Posts Tagged ‘AmerenUE’

The best restaurant in town is a good one in which you are known to the owner; the second best is the one that serves consistently good food whether the owner knows you or not. That’s Leon Birnbaum at his new Chez Leon in Clayton all over. Is it a religious experience? Hell no!  We’ve all been bored in church, temple or mosque.  There’s nothing to be boring about. The classic French cuisine bourgeois prepared by chef Colby Erhart or the lounge lizards, who swoon over the interiors, created by Birnbaum and Dan Byrne. “It’s Selkirk chic!,” exclaimed hair stylist-to-the-stars Randall Jones of Larz Salon to his best pal, the stunning Elizabeth Danforth Sankey, heiress to Bill Danforth. “Yes, more urbane than urbane,” added Sanky. She informed the columnist that she and Elizabeth “Lydie” Wallace have bowed an estate jewelry buying and selling firm, Elizabeth’s Estate. A few tongues wagged about Trudy Busch‘s 84th birthday on the day before and that she was much too ill to celebrate. Here ‘n there were Linda and Tony Karakas with Janet and Smith McGehee, who celebrated the birth of triplet grandchildren.  Genya and Jim Human, along with Steve Anstey, were there praising the sales at the Janet McAfee real estate office. . .

Downtown at Tony’s, Kelly and Blues CEO Peter McLoughlin were bullish about the team and he lamented,  “I wish Dave Checketts had bought the Rams.”  Bryan Cave mouthpiece Harold Blatt with his charming Elaine graced a table with Marilyn and Bernard “Bunny” Edison, whose family empire, Edison Bros. Shoes, collapsed under the stewardship of Andy Newman and Martin Sneider, who had been teaching essentials of retailing at WashU (go figure!).  Also at Tony’s, barrister Gerard Carmody and his wife, Susan, with their daughter Ryann, settled down after a retreat at the Four Seasons with his law firm, Carmody MacDonald. . .

Over at Beffa’s there was celebration over the upcoming nupts of Rachel Crocker (Eureka, Mo.’s Byrnes Hills Stables, LLC) and Robert Brake (Brake Landscaping and Lawncare, Inc.) with his uncle, former cop Ed Beffa. . .

And, at the Palladium party house on Fourteenth Street and Park Avenue, a sumptuous feedbag and cocktails were underway, when the columnist arrived to join in the launching of the EcoLifeSTL.com website and the honors awards presented to the City of St. Louis, AmerenUE’s PurePower and Sustainable St. Louis.  They were chosen for significant contributions they make to promote and encourage Green living in the region.  Said Mayor Francis Slay, “The greatest way to recycle in St. Louis is to save historic buildings like the one we’re in tonight.  The Greenest building is one that already exists and also preserves history.”  Cindy Bambini accepted the award on behalf of PurePower,AmerenUE’s voluntary renewable energy program, and she noted, “Currently, there are 6,000 residential and 200 businesses PurePower customers receiving 100 percent of their energy from the five wind farms in our area.” Emmis Broadcasting’s John Beck was front ‘n center getting plaudits on the broadcast chain of stations involvement in promoting the program.  John Weber of Wells Fargo and his soon-to-marry Jennie Logan of KPNT, The Point radio station, chain smoked as Weber joshed about energy, “Before we left the house, I turned on all the lights, left the fridge door open, turned up the heat and turned on the microwave.”

SEE PHOTO GALLERY BELOW COLUMN AND CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE

WITH THE POLICE COMMISSION:  St. Louis police commissioner Vince Bommarito, owner of the award-winning Tony’s restaurant downtown and shoo-in candidate for Best Uncle of the Year, now has a public relations agent to deal with the simmering (and sauteing?) controversy swirling around his Mardi Gras Get Our of Jail Free call to a St. Louis police supervisor.  Savvy Peggy Lents, who also reps the Missouri Botanical Garden, is now speaking for him.

Noranda Aluminum is AmerenUE’s biggest industrial customer, running a mammoth aluminum smelter in New Madrid, Mo.  Noranda is also paying the lowest rate per kilowatt hour for power of any AmerenUE customer – several cents per kwh less than the poorest residential ratepayer in our town.  The company is part of the combine of large industrial customers now fighting AmerenUE’s rate increase proposal at the Missouri Public Service Commission with lots of hand-wringing about how they are on the ropes financially.  Interesting?  Leon Black, CEO of Noranda Aluminum’s holding company, Apollo Global Management LLC reportedly plunked down $47.6 million for Raphael’s drawing, “Head of a Muse,” at Christie’s in London, setting an auction record for a work on paper. Noranda also recently bought about $250 million in mines. So, Noranda continues its fight against a rate increase in Stoddard County and will likely push legislation that limits what it will pay – on the back of residential and small business customers.

