MetaFilter posts tagged with Missouri

Pension Fund Follies

reenum — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:28:48 -0800

Missouri's lack of conflict of interest rules for its teachers' pension funds creates predictable problems Such nuggets as the following can be found within:

Even Yoakum charged $100 for Glamour Shots while in Sacramento, Calif., in April 2007.

Hunger Can Be a Powerful Motivator

ornate insect — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:37:24 -0800

"Anyone under 18 can be eligible? Can’t they get a job during the summer by the time they are 16? Hunger can be a positive motivator. What is wrong with the idea of getting a job so you can get better meals? Tip: If you work for McDonald’s, they will feed you for free during your break." Missouri State Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-O’Fallon) is staking out a strong position on child hunger: she's for it. (via).

Because you needed another reason to hate Twitter

cashman — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:18:56 -0800

Dennis Skillicorn was sentenced to die in 1996 for the murder of businessman/good Samaritan Richard Drummond and two other deaths in connection with a 1994 crime spree. Yesterday morning, local news outlet Missourinet, with a slight time delay, tweeted his execution. Elyria, Ohio's Chronicle Telegram is discussing plans to tweet an upcoming execution, but they are not sure if they should.

"In all the annals of dogdom there has never been anything his equal."

amyms — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:41:23 -0800

Jim, The Wonder Dog. During the height of the Great Depression, a "plain black and white setter" entertained and mystified the citizens of Missouri with his "extraordinary cleverness" and his seemingly inexplicable ability to foretell the future. Jim The Wonder Dog Memorial Park A visit to Jim's gravesite (before the Memorial Park was built) "Jim, go to the girl with the red dress on." An official Jim The Wonder Dog site (mostly geared toward selling memorabilia)

"Those who desire to peruse works that tell about Heaven only, are urged to drop this book and run."

amyms — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:56:04 -0800

GUILTY! This word, so replete with sadness and sorrow, fell on my ear on that blackest of all black Fridays, October 14, 1887. And so begins John N. Reynolds' The Twin Hells: A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri Penitentiaries, a very detailed and eventful memoir originally published in 1890, archived online in its entirety (including illustrations). A few excerpts... From Chapter 11, Candidate for the State Senate (Reynolds ran for office while incarcerated): As I sat there in my solitude the question came to my mind as to what part of the great political play I would be engaged in were I a free man. Some months prior to this a petition signed by 5,000 people had been forwarded to President Cleveland for my pardon. Had I secured my liberty it was my intention to make the race for State senator in my district for vindication. Mr. Cleveland interfered with my plan by refusing my pardon. Thinking over the matter in my cell that Sunday afternoon, I determined that while the President had the power of keeping me in prison he should not keep me from making the race for the position I coveted. From Chapter 14, The Convict's Home: The prison is supplied with a large library of choice books to which the inmates have access. They also are allowed to read daily newspapers, if they have money with which to purchase them. The managing officials of the Kansas pententiary are possessed of a very foolish notion in regard to the reading of daily newspapers. They will not under any circumstances allow a prisoner to take his home paper, or have access to any political daily. They claim that it excites the prisoner and makes his imprisonment more difficult to bear when he knows what is going on in the outside world. From Chapter 19, Noted Convicts : The female prison is kept scrupulously clean, which reflects great credit upon those having the management of this department. In company with Doctor Lewellyn, the prison physician, I passed through the dormitory. Here I found a great curiosity. It was a baby prisoner, six months old. The little convict was born in the penitentiary. It is a colored child --- its mother being a mulatto, who was sent to prison for fifteen years for murdering two of her children. When on the outside, she lived with her paramour, a white man, and, as fast as children were born to them, she would murder them in cold blood.

