Springfield

At Pastaria in Clayton, Gerard Craft and crew use their noodles

Slideshow: Pastaria in Clayton Photos

You Will Appreciate U.S. Grant, St. Louis's Only President

Springfield and Independence do a lot of crowing about Lincoln and Truman, but St. Louis is remarkably reticent about Ulysses S. Grant, the only U.S. president who ever lived here. Now it's true Grant was born and grew up in Ohio and spent the bulk of his adulthood in the Army and Washington, DC, ... More >>

Maplewood Mayor Fears LGBT-Rights Bill Will Let Dress-Wearing Perverts Raid Pool Showers

As things stand, the City of Maplewood cannot deny somebody a job, or housing, on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or disability. Duh.  Tuesday night, the City Council took another step toward adding "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to that list of reasons for ... More >>

The 18 Best Fans, Musical Moments and Trends at LouFest 2012: Day Two

18. We Remembered to Check The Weather Forecast Soak us once, shame on you, Mother Nature. But soak us twice, and we better be either 1) drunk enough not to care and/or 2) having an intimate slow dance in the rain. Umbrella or not, the diagonal downpour that cut Dawes' set short and delayed Dr. Dog ... More >>

The Legend of Oscar Taveras

So, you're probably a Cardinal fan. I mean, why would you be reading a sports column in a St. Louis paper if you weren't, right? (I'm aware of just how gross an oversimplification I'm going with right here, but hey, broad strokes are the only ones I know how to take.) You probably have a whole ... More >>

"Sign Man" Marty Prather Reserves His Best Work For Chicago Cubs

Marty Prather, 53 For the Cardinals' home opener series against the Cubs last weekend, "Sign Man," also known as Marty Prather, came prepared. Well, Prather always comes prepared -- the Springfield resident has upward of 40 hand-painted signs jammed in beside his seat along the first-base line -- b ... More >>

Official First-Ballot Inductees to the Simpsons' Music Hall of Fame: I Bent My Wookie

The sheer longevity of The Simpsons would be impressive if it wasn't so frightening. Consider: A person born on the day of the first non-Tracey Ullman Show episode is now 22 years old. And if characters from the show actually aged, Bart Simpson would be three years away from being able to assume the ... More >>

Wes Johnson of Salt

This is part one of Natalie McLaury's Chef's Choice profile of Wes Johnson of Salt. Part two, a Q&A, will be posted tomorrow, and part three, a recipe from Johnson, will be published on Thursday. Savannah Dodd​The culinary career of Wes Johnson of Salt (4356 Lindell Boulevard; 314-932-5787) h ... More >>

Cielito Lindo Restaurant Coming to Cherokee Street

​A hat tip to reader @FendiHotdugbun who alerted me to a sign in the window of 2812 Cherokee Street announcing that a new business, Cielito Lindo Restaurant, is coming soon. This address was previously home to Taqueria el Bronco, which moved across the street to 2817 Cherokee this summer.The only ... More >>

Rare Fungal Disease the Latest Horrible Thing to Hit Joplin

image viaZygomycosis: the next horrible thing to hit Joplin.​Just when you thought things in Joplin couldn't get any more post-apocalyptic, the Huffington Post reports this morning that a rare and deadly fungus is now infecting tornado survivors. Zygomycosis happens when soil or vegetative m ... More >>

Keith Law Releases New Prospect Rankings; Two Cardinals Make the List

​Keith Law, ESPN's prospect guru, released his updated rankings of the top 25 minor league prospects Tuesday, and the first couple names on the list aren't really all that surprising. The Angels' Mike Trout, who began the year atop virtually every prospect list in creation, is still there, followe ... More >>

Cardinals Pitcher Eduardo Sanchez Delivers Some _____ Stuff

Man, if only you could see the image I tried to post here. It was so filthy the internet actually wouldn't allow it. ​Okay, first off, I would like everyone to look at the title of this post. Now, just take a second to appreciate my self-restraint. I went out of my way, exercising massive amounts ... More >>

FBI Visits Missouri Blogger Who Opposed Congressman Billy Long

Congressman Billy Long holds the seat long held by now-Senator Roy Blunt.​Call it the Tucson effect.Less than a week after a 22-year-old Jared Loughner shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head outside a Tucson supermarket, killing six bystanders and wounding fourteen others, the FBI paid ... More >>

Build a better sammie, and the college kids'll beat a path to your door

Central Illinois Congressman is DC's Hottest Male Eye-Candy

It's official: Representative Aaron Schock of Illinois's 18th Congressional district has been anointed the hottest member of not just the House but also the Senate, eclipsing former Cosmo centerfold and current Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown. You can tell because a photo of him in a bathing suit ... More >>

