Monthly Archives: June 2014

The man with me in front of the Coffee Cartel in the Central West End Tuesday afternoon is NPR’s All Things Considered Senior Host Robert Siegel. He and NPR Producer Art Silverman talked to me about Beer, Brats, and Baseball: St. Louis Germans, and our efforts to get recognition for the six German streets whoseContinue reading

Check out this interview with DJ Wilson yesterday on KDHX. http://kdhx.org/ondemand/podcasts/collateraldamage/jim-merkel

Hey, one and all. Let that lawn grow longer for a day. Cancel that hot date tonight. You’ve got to get a signed copy of The Making of an Icon. I’ll be at the Fenton Barnes & Noble from 2-4:30 p.m. and at the German Cultural Society’s Sommerfest at 5020 West Four Ridge Road inContinue reading “Be an Arch Supporter!”

Found this great book about the Gateway Arch when we visited the Arch gift shop on Sunday. Oh, of course, it’s my own book, The Making of an Icon. You can buy at the same gift shop, on Amazon, at all kinds of local book stores and two places where I’ll appear on Saturday. I’llContinue reading “A Book About the Gateway Arch?!?”

While almost everybody talks about the beauty of the Arch, preservationists also say something was lost. Between 1939 and 1942, 37 blocks of historic buildings were leveled to make way for what would become the Arch grounds. At the time, they were eyesores at the city’s front door. But the preservationists say that with someContinue reading “Another Cost of the Arch”

Everybody Up! You can see me talking about The Making of an Icon at 5:30 a.m. Saturday on “City Corner” on Channel 30. The show later will be on stltv.net, local cable outlets and on YouTube. But this way you can see it first and be ready for the day.

St. Charles Countians will have two chances this week to get an autographed copy of The Making of an Icon: The Dreamers, The Schemers, and the Hard Hats Who Built the Gateway Arch. At 7 p.m. Thursday, I’ll give a program at the Corporate Parkway Branch of the St. Charles City-County Public Library, 1200 CorporateContinue reading “Out and About in St. Charles County Land”

I learned a new use for an old word last week. It’s “platform.” In classes at the Write-to-Publish Christian writers conference last week at Wheaton College, I learned publishers and agents now expect writers to spend much of their time building a “platform” they can use to promote their book. They’re expected to develop largeContinue reading “I thought I was supposed to write”