Night Heron
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Category Archives: St. Louis
Three Graces
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Theatrical Masks
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Highway Farty
Highway Farty refers to the local St. Louis pronunciation of old US 40 (now I-64), where the “o” vowel is shifted to an “ar” sound. It is a characteristic feature of a native St. Louis accent, which also turns neighboring I-44 into farty-far. In this instance though Highway Farty alludes to a YouTube channel on local St. Louis history. I watched this series’ first five episodes that explains why Babe Ruth liked coming to St. Louis to play baseball more than anywhere else in the country. Here is a heads-up, it wasn’t the baseball that attracted him.
The first episode acts as an introduction to this series and centers on Sportsman’s Park and its role in the 1926 World Series. At the time St. Louis had two MLB teams, the Cardinals and the Browns. Located on the northside, both teams shared Sportsmen’s, with one team on the road, while the other team at home. The American League Browns regularly brought the Yankees to town. In 1926 Ruth hit three homeruns in the fourth game of that world series. Most famously one for 11-year-old Johnny Sylvester who was sick in the hospital at the time.
Baseball may have first brought Babe Ruth to town, but it was his favorite whorehouse in the whole country that made him actually want to come here. Episodes 2-5 detail the search for this once famous, but now elusive house of ill repute. Host Don M. Kaiser travels around town, following his clues. False starts and dead ends include the House of the Good Sheperd, Magdalene Laundry and Busch’s Grove. Sifting evidence, he finally hits paydirt.
In St. Louis, on August 29, 1925, Ruth was fined $5,000 ($100,000 in today’s dollars) and suspended from the Yankees for violations of team rules. Given a train ticket, he was ordered back to New York. Instead, he headed back downtown and straight to his favorite bordello, whose site is currently occupied by a Salvation Army parking lot, near the midtown IKEA. On September 3, 1925, the Post Dispatch reported a police raid at this location where the moral squad arrested two young women and a maid. Ruth apologized to management and patch things up with his team and was in St. Louis again next year.
Ancient Splendor
Yesterday, we went to the art museum, to see the new exhibit—Ancient Splendor: Roman Art in the Time of Trajen. This visiting exhibit comes from Italy and features art that has never left that country before. Showcasing art from the height of the Roman Empire, this exhibit features art portraying everyday Roman life and at the highest zenith of Roman power.
Seen here are statues of Trajen and Caligula. Trajen was the second of the “five good emperors”, while Caligula, the third emperor, was arguably the worst and was eventually assassinated by his own bodyguards while still in office. The US has often been compared to Rome. Both were the superpowers of their day. And comparing Trajen and Caligula with our own leadership, both had good leaders and bad. Does Caligula transition from popular leader to notoriously capricious, cruel, and extravagant tyrant remind you of anyone else?
A/C — a Privilege, not a Right
We had our annual, start of the summer air conditioning season health check on our home’s central unit. The whole idea of these health checks is akin to looking for trouble with a flashlight, because we are basically paying someone to find problems that they can then charge us to fix. This video shows the service tech looking for and finding a freon leak in the condenser coil, which is part of the outside half of the air conditioner. The technician proposed $1,500+ to try to solder the leak or $3,000+ to replace the leaking coil. The tech left but also left questions.
I called the operator and tried asking her my questions, but she got flustered and punted, by dispatching a salesman. The salesman did a drive by, but he was gone before I could ask him any questions. After he was gone, I noticed that the A/C unit was not running anymore. It turned out that it had been disconnected, without telling me, which pissed me off. Especially, since their tech had turned it on, left it running, and then just left. I was so pissed at them.
Then I decided to not get mad but get to work. Our unit is ten years and eight months old. Our warranty was only good for ten. On the internet there is the $5,000 rule. On any air conditioner, multiply its age in years times the repair cost. If this exceeds $5,000 then replace. Even with the proposed somewhat dogie repair, we are way over that line. Although we are way beyond ozone eating refrigerants, our current unit uses still unfriendly to global warming gas. A new unit would be more ecological. I’ve already scheduled another bid and are still awaiting the first. The next week looks reasonably cool, so we have time.
