town and country | Oprah! No … Opie! Not that, either. Both are references to TV stars, neither of whom is Greek. Zorba? Yeah, OK. Opa? Now, that’s most of the Greek I know or really need to, except that the Parthenon sits on a craggy hilltop in Athens and wonderful cuisine is available at the metro’s two Greek festivals that bookend summertime in the StL: at Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in the county over Memorial Day weekend and in the city over Labor Day weekend at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. For the first time since the pandemic, the St. Louis County Greek Festival is back in-person with live music, traditional folk dancing, church tours, a vendor market and delicious authentic Greek cuisine at Assumption (1755 Des Peres Road). The annual festival takes place over Memorial Day weekend, May 26 to 29. Hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Monday from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Guests may sample a variety of foods from Greece, including souvlaki, dolmades, spanakopita, kebabs, baklava and more. A charity 5K/10K walk/run will also take place on May 27, benefiting FOCUS Gateway City, a denomination-based organization that distributes food, clothing and warm meals on Sundays and Wednesdays. To register, visit readysetgivestl.org. Please note that any purchases at this year’s fest are credit/debit card only; cash will not be accepted. Service animals are permitted in all areas of the festival that are open to the public. Leashed pets are permitted. For more information and to download the ultimate Greek Fest playlist, visit stlgreekfest.com. You might have to wait awhile before you hear anything familiar, because a version of “Zorba’s Dance” doesn’t come up until No. 62 in a 64-song Spotify playlist: #BeGreekForADay. Well, most anyone can be Greek for three minutes and 43 seconds, unless they collapse in a sweaty heap sooner during this instrumental, which starts off slowly and winds up at breakneck speed.
the sheldon
The Man in Black is back—soon. And he’s bringing June with him, as well as Patsy Cline. The Fabulous Carter, Cash & Cline Show is a musical revue led by veteran Johnny Cash tribute artist Bill Forness. Don’t say impersonator—those greasy-haired dudes with a sneer and spangled white jumpsuit who pretend to be a paunchy, late-career Elvis Presley are a dime a dozen. Forness has been channeling Cash for 13 years now, so when he steps up to the vintage microphone and in an eerily familiar baritone introduces himself, “Hello. I’m Johnny Cash,” you might just believe him. See and hear for yourself at The Sheldon Concert Hall, speaking of fabulous, Saturday night, June 3, at 7 p.m. in a benefit concert for Gratitude House, to be the first sober-living center in the county for women. Last fall, a Heart tribute band played the first benefit concert in a series of such fundraisers for the organization. The effort raised $75,000. “The money will go toward an eight-bed residential setting for women in a supportive and safe environment,” says Christine Intagliata, co-founder of the effort. At present there is no such resource in the county for women where the focus is strictly on recovery from alcoholism and drug addiction. By providing a comfortable, loving, encouraging and understanding environment, Gratitude House aims to make residents feel free to share their pains and frustrations, along with their hopes and dreams for long-term recovery and fulfilling lives. Intagliata says there is a dire need for a safe, dignified and comfortable place in the county for women suffering from the disease of alcoholism, drug abuse and abuse of prescription medicines. Her goal for the concert is to raise an additional $60,000 toward the cause. To order tickets and learn more about the mission, visit gratitudehousestl.org.
affton
We at T&S are well aware of high-powered women in journalism: Just look at our masthead! And many of us in the trade know from J-school more about legendary journalist Nellie Bly* than most students ever learn about aviator Amelia Earhart, who was lost when her plane disappeared in the South Pacific in a failed attempt to fly around the world. A globetrotting journalist herself, Brooke Kroeger will be in Affton at a south county branch of our County Library for a discussion and signing of her book Undaunted: How Women Changed American Journalism. Kroeger will be in conversation with KMOX AM radio news anchor Debbie Monterrey on Tuesday, May 23 at 7 p.m. at the Grant’s View Branch, 9700 Musick Road, right at the intersection with Gravois. The program is free; books will be available for purchase at the event. Kroeger, an NYU Journalism professor and former UN correspondent, presents an essential history of women in American journalism, showcasing exceptional careers from 1840 to the present.
*Bly, who developed a scintillating style of investigative reporting, made it around the world in 72 days, not 80—in 1889. Powered flight was still more than a decade in the future.
the gate district
Mahatma Gandhi has oft been quoted as saying, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” The beloved barefoot sage could have been referring to St. Louis, what with our abundance of animal welfare agencies and groups, from Humane Society of Missouri and the APA to Stray Rescue and Bi-State Pet Food Pantry. There’s the Missouri House Rabbit Society. And many of our fellow citizens take it upon themselves to drive many miles, often out of state, to retrieve cats and dogs from high-kill shelters, perhaps rescue them from hoarders or otherwise unsafe living conditions, and bring them to the Lou, where it’s a better bet they’ll get a second chance. Most animal lovers with this level of commitment have big dreams, but many suffer from a shortage of common sense. Tom Becherer, who helms Urban Feed & Supply in the city, considers himself somewhat of a paradox. “I have a deep passion for animals,” he says, “but I am not a vegetarian.” Plenty of us are like that. Becherer grew up on a farm in Spanish Lake, and has been in the feed business in some capacity all his life. His present outfit started out on Papin Street in 2012, but when he found himself facing much higher rents because of gentrification, they moved—Urban Feed now operates out of a warehouse in the Gate District. His company provides animal feed and pet foods, bedding and other supplies to commercial accounts like the city, county and Saint Louis Zoo. And he takes a long view of animal welfare as it relates to human life. He can have a conversation with someone from a rescue group in the morning and a university lab researcher in the afternoon, because both have to live in the same ecosystem and all animals must eat, whether they’re walked several times a day down Wydown in Clayton, lounge on a Ladue windowsill or frantically scratch for sustenance in an alley. Much of Becherer’s strength is in helping idealists avoid being penny-wise and pound-foolish. He hopes he’s bringing some farm sense to the city: Don’t replace it, fix it; don’t recycle it, reuse it. Some of the best nonprofits—he cites Humane Society of Missouri, St. Vincent de Paul and LifeWise StL—are fiscally smart. “They run it as a business,” Becherer says. Some, unfortunately, can’t—or just don’t. “If they’re spending $1 to make a dime, well; there’s a better way to do this.” Which gets us back to Papin, the street that inspired a Becherer acronym for the other outfit that runs out of 17,500 square feet: PAPIN stands for Pets and People in Need, which is operated by Becherer’s spouse, Barb. From this standpoint, theirs is a partnership where the left hand usually doesn’t know what the right hand is doing—by necessity. Tom’s business is for profit, Barb’s nonprofit helps low-income families in the metro, and requires all pets to be spayed or neutered and on heartworm prevention to access services. “That’s what it all comes down to,” Tom Becherer says. “It’s a call to arms: Spay and neuter.” Becherer says Urban Feed & Supply doesn’t need a thing; for example, most items are donated through long standing relationships with pet-food companies. But volunteers behind the wheel of a rescue van and boots on the ground throughout the metro always need help: Visit hsmo.org; apa.org; bi-statepetfoodpantry.org and strayrescue.org.