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I was wandering around the Arch grounds last weekend, looking for something, anything different. To my surprise, I ran into a prop. That's not common - the National Parks Service keeps the area pretty tidy. But here was this big orange traffic cone, and to no apparent purpose - no snow or ice, no repairs, just the normal pavement. So I screwed on my wide angle lens, laid down on the ground at the base of the cone, shot this and went out on a limb in Photoshop.
Today on Downtown St. Louis 365: the President of the United States.
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The graphic signature of friend of the blog, sometime lucha libre promoter and artist Peat Wollaeger seems to be everywhere these days. Found this one in an alley just off Grand Boulevard. As much as St. Louis gets knocked by outsiders (and sometimes by the locals), somebody loves it. I do, too.
Pinocchio gets treated for a headache today on Downtown St. Louis 365.
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On Sunday night Mrs. C and I had dinner with our daughter and son in law. We wanted their advice on things to see and do in the place we're going this weekend, a location they have already visited (in no small part due to the wonderful help of one of our CDP colleagues). More about all of that by the weekend.
We wanted to try a newish restaurant in The Grove neighborhood with the odd name of Sanctuaria. Patrons don't get blasted with the Rolling Stones playing Gimme Shelter as they enter. Rather, it's an Americanized tapas place with a beautifully done, lightly applied, Mexican Day of the Dead (El Dia de los Muertos) theme. Very sophisticated. The food was excellent, the prices were moderate and the people were great. Definitely recommended.Things keep going round and round today on Downtown St. Louis 365. 
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We get an awful lot of geese through here at some times of the year. It may have something to do with the Mississippi River flyway, followed by several species of migrating birds. There was a crowd of them around the Arch on Saturday, but just the lawn to the south of the monument. I wondered if the groundskeepers had done some seeding. They kept a cautious distance from me but didn't run away. They can be very aggressive and I was glad to avoid a confrontation.
Can bronze sweat? Find out today on Downtown St. Louis 365.
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Somebody, PLEASE! For one explanation, see today's post on Downtown St. Louis 365.
This is something new I found yesterday on the graffiti-permitted part of the flood wall.
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Okay, who's old enough to remember The Ventures playing Wipe Out? Yeah, there we were, me and my friends hanging out under the el on Queens Boulevard in the 60s, wearing slicked back hair, black pointy-toed, two eyelet lace-up shoes (sometimes known as PFCs, or Puerto Rican fence climbers), black pants and white shirts, listening to California surf music. We didn't know surf from the wake of the Staten Island Ferry. But we were all so cool.
Now the wipe outs I see are those crazy water skiers on the Mississippi. I don't think the guy out on the river in a polar bear suit we saw yesterday is enough back-up. They need an on-site chiropractor.
Today on Downtown St. Louis 365 we talk to the homeless about what's going down.
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Okay, so the water temperature was about 34 F / 1 C. The skiers were, for the most part, wearing wet suits (although often with bare feet and hands). But good grief, they're out in the Mississippi River. It's not as filthy as it once was but still it's full of icky creepy disgusting organisms of every sort, not to mention untold tons of pesticides and fertilizers from agricultural runoff. Forget the wet suit. If I knew how to water ski (which I do not), I'd insist on a hazmat suit.
This character in a polar bear outfit with red scarf and cap, below, is apparently the safety patrol. If I were thrashing around in a nearly-frozen river trying desperately to cling to life and and this appeared looming over me, I'd begin wondering what circle of hell I'd been consigned to.
Today's post on Downtown St. Louis 365 is all about macho cops. 
