Update: Got a call from Grady McKenzie. Read the update after the jump.
Original post: Dealers at the Mission Road Antique Mall are on high alert for shoplifters since the moussed mischief of one Grady McKenzie came to light last month.
McKenzie, a Leawood hairstylist with a taste for frou-frou Staffordshire pottery, has allegedly been lifting pieces from the antique mall right under the noses of dealers and security cameras since January.
I cut out of yesterday's World AIDS Day celebrity @ tweeting smackdown -- Michael Ian Black and Rainn Wilson vs. Megan Phelps-Roper (Shirley Phelps-Roper's daughter, Fred Phelps' granddaughter) -- way too early.
I missed director Kevin Smith's attempted conversion (a la Twitter) of Phelps-Roper. Mostly, the Clerks director tried to get Phelps-Roper to smoke up and chase Amy.
Megan Phelps-Roper of Topeka's infamous gay hating Westboro Baptist Church has caught the eye of a couple of famous funnymen on Twitter.
Check out these tweets from The Office star Rainn Wilson ...
Kansas City blogger Ramsey Mohsen, that's him in the ugly sweater dancing, put together this video to help promote the annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party, with the proceeds going to Operation Breakthrough, which helps children living in poverty.
The party is December 11 at Tower Tavern, so you can show off your own dancing skills while kicking it to Dolewhite.
Tickets range from $50 to $1,000 (click here to order). Their goal is to raise $10,000 this year. They hit $7,000 last year.
Help 'em out if you can.
Who will think of the children?"quoth Maude Flanders. Around this time of year, it's the no-fun folks at the Missouri Public Interest Research Group, who on Tuesday called a press conference to warn holiday shoppers about dangerous toys. But isn't a dangerous toy just an educational opportunity in a bite-size bit?
Here, then, are the three of the year's most educational toys and the three lessons they teach.
Toy: Real Wood Shape Sorter Barn
Lesson: Choking is scary
Anyone with kids knows the lengths precocious little ones will go to find something to chew on (hello, litter box). But taste is so fleeting; fear makes lessons stick. Enter the Real Wood Shape Sorter Barn.
Some of the wooden numbers (see picture below) are small enough to fit through the Consumer Product Safety Commission's choke tube -- a toilet paper tube is a good at-home approximation -- which means they will lodge nice and tightly in the windpipe of a 0-6-year-old. Kids will never take air for granted again.
To maximize educational effect, give the "choking is scary" lesson up to a minute to sink in.
Kansas City graffiti artist Scribe demonstrated his work outside of Creative Coldsnow last weekend with the camera rolling. Here's the time-lapse movie by Phil Koenig. Cool stuff.
No one plays tour guide to the seedier sides of the city better than Midtown Miscreant. His blight tours were great, but his latest three-part series might just top them. Double M is visiting former murder sites, starting with the Paradise Motel on Prospect -- where a 56-year-old grandmother was killed two years ago. Here's a quick update on the Paradise. Can't wait for future installments.
KC Meesha has a thing for billboards, especially the strange ones like Houlihan's "WTF" billboards. WTF is right.
Finally, the Turner Report updates the latest in a former Kanakuk Kamp director accused of sexually abusing teenage boys. Pete Newman, 35, is due in court today. Turner quotes the investigative report, which explains the charges:
"Between 2005 and 2008, Pete Newman became a close friend of his by attending family dinners, sleepovers, bible studies, taking vacations together and writing letters. Pete would hold one-on-one sessions with (the boy) in Pete's hot tub (at Pete's residence) and would request they be naked. Pete would discuss life's struggles with (him) and talk about masturbation. Pete would explain that if (the boy) would masturbate with him in his hot tub then there would be no lust and therefore (the boy) would not be sinning."There's more allegations against Newman, and the Turner Report's Randy Turner has done an amazing job following the story.
Former Kansas City Kansan reporter Sam Hartle has started a blog: Strange Conversation. Looks like he'll focus on the future of media; the first post is about newspapers using social media to drive traffic to their Web sites but erecting pay walls in which readers would have to pay to view the content.
Hartle did a really good job covering the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Public Utilities for the Kansan. But this just reminded me that there's no one regularly reporting on the BPU (Mark Wiebe left the Star earlier this year).
Best of luck to you, Sam.
Via Nick Sloan.
Robot Chicken's creators roller skated through Riverside last week -- hawking their latest Star Wars spoof DVD. Seth Green and company even met Riverside Mayor Kathleen Rose and commandeered a firetruck. Bizarre but that's expected with Green and friends.
There's more silliness from the RiverRoll stop on tour blog.
By the way, Peter Rugg is right. Robot Chicken is the third best show on Adult Swim. He's wrong on his top two: Venture Bros. (followed by Aqua Teen Hunger Force) is the best of Cartoon Network's late night block.
Local blogger/watchdog Midtown Miscreant's "Uncle" Ed watch made Fox 4 last night. The Miscreant, also known as Mark Smith, has been keeping an eye on former children's show host and sex offender Ed Muscare's YouTube site. Muscare had been posting odd videos on the site -- scratching his back with a toilet brush and letting a dog suckle on his stomach, singing "Pretty Woman" and more -- and the videos were attracting the attention of a lot of kids. That didn't sit well with Smith, who reported Muscare to YouTube and the Orangeburg County Sheriff in South Carolina.
The LiveJournal of a guy claiming to be Muscare's biographer claims probation officers paid Muscare a visit but found nothing illegal on his computer. However, Fox 4's Tess Koppelman learned that the probation department in South Carolina is still investigating Muscare. So this might not be the last bit of creepiness we hear from "Uncle" Ed.
Voltaire - the saloon, not the philosopher - opens tonight
Big Rip Brewing Co. expands the Northland's beer universe
WWE's Monday Night Raw returns to Kansas City October 14
Marilyn Manson and Alice Cooper are headed to Cricket Wireless Amphitheater
A consultant tells KC that big retail could save Citadel Plaza
Courtney Cole, Greater Kansas City Women's Political Caucus executive director, answers The Pitch's questionnaire
Shawn Ratigan and Bishop Robert Finn face two new civil lawsuits
The Gaf has closed in Waldo