Chapter 4 | The Quest for the Best (Remembering L.C. Richardson)
Magic in Kansas City doesn’t involve cards or top hats. True magic is what happens to brisket when smoke and fire are applied in the correct ratio and for the right amount of time. True magic is burnt ends. In Chapter 4, we dive into how and why we chase and crave that magic in Kansas…
Low Wheat Prices Could Hit Kansas Rural Economy Hard
This year was a very good year for growing wheat, but that means it could be a very bad year for wheat farmers. There’s a glut on the global wheat market and prices for winter wheat – which is grown all up and down the Great Plains, from Texas to North Dakota– wheat prices this…
Do You Need Extra Screening For Breast Cancer? The Picture Is Blurry
Many women have dense breasts, and they may benefit from other forms of cancer screening beyond mammograms. But none of the options is ideal, and the available data don’t make the decision easier.
The Son in ‘The Butcher’s Son’
Vi Nhan Tran was smuggled out of Vietnam and captured by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia before finding refuge in a Red Cross camp in Thailand. It’s a story of a lifetime — and all before he was three years old. Tran’s only memory from that part of his life is busting his head open…
Artisan Chick Event & Other Weekend Possibilities
The Artisan Chick Event is Saturday (10 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and Sunday (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.) at Crown Center. You can browse and shop handmade local goods and artisan food products (everything from brigadeiros to pickles), try a cookie and beer pairing, or sample spirits from Union Horse Distilling Co. and J. Rieger…
Sympathetic Vibrations | Recycled Joy
On the third floor of a creaky warehouse in the West Bottoms sits an army of pianos. They are meticulously arranged in rows, with price tags that comically belie their monetary value – and more importantly, the value the instruments could bring to their potential recipients. The pianos have formed rank in this spot, thanks…
Has The Human Life Span Hit The Ceiling?
An analysis of global demographics indicates the maximum human life span may have peaked at around 115 years. That’s despite medical advances and the occasional person who lives a few years longer.
The Weekend Starts Today
Summer in Kansas City is a sauna. Winter is an icebox. Spring is an allergy festival. Autumn, though, is a glorious, crisp, riotous celebration of color. With the first bursts of fall foliage just starting to show around town, and temperatures expected in the high 60s this weekend, you couldn’t ask for a better time…
Hello Atelier | Heading the Letterpress Resurgence
If you are a design aficionado who regularly cruises blogs like DesignSponge and Apartment Therapy, you are likely acquainted with the work of this week’s guest, Brady Vest. He is the founder of Hammerpress Design, a letterpress design studio that has been leading the letterpress comeback for over 20 years. Vest’s story is cool. I…
5 Surprising Ways You Can Get Your Coffee Fix
Coffee. It’s not just for cups any more. Restaurants and coffee shops are transforming the reason we get out of bed every morning into everything from dinner to the cocktails that follow dinner. We just don’t have new coffee shops (read our piece about Goat Hill Coffee & Soda, which recently opened on the Westside)…
Take 5 For Your Health
Kansas Infant Mortality Rate Drops Kansas recorded its lowest-ever infant mortality rate in 2015, when 230 infants died before their first birthday, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. That put the state’s infant mortality rate at 5.9 for every 1,000 live births — a 28 percent improvement since 1996. Nationwide, the infant…
Rings and Rally Bugs: Looking Back at the Royals in 2016
With the Royals season over, it’s time to look back. Sure, the two-time American League champions will not be defending their World Series crown. But that, as Stuart Smalley said, is OK. The biggest reason is probably simple fatigue – mental and physical. The Royals’ style is predicated on decent pitching, rock solid defense and…
My, How the Garden Grows
Located among strip malls, office buildings and rows of uniform houses, The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah in Overland Park is in the heart of suburbia. But park your car behind the temple, which sits on Nall Avenue a little south of 119th Street, wander up a winding dirt path, and you will find that you’ve…
Chapter 3 | Making Ends Meat
The popularity of burnt ends created an unusual problem for pitmasters in Kansas City. Even with a ready supply of briskets, there wasn’t enough of the ends of those briskets to make the menu item known as “burnt ends.” Briskets taper at both edges — it’s the thinner parts that get crusty and crispy and deliciously charred….
In The Face Of An Uncertain Future, Ag Industry Titans Pair Up
Like most farmers, Mark Nelson, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat near Louisburg, Kansas, is getting squeezed. He’s paying three times more for seed than he used to, while his corn sells for less than half what it brought four years ago. “It’s a – that’s a challenge,” Nelson says. “You’re not going to be…