Subject: Wall Street

• Yellow Sees Red Over Oil Prices

  November 14, 2007

• Fort Osage: Impenetrable to the Last

  December 10, 2007

• Another Healthy Chief Makes Headlines

  January 29, 2008

• News Flash: K-Snag Isn't Horrible

  March 5, 2008

• Daily Briefs: Cry "Havoc" and let slip the fancy lads of war.

  August 18, 2008

• Daily Briefs: I think I heard somewhere that Sarah Palin is a Muslim

  September 9, 2008

• Breakfast Buffet: Wednesday, 9/17

  September 17, 2008

• Daily Briefs: What rough beast has two thumbs and slouches toward Bethlehem?

  September 30, 2008

• Daily Briefs: The Power & Light District is worth every penny

  November 11, 2008

• Yes, governor, some rednecks are racists

  November 11, 2008

• Breakfast Buffet: Thursday, 11/13

  November 13, 2008

• Daily Briefs: Del Tha Funky Squitiro Sapien

  By CHRIS PACKHAM O Holy Econocalypse: There should be a horror movie called Black Friday, because obviously they chose to give the first shopping day after Thanksgiving an extremely creepy-sounding name. Which, no criticism, you guys, my new puppy's name is Li'l Princess Blood Feast, after the shocksploitation classic Blood Feast, by Herschel Gordon Lewis, and she's ADORABLE. I've heard some people insisting on the unbelievable explanation that, for many retailers, "Black Friday" is the first d

  November 25, 2008

• Daily Briefs: Funkhouser; Econocalypse; Brownback

  Dumb-bunny civic embarrassment Mayor Mark Funkhouser's proposal to settle Ruth Bates' lawsuit against him was rejected by the City Council, 2-10. Funkhouser wants to settle because he can TOTALLY WIN THIS THING in court. He was asking for $135,000 to pay off the legal tab incurred by wife Gloria Squitiro's fat, stupid mouth, plus another $40,000 for his attorney. BUT! Councilman Ed Ford said that the council wouldn't approve a settlement unless Funkhouser dropped his crybaby lawsuit against the

  December 5, 2008

• Breakfast Buffet: Friday, 12/19

  Celebrating another day of great Kansas City weather.While Missouri is in the act of banning foods such as imitation butter, Kansas City with a Russian Accent has some other foods he'd like to see banned. [KC With a Russian Accent]I love coffee (to the tune of six-plus cups a day) and I also love most things related to coffee, including music. Midtown Miscreant put together a fine list of 10 songs about coffee to get you in the mood. [Midtown Miscreant]There's a certain schadenfreude in laughing

  December 19, 2008

• When happy hour gets too happy

  The Los Angeles Times had a disturbing story this week about happy hours becoming a little too happy for business. It's not that restaurants don't want bustling happy hours, it's that more and more of them are experiencing the "fire drill."The fire drill is when a restaurant is slammed until happy hour ends and then everybody leaves en masse as if a silent fire drill was hurrying people out the door. A couple of minutes before 6 the place will be rocking, but by 6:15 there will only be a few str

  January 14, 2009

• Grease Spots

  January 24, 2002

• MSNBC interviews Claire "Tough as Nails" McCaskill

  Look at our girl, making Missouri proud while calling Wall Street bigwigs "idiots." According to Gawker Media site Jezebel, Missouri's senator looked like she wanted to "cut a bitch" while introducing a bill on the Senate floor proposing salary caps for employees whose companies are receiving federal bailout money. We want to join her for a glass of congratulatory champagne -- er, make it Pabst. Watch the clip here.

  January 30, 2009

• IHOP flips another executive off the griddle

  California-based DineEquity Inc., which owns the IHOP and Kansas City-based Applebee's restaurant chains, announced that Desmond Hague, the president of the 51-year-old national pancake chain formerly known as International House of Pancakes is, in a matter of speaking, getting flipped out of the corporation. Hague is officially retiring next week with, according to DineEquity, "the intent of pursuing a chief executive officer position at another company." As today's story by Reuters report

  February 12, 2009

• Daily Briefs: Now, what's all this "economy" business I'm hearing?

  MY OTHER CAR IS A MANDATORY CONVERTIBLE PREFERRED SHARE: Welp, ahead of his big economic prime-time special tonight, a majority of people surveyed say they're feeling optimistic about President Barack Obama's approach to the econocalyptic rapture in which all the money has been raptured up into credit default swap heaven, and leaving all the collateralized debt vehicles "unmanned." Because I studied Bumper Sticker Polemics in college, you guys, I am a genius at Bumper Sticker Polemics. Addition

  February 24, 2009

• Tom Morello and Boots Riley form new band, come to KC with NIN and Jane's Addiction.

  Image is from the Wikimedia commons.You probably already know that Nine Inch Nails and Jane's Addiction are co-headlining at Starlight on Wednesday, May 27, and that tickets go on sale March 13 blah-di-blah. But what you may not know is that Trent Reznor is part centaur. Also, self-appointed Nightwatchman Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave and badass MC Boots Riley of funky, funny and political Oakland hip-hop outfitthe Coup have joined forces to form a band they're calling

  March 9, 2009

• Breakfast Buffet: Monday, 3/23

  You never know what the text message is going to behold when the passenger next to you on the train asks you to proofread it. [Lucubrations]Easter is traditionally one of the busiest days for the food service industry, but restaurants are anticipating a steep decrease in sales this year. [Biz Journal]Eighty-three percent of coffee drinkers are now brewing their own java at home. That is up 5 percent from last year and does not bode well for coffee stores. [24/7 Wall St.]Today is Mother's Day in

