Archive for the ‘Mark Your Calendar’ Category

Cards slugger Jack Clark is launching his nightly baseball and sports show 10-11 nightly on KTRS 550 with co-host John Marecek. 101 ESPN has added baseball analysts Andy Van Slyke, Chris Duncan and Jason Simontacchi to its 6-7 p.m. slot, that begins Monday through the World Series. As part of KMOX Radio’s Sports Speakers Series, Clark, pitcher Danny Cox and left-hand receiver Ken Dayley will be on hand Tuesday night at Morton’s the Steak House at which guests can plunk down $100 each to meet the guys and have a steak dinner.

The most lavish holiday event is, arguably, the Veiled Prophet Ball on Dec. 22 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.  People mingled well the other day in front of the hotel, that is unlike another nearby inn where it’s suspicious.  The Gideon Bibles are on chains. One person came from a hometown that doesn’t have a town idiot.  The people take turns.  The
classified phone book had one page.  Another came from a poor town, where the doctor’s stethoscope has a party line.  They chatted and eyeballed the planners streaming in and out for the ball.   One of the ball’s yesteryear matrons of honor, who dropped by for a peek,  is so fancy, friends joke she has Perrier on the knee. Some wealthy VP Order members made money the old-fashioned way – they inherited it.  But, the columnist hardly ever knocks the rich. I never got a job from a poor person. In the old days, it was fashionable for some to knock the VP.  Not today, because of its goodwill to our town.  With almost 2,000 members, who each pay an annual membership fee of $1,000, much of the money goes to help support: the St. Louis Public Schools; Habitat for Humanity; the Herbert Hoover Boys & Girls Club; Operation Brightside and housing.  The young women who make their debuts at the ball are required to serve three years of community service before they take their bows this year in the direction of Veiled Prophet Joe Imbs.

Some law firms are gearing up for extravagant parties, that seem too much for some, not enough for others, who have difficulties avoiding foreclosures. Scott Rosenblum will throw his firm’s traditional hip-hop party on Dec. 17 at the Lumen Space on Locust Street.  The Onder law firm will host a party on Dec.16 at its Taj Mahal-like offices.  Jim Holloran will hold his shop’s bash at his own McGurk’s on Dec. 20.  In another part of town – at the Sheldon – The Beacon online newspaper will celebrate the holidays on New Year’s Day with a performance of HMS Pinafore, which will be narrated by Richard “Bel” Gaddes.  Another perk for the guests will be to meet the website’s new fundraiser, Peter Franzen, formerly with the Black Rep, and general manager Nicole Hudson Hollway.

My doctor once bet me 100 to 1 that I’d never make it to my age.  He’s gone now and if he’d won, he’d have a helluva time collecting it.  I refuse to wear glasses when I look in a mirror and therefore I look blurry.  I chuckle and recall when Rudolf Nureyev examined himself in a mirror at The Muny.  I asked him what he was looking at and he replied, “Him.”  As kids, we had simple pleasures: playing cork ball on a sand lot; flying through the air on the Comet at Forest Park Highlands; enthralled at airplanes flying in and out of Lambert Field; listening to music on the phonograph with breakable records and playing tag.  Today’s youngsters are playing it smart on computers and they’re far more politically oriented than we were. Sadly, some of today’s kids are suffering with cancer, while their desperate parents pray for miracles. To many parents something miraculous happened.  They met pediatric oncologist Dr. Bob Bergamini, who practices at St. John’s Mercy Med Center.  “We have three babies in neonatal intensive care with cancer and they’ll be cured and will be given back to their childhood,” said Dr. Bergamini.  “Eighty-five percent of the children, who come in will be cured and walked out.  In cases of leukemia, we’ve learned how to give just chemotherapy and to do growth factors, that help the white count recover after chemo.”  The good doctor was surrounded by parents at the Friends of Kids with Cancer benefit at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, including Gisela and Peter Cohen, whose granddaughter was diagnosed and treated for leukemia at 3.  She’s now 18. Surrounded by Justin Taylor, Kathy Richey, Mary Mercurio and Lawson Primm, Judy Ciapciak boasted that the evening capped off a day of activity, that will bring $130,000 to the agency, “which has only two full-time employees,” she said.  A fashion show of 26 children from 3-18 years-old, who are in active treatment, modeled in the show, while seven in remission for at least five years, also trotted down the runway.  A massive boutique surrounded the ballroom with 500 donors milling around, prior to an auction.  Jeweler Dan Hufford and Scott Mangus are set to lead a new entity – Young Friends of Kids with Cancer.  BTW – Justin Taylor and Lawson Primm are heading up The Choo Choo Ride Spinning Event with 14 clubs participating and a gala on Jan. 20 at Saks.

Not to be missed is The Lawyers Association of St. Louis (LASL) Gridiron dinner and show at 7 p.m., Nov. 19 at the Khorassan Ballroom at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.  The production has been crafted and directed by LASL prez Tom Germeroth, with assists by Bill Thomas and Peter Dunne. The show will focus on making good-natured fun of the legal profession through song and dance.  Numbers include “Have I Got a Good Lawsuit” to the tune of “Footloose.” Bemoaning the tragic effects of tort reform on personal injury lawyers, there’ll be the song “One Third of Nothing” to the tune of Billy Preston‘s hit song, “Nothing from Nothing.”  Then, the show’s closer – a “Don’t Stop Believin’” “Glee” parody.  Other skits – too numerous to mention here – seem like sure-fire hits.