Soiled doves, prairie nymphs, filles de joie & the old west sporting life

madamjujujive — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 14:19:34 -0800

Meet Dora DuFran and her cat house of Deadwood; Perle De Vere and the working girls of Cripple Creek; Annie Chambers of Kansas City; and Squirrel Tooth Alice of Sweetwater. In the wild west, prostitution was one of the few career options for women. Western history is filled with many colorful tales of shady ladies and legendary madams. Rambling Bob has some other enjoyable accounts of prostitution in the old west (sometimes employing some very creative spelling): Old West Prostitutes: the Public Arch Shooting A Sad End for a Madam of the Old West Ladies of the Night in the Old West Two More Old West Prostitutes and Their Men One Last Visit to the Old West Prostitutes

Get yer urban exploration/dead mall fix right here

limeonaire — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:59:13 -0800

"Q: What the hell is this site about? This is a site about urban exploration in the Ozarks." Abandoned water slides, underground tunnels, abandoned buildings and half-demolished malls throughout Missouri were all once fair game for this blog, and remain fair game for those who post in Underground Ozarks' forums.

Aint no party like the San Francisco values party!

serazin — Sat, 24 May 2008 20:44:51 -0800

Beware the San Francisco values! (A little detail and Barnes' response.)

Excelsior Springs, you fathead!

Horace Rumpole — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 09:32:22 -0800

When the town of Excelsior Springs, Mo. decided in the 1930's to create a shrine to its renowned mineral waters, they turned to the WPA, which built an Art Deco masterpiece, the Hall of Waters.

"Thus the role played by Kaskaskia in the great drama of history closed in tragedy."

luftmensch — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 13:59:14 -0800

Kaskaskia: The western Illinois town stuck in eastern Missouri. First state capital, bustling economic center and a leading town in the state. That is, until the flood of 1881 cut a new river channel, destroying most of the town and leaving the remnants on the Missouri side of the Mississippi. Whether or not the disaster was due to a murdered lover's curse, the (remaining) residents petitioned that the state line be kept along the older riverbed. The town's population, once about 7000, now consists of a meager nine. [wiki]

Yay! Family values!

dash_slot- — Wed, 17 May 2006 14:36:11 -0800

Loving v. Missouri: In February, Olivia Shelltrack and Fondrey Loving were denied an occupancy permit because they have three children and are not married. "This ordinance is outdated. We are a family," says Shelltrack, 31. "There's a mom, there's a dad, there's three children. We are a family." Whether Shelltrack, a stay-at-home mom, and Loving, 33, who works for a payroll-administration company, are married "should not be anybody's business, if I pay my taxes, if I'm able to buy the house," she says.

No More Free Prostitution

Secret Life of Gravy — Thu, 30 Mar 2006 16:38:02 -0800

It's Time To Get Back To The Basics In Missouri: "A year after Republicans took control of state government, conservative lawmakers are promoting a wide range of social legislation designed to rein in sex and unshackle the Bible." One proposed bill, for example, would recognize a Christian God as the deity for most Missourians. Other bills deny alimony to ex-spouses who live with a boyfriend or girlfriend, ban all abortions, allow pharmacists, insurance companies, doctors and hospitals to deny treatment if the procedure or medication offends their moral values, and require sex education classes to teach that life begins at fertilization and that an unborn child has “sensory awareness” long before birth. Rep. Cynthia Davis, Republican and sponsor of several bills, said conservatives are tired of an overly permissive society in which high school students are taught how to use condoms. "...if the state starts paying for contraceptives we will have more babies than if we just teach people to not expect free prostitution from poor people. "

Springfield Missouri.

flatlander — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 17:06:01 -0800

Springfield, Missouri the place mobsters go to die. John Gotti, Anthony Corrado, "Fat" Tony Salerno, Vito Genovese, Tony "Ducks" Corallo and now Vincent "The Chin"Gigante.

