KC Confidential

Let’s talk about Kansas City’s inferiority complex…

We all know KC’S a great placed to live with the amenities and comforts of a major metropolitan area sans the big city headaches of traffic and crime.

Still everybody who’s anybody – from politicians to business bigwigs to members of the local media – insist on blowing things out of proportion to convince people we’re not just a bunch of flyover losers.

You know the drill.

We claim we draw 300,000 people were at the Plaza Lighting Ceremony when only 20,000 or so showed up. That the Kansas City Royals’ World Series celebration drew 800,000 as opposed to the approximately 150,000 who were actually there.

The latest bit of bombast: Star editor Mike Fannin’s over-the-top eulogy to former columnist Charles Gusewelle.

“Kansas City journalism has lost one of its greatest voices,” Fannin wrote. “We lived vicariously through his columns and travels. He was our Hemingway, and his work is there to be discovered by generations of new fans. We will never forget him or his beautiful words.”

Hold it right there…

Likening schmaltz meister Gusewelle to Nobel Prize winning novelist Ernest Hemingway?

Talk about over the top.

I mean they both did work at the Star – Hemingway for however many months and Gueswelle forever…

Seriously though, Gusewelle was an eccentric octogenarian who had a way with words when it came to the craft of writing. What he didn’t have was much of interest or significance to say about anything much outside of pets and about the simple or cranky things in life in and around Kansas City.

Check it.

“That’s ridiculous hyperbole,” quips local businessman and KCC columnist Dwight Sutherland. “ Ernest Hemingway is Kansas City’s Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Hemingway put Kansas City on the map as far as literature is concerned.

“Gusewelle was a good writer but he was very politically correct and preachy and he got more and more strident as time went on. On a scale of one to ten compared to Hemingway, Gusewelle was a two at best. And that’s being generous.” Continue reading →

When your offense is last in the NFL in picking up 3rd downs, your defense is near last in defending the pass and run, guess what?

You’re no Super Bowl contender – not at all.

Bring on TONY ROMO, PLEASE!

Chiefs’ QB Alex Smith is a nice guy.

He’s managed the team on a B level at best and now that has fallen. He can no longer throw deep. His kinda bomb to Tyreek Hill in the second quarter should have been a touchdown. Hill had his guy beat by 5 plus yards, but the 40 yard semi bomb was short and Hill had to come back to it.

Result: No touchdown, just a catch.

The Andy Reid call at the close of second half with the Chiefs at the Tampa 4 yard line and goal to go…let’s see we just had Travis Kelce out with a leg injury – he just returned to the game – hey, let’s do a jet sweep with Travis.

Really.

The play lost 7 yards and no touchdown. Now the Chiefs had to settle for a field goal. Good call, Andy.

And how about that smart punt? Down 12-10, Reid decided to punt instead of trying a go ahead field goal that was makeable at 54 yards. Our kicker has been outstanding of late. Nope, we punt and then Tampa moves the ball at will, as they did all day. Continue reading →

FYI Craig and Stomper: This is NOT Harley

I have never claimed to be omniscient in political matters…

Although politics is my spectator sport, which I follow the way many people do football, basketball, or baseball. There are just too many wild cards, too many variables that can upset even the most predictable of election outcomes.

So imagine my delight last week when our resident political genius at KC Confidential fell flat on his keister. I’m referring, of course, to the one and only Harley the Great, Harley the Magnificent, Harley of The Midas Touch.

It never seems to have occurred to the H-man that “Pride Goeth Before A Fall” or that it is best to gloat about the outcome of a contested event (e.g. an election, an athletic contest, a lawsuit) after it’s over. No matter how confident you are going in.

I could not have written a better script for an after-school television special on the dangers of bragging aimed at young viewers than what the Harlinator has offered up.

