May 2022 – Jim Merkel the Writer

Don’t Use a GPS for this One

One notable South Side thoroughfare is Itaska Street. The city named it for the lake in Minnesota that is the true source of the Mississippi River. A handy tip: don’t try to find an address on “Itaska Street” by saying it into a phone with a GPS app. That’s because the lake in Minnesota isContinue reading “Don’t Use a GPS for this One”

Is that a tree? Or a huge twig?

You wouldn’t find this tallish stump on a trail in far southeast Carondelet Park in other walking tours of South St. Louis. But it will be in my tour book next year, because my book will be unlike any other. Stripped of bark, branches and any hint of a green canopy, it resembles the biggestContinue reading “Is that a tree? Or a huge twig?”

My Very Strange Book Ends at Statue of Very Skinny Alien

My upcoming book giving a walking tour of strange South St.. Louis ends at a 33-foot tall space alien in front of the Plantarium in Forest Park. Have you ever seen a picture of an alien that wasn’t skinny? Maybe somebody needs to fatten him up before they send him back. You’ll read many moreContinue reading “My Very Strange Book Ends at Statue of Very Skinny Alien”