Missouri Botanical Gardens Rare Books/Illustrations

peacay — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 09:41:12 -0800

Missouri Botanical Gardens Rare Books: The Illustrated Garden
This collection contains seventy seven 18th and 19th century botanical books and these are just a small sample of the 3000+ beautiful illustrations contained within. (via)

Animals in the News

Secret Life of Gravy — Sat, 23 Oct 2004 08:14:47 -0800

Wacky World Animal News Round-up: Fat males refuse to mate in China's crocodile farm, Stray dogs hunt and kill gazelles in Missouri, and Coyote, kangaroo, or Chihuahua, what is that thing in Texas?

Firefighters

weston — Thu, 03 Apr 2003 19:15:06 -0800

Talk about tough: These guys throw themselves out of 50-year-old aircraft into burning Siberian forests. Unfortunately, the entire article isn't available on line, but the pictures, and the brief text, and the writer's notes are worthwhile anyway. Or you can go listen to the stories told at Idaho's Smokejumper Oral History Project. Or get the history from the National Smokejumper Association. And really, you can't beat Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire, which metafilter dug up a while back, but is well worth revisiting.

RobbieFal — Wed, 04 Sep 2002 20:25:22 -0800

Meanwhile in Small town news, the city of Independence, Missouri is holding a battle on adding fluoride to the water. Don't say you didn't expect odd quotes from people: "We have the best water in the area as far as solids and softness go, I myself have been drinking this water for over 30 years, and I have every tooth in my mouth that God gave me, except the four the Marine Corps took away from me years ago.", I, myself, trust one authority on this, Jack D. Ripper. ;)

So... Fluoride: good, bad or neither?

dejah420 — Fri, 22 Mar 2002 09:39:32 -0800

Schoolchildren Strip-Searched for Lost $5 This, from the same school district that overruled a teacher who failed cheating students. I dunno about you, but making a bunch of 3rd graders get naked in school seems a little out of bounds. Feel free to tell the school board what you think of this little exercise in pedophiliac totalitarianism.

grabbingsand — Tue, 05 Feb 2002 21:14:55 -0800

The Bad Taste Tour of Branson, MO. "Branson is a strange, kooky place nestling deep in the Ozarks. One of those quaint, old-fashioned American country towns where ... the menus in the restaurants have Biblical quotes next to the appetizers and where people walk around wearing orange duck beaks. "

darren — Wed, 28 Feb 2001 07:35:44 -0800

Trailer Trash get their own website. Those living in doublewides get their own community. Slow to load but an enjoyable read.

CrazyUncleJoe — Thu, 10 Feb 2000 19:37:16 -0800

I thought it was lame that Missouri was introducing measures to rename a stretch of highway in response to it's adoption by the KKK, but Kentucky drafting a measure requesting an apology from Craig Kilborn? I mean, sure, the show is bad, but it's not "Kensucky" bad.

CrazyUncleJoe — Wed, 09 Feb 2000 09:16:57 -0800

The Today Show really pisses me off. They never have links to the stories I want to pull up (like the head of the KKK in Jackson saying "why is everyone so bigoted and full of hate when it comes to *us* trying to preserve our heritage"), but they do have stories like Allowances, sleepovers and street crossing... Is your child ready to take that next step? Regarding the KKK piece, the story was about a Missouri Legislator planning to introduce a bill to rename a section of road "Rosa Parks Highway" in response to the KKK's participation in the Adopt-a-Highway program. While it seems pretty obvious to me that the KKK would just move to another section of road, I was a) offended by the comments of the KKK spokesman, and b) irritated by the State Legislator's lack of preparation for the interview. Why didn't he directly respond to the accusation of hate and bigotry? Why didn't he have facts on hand about the 'heritage' that the KKK was trying to preserve? Why didn't he have information about it's past and present activities and mission? Why didn't he point out that membership in the KKK is in and of itself sufficient to get you booked on the Jerry Springer Show? These things always bug me, because it's clear that groups like the KKK do quite a bit of preparation in fact distortion and spin control, but the Voices of Reason seldom do any prep work at all.