Riverfront Times, September 2, 2020

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THE LEDE

“It actually feels good — feels like I’m fighting back with my community with all the tragic stuff happening from here to St. Louis. I read on the news online that multiple people had been shot. It’s like it ain’t no fair. Because it’s either black-on-black crime or whiteon-white, but in this day, it shouldn’t even be like that. It should be everybody helping everybody, no matter the race.”

PHOTO BY THEO WELLING

RACHEL JACKSON (LEFT) WITH HER BROTHER JAHAVION FRAZIER AND MOTHER JANA FRAZIER AT THE PROTEST FOR JACOB BLAKE AT THE ALTON, ILLINOIS POLICE DEPARTMENT ON AUGUST 27 riverfronttimes.com

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Summer Knights

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emember good stuff? Remember fun? We’ve been nostalgic for times other than this time (we’d also take a future that is not this time), and veteran writer and editor Richard Weiss came along at the perfect moment with a story about the Mathews-Dickey Knights. Their back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back wins during a hot 25-plus hours of baseball in 1977 is the perfect escape. We didn’t know when we were laying out the story how important that would be. But then we learned over the weekend that St. Louis police officer Tamarris Bohannon had been killed, punctuating another brutal summer. Please read about Bohannon and read columnist Ray Hartmann on a politically unlikely strategy for controlling our gun problem — and then do yourself a favor and read about the Knights, because it’s a good, fun story. — Doyle Murphy, editor in chief

TABLE OF CONTENTS CAN’T

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Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Doyle Murphy

E D I T O R I A L Digital Editor Jaime Lees Hero In A Hot Dog Suit Daniel Hill Contributors Trenton Almgren-Davis, Cheryl Baehr, Eric Berger, Jeannette Cooperman, Thomas Crone, Mike Fitzgerald, Judy Lucas, Noah MacMillan, Andy Paulissen, Justin Poole, Christian Schaeffer, Chris Ward, Theo Welling, Danny Wicentowski, Nyara Williams, Ymani Wince Columnist Ray Hartmann A R T

& P R O D U C T I O N Art Director Evan Sult Editorial Layout Haimanti Germain Production Manager Haimanti Germain M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Advertising Director Colin Bell Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Multimedia Account Executive Jackie Mundy

COVER

C I R C U L A T I O N Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers

Let’s Play Five Think the Cardinals’ seven doubleheaders in September are a lot? The Mathews-Dickey Knights once swept a quintupleheader to win a championship Cover photo courtesy of

MATHEWS-DICKEY BOYS & GIRLS CLUB

E U C L I D M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein www.euclidmediagroup.com N A T I O N A L A D V E R T I S I N G VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com S U B S C R I P T I O N S Send address changes to Riverfront Times, 308 N. 21st Street, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63103. Domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $78/6 months (MO add $4.74 sales tax) and $156/year (MO add $9.48 sales tax) for first class. Allow 6-10 days for standard delivery. www.riverfronttimes.com The Riverfront Times is published weekly by Euclid Media Group | Verified Audit Member Riverfront Times 308 N. 21st Street, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63103 www.riverfronttimes.com

INSIDE

General information: 314-754-5966 Founded by Ray Hartmann in 1977

The Lede Hartmann News Feature Short Orders Culture Savage Love 4

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Riverfront Times is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies of the current issue may be purchased for $1.00 plus postage, payable in advance at the Riverfront Times office. Riverfront Times may be distributed only by Riverfront Times authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of Riverfront Times, take more than one copy of each Riverfront Times weekly issue. The entire contents of Riverfront Times are copyright 2020 by Riverfront Times, LLC. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the expressed written permission of the Publisher, Riverfront Times, 308 N. 21st Street, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63103. Please call the Riverfront Times office for back-issue information, 314-754-5966.


