Monthly Archives: September 2016

Baby Boomers who watched the Three Stooges on Channel 11 shouldn’t be surprised to learn there was a local connection to the comedy threesome. They were so St. Louis. In fact, for two years in the late 1950s, St. Louis native Joe Besser played beside Moe Howard and Larry Fine. He replaced Shemp Howard afterContinue reading “St. Louis Stooge”

Mickey Carroll was small in size but had a big heart, which was plenty of reason for me to include him in The Colorful Characters of St. Louis. The entertainer grew up in St. Louis and was one of the Munchkins of The Wizard of Oz. He later returned to St. Louis and ran aContinue reading “The Munchkin From St. Louis”

Of all the long-gone folks in The Colorful Characters of St. Louis, my favorite is Tom Goabout, a champion of stealing chickens and dogs. So busy was he that the Post-Dispatch ran about 70 stories about him from 1885 to about 1903. Here is one of them:  

When Phyllis Diller lived in Webster Groves from 1962 to 1965, her daughter made friends with a local girl who saw Diller more as a mom than a famous comedian. Years later, the girl, Patricia Corrigan, became a reporter. She spoke of Diller in an article in the October 25, 1987 Post-Dispatch. I found theContinue reading “Remembering Phyllis Diller”

Those who can’t wait until my big release party from 2-5 p.m. Sunday Oct. 2 at the Royale on South Kingshighway can buy a copy of The Colorful Characters of St. Louis from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at The Tower Grove Farmers Market. As long as it’s not raining, I’ll be selling TheContinue reading “A Great Place to Buy a Book”

Click here to go to my interview on STL TV For the fourth time, Steve Potter of KWMU  and the city’s cable access and internet station STL TV interviewed me Wednesday about The Colorful Characters of St. Louis. He asked some great questions about various characters in the book and what makes a character colorful.Continue reading “My Interview on City Corner”

Glad you asked that. Start with one word. Obsession. But that’s not a bad thing. That word needn’t be negative. An online dictionary and thesaurus uses these positive alternative words for obsession: “Craving, desire, drive, enthusiasm, fascination, hankering, hunger, infatuation, itch, longing, lust, passion, pining, thirst, urge, yearning, yen, idiosyncrasy, quirk, bent, disposition, inclination, leaning,Continue reading “So Just What Is a Colorful Character?”

What’s better than that new-car smell? For me, it’s the smell of ink from my newly-published book. I got it when I picked up my copy of The Colorful Characters of St. Louis at the warehouse this morning, Sept. 13, 2016. Gotta remember that date. It’s got 280 pages and weighs a pound. Wow. That’sContinue reading “Doesn’t This Look Great?”

Copies of The Colorful Characters of St. Louis just arrived at the warehouse. Details and pictures when I pick them up at 3:30.

Everybody naps, but nobody naps like I nap. I train for them like Michael Phelps trains for his gold medal swims. I take marathon naps. This weekend, sad to say, I’m taking my last good naps for a long time. I’ll have my first media interview about my new book, The Colorful Characters of St.Continue reading “The Last Nap Before the Books Arrive”