Kansas Improves Nation’s Longest Home Winning Streak locksmithsportspicks.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
State Supreme Court Grants Temporary Concession for Kansas Reporter Editor & Publisher Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Proposals Designed to Expand Gambling in Kansas ABC News Take a look at an interesting article we found.
January 28, 2010
And yes, for those that don't live there, wheat does come out of the earth, green.
(They're rightly proud of the most beautiful license plate award for their wheat design in 1981.)
Kansas, the country's leading wheat producer, became the 34th state this week in 1861—and will be the ninth that we've covered as we continue our march through all fifty.
Right away, you know Kansas is striving for importance, with their State motto: “Ad Astra Per Aspera,” which is Latin for, “To the stars through difficulty.”
Although few in the state, or out of it, can figure out what that means.
However, they do have a lot to celebrate, like Arthur Bryant’s, the best barbecue place in the world.
Unfortunately it’s in the Kansas City part of Missouri.
But why quibble—it's close enough for Kansas to adopt.
They've also adopted Kansas “native” Dwight D. Eisenhower as one of their own— even though he was born in Texas.
The Wheat State, AKA Sunflower State, AKA The Grasshopper State, AKA The Jayhawk State (Kansas has more nicknames than any other state), is about the flattest state in the union.
Topography isn't everything.
However, it does have many caves, documented by the cave-studying Speleological Society.
Not to mention its legends, like Wyatt Earp, “Wild Bill” Hickok and "Bat" Masterson who kept the peace in frontier towns like Abilene, Dodge City, Ellsworth, Hays, and Wichita.
In the 17th century, French Jesuit priests, Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet were among the region's earliest European explorers.
They named Kansas after an Indian word meaning, "South Wind."
The Louisiana Purchase saw to it that this new territory became part of the U.S. in 1803.
The Midway State (they're also the geographical center of the U.S.) does have some pretty impressive firsts: the first woman mayor in the United States—Susan Madora Salter who took office in Argonia in 1887.
And, in Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kansas is quintessential America, giving us our most memorable State Song in, "Home on the Range."
It is, after all, where Superman, Dorothy and Toto grew up.
Famous Kansans 50states.com Take a look at an interesting article we found.
2010 KANSAS KANSAS FOOD & WINE FESTIVALS, SHOWS, EVENTS foodreference.com/ Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Kansas Museum of History .kshs.org Take a look at an interesting article we found.
I took my Dad to the Eisenhower museum, in Abilene. He was silent for quite the while as he absor...
Jan. 28, 2010 12:22 AM
Favorite Western movie?
13% 11% 16% 5% 11% 24% 3% 18%
riding across on the way to Sturgis for the 50th, I learned about that wind....I had to ride at about 15degrees from vertical to just go straight....and it is flat,you can see for miles
I took my Dad to the Eisenhower museum, in Abilene. He was silent for quite the while as he absorbed the memorabilia...he, having been 101st at the bulge,a paratrooper no less, gliders...we barely talked most of the rest of the trip...he had that faraway stare,as if he was watching a movie only he could see, on the inside of his eyes...
more on the honor rollMore grasshoppers, *groan*, please tell me they aren't also known as the ant state as well!
Everyone I've ever met from Kansas could be described as "salt of the earth" people. Polite, grounded, kind and just all around good people.
I dated a guy from Hutchinson and when we went to visit his family it seems like everyone in "hutch" knew each other, it was great. Also learned that in the big salt mine nearby they have archival vaults that house the master copies of movies like Gone With The Wind and the Wizard of Oz. It is also where they hold the state fair.
?They hold the State Fair in a salt mine?
Kansas is just jealous of us up here in Nebraska.
While I lived in Wyoming, our big question about our eastward neighbor was "Does Wyoming actually blow this much, or does Nebraska suck?"
Shawn Colvin's "Wichita Skyline" is worth listening to. And listen all the way through the end, assuming this web site didn't cut it short. The train sounds are perfectly evocative of the Kansas I've experienced many times, going back and forth from college back to my home in Boulder, Colorado. I miss those days.
http://www.last.fm/music/Shawn+Colvin/_/Wichita+Skyline
ISLES ~ Don't forget about the Wichita Lineman...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qoymGCDYzU
STONEY ~ do you think there's any wheat in the Paczki's ( and are we getting some on Feb 16th?)