CLIPPED: The cover-story of the Jan. 21 issue of Rolling Stone, headlined, “You Idiots: Meet the Planet’s Worst Enemies,” profiles “the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing the efforts to curb global warming.” Among them, dubbed “the arm-twister,” is Dick Gephardt, who is blasted for his work” as a lobbyist for Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal company” and specifically for pushing the notion of “clean coal.” (Al Gore‘s rebuttal: “Clean coal is like healthy cigarettes. It does not exist.”) The publication’s Tim Dickenson says Peabody and the Peabody-promoted FutureGen Industrial Alliance have “invested $1.7 million in the Gephardt Group’s services since 2007.”

The article also cites Gephardt’s lobbying for Ameren, “the nation’s fourth-dirtiest utility.”

The columnist has made hundreds of New Year’s resolutions over the years – for himself and on behalf of many of you.  Some have taken: some have not.  For himself, the columnist vows better attention to health; more acceptance of the limits of medicine; greater patience with the pace of healing; and a more heartfelt gratitude to doctors, nurses, billing clerks, insurance companies, and (especially) to well-wishers.  He also vows greater attention to correct spelling, accurate timing, complete quoting, standard punctuation, organized note-taking, credible attribution, flattering photography, and graceful corrections.  Of course, that is an annual resolution, made with little real intention of doing anything about the habits of a lifetime gossipist. On your behalf, the columnist attributes (with no foundation and with relatively little malice) the following fantasy resolutions:

