Mark Twain

Forbes Names St. Louis #20 Dirtiest City in America

St. Louis earned a place on a Forbes magazine list alongside the likes of New York City and Los Angeles. Unfortunately that list was of the dirtiest cities in America, as determined by air and water quality.

Dwayne Hubbard, St. Louis Homicide No. 106: Stabbed and Left to Die

Police have not released much detail on the city's most recent homicide, but here's what we know: Shortly after 5:15 pm on Saturday, officers responded to a call on the 5300 block of Thekla Avenue in the Mark Twain neighborhood, north of I-70. There, they found the body of 46-year-old Dwayne Hubbard ... More >>

The Big Decision

Get outta dodge! Sometimes, the best way to survive summer in St. Louis is to make like hell for the exit

Van Dyke Parks at the Luminary Center for the Arts, 4/5/2012: Review and Setlist

Van Dyke Parks | Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra April 5, 2012 The Luminary Center for the Arts Van Dyke Parks embarked on his first-ever tour this year at the age of 69. It has been a limited run of shows in the United States, but with any justice more audiences will get to experience what ... More >>

The Greatest Baseball Novels of All Time: A Modest Compendium

The blurb by Richard Russo on the front cover of Joe Schuster's new book The Might Have Been declares it "surely destined to join the ranks of transcendent baseball novels." And it is. But what are those other transcendent baseball novels, you may ask? Here are a few, selected by Schuster himself an ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Osama bin Laden, Mark Twain and Obituaries

Today's comment comes in response to a post that asked area religious leaders their thoughts on the jubilation here in the United States over the killing of Osama bin Laden. The topic of whether its right or wrong to celebrate a death -- even someone as vilified as bin Laden -- generated a lot of th ... More >>

State conservationists scour the Kansas boondocks, aiming to repopulate Missouri with horny prairie chickens

Hot Toddy, Sandrina's

image via​There's no poetry in a hot toddy. No sex. No glamour. It sounds like "hot teddy" but has nothing in common with a negligee and everything in common with flannel pajamas. Don't go gazing into your glass expecting to find brilliant turns of phrase lurking within. You can't spin straw i ... More >>

Fuck Michael Pollan #4: Breaking the Food Rules at Old St. Louis Chop Suey

Michael Pollan's 2007 best seller The Omnivore's Dilemma documented the industrialization of the world's food supply and whipped the foodie vanguard into a self-righteous froth. His encore, the "Manifesto" In Defense of Food, revealed the author as a proselytizing zealot/minimalist poet. ("Eat food. ... More >>

Huck Finn Gets 21st-Century Makeover

image viaHuck and Jim as they appeared in the first edition of Huckleberry Finn in 1884.​You all remember Huckleberry Finn, right? That 1830s Missouri urchin who finds himself adrift on the Mississippi River with a black slave named Jim and learns to appreciate Jim's fundamental humanity and, ... More >>

Life of a River

Smart Book People to Invade St. Louis in April

image via​The Missouri Writer's Guild has announced plans for its 2011 "Just Write!" conference, to be held in St. Louis next April 8 through 10. According to the Guild, the conference will bring the opportunity to pitch to editors and agents and attend workshops, panel discussions and break- ... More >>

Wash. U. Among Nation's Most Dangerous Colleges [Updated]

Wikimedia CommonsAbandon hope (and your wallet, your bicycle and possibly your car) ye who enter here.​Oh, hello there Daily Beast rankings! It's been a while since we heard from you. Not that we missed you. You have such a way of making us feel bad about ourselves, even if we have doubts abou ... More >>

A Life in Pictures

Washington University to Pay $15,000 Penalty for EPA Violation, Another $45K for Clean Up

​Washington University is to pay a $15,000 civil penalty and spend an additional $45,000 on a supplemental project to help clean science laboratories of hazardous waste in several St. Louis public schools. The settlement follows an April 2008 inspection of the school's Danforth Campus and Schoo ... More >>