I have never been to Kanasas have a Cousin that lives in Kansas City, Kanasas.. But I never had the desire to go & see her there.....
Best recent Western movie {in a fading genre}: The remake of "3:10 To Yuma" . Local "nobody" sees his lifetime moment of challenge, and becomes a "somebody."
Jesuits in Kansas, wow. After 8 years of Jesuit education, I now figure out where they must have been to figure out esoteric abstract answers to questions like:
"How many angels can sit on the head of a pin?"
I know, I know, at least a half dozen of my distinguished virtual friends are now aggressively raising their hands, to volunteer the answer: 42
morning all. tipping my cup of coffee to kansas. y'all have a great day.
The photograph up at the top must have been photoshopped: first, I can see the land is NOT perfectly flat; second, there are some upright bushy looking wheat thingies that look an awfully lot like 'trees' (see the wikipedia about them).
While traveling back from Aspen years ago, we stopped at Coffeyville and I remembered singing the Eagles classic Desperado right where the Dalton Gang met their fate. I love the bbq beef but must admit I am partial to Southern style pork.
have a great day cuukoo and all
rings90,
Paczkis, yes please and at your convenience.
Doc Nolan,
Careful, you're making fun of Mt. Kansas.
House Guest,
All right, Mr. Jayhawk, now is your chance to shine. I'm thinking that small town breakfast story...
Thx for the pix... the ones that you sent and more for the ones that you didn't.
glad my ice maker is working... I can fill my pockets with ice, and be warmer than it is outside this morning- -30degrees warmer
My dad took us to Arthur Bryant's 25+ years ago and I only wish I was old enough to remember the food... Interesting fact about the first female mayor.
I agree, Doc, that this picture looks a little photo shopped to me.
no,come on, it's a real picture....there are picture perfect days,and views
DOH! Hahaha Kansas doesn't have their state fair in a salt mine...I meant to say it is held in Hutch...although it could be cool to have it down in the mine...
What kind of Westerns list is that...it doesn't even have Blazing Saddles on it, tsk tsk.
I do have to give some love to Lawrence, KS. Sitting there, in the middle of the Bible Belt, amidst the wheat-ground, only a few miles down the road from some of the biggest religious NutJobs in history (Westboro Baptist Church), sits this little center of arts and culture and free-thinking. It is like a miniature Paris, but instead of the Seine, they have Interstate 70. Their downtown is a mix of hole-in-the-wall coffee shops, imported food stores, art galleries, a Ben & Jerry's parlor, theaters, and student hangouts. I spent a couple of just plain happy days down there, and am very glad that my only Kansas relatives live right there.
I grew up in a small town in Missouri not 45 minutes from the Kansas border. I know the southeastern edge of the state pretty well.
In 1982, my mother, brother, and I took a six-week vacation out west to the Rocky Mountains and various canyons of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. The first state we had to drive across on the journey was Kansas.
Mr. Peterman says topography isn't everything. He may be right but try telling that to an eight year-old boy who is trying to pass the time on a long car trip by counting tress. After the first hour, we were still on one hand so we gave up. Scenically, it is the most boring state I have ever crossed.
Legend has it that, the night before Little Big Horn, General Custer turned to his men and said: "Men, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that, probably, none of us will survive tomorrow's battle. The good news is that we won't have to ride back over Kansas."
It may be Kansas day but I keep having "OOOOOOOOOklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plains..." playing in my head, I think it's all that waving wheat.
Yes! Blazing Saddles shoula been on that list. and the topography of Kansas must have contributed to Dorthy's red shoe dream
Toto, Dorothy, and...JP, where have you been: "I'm as corny as Kansas in Augusta/I'm as normal as blueberry pie/No more a smart little girl with no heart/I have found me a wonderful guy!! I am in a conventional dither/with a conventional star in my eye....
There's no place like home .. .. .. there's no place like home .. .. .. no matter where it is. Hey, it's only 7 degrees out. What do you expect?
TT1958: Owensboro has a purdy nasty Chemical Plant there too, which has been spewing putrid fumes into the air for thirty years, and changing the shade of Kentucky Blue Grass to Chartreuse ....... Didn't think there was anybody else in the world that new Owensboro even existed, except the poor devils that live there and me ... Half the people who work in the Plant live just across the Border in Indiana ....... Don't remember any Barbecue joints in Owensboro ... a couple of purdy good Fried Fish places tho' ....... DART ... Thats the name of the plant ... couldn't remember for a moment or two, but thats it ....... It is no wonder that the Plant Manager was Graduated from P U .......