HARTMANN Our Gun Problem There are solutions — if anyone will listen BY RAY HARTMANN

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ith the trauma of gun violence ravaging St. Louis, there’s one topic that seems to have escaped everyone’s attention in the race for simplistic solutions. Guns. Missouri being Missouri, the local shouting match is dominated by Republican demands for “lawand-order” — somewhere Tricky Dick is flashing that creepy grin — and cracking down on bad guys. Meanwhile, that national consensus after George Floyd’s murder

about the need for reforms in policing has been reduced to a few protesters’ signs carried in the gunsights of the Vigiloskeys. But it’s really beyond the point for the moment whether St. Louis’ gun-violence epidemic might be diminished by reform efforts that at least have a pulse in other states. Addressing the causes rather than the symptoms of gun violence is at least temporarily taboo. None of that is open for discussion under Missouri Governor Mike Parson. And let’s be clear: Talking about gun control would be deadly politics for Democrats right now, and I’m not suggesting they do so. If ever a messaging war was lost in the political arena, it’s the one for common-sense gun control. Hopefully that will change someday, but not in the next nine weeks. That doesn’t change our reality: There are too many guns among us. A great many of those are military-grade weapons that shouldn’t be in the hands of civilians, and by the way, pose a much

greater daily threat to the health of police officers than any Black Lives Matter protest ever did. Every time another baby is murdered in the city of St. Louis — or so many other souls are victimized by carnage — it’s not unreasonable to wonder aloud a simple question: What if there weren’t so many guns? In a nation of roughly 329 million people, there are roughly 400 million firearms, based upon recent estimates that place gun ownership at 120,500 guns per 100,000 people — babies included — in America. That translates to 12.21 deaths per 100,000 people — babies included — in our nation. One need not expect America to emulate an outlier such as Japan, which has 600 firearms and .04 firearm deaths, respectively, per 100,000 inhabitants. We’re not going there. But as of 2017, the U.S. had more than six times the rate of gun-related deaths than Canada (2 per 100,000) and nearly four times as many firearms in circula-

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tion (Canada’s rate was 34,700 per 100,000). That’s worth pondering. We have too many guns. That’s especially true in urban areas which suffer disproportionately from poverty, neglect and discrimination in education, health care, policing and all manner of indices. That produces disproportionate crime, which in turn produces disproportionate possession of firearms — used disproportionately for illegal activities. This isn’t rocket science. Even if St. Louis’ challenges relative to guns and crime were remotely similar to small cities and towns in rural Missouri — and they most certainly are not — there would be no rational basis for assuming a one-size-fits-all policy to these matters makes a whit of sense. We should have gun control in St. Louis. So, I’m going to talk about guns. It might come as a surprise for you to know it, but I’m both a gun owner and “supporter” of the Sec-

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ond Amendment. For those who haven’t read it lately, here’s what it says: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Here’s what it doesn’t say: “We, the Founding Fathers, hereby proclaim that the Second Amendment is sacrosanct and unlike any other Amendment, shall not be subject to ANY future law that might clarify it.” It also doesn’t read, “Out of concern that the government will someday be coming for our guns, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” It also doesn’t read, “The right of the people to possess military arsenals equal to that of the government shall not be infringed.” It also doesn’t read, “The right of the people to possess militarygrade equipment capable of killing hundreds of people within a minute shall not be infringed.” The Second Amendment does not provide for the unlimited and unrelated possession of all armaments, no more than the First Amendment protects as free speech threatening to assassinate people or incitement to riot. Reasonable gun-control measures do not “destroy” the Second Amendment any more than outlawing ritual sacrifices destroys” First Amendment religious freedom. In today’s political environment, however, can anything be done about the fact that there are too many guns, especially lethal ones, in cities like St. Louis? Even with the ational ifle ssociation distracted with trying to reconcile Reptile-in-Chief Wayne LaPierre’s $275,000 Zegna budget and all those luxury trips to yachts off the Bahamas and those African safaris (well, “at least they involved killing”), there’s not much hope here. But people should not give up on doing something about the proliferation and the dire consequences of too many guns — especially the military-style ones — in our midst. The noise of an election dominated by Trumpian red-meat noise will subside long before the gun epidemic does. In that regard, I was speaking about this to former Judge Mike Wolff, a good friend and one of the brightest and most respected legal minds ever to grace St. Louis. Wolff, who served as chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court, legal counsel to the late Governor

