Monthly Archives: November 2016

Nobody at Amalgamated Conglomerated Marketing Enterprises, Inc. (That’s ACME, but you knew that.) worked harder or smiled wider than Freddy. Why shouldn’t he, since he always lived the words of his daddy, “Work hard, treat everybody fair, and the world will beat a path to your door?” Wouldn’t you know?  Freddy lost his job andContinue reading “Don’t Count Freddy Out”

My friend from the far north, Robert Mackreth, is known for his widespread collection of cats, Newfoundland dogs and odd facts about the Lake Superior country. I was not at all surprised, then, when he e-mailed me the following dispatch from the Ashland (WI) Daily Press on Feb. 9, 1931. Iron River Hen Lays FreakContinue reading “Thoughts From a Good Egg”

For years, I dreamed of doing the kind of reporting that everybody would notice. But when I arrived at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, my assignment seemed too small for a great journalist-to-be. Though the classes varied, the biggest lesson we learned was to get our facts right. It wasn’t enough to writeContinue reading “Time for truth in social media”

What does a football, a hopelessly muddy field, a 10-pound catfish and a deathbed confession have  in common? You can find out the Saturday afternoon after Thanksgiving, when I tell my funniest stories from The Colorful Characters of St. Louis, my other Reedy Press books and the rest of my writing career. In keeping withContinue reading “A Storytelling Feast”

Ruth Kamphoefner had good reason to despair when her husband died in 1964. She had five kids to feed and income from a Social Security check and a part-time job as an art teacher.  But she fought back and in 1970 bought a shell of a house in a run-down neighborhood called Lafayette Square. HerContinue reading “Ruth Kamphoefner, RIP”

In St. Louis  in the 1960s, no civil rights leader was more a target of hatred than Percy Green.  Many hated him for his headline-grabbing street theater. Others said it was just what was needed to end discrimination and open up jobs to African Americans. The liberal Post-Dispatch called Green “St. Louis’s most outrageous man.”Continue reading “Master of Outrage”