• From President Barack Obama: I’ll do my Christmas vacation next year with Claire, Joe, and their family in St. Louis, as long as Claire promises not to Tweet about it and Joe pays for the Pi.
• From Governor Jay Nixon:  I’ll ask Peter Kinder, who practically lives there, to tell Georganne the best places to eat, shop, and stay in St. Louis.
• From Archbishop Robert Carlson:  I’ll make more good news with Catholic Charities than bad.
• From SLU president the Rev. Larry Biondi:  I’ll commission a statue of a naked Rick Majerus for Bannister House if the Billikens make the NCAA Tournament.
• From Sen. Kit Bond:  I’ll use my final year to find jobs for all my staff.
• From County Executive Charlie Dooley:  I’ll ask the nice Greg Boyce for a couple of lumps of clean coal to put into a certain former staffer’s Christmas stocking.
• From Mayor Francis Slay:  I’ll give a Key to the City to Lady GaGa.
• From KMOV GM Alan Cohen:  I’ll do infomercials 24/7.
• From “Donnybrook” founder Martin Duggan:  I’ll start a blog. What’s a blog?
• From Emerson CEO David Farr and celebrated attorney Linda Martinez:  We had no idea we were named “man and woman of the year” by the Variety Club until we read it in Berger’s column. We hope he’ll be seated with us at the April 24th dinner.
• From Congressman Lacy Clay:  I’ll check “finally single”  on my Census form next year.
• From former GOP consultant Rod Jetton: I’ll use the hot air
• From the Robin  Carnahan campaign to fill a bouquet of green balloons.
• From Gateway Foundation donor M. Peter Fischer:  I think I’ll do another two blocks.
• From Build-A-Bear boss Maxine Clark:  I’ll stuff the first marketing person who suggests a children’s video on national health care reform, immigration, or gun control.
• From former Engineered Air’s Mike Shanahan:  Since that fancy country club in Naples, Fla., has blackballed me and sent me a check that bounced, I think I’ll remain at Old Warson.
• From the St. Louis Beacon’s Bob Duffy:  We now have our own space in the KETC-TV offices and hope we’ll open an Illinois bureau in Pontoon Beach.
• From television reporter Alex Fees:  Maybe I can get Donna Wilkinson to follow Steve Schankman on my “Conversations with. . .” in January on HEC-TV – if her stockings aren’t falling.
• From Congressman Russ Carnahan:  I’ll use my frequent flier miles to send mouthy Ed Martin on a long trip to country without the Internet.
• From Blues owner Dave Checketts:  I’ll play Ed Goltermann in goal for home games.
• From Gerard Craft:  I’ll open a Niche on every corner.
• From WashU chancellor Mark Wrighton:  I’ll get that Top 10 ranking back.
• From Chief Tim Fitch:  I’ll find a new badge for Floyd Warmann.
• From KSDK GM Lynn Beall:  I’ll retire or replace any face viewers might conceivably recognize.
• From Rams owner Chip Rosenbloom:  I’ll fire the coach if he blows our number one draft choice by actually winning another game.
• From Bob Baer:  I’ll ride the last Metro bus to Chesterfield if the County tax campaign fails in April.
• From would-be Rams owner Rush Limbaugh:  I’ll buy the Arch Rival Roller Girls instead.
• From north St. Louis developer Paul McKee:  I’ll mow all my yards and rake yours too.
• From entrepreneurs Mike and Steve Roberts: We’ll suggest changing the name of St. Louis City to Roberts St. Louis City.
• From Symphony music director David Robertson:  I’ll buy KFUO and program it with hip-hop, uh. . .classical music.
• From Cardinals president Bill DeWitt III:  I’ll change the name of Ballpark Village to Holliday Haven.
• From the Loop’s Joe Edwards:  I’ll open a successful venue on the actual Moon.
• From Lee CEO Mary Junck:  I’ll improve morale by signing a good contract with the Newspaper Guild.
• From AmerenUe officials:  I’ll use the phrase “a warm holiday glow” in our next filing with the Public Service Commission to soften them up on a nuclear power rate increase.
• From Art Museum honcho Brent Benjamin:  I’ll expand.
• From AB Inbev boss Carlos Britto: I’ll find out if Clydesdales go better with a little lime.
• From grocer Greg Dierberg:  I’ll open the most popular grocery in a decade and call it. . .Culinaria Too.
• From the Caseyville and Collinsville police:  Next time we hope we’ll get it right. (At Teezers Bar in Collinsville, a guy walked in with a silver handgun over the holidays and fired off a few rounds and marched out.  Police began looking for a 70 year-old man known to them and after much searching, they decided that the gunman they really needed to look for had the same name but was just 52.  Then, the Caseyville police gave their Collinsville counterparts an entirely different suspect’s name. The guy, who allegedly committed the explosive act, was none of the above: he had been hiding out all that time at Jessi’s Hideout in Collinsville.)
• From restaurateur Sam Kacar: I hope to open a third Trattoria Branica in Chesterfield Valley by mid-January and then focus on a fourth in the CWE or Webster Groves.
• From former airport director Dick Hrabko: I’m going to get those slots installed at the Spirit of St. Louis Airport.
• From Wind Capital exec Tom Carnahan:  I’ll use the hot air
• From the Roy Blunt campaign to generate electricity.
• From uber-flack Joan Quicksilver:  I’ll nominate Jerry Berger as Media Person of the Year.
• From affable CVC’s Kitty Ratcliffe:  I resolve I’ll ask for another convention center. (The woman has garnered kudos for signing such major confabs as the Church of God in Christ, that brought 40,000 here and has inked its convention for St. Louis in 2011 and 2012 – away From Memphis.
• From all of this column’s many sources: We’ll not turn a blind eye to any item that might amuse St. Louis in Jerry Berger’s website.

Caveat lector and Happy New Year!

DON’T TELL ANYONE who has been shopping cooking and cleaning for days that we live in an era of time-savers.  But, we do. The GPS in my car is a fast map attached to a flat-voice narrative; the spell-check on my computer is a quick-thinking third grade teacher in a box; my smart phone is a thousand fewer trips to the public library.  Dating websites compress 100 nights in a smoky bar into a single hour.  And blogs, which are newspapers without printing and delivery times, have been largely abbreviated into 140 characters of Twitter. But, even with turkeys, pre-smoked in Chesterfield and potatoes pre-mashed in the Central West End, even the most simple Thanksgiving meal takes time. And that is why so many in our town value it. We need the time to count our blessings, to digest Aunt Harriet’s carrot-and-pineapple gelatin mold and to catch up on the latest gossip.  So…  after you’ve finished watching Anthony Thomas (the 2 millionth Eagle Scout, claim the flacks) marshalling the 2009 AmerenUE Thanksgiving Day Parade downtown, but before you settled in for the Real Housewives of Orange County Marathon on the Bravo channel, you could’ve taken a look at the columnist’s giblets?