  March 23, 2009

• Living Things protest waste by burning up good money

  The border around that YouTube video is green. Like money. I received a press release today about the St. Louis band Living Things, which did something kinda outrageous at SXSW last week. The band burned money on stage. Several times. The stunts were done in protest "Wall Street's dirty ways" according to the release. The band also had this to say: "Our mother is a bank manager at Bank of America. Our father is a small business owner. We believe in the American Dream. But the dream is broke

  March 24, 2009

• World Wine Tour indeed a world of wine

  Nicolas Boissonneau with a customerI stopped by 801 Chophouse early yesterday to see if the World Wine Tour was really serving more than 300 wines. It was. The tour opened to the public at 5:30 p.m. but from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. was an industry-only event that resembled a street market, not a hoity-toity wine tasting. In each and every corner of the massive steakhouse was the cacophony of deals being done and great wine being poured.I talked with wine producers from Argentina to New Zealand -- as we

  March 31, 2009

• Legalize it! (And then invest in it)

  More and more I hear arguments for legalizing marijuana. Joe Klein and Andrew Sullivan are two people pushing especially hard for it right now, although President Barack Obama has blown off the issue -- and for good reason. If Obama made a huge deal about legalizing pot he might make gains among a percentage of people who probably already support him, but he'd lose plenty more voters. But what if pot were to be legalized without becoming legal?That appears to what's happening. Two weeks ago, Att

  April 6, 2009

• With stimulus money, the bus company gets new buses to go fewer places

  April 16, 2009

• Claire McCaskill’s Commission on Wartime Contracting tries — finally — to summon Truman’s spirit

  February 5, 2009

• He'll Make You Think

  September 4, 2008

• As Kansas City’s largest owner of foreclosed properties, Deutsche Bank lets the city rot

  August 21, 2008

• Wrong-Way Irv

  Irvine O. Hockaday Jr. sure has a knack for watching companies lose some serious coin.

  March 6, 2008

• Uncooked Confidential

  January 17, 2008

• Bike Audible

  So the Chiefs won't allow cyclists? Here's a play that will get you in.

  October 11, 2007

• Saturday Night Fever: 30th Anniversary Special Collector's Edition Feeling Feverish?

  September 20, 2007

• Empty Nests

  How Kansas City companies helped kill the American Dream.

  July 12, 2007

• Lightin' Up

  Where there's smoke, there's Pablo.

  March 22, 2007

• Stage

  June 4, 2009

• Bump and Grind

  August 25, 2005

• Radio 4

  Friday, September 24, at the Jackpot Saloon.

  September 23, 2004

• Summer Film Previews

  May 20, 2004

• Nice Guys Finish First

  The Killers are bashful rockers from Vegas. Did someone say recipe for success?

  April 15, 2004

• Home Plates

  George Brett's scores a couple of hits, but it's not about the food anyway.

  January 22, 2004

• Ground Zero Hour

  A man's last day of freedom becomes Spike's meditation on 9/11.

  January 9, 2003

• Zuzu's Petals

  The Family Man is offered a long glimpse of A Wonderful Life.

  December 21, 2000

• Boiler Room

  Giovanni Ribisi (The Mod Squad) stars as Seth Davis, a young "entrepreneur" who gets involved in illegal day trading, in this debut drama from writer-director Ben Younger.

  February 17, 2000

• Can't afford a Sunday Star? Buy McClatchy stock

  As the Star reported Friday, the paper's corporate parent, the McClatchy Company, is in trouble with the New York Stock Exchange. You can buy three shares of stock in the nation's third-largest newspaper publisher for less than the cost of a Sunday edition of the Star. McClatchy has less than 45 days to avoid delisting of its stock by submitting a plan detailing how it will stop the bleeding. It won't be easy. The company has taken a Wall Street-style beating: Its market capitalization, accordi

  April 21, 2009

• Charlie Wilson

  May 28, 2009

• Greed isn't good; Shredded Wheat is

  "Greed is good" became the bastardized catchphrase for everything bad about the 1980s -- power-suits, junk bonds and yuppies. While the '90s and '00s have learned to package the message in a sweeter form, Gordon Gekko's speech pretty much rings true for those decades too.But things have changed. Or at least appear to have. Greed is out. Wall Street bankers are afraid to wear suits for fear of looking like Wall Street bankers. Teach for America is attracting a record number of college graduates a

  June 26, 2009

• Coffee clash! Will Starbucks lose customers?

  ​There's been some concern percolating in the media and blogosphere -- and Wall Street! -- lately about the decision by Starbucks to raise the prices of some of their products -- you know, those "complex" drinks like fancy, Venti-sized lattes and such. Other, less complicated coffee drinks will see a slight price decline. Will loyal Starbucks patrons stay loyal if their morning java drink costs a quarter more? Before you imagine mass revolt of Starbucks addicts, consider this: currently,

  August 25, 2009

• When the national media was obsessed with Kansas

  ​One of the books on my summer reading list was Seeding Civil War: Kansas in the National News, 1854-1858, by Wichita State University professor Craig Miner. I wanted to study up on area history, and Miner's research was interesting from a journalistic perspective, too.I never knew this, but for a few years in the 1850s, the national media was obsessed with Kansas. "Hundreds of thousands of articles and editorials -- 4,500 in the New York Herald alone -- were published about Bleeding Kansas,"

  September 11, 2009

• Beer prices and a ballclubs' records

  ​Beer tastes better when the home team is winning. It's colder and the Beer Man is always around when you want him. The steps don't seem as steep and hot dogs go down like shrimp cocktail. But when the Royals are losing, the beer can be as stale as a bar floor the next morning. There may be one saving grace to the Royals' recent run of poor seasons -- the beer is likely cheaper. The Wall Street Journal decided to see whether there was a correlation between winners and higher beer prices: A tea

  September 14, 2009

• Letters from the week
  of September 24

  September 24, 2009