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Every time another baby is murdered in St. Louis, it’s cause to wonder aloud: What if there weren’t so many guns? Mel Carnahan and dean of the St. Louis University Law School, shares my concern about guns. The difference between us is that he has the bona fides to get people to listen. Wolff wants to see Missouri’s state constitution amended with provisions that would enable the cities of St. Louis and Kansas City (and neighboring St. Louis and Jackson counties) to be allowed — at local discretion — to require a “gun safety certificate and registration for each firearm possessed. Wolff would hardly restrict the ability of most citizens to possess their guns. The exceptions would be people who have “a criminal felony record or a judgment involving domestic violence, or a record that is known to law enforcement of violent acts associated with mental illness.” Wolff would also re uire online certification for those from outside St. Louis and Kansas City who would like to bring firearms to those cities. Wolff also proposes that the city and county establish a oint ffice of Gun Safety to issue permits and background checks. This sort of cooperation is hardly unprecedented in criminal justice activity: The REGIS data system, the Major Case Squad and combined 911 services each provides a prototype. Any of those ideas would be subject to voter approvals in the respective jurisdictions. And while none of the ideas is likely to get enacted anytime soon, they’re worth considering even while getting drowned out by the most depressing election campaign of our lifetimes. Unrealistic? You bet. But tell that to the family of the next baby who gets shot in St. Louis. n Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhartmann@sbcglobal.net or catch him on St. Louis In the Know With Ray Hartmann and Jay Kanzler from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).


NEWS

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St. Louis Police Officer Killed Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

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man barricaded on Saturday in a south St. Louis home shot two police officers, killing one, authorities say. fficers originally responded to Tower Grove South about 5:45 pm. for reports of a shooting. Police say fficer amarris Bohannon, , was one of the first on the scene and was looking for a victim in the 00 block of artford treet when the shooter fired out of a window, striking him in the head. second officer was then shot in the leg. Fellow cops pulled them out of the area, loaded them into patrol cars and raced them to hospitals in the city. he officer shot in the leg was treated and released, but Bohannon died on unday. “It is with great sadness that we report that fficer amarris . Bo-

Ex-Alderman Sentenced Written by

DOYLE MURPHY

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ormer St. Louis Alderman Larry Arnowitz, who claimed he was brought down by “political people” who didn’t want him to become mayor, has been sentenced to serve twelve months in federal prison and another six months on house arrest. The 66-year-old pleaded guilty on Friday to one count mail fraud, admitting he siphoned $21,197.85 out of his “Friends of Larry Arnowitz” campaign and used the money for personal expenses. Arnowitz, a Democrat, represented the 12th Ward for more than seven years before he was indicted in March 2019 and resigned. Federal prosecutors say he illegally and repeatedly tapped his campaign donations for years, starting in June 2015. “During the period of his scheme, Defendant used his campaign account like his personal piggy bank, making numer-

Officer Tamarris Bohannon. | COURTESY ST. LOUIS POLICE DEPARTMENT hannon has succumbed to his inuries, police said in a statement. The shooter holed up in the house through Saturday night into early Sunday morning. It wasn’t his house. Police say he burst in and ordered the couple who live there to get out. After the officers were shot, dozens of cops, including members of the police department’s SWAT and hostage negotiation unit, swarmed the ous cash withdrawals from the account in order to pay for improper personal expenses,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Hal Goldsmith wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed in advance of Friday’s hearing in front of U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark. In an example cited by prosecutors, Arnowitz wrote a $5,000 cashier’s check from the account to help pay his mortgage in February 2019. At times, the contributions never even made it to the campaign account. The feds say he pocketed donations from political fundraisers he held in 2018 and 2019 at Sugar Creek Golf Course in High Ridge. Goldsmith, who prosecuted ex-St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger and his inner circle on corruption charges, wrote in court papers that Arnowitz tried to throw FBI agents off his trail by lying about withdrawals and then insisting any problems with his account could be cleared up with a small fine imposed by the Missouri Ethics Commission. Arguing that the disgraced politico hadn’t learned his lesson, Goldsmith cited a post Arnowitz made on the social media platform Nextdoor, in which he blames his prosecution on a conspiracy to keep him from becoming mayor.

