Easter

Accused Alton Puppy Dragger Speaks Out: "I'm Really Hurt Here... I Miss Her. I Love Her"

The biggest local dog news this week is the story of a three-month-old puppy that witnesses say was dragged for many blocks like a stuffed animal until she was nearly unconscious. But Michael Thomas, the 38-year-old Alton, Illinois resident charged with animal cruelty, says the whole thing was blo ... More >>

What To Do With All Those Peeps You Don't Want to Eat

Another Easter has come and gone. We've gorged ourselves with festive, pastel-colored candy (only the best kind though), we've found most of the eggs that we hid in the yard (that'll be a nasty surprise next year) and we've enjoyed spending time with family and friends (now we don't have to again 't ... More >>

Out Every Night: The Best Shows in St. Louis from April 1 to 7

Spring has sprung (supposedly)! Celebrate by checking out the spry variety of shows going on this week. There's plenty to see, including an assortment of traveling acts such as Useless Eaters, Night Birds, Deerhoof and Hot 8 Brass Band. Get hopped up on all that leftover Easter candy and see what re ... More >>

The Ten Best Food Events in St. Louis This Weekend: March 29 to 31

At Iron Fork, we hope you ate all of the foods. Keep up the chowin' momentum this weekend. Get a French lunch prepared for you at the Kitchen Conservatory on Friday, pair wine with bocce thanks to Randall's on Saturday and choose from a wide variety of Easter brunch options on Sunday. Follow the bun ... More >>

5 Best Easter Candies of All Time

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Food Photo Essay: Kakao Chocolate Revs Up for Easter

Getting ready for Easter? Fortunately for St. Louisans, Kakao Chocolate is, too. Yep, Brian Pelletier and his team are busy making chocolate bunnies and marshmallow snow birds at the chocolatier's two locations -- (7272 Manchester Road, Maplewood; 314-645-4446) and (2301 South Jefferson Avenue; 314 ... More >>

Bocce Club Hosts Easter Wine and Bocce Event

Easter egg hunts were fun when we were kids, but we're grown-ups now. Time for a more mature way to celebrate the Easter holiday. Like wine. And bocce. On Saturday, March 30, Italia-America Bocce Club (2210 Marconi Avenue; 314-773-5574) and Randall's Wine and Spirits (14201 Manchester Road, Ballwi ... More >>

5 Worst Easter Candies of All Time

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Adventures with Santa and Co. in Rise of the Guardians

Peter Marina Tells of His Adventures In Pentecostalism and Tongue-Speaking

Like everything else, there are rules to tongue-speaking. Peter Marina, now a visiting assistant professor of sociology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis spent four years embedded in a small Pentecostal church in Brownsville, an impoverished neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, doing ethnograph ... More >>

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Cadbury Caramel-Filled Eggs, Best

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Robin's Eggs, Best

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Wan ... More >>

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Hershey's Solid Milk Chocolate Eggs, Best

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Russell Stover Mini Bunnies, Best

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

The Five Best Brunch Restaurants in St. Louis

Selecting Riverfront Times' Best of St. Louis 2011 was no picnic. Choosing the winner meant several worthy candidates would go unmentioned -- until now. In this Gut Check series, we are chewing our way through notable runners up in a number of categories. To see hundreds more winners and finalists a ... More >>

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs, Best

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Point/Counterpoint: Best and Worst Easter Candy, Cadbury Creme Egg, Best

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Point/Counterpoint: Best and Worst Easter Candy, Cadbury Creme Egg, Worst

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Cluckers the Pooping Chicken, Worst

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Edible Easter Grass, Worst

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Jordan Almonds, Worst

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Jolly Rancher Sour Bunnies, Worst

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of baskets piled high with pastel-colored candies, chocolate shaped like baby animals and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. We remember well the ritual of sorting the bounty bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny: Would it be good stuff...or crap? Want ... More >>

Best and Worst Easter Candy Countdown: Marshmallow Peeps, Worst

As Easter Sunday creeps closer, Gut Check dreams of Easter baskets piled high with pastel-colored foodstuffs, chocolate shaped like baby animals, and, oh sweet Jesus, Cadbury eggs. So we remember well the Sunday morning ritual of sorting the bounty of candy bestowed by the big, weird Easter Bunny. W ... More >>

