folks on the fly, seems to warn riders about crossing the tracks in a perpendicular direction, which is the only way for a sensible cyclist to negotiate any rails, of which there have been zillions crisscrossing our streets and rural roads for, like, ever. Any cyclist knows to be extra careful that his or her butt doesn’t bump so much when traversing tracks, usually lifting it from the seat to keep teeth from chattering out of the skull. Well, maybe everyone should be very, very afraid were a stick figure riding a stick cycle ever to interrupt their present plane of reality. So we’re glad, overall, that the city fathers and mothers think the signs are a good idea. Alas, you just can’t save some knuckleheads, so many of whom ride their two-wheelers with blithe lack of awareness about motorists … or, especially, any concern for their own knuckled heads. No surprise, really, that habitual wearers of helmets call them ‘brain buckets.’ (In other Loop Trolley news, work has begun east of Skinker, in preparation for ‘pavement demolition and track installation.’ Sounds kind of ominous, even to people who believe that trolley progress is good news for The Lou.)