A St. Louis police officer stretches crime scene tape across Hartford Street. | DOYLE MURPHY neighborhood. Streets surrounding the house were blocked off as police tried to persuade the man to come out. hortly before a.m., they took him into custody. he man, identified in multiple media reports as 4 -year-old homas inworthy, was not immediately charged in the shooting, but he was held at the t. ouis City Justice Center on an arrest warrant out of lorida, where he is facing charges of sexual assault.

Former St. Louis Alderman Larry Arnowitz pleaded guilty to fraud. | RYAN GINES “There was some political people who called the feds. higher ups who wanted me out. should have been reported the ethics commission rumor is i was making to many steps towards the Mayors race,” Arnowitz wrote in a March 2019 post. Goldsmith writes, “Defendant points

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Kinworthy has lived in St. Louis in the past and still has family in the metro, but he s spent most of his recent years in Florida. That included a prison stint of more than five years for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, discharging a firearm from a vehicle and shooting into a vehicle. n that case, he opened fire with a shotgun on a stranger in a Mustang, according to a story about Continued on pg 9

his finger at imaginary individuals who worked to somehow stifle his political ambitions at becoming Mayor. This clearly evidences a lack of acceptance of responsibility on the part of Defendant.” In documents filed prior to the plea and sentencing, Arnowitz’s attorney Patrick Conroy asked for a sentence of six to twelve months house arrest. The ex-alderman’s health is bad, including preexisting conditions of high blood pressure and diabetes that, combined with his age, make him especially vulnerable to catching COVID-19 while locked up, Conroy wrote. The attorney noted that Arnowitz doesn’t have a criminal record and his wife’s health isn’t good either. Federal sentencing guidelines set a recommended sentence of as many as eighteen months in prison, but the judge settled on the hybrid of a year behind bars and six months on house arrest. Before he was elected to the Board of Aldermen in 2011, Arnowitz worked for nearly four decades in various city patronage jobs. The 12th Ward covers a strip of southwest St. Louis, including Boulevard Heights, Carondelet and Princeton Heights. Arnowitz was replaced by current Alderwoman Vicky Grass. n

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OFFICER KILLED Continued from pg 7

the 1998 incident in the Orlando Sentinel. Kinworthy blew off three of the man s fingers and was originally charged with attempted murder. Over the years, Kinworthy has often been in trouble — for drugs, weapons and violence. t the time of the artford treet shooting, Kinworthy was wanted in Brevard ounty, lorida, for skipping a court appearance in the se ual assault case. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that the 4 -year-old, while wearing a mask, bound and assaulted a man. lorida police searched his car earlier this year and found the mask along with seven or eight guns, the paper reported. Kinworthy was released on his own recognizance but didn t show up for a recent court date and landed in St. Louis instead. It’s not clear why he would have shot Bohannon. he officer had been on the

force for three and a half years, and he is one of eight officers shot since une , police say. Bohannon’s family released a statement after his death, noting that he had grown up in the city and continued to live here with his family. “He is a hero to many but most importantly to his loving wife and three incredible children,” the letter says in part. he loss of this great man is felt deeply within the St. Louis community and we ask for your prayers and support in the days ahead.” In a statement, Mayor Lyda Krewson said she was “heartbroken” over Bohannon’s death and had spoken with his family. his is a horrific reminder of the dangers our brave men and women willingly face every day to keep us safe, rewson said. ask that everyone please continue to keep fficer Bohannon, his loved ones, friends and colleagues, and the entire t. ouis etropolitan olice Department in your thoughts and prayers. n

Lemp Building Was Crumbling Before Collapse Written by

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n the days before the side of a Lemp Brewery building collapsed, the damage to a crumbling corner was startling. In a photo submitted by Aaron Bury, a pile of fallen bricks lies below a hollow in the facade. Bury says he often walks his dog past and noticed the damage on August 21, two days before a large section of the building came down, spilling bricks and debris across Cherokee Street. “Noticeable cracks ran upward through multiple bricks,” he writes in an email. Owner of the 29-building campus Shashi Palamand told St. Louis Public Radio he thinks lightning storms in April and July probably damaged the building, and he was working with a company to make repairs as recently as a week and a half before the collapse. “As far as our experts even knew, this was a cosmetic issue, but no one could see what was inside, but it appeared from the outside that it was just the outer layer that was coming off, and it was fixable,” Palamand told the station. The building had been condemned in 2013 for building code violations, but Palamand said he didn’t know that until it came out after the building fell. No one was injured in the collapse, which happened at about 9:30 a.m. on August 23. The St. Louis Fire Department sent search dogs to the scene, wor-

This photo, showing damage, was taken two days before the partial collapse. | AARON P. BURY ried that there could be people trapped in the rubble, but no one was inside the warehouse at the time. St. Louis BWorks had stored about 700 bicycles in the building, and staff and volunteers were often in and out. The nonprofit runs a bike shop in Soulard, which helps fund educational programs for kids, including its Earn-A-Bike program, which provides participants with bicycles at the end of a six-week course on bike safety and maintenance. “We are extremely lucky that no volunteers or staff had been at the building during the collapse,” the organization said in a statement on its website. BWorks is now accepting donations to replace its ruined inventory. There is a link on its site, bworks.org. n

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ith at least seven doubleheaders facing them over a stretch of three weeks in September, the Cardinals face a daunting task if they hope to make it to a World Series title in this pandemic season. May they find inspiration in another hometown team that had to sweep a quintupleheader to bring home a semi-pro championship. That would be the Knights from the iconic Mathews-Dickey Boys’ Club. At 1 p.m. July 4, 1977, the nights took the field at airgrounds Park Field #1 under a cloudless sky. At the time, they had no idea they would be playing ball until 2:30 a.m. July 5.

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A day earlier, the Knights had lost the first game of a doubleelimination tournament that included seventeen teams. To get a shot at the championship, they would have to win every game they played the following day or go home. More than bragging rights were at stake. The winners would leave with $1,000 cash money that would be handed over in a paper sack. The Knights very much needed the dough, as the team was in hock to Johnny Mac’s Sporting Goods for their uniforms and equipment. ot many outsiders figured the Knights had a shot. Certainly not the loudmouth fan who had a son

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playing for the Chicago Pirates. He went around placing hundreds of dollars in bets on the Pirates vs. the Knights. But these young men were made of much sterner stuff than anyone could possibly know. A case in point: Tom “Big Sully” Sullivan, then age 22, among the youngest on the field that day. Today, Sullivan is MathewsDickey’s interim president and CEO. He is also its longest serving staff member, having started in 1973. He was born in Pocahon-

tas, Mississippi, about ten miles outside Jackson, the state capital. His father died when he was seven, and the family moved to St. Louis’ west side, to a home on Cabanne Street near Kingshighway. His mother Velma worked as a domestic by day, as well as at a dry-cleaning business, and then served as a custodian at night to support her five children. To help out, Tommy, as Velma called him, began taking on jobs. By age thirteen, he served as a security guard for a furniture

The Mathews-Dickey Knights pulled off an astonishing feat in the summer of 1977. | COURTESY MATHEWS-DICKEY BOYS & GIRLS CLUB


Let’s Play Five Think the Cardinals’ seven doubleheaders in September are a lot? The MATHEWS-DICKEY KNIGHTS once swept a quintupleheader to win a championship By Richard H. Weiss store. He sold newspapers out of a cart, and, while dodging pimps and pushers on the way, he would show up at 4:30 a.m. to work at a Kentucky Fried Chicken store, where the owner had entrusted him with the keys. When he got his driver’s license, Sullivan continued working but also took his mother to her jobs so that she wouldn’t have to ride the bus. Along with all that, he attended Sumner High and excelled at baseball and football. He graduated in Sumner’s centennial class in 1975. Sullivan went on to Saint Louis University, where he became known as Big Sully. There he set twelve offensive records as a Bil-

liken — for home runs, stolen bases and walks, among others. He entertained an offer from the Pittsburgh irates, which was flattering but not substantial enough for him to give up his scholarship at SLU. Sullivan had met Martin Luther Mathews, cofounder of the club with Hubert “Dickey” Ballentine, while he was in high school. The Mathews-Dickey Boys’ Club on Shreve and Natural Bridge became “my home away from home,” he recalled. e earned his first club

paycheck through the Earn and Learn Program, where he became one of the commissioners who organized the games. There he met such men as William Ballard, Eugene Crymes, Frank Grice, Eugene Miller and Robert Trice. “They walked straight. Talked straight. They showed a lot of concern, and you wanted to be like them,” Sullivan says. “It gave me the idea that this was how you could be respected. I knew what I wanted to be, and it was something good.”