“He (Rush Limbaugh) is sort of a yo-yo,” mugged the popular

Limbaugh

broadcaster’s uncle, retired Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh, Sr. “But, had he been here (with the Rams), the team would stay here.”  Limbaugh, who was nominated for federal judge for the U.S. Dist. of eastern and western Missouri by President Reagan, is now with the law firm of Armstrong Teasdale. The columnist cornered him and his wife Anne at the Fellows of the St. Louis Bar Foundation gala at the Chase-Park Plaza.  Among the familiar faces in the

Mavis

crowd was Mavis Thompson, prez of the National Bar Association, whose spotlight is on diversity programs and resources in the legal profession. “The numbers are dismal among partners in law firms, associates, court staffs, law clerks and throughout the judiciary,” she said.  “We’ve made no headway with managing partners of those firms. We now have turned to corporations to tell their law firms ‘we will withdraw our business until you have a diverse team of lawyers.”  Thompson mentioned WalMart and AmerenUE as examples of her targets.  Kent D. Syverud, dean of the Law School at WashU

Syverud

was there with his wife, Dr. Ruth  Chen, a prof at the university.  Judge Richard Teitelman joined our conversation and

Teitelman

gushed about Syverud, ”He has a passion for teaching and the students come first.” Syverud, former dean of the law school at Vanderbilt, addressed the trashing of lawyers by some media, “That’s because lawyers speak for the unpopular views. It’s easier to attack the spokespersons than the clients.”  Applications for law school are up 20 percent nationally and Syverud said there are about 1,000 students in the WashU law school. “I teach a full load of 350 students this year.”  Retired Circuit Judge Anna C. Forder got kudos on the 30th anniversary of her appointment.  The 2009 Spirit of Justice Awards were presented for “dedication to the community” to: John R. Barsanti, Jr. Dan Buck; Ruth Ezell; Ryan Hummert; John G. Simon; Mayor Slay; Charles A. Weiss; Ronda F. Williams and Samuel Sung H. You

Buck

.

“They always take pictures of me, but I never see them in print,” lamented David

Smith

“Deacon” Jones, during the sad Rams/Packers game. With his wife Elizabeth, Deacon — whose No. 75 was retired in honor of a career as one the Rams (and the NFL’s) greatest defensive players – was surrounded by flashing paparazzi. He was later relieved to notice more than a few pictures of himself in the souvenir program, along with a cover story about his life and career. Elsewhere in the Dome were: New Jersey’s own Jim Swan, director of player development at Lumiere Casino (a very different job than the one in the Rams organization with the same title). Are the games of chance fixed, Jim? “Casinos don’t cheat customers, but customers cheat casinos and don’t print nuttin’ in print on me!” . Ozzie Smith with wife, Octavia, said he has been traveling a great deal and was “looking forward to the Vancouver Olympics.” . There was glamorous Diane Gantner, Regions Bank’s private banker, who pointed out, “We are getting a lot of clients from the

Deacon

big banks. They just don’t know how to do it.” Gantner enthused she is looking forward to the wedding anniversary of her friends, Lou and Marianne Zipf Chiodini . St. John Vianney High’s athletic director Dan Borkowski and his wife Maureen, the intriguingly titled Vice President of Transmission at Ameren UE, steered clear of the buffet, and she sighed, “We were all tailgating and we’re fooded out.” . Probably a good thing, too. There is food, food, everywhere in the Dome, including a hamburger stand, where each sandwich sold for $10. “We’re getting lots of complaints,” confided one of the fry cooks. “At least you can have all the rabbit food you want along with the burger.” . . Joan and Gene Slay got kudos on Gene’s recovery from cancer . Also on hand was film producer Carlos

Leon

Antonio Leon, who has wrapped “Shadowland,” the sci-fi thriller that was shot entirely in our town with Hooter’s Caitlin McIntosh and was directed by Wyatt Weed. Leon’s next movie, “DeRepente, La Pelicula” – a film in which Leon plays the lead as a lackluster movie director — is set for release in 2010. What’s it about? “It is a farce comedy shot in my hometown of Caracas, Venezuela.”

Joan and Gene Slay

Diane Gantner