Mizzou Student President Says He No Longer Wants Live Tiger at Games; Good Thing Too, Seeing How They're on "Verge of Extinction"

Tim Noce: No tiger, but a tale​University of Missouri student body president Tim Noce says he no longer wants a live tiger at Mizzou home football games. Noce first broached the subject of having a live tiger mascot last month in a few articles that appeared in Columbia newspapers. By last week, t ... More >>

Ballot Initiatives for Local Police Control Cruise Through Administrative Hoops

Wikimedia Commons​Lawyer Brad Ketcher has had three ballot-initiative petitions pertaining to the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department approved by Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, her office announced yesterday.Ketcher is a political operative who led the successful 2008 ballot initiative to ... More >>

RE: Sarah Palin's Book Tour of Bumblefuck U.S.A. Coming to Sam's Club Far From You

​Regarding my post yesterday on how Sarah Palin's book tour is avoiding major cities and Democratic strongholds in favor of discount retailers in podunkville...Yesterday the Springfield News-Leader reported a tidbit that supports my premise. Palin is in fact stopping in Missouri to promote her boo ... More >>

Vigilante Who Fired Shots to Get Back Lady's Purse Is Stripped of Concealed Carry Rights

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/ / CC BY 2.0​Around 9 p.m. last Friday, 75-year-old Mary O'Neal shuffled out of a Price Cutter in Springfield MO. She had her purse and some cupcakes for her grandson. Soon she heard the footsteps of a young man sprinting at her. He did not want a cupcake ... More >>

Unreal's down with bovine intervention and sweaty sayings

Baseball Card of the Week: Welcome New Cardinal Tyler Greene

Last night, the Cardinals saw yet another young man make his major league debut for the club. By my count, that's only four on the year, certainly not up to last year's cavalcade of kids standard, but the year is still young. Tyler Greene joined David Freese, P.J. Walters, and Colby Rasmus in m ... More >>

Khlosure for Khalil

At last, the suspense is over. Our long national (or at least local), nightmare is over. We finally know who the player to be named later in the Khalil Greene trade is. The Cardinals and Padres completed the deal that brought Greene here yesterday, with Luke Gregerson, a right-handed relie ... More >>

Those Were the Days: Unreal turns back the RFT clock to the Lincoln-Douglas debates

Unreal takes back the Big Red, talks to a Steeler, and dances the inaugural night away

Violent Attack at Homeless Shelter Has Critics on the Offensive

Photos: McCain / Palin Rally in O'Fallon

Look Out Below!: Arborists from around the world descend on Forest Park for the International Tree Climbing Championships

Cards: Another Day, Another Bullpen Collapse

Cards Blog: Finding Strong Bats in the Minors

Cards Blog: Finding Strong Bats in the Minors

An Open Letter to Wilco's Jeff Tweedy

Pulling Teenth

Readers sound off on Juneteenth.

"Lita Ford is one of the greatest female guitarists in the world and a very accomplished musician."

Week of November 30, 2006

Basketball by the Book: A Riverfront Times Investigation

The Vashon High School Wolverines have won five state titles in the past eight years. But did they play by the rules?

Ask a Negro Leaguer Column

Week of May 9, 2006

East Side, Best Side

A pub crawl along the Illinois riverbanks

Third Time's a Charm

Columbia's True/False Film Festival tops itself. Again.

Red Light, Green Light

Did the city deliberately tailor the ordinance and bid requirements to favor only one red-light camera company?

Ooh, Posters!

Webster Film Series thins its collection

* Power

Unreal wanders into an un-bear-ably raucous party, plans a Missouri escape and visits a local blogger who's worried about Sheryl Crow; plus, our fantastic suggestion for the Mark McGwire Highway

Lardee's

Unreal kicks it with a 64-year-old college student, attends a Jell-O-shot-fueled party at the Tri-City Speedway and peruses a local mom's Blog o' the Week; plus, why eat a Thickburger when you can have Butter on a Stick?

Metal Moves

Record-store shuffling send metal fans scrambling

All Aboard!

We get political with Kerry and Dean, feel the bite of a "Mad Dog" and discover something amazing about Prius ownership. Plus, confidential to Unreal readers: Parking downtown is easy!

American Band

Tight melodies, true grit, a love of hair metal: The Doxies have it all

Texas Ram

Week of December 25, 2002

The People's Stadium Bill

Ten tiny amendments

United We Slam

GOP attacks Carnahan in the name of togetherness

St. Louis in America

A writer for Art in America takes a three-day tour of St. Louis and assesses the art scene

The Worm Turns

In the '50s, St. Louis took over maintenance of state roads in the city. Now, the city can't give back that responsibility.

BOOK OF DAYS

By Lanford Wilson (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis)