k l a t OF THE TOWNS
by bill beggs jr.
u. city
Had it up to here with honeysuckle? Wanna wage war on wintercreeper? If you’re one of the people intent on helping restore Ruth Park Woods and Nature Trail, 26 acres hugging the northern border of the eponymous golf course, you might refer to the latter invasive plant species as euonymus. Kathy Freese and other NatureScapers with U City in Bloom didn’t have to call the pesky plant anything as they eagerly ripped it off tree trunks with their gloved hands. They identified it for the benefit of a brown-thumbed reporter as they led him about 1.2 miles along the nature trail, introducing him to a major undertaking the botanical beautification band has begun, grateful for a recent $15,000 cost-share grant from Missouri Department of Conservation. This community-stewardship outlay is not a one-and-done deal. U City in Bloom will have to apply annually for the cost-share arrangement, and the amount will depend on what the group spends on equipment and staff time for reimbursement. Six focus areas have been designated for the multi-year project. Freese and her colleagues pointed out an area near the eastern trail entrance, off the golf course lot, where volunteers—Wash U. law school students, mostly—had cleared away honeysuckle, leaving behind a horticultural hazard: stumps. Pink ribbons were tied about the trunks of trees and other vegetation that was to be kept. Hackberry, oak, maybe even sassafras. But the Japanese hops had to go, plus, of course, the omnipresent euonymus. If left to their own biology, many invasives are, shall we say, reproductively vigorous: Euonymus can grow two feet a year! U City in Bloom does not have enough staffers to tackle this and other projects on its own. Volunteers are needed and welcome. As Freese exclaims, “We need an army of eco-warriors!”
the metro
Many 50th anniversaries are coming up for stuff that happened in 1971. Obviously. Well, it’s a little unnerving for me, a man of a certain age, because I have my 50th high school reunion next year. This means that many of the classic LPs I bought back when I was a junior in high school are 50 this year, like What’s Goin’ On by Marvin Gaye. What goes around comes around, I guess, because that fine R&B record is still relevant today. A lot of movies from 1971, on the other hand, just seem hopelessly outdated, cheesy, irrelevant, exploitative— or all of the above. A whole subgenre of film—Shaft, Superfly and their ilk—reared its ugly head during this era: blaxploitation. Then there were the crime dramas; the Dirty Harry series started about this time. Clint Eastwood never looked so good or seemed so nasty. Which brings us to Klute, Jane Fonda’s Oscar-winning star turn opposite Donald Sutherland. Fonda still looks fantastic (good Hollywood genes, I reckon), but Sutherland has looked much worse for wear pretty much since 1998. Local film aficionado Joseph M. Schuster says Fonda reinvented herself as a new kind of movie star by bringing a nervy audacity and counterculture style to the role of a call girl and aspiring actor who becomes the focal point of a missing-person investigation when detective John Klute (Sutherland) turns up at her door. Critics say Fonda made the film her own, putting an independent woman and escort on-screen with a frankness that had not yet been attempted in Hollywood. Her costuming is almost as outrageous as anything from blaxploitation, because, well, the seventies. Cinema St. Louis is featuring Klute as part of its Golden Anniversary series on Monday, Sept. 13, at 7:30 p.m. The online screening includes an introduction and discussion by Schuster. Visit cinemastlouis.org/klute-joseph-m-schuster.
webster groves
If a train could be a rockstar, the Union Pacific Big Boy No. 4014 would be one. It’s the biggest steam locomotive still in operation, and thousands of metro residents acted all kinds of kooky, like groupies backstage at a concert angling for an autograph. I can’t imagine what your Facebook and Instagram feeds looked like Monday, Aug. 30, in the morning when the immense specimen of 20th century rolling stock came rumbling through the metro, but my social media blew up with photos, comments and videos that gave me an inkling of just how big a deal that greasy old choo-choo is to some folks. One of my friends posted a video shot from within a crowd of hundreds gathered alongside the tracks somewhere in Webster Groves, everybody else holding up their cell phones as though Mick Jagger was just about to strut across the stage. Another friend captured similar footage from near the landmark train station in downtown Kirkwood. There was stuff from people I hadn’t heard from on social media in years, even *sniff* on my birthday. I guess I just don’t get it, because my overall reaction was that these folks must not get out much. I have another friend who’ll drive to the station just to watch the trains come and go, and I’m sure some people still park near the airport to watch planes take off and land. And there’s no nerd like a model railroader. But some of those enthusiasts probably look askance at music freaks in the same way. To each his own, of course. Although I’m sure some hobbyists are more bizarre than others. I mean, I hear some adult men collect baseball cards. Can you just imagine that?
TTia triv☛ 8|
TOWN&style
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SEPTEMBER 8, 2021
WHAT IS A COST-SHARE GRANT FROM MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION?
LAST ISSUE’S Q&A What game was banned in Scotland in the mid-15th century, and why? Golf was banned in the mid-15th century in Scotland because, you see, able-bodied men didn’t have leisure time for perfecting their swing. They had pressing worries, like enemy invasions and stuff. Therefore, Scotsmen were required to practice archery to improve their aim, the better to defend your realm or to invade somebody else’s.