WashU’s dean of the school of medicine Dr. Larry Shapiro will be presented the Medical Excellence Award from The National Children’s Cancer Society on Oct. 30 at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark.  Entertainer Goldie Hawn will also be honored at the event for her Hawn Foundation philanthropy.

“The building business might be tougher than the business of schools,” said St. Louis Public Schools overseer Rick Sullivan, who is former chief of McBride Homes.  Sullivan gave an example of Atlanta, which he said is a city with the worst residential construction in the nation.  He said, “In 2005 more than 60,000 were built there; in 2009 only 3,500 went up.  This year, McBride built 4,300 homes.”  With Sullivan was CSI Leasing’s  Ken Steinbach.. . .Doug Morgan has been tapped as board chairman of Missouri Employers Mutual Insurance. . .Gary O’Neil has been beckoned as board member of Commercial Banks. . . Score is the name of Raymond Slay‘s soon-to-debut alternative bar in The Grove. . .. Ginger Bistro, an Asian fusion dinery, is poised to bow on Delmar Boulevard in The Loop on Oct. 4. . .Dr. Amy-Jill Levine, prof of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt U, will present lectures on Oct. 18-19 at the Second Presbyterian Church in the CWE on “The Jewish Jesus; Misunderstanding Judaism Means Misunderstanding Jesus” and “How and Why Jews and Christians Read Scripture Differently” – all part of the 2010 Pfautch lecture series. . .More than 500 enjoyed the sights and sounds of the inaugural “Light the Town Pink” trivia night at the Kemp Auto Museum to benefit Siteman Cancer Center.  There were 10 rounds of challenging trivia, helmed by radio personalities Guy Phillips of Y98, Mark Reardon and Doug McElvin of KMOX,  Dana Daniels and Eric Kane of KEZK and Kelly Corday and Kevin – The Intern of Y98. . .Operation Brightside is celebrating a $250,000 grant from Pepsi “Refresh Everything”. . .The husband-wife team of Todd Stone and Kim McGuire have exited the Post-Dispatch and have moved north.  Stone was the enterprise team editor, while McGuire was the paper’s environmental reporter.  Stone is now the business editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune; McGuire has stepped away from journalism to become a stay-at-home mom with the couple’s new baby. . .A lavish, four-generation family saga, “A Matter of Happenstance,” chronicles the fictional Reinhardt family of retail princes and financiers across a century of St. Louis history.  A launch of the novel by Catherine Underhill Fitzpatrick will take place Oct. 24.  The author was a reporter and copy desk staffer at the old Globe-Democrat in the 1970s. . . Jim Hubbard reminds us that tickets are on sale for the Budweiser Guns ‘N Hoses boxing event Nov. 24 at Scottrade Center.  The event is presented each year by the St. Louis Guns ‘N Hoses Boxing Assoc. and sponsored by Grey Eagle Distributors. . .Vel Green and the Spa at Winghaven have parted company.  .  .Sole, vendor of fashion comfort shoes, is bowing at Des Peres Plaza. . .Mo. Sec. of State Robin Carnahan‘s appearance at a fundraiser for her U.S. Senate race drew 100 deep-pocketed types at the St. Louis C.C. manse of Carole and Dr. Fred Gaskin.  Carole, a member of the prominent Dowd family, said Robin’s late dad, Gov. Mel Carnahan, endorsed Carole’s dad, the late Ed Dowd, for Mo. Guv.  in 1972. “Robin’s a clear choice for the people over big business,” opined Dr. Gaskin. As for the Tea Party, Gaskin said, “All of its members do is let off steam.  They obstruct everyone trying to do something”. . .Trattoria Branca owner Sam Kacar and his wife, Becky, are getting separate mail these days.  Seems that Sam became a player; Becky has hired tough barrister David Lacks. Meanwhile, Becky has taken over the Frontenac trattoria, one of three in the dinery chain.  Chef is Erwin Agastra, whose signature dish is halibut palermitano. . .Lewis Rice barrister Jack Pruelage and glammy jewelry consultant Taylor Pollock were a newsome-twosome at Bistro 1130 t’other night, along with Norbert Siegfried and his love, “B.G”.  Nearby was jeweler-to-the-stars Joe Genovese with his wife Nicole and daughter Sabrina. . .Rumor #1: State Rep. John Diehl will head the committee responsible for redistricting in which Missouri and Illinois might each lose one Congressional seat. Rumor #2: Mike Jones may be out at County Exec Charlie Dooley’s office..And Geoff Whittington has been named sports editor of Brian Timpone‘s Blockshopper Enterprise, which has partnerships with Hearst newspapers, Tribune Co., Sun-Times Media and provides content for major newspapers.  Timpone’s brainchild has just been profiled in Forbes magazine…