E. Coli Closes Six Missouri Beaches This Weekend

Photo: Jennifer Silverberg​The Missouri Department of Natural Resources yesterday announced that six beaches within state parks are too polluted for swimming this weekend. Beaches at Mark Twain, Wakonda, Crowder, Cuivre River, St. Joe, and Thousand Hills state parks all tested for dangerously hig ... More >>

A literary sampler of books that will help you forget the heat

Mark McGwire Highway To be Renamed After Mark Twain

Great works of literature are immortal. Baseball records -- especially dubious ones -- are not. So it's fitting then that Missouri legislators yesterday approved a bill to rename a stretch of Interstate 70 after Missouri's America's most famous author, Mark Twain. ​

Farmers' Market Share Visits a Mercado in Peru

I spent the first half of January -- the crappy half, as you all know -- south of the equator, in Peru. About half of our stay was in the smallish city of Cusco, which sits about 3,000 meters above sea level. A significant portion of the city still uses streets first constructed by the Incas in the ... More >>

Pudd'nhead Books is Gett'n Some Love

Pudd'nhead Books​For years, Left Bank Books and Subterranean Books have duked it out for St. Louis' independent book-selling supremacy. But last fall, a third rival entered the mix, Webster Groves' Pudd'nhead Books.Last Friday, the online booksellers' newsletter Shelf Awareness ran a nice profile ... More >>

Jamie Foehner Tribute Article Memorial Service Information

In this week's paper, I wrote a longer tribute to Jamie Foehner, who passed away last week. There will be a memorial tribute to him on Sunday, April 5, at Lemmons starting at 4 p.m. Details are still being worked out, but I expect information to come to light soonish, once people chime in. Meanwhile ... More >>

R.I.P. Jamie Foehner, Lemmons Booker and Trivia Host Extraordinaire

Sad news to report: Jamie Foehner, who was a familiar figure at Lemmons as their booker/door man and trivia co-host, passed away late yesterday. He was 38. His Facebook page alluded to some recent health problems and hospital stays, but no further details are available at the moment. ... More >>

Post Food Critic Still Eating Heartily

Dim Meats 1/2 Turducken

$34.95
Schnucks
6600 Clayton Road
Richmond Heights

Trial by Fryer

HotCity presents a challenging Last Days of Judas Iscariot

Battle Lines

Gangs keep their murderous hold on the streets of St. Louis. And kids like Lil' Robert Walker pay the price.

Freeze Dry

The Iceman Cometh. And cometh. And cometh.

Cameron Crowing

Smells Like Clean Spirit

Short Cut to Nirvana espouses enlightenment, but it's sketchy on how to get there

The Friction Tape

Especially when it casts Fred Friction as Susan B. Anthony

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Week of December 8, 2004

Current Shows

Ivy Cooper encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

Current Shows

Ivy Cooper encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

Current Shows

Ivy Cooper encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

Current Shows

Ivy Cooper encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

Current Shows

Ivy Cooper encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

Current Shows

Ivy Cooper encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

Current Shows

Ivy Cooper encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

Current Shows

Ivy Cooper encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

Current Shows

Ivy Cooper encapsulates the St. Louis art scene

The Three Wives' Tale

Mrs. Kimble, cubed

Hot and Bothered

Fight off the November chill with this extra-sizzlin' edition of Unreal (once we put our clothes back on, we'll check in with the Sanford-Brown Indians, pick up a few local papers and have our groceries bagged by inmates)

Rock the Boat

Yackey's on the River brings hope and hush puppies to the banks of the Mississippi

Playground Renaissance

Kickball comes back

Film Openings

Week of November 21, 2001

Film Feast

The 10th annual St. Louis International Film Festival arrives this week, and with it a plethora of films and a revived energy

ANIMATED WORLDS: TWO DECADES OF PORTLAND ANIMATION

THE MINUS MAN

Written and directed by Hampton Fancher

Night & Day

June 2 - 9, 1999