I have known well and considered friends, two Kansans. One, O.L."Old Lang" Zion, who became better known as "Gerbil" owing to his two-handed nibbley way of eating.
And, a more recent one but they share an endearing quality of patience that reveals itself when, in the company of someone given to inane yammering, they lean in at the end figuring that he might need a little more time and space to clarify or bail himself out.
It is a nice trait to emulate.
The father of one of them called this morning to get my take on the surprising smack down of the SCOTUS by the POTUS during a televised speech last night.
All that I could compare it to in terms of disrespect of one co-equal branch of the government to another, was that shown by newly inaugurated President Clinton and Vice President Gore when they unapologetically kept the nine members of the court waiting forty-five minutes for a scheduled meeting.
Fortunately, no adverse consequence is thought to have arisen as a result.
Stoney: Why should the SCOTUS remain immune to a public smackdown when the other branches are not?
Never been there. Nothing here.
More dark roast.
I'll check in later to see what more I can learn.
Stoney ~ Already told B&N that I needed that Tues off ~ will double check this weekend to make sure they actually can give it to me. Does 10:00AM work with your schedule?
STONEY: Obama has the RedAss with the Supreme Court, because two days ago they began hearing the first of the one hundred and thirty Lawsuits filed against him and the Government, challenging his Elligibility to hold Office, because of the fact that he is an Illegal Alien, born in Kenya ... Orly Taitz, Philip Berg(a Democrat) and a host of others have irrefutable documented proof, that the Court and the Government have conspired to suppress for over two years ... THAT, is The Rub .......
Michael,
Maybe the irony of that last sentence was too subtle.
rings90,
Perfect! Thanks.
Let's not forget the band Kansas, original from Kansas. And then there is Melissa Etheridge and Martine McBride...both from Kansas I believe. Any other famous people of note from Special K?
Don't forget Bronco Nigurski ... Star Half-Back Freshman, Spohomore, and Junior Years at PENN STATE ... had a discussion with his Coach after being caught with the Coach's Wife, did his next three years at STATE PEN .......
Stoney: It is possible. Subtlety is often lost on me.
As I look closer at the photo above I can almost see, if I squint hard enough, the fading shadow of myself as I lay against the trees with hands folded behind my head, elbows pointing east and west, a book laying across my chest as I watch the clouds float by overhead with all manner of critters sculpted upon them. All the while, a nap is slowly creeping up my legs and when it completes it journey, will lower the curtains of my eye for a brief but welcome intermission.
I could live in this place.
It is difficult for me to imagine Kansas like it was in the later half of the 1800s. It was, to paraphrase Yosemite Sam, the rip-rootin-est, fling-flangin-est, rootin'-tootin-est, hog-tyin'-est varmint west of the Mighty Mississip. It was the railhead for Texas cattle-drives, the hide-out for train robbing gangs, sort of how Los Angeles was viewed in the 1980s and 90s. Good families avoided Kansas as they moved west.
And now . . . well, wheat doesn't exactly have a reputation for danger.
Hey, Mr. P... after we finish with all 50 states, why not start doing all 195 nations in the world! Possible sequences: Z to A. Smallest to biggest. Poorest to richest. A virtual CORNUCOPIA of opportunities for expanding our brains! :-)
Peter Lake: All you need is a faithful canine companion to finish your lunch for you to complete the picture.
Nuttin, honey. Y'all are much more erudite than I --after all, I was born in Olathe (Kansas, that is).
sansfille,
You could start by explaining the name of your birthplace and welcome to the village!
Stoney~ x-cellent piece on that town in wikipedia...name means beautiful....as such a place it seems to be
It is, indeed, beautiful -- I recall the lakes with great pleasure/humor. And, thanks for the welcome to the village. Your commentaries are wonderful!
"... where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain --
And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain ...
OOOOO -- "
oh oh.
That's Oklahoma.
Well, Kansas is swell too: very wheaty and windy in its own right.
I'm sure of it, although I don't think I've ever been there.
PARK:
You made me laugh and at this time I really needed that.
Thanks!
B
Thank you, B.
I'm glad I could make you smile.