Grueling but familiar, In Darkness dramatizes another Holocaust horror

Fish Fry Frenzy: STL's Best Deep-Frying Destinations

Friday, February 24, marked a special day for Gut Check: The beginning of fish fry season. We asked you to share your favorite fish fries with us, and combined the results with a list of our own to create a map of our favorite fried fish destinations. On each of the six spectacular Fridays leading u ... More >>

Jelly Underbelly: Q&A with Jelly Belly Creator David Klein

Lies! Buyouts! Blackmail! Jelly beans! Katie Moulton​ In 1976, lifelong candy enthusiast David Klein had an idea: to take the lowly jelly bean, that reject runt of the Easter basket, and turn it into gold. Jelly Belly, the world's premiere gourmet jelly bean, was born, and the rest was histo ... More >>

P-D Parent Company, Lee Enterprises, Has a Bad Day

Stock down; refinancing on hold. Not a good day for the P-D's parent company.​The parent company of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Lee Enterprises, announced plans yesterday morning a plan to refinance nearly $1 billion of debt -- only to announce later in the day they were abandoning those plans du ... More >>

Your Weekly St. Louis Bestseller List

image viaAt Eastertide, parents' fancy lightly turns to reading their offspring books about bunny rabbits. ​Here's your weekly St. Louis bestseller list for the week ending April 24, as compiled by the St. Louis Independent Booksellers Alliance and based on sales at Left Bank Books, Main Stree ... More >>

No Easter Plans? Take the Kids Out to Eat the Easter Bunny! (& Take Our Poll!)

Image viaEat him before he eats you.​After weeks of fish fries, Lenten sacrifices and sneaking candy, Easter's finally upon us. Caught up in the holiday spirit, Gut Check went on a mission to track down the ultimate seasonal delicacy: rabbit. It was more difficult to corner the little crit ... More >>

Goodies Galore

Your Weekly St. Louis Bestseller List

​Here's your weekly St. Louis bestseller list for the week ending April 10, as compiled by the St. Louis Independent Booksellers Alliance and based on sales at Left Bank Books, Main Street Books, Pudd'nhead Books, Subterranean Books, Sue's News and The Book House. Amazingly, there were some ... More >>

Kickstart Some Art, Help Fund Free Easter Photos at Cherokee Photobooth

Courtesy Cherokee PhotoboothCute Easter kids from last year.​Looking for something adorable to put in Grandma's Easter basket? Hop on over to Cherokee Photobooth for their second free Easter photo session and get a portrait taken in front of a chalk mural by local artist Ryan Frank.You may recall ... More >>

What Dangers Lurk Within...Jelly Beans?

www.icanhascheezburger.comNo word on whether the cat was allergic to shellfish.​Gimbal's Fine Candies is on a mission to make Easter baskets safe for kiddos. How does the venerable sweets maker propose to protect children from unseen dangers hidden in the candy cornucopia? With allergen-free ... More >>

Stock Up on Local Lamb at the Southern Illinois Sheep Festival

Monroe County Sheep Producers​ Need a boneless leg of lamb for Easter dinner? Or are you feeling the need to frolic with sweet baby lambs in the spring sunshine? Either way, head to Waterloo, Illinois this Saturday for the 25th Annual Southern Illinois Sheep and Craft Festival. The event's hos ... More >>

St. Louis Happy Hours: Downtown/Midtown

Illegal

Read a penetrating chapter from former Phoenix New Times investigative reporter Terry Greene Sterling's book: ILLEGAL: Life and Death in Arizona's Immigration War Zone

Missouri Therapists to Haiti's Rescue

Q: Who Spray-Painted a Penis on New Metro East Church? A: Lord Knows

​Members of The Gathering Place in Collinsville made a shocking discovery at the debut of their new church this past Sunday. It wasn't the Easter bunny. No. Some miscreant had spray-painted an upside down cross, the numbers "666" and a crude depiction of "male anatomy" on the side of the building. ... More >>

With All the Frills Upon It

Through A Glass, Darko

Let's Make a Meal

We'll drink to that!

Brunch 'n Munch

Get in Shape, Egg-Shape

Egg-cellent Egg-stravaganzas

Why Are Cadbury Eggs Laid by a Bunny?

And other Easter questions

A Crouton of Thanks