Many readers were offended by the March 10 issue’s item about the late Rush Limbaugh, a cancer victim. My attempt to poke fun was instead insensitive, shortsighted and in bad taste. I apologize. It was inappropriate.
OF k l a t THE TOWNS
by bill beggs jr.
The Metro
Grand Center
It’s about time! Well, this item is. Lawmakers in our esteemed Show Me State are weighing bills to make daylight saving time permanent. State Rep. Michael O’Donnell, R-Oakville, reportedly has said that many of us would appreciate that extra hour of daylight upon returning home. Of course we would—depending
‘Arts Without Borders’ is how The Sheldon taglines itself in the postcard we received about its Family Reunion gala coming up this Saturday, April 10. With a free livestream starting at 7 p.m. and a lineup including but not limited to Grammy-winning mandolinist Chris Thile (pictured), jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and country legacy Rosanne Cash, it’d be hard to put up a border around that. I mean, criminy—it misses only hip hop, gospel, Metallica and maybe a couple dozen or so other genres. The event is produced by the Engelhardt and Steward family foundations and other generous donors. You, too, can consider supporting the unique, historic venue in the Grand Center Arts District during this tough time for all, from fans and staff to the artists, of course. Patron tickets start at $500. Virtual and in-person opportunities are available. Y’all come, hear? (Side dish optional.) Registration is requested at thesheldon.org.
Sunset Hills on how many of us, once this thing that’s going around isn’t going around anymore, will return to a workplace and no longer have to work from home. That remains to be seen. Offices ain’t what they used to be, and may never be again. And who goes to work and does a straight 9 to 5, anyhow? Many employers may figure out that it’s not necessary to see you all day every day, because Zoom is just so convenient. And some of your employees do good work in their pajama pants, with many of your best doing award-winning work while wearing no pants at all. So, there’s all that. But then, what about somebody’s kids having to wait in the dark for a school bus in the morning, Monday through Friday, once—and if— the CDC, state and local authorities allow them back to the classroom? Well, that’s another kettle of fish. (You know, since March 2020, I’d bet some folks actually have been fishing during Zoom meetings. Not that I would even have considered such a thing.) Anyhow, over the last couple of years, daylight saving time has started earlier and standard time started later. It’s not rocket science, or even physics. It’s kind of a mixture of common sense and primary school arithmetic. The amounts of daylight on Sept. 21 and March 21 are about the same, Dec. 21 is the shortest day of the year, and June 21 is the longest. There’s only so much day and so much night to go around, and precious little government can do about that.
Could e-commerce behemoth Amazon trademark the term Foods R Us? (That’s not a question, Alexa, but sometimes I forget you don’t understand humor.) So, we hear Amazon may be expanding its Amazon Fresh grocery concept to the metro, reportedly into the former Toys R Us store at 3600 S. Lindbergh Blvd. in Sunset Hills, just south of the Watson Road overpass. Presently Amazon operates about a dozen of the groceries in California and the Windy City. Schnucks, Dierbergs and maybe even Walmart are probably listening for footsteps coming up behind them, and fast. (No word on whether Amazon Fresh also will sell books, which was the company’s original business line back when we all should have bought stock in Jeff Bezos’ little internet startup when it premiered in July 1995.) The developer is seeking incentives from the city, of course, and has not divulged the name of its potential tenant for 25,000-some square feet. Amazon told the Business Journal it won’t comment on “rumors and speculation.” You sure wouldn’t want to make this 800-pound gorilla angry. (We hear Amazon Fresh has an Alexa-style ‘personal shopper.’ Goody gumdrops!) Anyhow, it seems Amazon could afford nearly any kind of financial risk, as the fourth quarter of 2020 was its most successful ever, despite the pandemic—actually, perhaps because of it. In the metro, Amazon has been spreading like dandelions: a 270,000-square-foot sort center in North County; a ‘4-star’ retail store at the Galleria; warehouses and/or distribution centers in St. Peters, Hazelwood and the Metro East; and a purported ‘last-mile’ facility in St. Peters. In 2020, Amazon posted obscenely high earnings as, by the millions, quarantine-idled shoppers ordered everything but the kitchen sink—well, probably a few of those, too. It screwed up the supply chain to the world maybe even worse than a container ship wedged in the Suez Canal. So, Amazon hired nearly a halfmillion more workers at the drop of Bezos’ hat. Bezos needs one to avoid getting sunburnt. Since he’s stepped down as CEO, one would hope he would find ways to spend a couple of billion out in the sun. That is, if he can find his way out of his castle. I mean, the multibillionaire probably gets lost on the way to the bathroom in his own house. In my often-sentient opinion, Bezos and his ilk are the problem with—not the solution to—more of us reaching our American dream. His warehouse workers make around $13.75 an hour. According to Forbes, Bezos pulls in more than $8.9 million an hour. And he’s worried about unionization?
TTia triv
☛ TWO PARTS: 1. AMAZON’S
RETAIL STORES ARE DUBBED ‘4-STAR.’ WHY NOT 5 STARS? 2. WHAT WAS THE NAME BEZOS ORIGINALLY WANTED FOR THE COMPANY?
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TOWN&style
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APRIL 7, 2021
LAST ISSUE’S Q&A Yeah, we know it was a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series from the 1960s, but what would have been impossible about a prehistoric human, Fred Flintstone, owning a young pet brontosaurus, Dino? The animated 1960s TV series The Flintstones was funny in part because of anachronisms we kids just took for granted, like humans interacting with dinosaurs and Ice Age mammals. In fact, hominids appeared hundreds of millions of years after an asteroid supposedly wiped out the dinosaurs—but a brontosaurus served as the crane Fred and Barney Rubble operated at the quarry; Dino, Fred’s pet, was a baby brontosaurus that behaved just like a dog.
