St Louis: Fill & Download for Free

Back in the ‘90s, I was having a chat with one of the midgets that had a speaking role in The Wizard of Oz. His name was Micky Carrol. Growing up as a dwarf in St Louis was a challenging experience during the Depression. His single mother wanted to protect him, but wasn't capable of keeping the bullies at bay.Al Capone did some work in St Louis. He'd come down from Chicago, hang out with the “wise guys”, do his “business” and head back home.But he was always approachable. If you needed something done, he was THE guy. Mama Carrol approached Capone and said that Micky was a good Catholic boy that just wanted to be left alone. She asked if he could be of any assistance in helping her child feel safe and perhaps find some peace.It didn't matter that little Micky was Irish. It didn't matter that Capone was already the godfather to more than 2000 children. It didn't matter that Micky lived in St Louis. Capone said to Mama, “I will protect him” - and he did. There were no more problems with bullies. Mickey's godfather, Al Capone, made sure of it.

“Do you think the white couple pointing guns at protesters in St. Louis, Missouri should be charged with a crime?”Absolutely not. Trying to charge someone for defending their property and their lives is the worst aberration of justice I have seen a long time.Take a look at these photos that have turned up since the original incident:Guy at the right edge of frame. That is probably a paint-ball gun, but still a gun. Peaceful protesters don’t point guns, even if they are only paintball guns, at property owners.And this one:Yes, he is only pointing his fingers in the shape of guns, but again….. how is this not threatening?And this one:This is the crowd that came back to the house to yell and scream some more because the funny looking man in a pink shirt dared to stand up to the mob. Peaceful protesters don’t go and get reinforcements to further harass home owners.And an obligatory before picture:With an after:I don’t know if you are familiar with wrought-iron, but this kind of damage took some effort. This is not some little ‘oopsie’ that happened because of a crowd. This was wanton and willful destruction.A crowd that worked that hard to get through that gate threatens a home owner and you want to charge the home owner for defending themselves…. that makes you an even bigger part of the problem than the protesters who fucked up that gate.

August 20–21, 2017.My wife and I took off of work and drove down to St. Louis on the 20th. Why? To be in the path of totality for the solar eclipse that day.We arrived in St. Louis in time to do some sight-seeing on the 20th, before getting a good night’s sleep and then driving an hour south of St. Louis the next day to be directly under the middle of the eclipse.Specifically, we did our sight-seeing at the St. Louis Zoo. (We’d done the Arch and Budweiser Tour on a previous trip to St. Louis.)The St. Louis Zoo has this:Those people are leaning over to touch these:I think I was more excited than my children were about touching the rays and small sharks in the tank. I’ve been to a few aquariums with touch tanks, and they always make me feel like a kid again.Then, the next day, I got to see a solar eclipse unfold over the course of about two hours. Without the special glasses, you can’t even tell an eclipse is occurring until the last ten minutes before totality. But it was very cool to watch through the glasses.My kids kept distracting me. “I’m hot… I’m bored… I’m hungry… I need to go to the bathroom…” Quiet, kids. Can’t you see I’m staring at the sky in child-like wonder?Once it actually started to get dark to the naked eye, my kids thought it was cool, too. Then the cicadas started buzzing. Then it got totally dark, except for a few stars and this in the sky, where the sun had just been:It was completely worth the trip, including the nine-hour drive back to Chicago. (It should be five hours, max, but there was a lot of traffic heading back that day.)My wife and I already agreed to do it again in 2024, when central Indiana is in the path of totality.