RICHARD H. WEISS is founder and executive editor of Before Ferguson Beyond Ferguson, a nonprofit racial equity storytelling project. He is the author of I Trust You With My Life, the story of Martin Luther Mathews and the many lives he transformed with cofounder Hubert “Dickey” Ballentine at the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club.

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When Sullivan graduated from SLU, “Mr. Mathews” (everyone calls him that) introduced Sullivan to a top executive at Anheuser-Busch. On Mathews’ say-so and with his stellar performance at SLU, Sullivan got an offer to join A-B’s marketing department. But he turned it down. “Number one, I didn’t drink beer. How could I tell anyone it tasted good?” Sullivan says. “Number two, I hadn’t paid back what I had gotten from the club.” Instead, he told Mathews that he wanted to work for Mathews-Dickey. n the field and on the bench with Sullivan that day in 1977 were

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LET’S PLAY FIVE Continued from pg 11

some old-timers, relatively speaking. These were men, a decade or more older than him, whose pedigree went all the way back to the founding of the club. They included brothers Barry and Herman Shelton, who played third base and right field respectively first baseman arland oodwin second baseman ohn ay catchers urtis dwards and odney pps pitchers John Bernard, Billy Westbrooks and larence Deloch manager sbie avage and coach rank obinson. There were 21 men who participated that day. Thirteen would later be inducted into the St. Louis mateur Baseball all of ame. The old-timers were the kids who got going with baseball in the late 1950s. They used to gather on Mathews’ front porch in the Ville and ask him to come out and play. Mathews, a former semi-pro player, was supporting a wife and five daughters, and working a day job. But somehow he found the time, taking them to Public School Stadium or Handy Park and hitting fungoes ’til it got too dark. ne afternoon around that time, Raymond Turner heard about one of the practices. He hopped on his bike with his fielder s glove and catcher’s mitt on either handlebar and a bat balanced between them. “As soon as I rode up, I knew I was on the team,” Turner laughs during an interview. That’s because Turner had some equipment. A lot of the boys didn’t. After practice, as Turner recalled, the boys gathered around Mathews and wanted to know if they were ever going to get some uniforms that would make them look as good as the white teams they were going to play. “If you were on a team, you had to have a uniform,” Turner recalls. “That was a big thing.” The kids would beseech their coach and mentor: “Please, Mr. Mathews, can we get uniforms? We’ll even wear used ones.” Mathews scratched his head. “Even then, just thirteen years old, I could tell he had no idea how he was going to come up with those uniforms,” Turner says. But that’s not what Mathews said. f course you re going to get uniforms,” he told the boys. “And they’re going to be new.” Well, says Turner, “when we played our first game, we not only had new uniforms with blue caps, we had new bats and balls. I don’t know how he pulled it off, but he did.” urner, the heltons and urtis