Consider the following classic quotes:

“It’s Hillary all the way! The start of many consecutive Democratic presidents.” 12-2-15

“Hillary in a landslide!” 12-5-15

“That connotates (sic) into a huge landslide.” 6-18-16

“No,Southy!… The campaign is going great!….just sitting back, enjoying the fun election, knowing Hillary wins.” 7-30-16

“WORD: GET USED TO MADAME PRESIDENT.” 9-8-16

“You come back on and see how Harley was right!” 9-27-16 Continue reading →

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Once again, Thanksgiving and Christmas are back by popular demand…

Some of the folks that read this site have seen more go by than might lie ahead.

That’s life.

When you’re young it seems like growing up, having a car, making money, being in love, were all forever away. Then you awake one day and so much of life has already been lived. You worry about today, the bills, health issues, making a living, families past and present, were we’re going. It’s a time to reflect on where we are and where we have been – the long traveled road.

It’s a much different world today than the one we grew up in back in the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s and 90’s even.

For me it’s about all those sweet yesterdays and the pain and joy of living life.

Like so many of us, I think of wow, what might have been with some better decisions back in the days gone by. Why did I choose so many different roads? Maybe we all think that way.

Man, if I’d bought that stock or that small property, married a different girl, chosen a different profession, on and on. However, I think it’s better to reflect on what we did that worked, the life we’ve lived. Because it’s not coming background again.

Man, had someone told me when I was 13, “Hey Craig, you’re gonna go to school in Arizona, will live an early life as an outlaw, later a special agent with a badge, then you’ll own nightclubs, move to Hollywood, produce some movies, work with Muhammed Ali, meet and know hundreds of film and tv stars, date tons of smoking hot women, own a major comedy club in Kansas City, live a wild life… and oh, by the way, you will also go to prison, and not complete all your dreams – I’d have thought, wow, that sounds amazing.

Sure I’ve had been many tough years, scary times, unrest in my family, a failed marriage, made a number of wrong choices, but that’s life. We all have somewhat the same types of memories in different ways.

I guess in my darker moments I look back on the ones that were shinning and full of joy.

The wins not the loses. Continue reading →

In the wide world of Internet bugaboos, Paul Wilson’s insightful pre election predictions went unheralded…until now:

Here’s my final prediction for tomorrow’s election outcome.

The IBD/TIPP poll has always been my favorite and most reliable poll. It scored the Obama election to the exact number. Today they have Trump up by 2 points. The USC/LA Times poll  shows Trump up by 5.

If Trump takes Ohio, NC and Florida, he wins. And Trump is winning or within 1 point in all three.

Mitt Romney and his magic underwear lost in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico. Trump is within spitting distance in each of those states and could win all of them.

I’ll stick with my forecast of eight weeks ago; Trump will win the popular vote by a landslide. But I’ll now add the he will eek out the Electoral College by 2-5 points max.

Where is the delta between the poll results and what will be the election results? How will he go from how it looks tonight and turn it into a win tomorrow? Continue reading →

I’ve seen the television commercials for ARRIVAL…

Complete with quickly edited hints of an alien invasion and the world in a state of panic.

The end of the world as we know it?

I was ready for another CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND. Or SIGNS. Or WAR OF THE WORLDS.

That was before last week’s screening.

What I got instead was a CONTACT-like mind bender.

Not much blowing up or aliens trying to do us in. Definitely not your typical, popcorn invasion thriller.

Nope.

ARRIVAL is a complex and compelling approach to the old “Them-Against-Us” concept.

It stars Amy Adams as a linguistics professor who had to deal with the loss of her daughter.

And when a dozen strangely shaped alien spacecraft suddenly dock in locations around the globe, Army colonel Forest Whitaker seeks her out to help decipher any messages these strangers may want us to consume.

The nearest space vehicle has touched down in Montana…

Imagine that.

That’s where Adams along with physicist Jeremy Renner try to decipher the ins and outs of this rather peaceful invasion.

What they find inside the spaceship and how they communicate with its inhabitants is most unusual to say the least—not to mention thought-provoking. Continue reading →