Best Poster Boy for the First Amendment

Alas, Bob Jamerson, resident peacock of the Central West End, is hanging up his roller skates and calling it quits. What started out three years ago as a sunny romance with the city turned irrevocably sour earlier this year, when Jamerson was ejected from a Fourth of July parade in Webster Groves. Echoes of last year's ouster from the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dogtown. And this spring there'd been a spate of near-altercations with patrons at some of the CWE's tonier restaurants. Finally, St. Louis' self-proclaimed Ambassador of Mirth was handcuffed and hauled off by security guards when he showed up at a Kerry-Edwards rally clad in a wedding gown. Now he's up and moved to Atlanta. Bob may be too big for our burg. He may be a petulant self-promoter. But one thing is clear: His relentless parade has served to remind us of everything that is best, and worst, about the freedom of expression. Regardless of where he next dons his tutu, long may Bob Jamerson wave.