Korthal,
How 'bout a friend's mother-in-law with a musical sounding Eastern European sounding name that he says stands for "loose screws?"
Determined not to fall victim to the cancer that killed her husband, she takes saw palmetto. So far so good.
"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 22, spoken by the character Holden Caulfield
I didn't find a mention of J.D. Salinger's death today, here on the Eye; if it was noted, I'm sorry for the redundancy.
RIP J.D. Salinger
1919-2010
STONEY:
That made me laugh too.
Thanks, I think.
Michael - Doggone! Toto ran off with my bread and cheese a long time ago. Thankfully he left my wine skin alone.
sansfille - Well met indeed. And welcome to the EyE. I totally deny being the least bit erudite ‘cos I always say "excuse me" at the appropriate moment.
PARK4 - I love it when you sing. Perhaps tonight in the Club Car you could belt out a hearty rendition of OOOklahoma to get the train a movin' down the tracks.
I hear thesepia train is going to make an unscheduled stop in ‘that' Kansas which is a late-summer evening with the sun just beginning to dip below a horizon of gently waving stalks of golden wheat and the only sound that you can hear is its whisper. I hope you will join me there.
"But, Mom, you don't have a prostate!"
"That's right and I mean to keep it that way."
Stoney - pitchers and catchers report in 14 days. I've been limbering up for the 7th inning stretch, scratching,and spitting, and believe myself to be in mid-season form.
The accent deserves honorable mention for its plainsong uninflectedness. I guess I should say lack of accent.
Today the photo keeps pulling me back up to the top of the page. I LONG for fresh green growing things coming out of the ground...not found on leftovers in the fridge.
Peter Lake,
My cup! Where's my cup?
Park4: I was too young, or possibly too old, when I first read Catcher in the Rye. all I could think was that Caulfield was a spoiled brat. I should try it again. I didn't hear about this until I was listening to NPR in my car this evening (as one should always do), and they did a long piece on Salinger. It is sad that we had so little from him, but it was easy to see why he didn't publish much. He said (sort of) that when you publish, the public feels like you owe them something. When you don't publish, you are free.
I am one of those hoping the vault rumors are true.
Well, well, well,...........greetings from Lawrence, KS! As mentioned earlier, Lawrence is a fun spot to live with a good mix of town/gown due to KU's presence. The city abounds in many cultural experiences and I believe really has quite a cosmopolitan air. New arrivals are all quite surprised that we don't roll the sidewalks up at night. We do have a mountain--probably the only mountain in Kansas...Mt. Oread which is where the University of Kansas is. (I guess "Ivory Towers" weren't enough...they had to build them on a mountain to really impress.) Lawrence remembers its history and John Brown and Quantrell may not be exactly household names, but most citizens could give you more than a thumbnail sketch of them and history lesson, to boot! Happy birthday Kansas!
Carol: That was a mountain? Up here in Nebraska, we just call that a hill.
I kid, I kid.
Michael! you're right, it's too bad Salinger didn't give us more, but what? Holden and Franny and Zoey and something else or another, but he didn't like people much, and lived as a recluse. As you well know, writing demands more from writers than some people who become writers ever expect -- and success is an intrusion and a curse to them. But we have what we have, maybe more, we'll see.
And I thought Holden was a spoiled brat too -- I could barely stand the guy, although he did make me laugh now and then, the first time I read Catcher. I really just didn't get it, that book, and when I was in high school not getting Holden Caulfield was practically criminal. I remember the first time we talked about "the meaning of the title (blah blah blah) to the theme (blah blah blah)" -- I'm sitting there with that "Oh please don't call on me Mrs. Maribotti, I have no clue." She didn't. I was relieved, very.
A few years later, one summer, I picked Catcher up again, and this time I got it, and I liked it. Maybe I was too young when I first read it too, don't know, but that book and Holden especially has sure resonated throughout the halls and ivy covered walls, so there's something there, I'm sure there is.
There's a lot of good stuff in Catcher in the Rye; Holden was a pretty funny guy for a spoiled brat rich kid know-it-all:
"I'm the most terrific liar you ever saw in your life. It's awful. If I'm on my way to the store to buy a magazine, even, and somebody asks me where I'm going, I'm liable to say I'm going to the opera. It's terrible."
"When I really worry about something, I don't just fool around. I even have to go to the bathroom when I worry about something. Only, I don't go. I'm too worried to go. I don't want to interrupt my worrying to go."
"In my mind, I'm probably the biggest sex maniac you ever saw."
"Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it - the same night, as a matter of fact."
STONEY, you won't need that patience much longer, as IT'S GIRL SCOUT COOKIE TIME
BEWARE of the Chineese Girl Scout Cookie knock offs....although you can usually tell when you find a little piece of paper inside that says "you will meet a tall dark stranger...."
I am also in the anti-Holden Caulfield camp. Didn't like him, he didn't make me laugh, would have hated him if I'd met him in high school. After reading Mr. Salinger's obit in the New York Times today, I get the feeling that he and Caulfield were pretty similar. Terribly sorry if that sounds harsh as I know I ought to respect the dead. I hope his family are handling it well.
As for Kansas: Right now, my daughter is watching Wizard of Oz. There's no special photography in that movie; Kansas really is in black and white.
Hi everybody. Off topic to KSS. I am an occasional contributor, if people respond to my posts that's fine, if they don't, they don't. However I never once felt anything resembling a clique. Perhaps it's saying more about you thinking it's a clique rather than the rest of us. I too love the state series. Can you believe I actually forgot Superman came from Kansas. Cheers. Come back KSS. And, SSTSS. (Stop sweating the small stuff.)
DPR~ I wholeheartedly agree with you PARK, and Michael. Holden was a stupid spoiled brat with absolutely nothing interesting to say about anything. In modern times, he could be compared to any reality-tv celebrity. But I digress. Years back, I was in a creative writing workshop; out of the twenty adults in the room, I was the sole person who thought Holden was a moron and even went so far as to parody the character in a short story. Needless to say, the class didn't get it, and thought the character was quite wonderful-although my professor got the joke.
There was enough blood spilled at that time
To stain the hands of Quantril and of Brown.
No comprise or manumission held the power
To quell the howling wind and brimstone cruel.
Spawned by collide of North and South
The vortex did the countryside consume.
Kansas, oh Bloody Kansas.
Daniel:
About morons, Holden had something to say (of course):
All morons hate it when you call them a moron. ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, Chapter 6
And DPR: I suspect Salinger and Caulfield were one and the same, too.
It is difficult to be an English major and still part of the "I don't like Holden" mindset. He's supposed to be the epitome of teenage anger and angst, trying to find himself. But it is hard to sympathize with him when you are taking 15 hours, and working 25.
will you be posting as Dr. Mike soon?
No, a Master's degree is enough for now. Although I can tell which students are kissing my ass when they put "Dr. Professor Michael . . . . " in the heading of their paper.
The Wichita Lineman could use a break in the weather right about now....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qoymGCDYzU
It is a pastis night. Why? Because I cannot think of a reason for it not to be a pastis night.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/35133795#35133795
ROADYACHT: My Face hurst from Laughing !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANX !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, WILLIE, our first four-box order is in and we have heard that the printed forms come with our address and a pigeon avatar along side.
We buy from everyone who comes around and, sometimes, from enterprising kids in the vestibule at the market.
Each box containing but two servings, there can never be enough. The gestation period between order and delivery is excruciating.
Holden Caulfield... Loved him in the fifties, love him still. Spoiled brat? Sure but a lot more interesting than Archie and Veronica.
My Dear Stoney,
I will take Archie and Veronica any day over Holden Caulfield. If I go for a slice of pizza with Archie and Veronica, I can trust them not to spit on my slice across the table just because they think my reaction might be "phony". That is the sort of thing I would expect from Holden.
Michael,
Holden is trying to find himself? He does not appear to be trying very hard. To make an honest attempt at finding yourself, you must first acknowledge that you are lost. Holden seems all too certain that it's everyone else who is lost. I think the word is "smug".
DPR,
Everyone comes, or should, with a set of pizza friends or BB gun friends or freight-hopping friends or even unsteal merchandise to screw up the prosecution's case against a guy you aren't even sure you like but his sister is pretty, friends.
Holden Caulfield wasn't even the most f***ed up guy around but he was the best at expressing what it was like to have been that at a time when nobody else was doing it and it is a safe bet that some of those "phonies" really were.
Sixty-five million copies sold and probably most of them to persons not seeking buddies or role models. He was whiney, sad, funny and would have known better than to mess with my food.