er, Mathews remembers. ne of the best ever to play the game.” And he did so well into adulthood as athews-Dickey fielded an elite semipro team that would become the Knights. It would be Edwards combining with first baseman Garland Goodwin that would pull off a pivotal play in the fourth game on July 4, 1977, that would send the Knights on to the championship game and the title late that night. But let’s start in the morning, when Big Sully awoke and put on his uniform facing long odds Tom “Big Sully” Sullivan played for Saint Louis University in the and an uncommonspring and the Mathews-Dickey Knights in the summer. | COURTESY ly hot day. The merMATHEWS-DICKEY BOYS & GIRLS CLUB cury would soon bubble up to 95. He woke up kind Edwards came from two-parent of pissed. The Knights were on the families. But their dads worked brink of elimination because they hard, sometimes at two jobs, and had lost to the hicago irates the couldn’t always spend time with day before — and they “couldn’t them. athews filled a void. nd carry our shoestrings,” he says. The Knights had power and the dads appreciated it. When they could, they would speed up and down the lineup. But turn out to help coach or they would the Pirates could “slap leather,” he fire up their grills on street corners recalls. n their first encounter, to barbecue meats that their sons the Pirates found their way out of would hawk to passersby. This in jams with a couple of double plays large measure was how Mathews and even a triple play. Still, Sullivan says, he and his got the dough to pay for the bats, teammates weren’t discouraged. balls, gloves and uniforms. Edwards got a catcher’s mitt. His “We knew to just take it one game dad worked with a forklift at . at a time.” Starting at 1 p.m. that day, SulBurkart anufacturing ompany, where he got to know Mathews, livan wound up playing every who was a supervisor. Edwards’ single inning, a total of 39 (three mom worked a mop and a broom seven-inning tilts, with the last overnight at a couple of office two going nine). Not one of the Knights wilted, buildings on the west side of town, returning home in the early morn- but some of the older players had ing to get her kids ready for school. to come and go because they had Edwards attended Hadley Tech. jobs or family responsibilities. amilies provided provisions for In the spring, Edwards played for Hadley Tech, and in the summer the players. Robinson remembers hauling large coolers of ice in his for athews-Dickey. e was a five-tool ballplayer, Buick, and there was fresh fruit to meaning he could run, throw, keep the players going. Asked if he paced himself, Sulfield and hit for average and powlivan says, not all that much. In fact, he may have made it tougher on himself by wearing “woolly CARDS DOUBLEHEADERS sleeves” because that’s just how IN SEPTEMBER he liked to suit up. “My theory was that the sweat turns to water 9/5, Chicago Cubs @CHI that keeps me cool.” 9/8, Minnesota Twins @STL If any concession was made to the 9/10, Detroit Tigers @STL elements, it came ahead of or at the 9/14, Milwaukee Brewers @MIL end of an inning. “We were taught 9/16, Milwaukee Brewers @MIL to sprint on and off the field, he 9/18, Pittsburgh Pirates @PIT says. As the day wore on, “I might 9/25, Milwaukee Brewers @STL have walked out to left field.

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A day earlier, the Knights had lost the first game of the tournament that included seventeen teams. To get a shot at the championship, they would have to win every game they played the following day or go home. Maybe that little bit of energy conservation had something to do with a catch Big Sully made in the late innings of one of the games — he doesn’t remember which — when a batter smoked a pitch in his direction. Sullivan knew it was going to be over his head, so he turned his back and ran as fast as he could to the spot where he figured the ball might fall. When he got there, he spun around, stuck out his glove and captured it to end the inning. The Knights would need more heroics than that. They had defeated the t. ouis Dodgers - earlier in the day, then the Tennessee Royals 10-9 and the St. Louis Giants 131. To win the championship, they would have to beat the Pirates twice at night under the lights. In the fourth game, the bases were jammed in the ninth inning with the tying run on first. oodwin noticed that the Pirates runner was taking a substantial lead off of first. n that moment, oodwin was playing well off the base to prevent a hit from getting through the infield. But he had an idea. hat if he snuck behind the runner and took a snap throw from Edwards? But how was he going to get Edwards’ attention to make the play without tipping off the runner? ortunately, the two had been playing together for quite a while. And whenever Goodwin wanted to get Edwards’ attention, he would say a word that meant nothing to anyone but Edwards. “WALTHAW.” It happened to be Edwards’ middle name, one the kids had teased him about ever since he could remember. After Goodwin got Edwards’

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Co-founders Martin L. Mathews and Hubert “Dickey” Ballentine in a photo from the club archives.| COURTESY MATHEWS-DICKEY BOYS & GIRLS CLUB

LET’S PLAY FIVE Continued from pg 13

attention with the word, the throw came down after the next pitch. Game over. The denouement came so suddenly and so late that the 75 or so fans still at the game were stunned. They had hardly known what happened until they saw the umpires walking off the field. he nights took that game 6- , then won the final game - , finishing up around 0 a.m. Sullivan remembers taking some pleasure in watching the Pirates player’s dad pay off his bets. But Coach Robinson had his eyes on the prize. He headed over to grab that sack of title cash so that the team could make good on its debts. The cash was handed over in singles, fives, tens and twenties so loose and heavy that Robinson had to prevail upon someone to provide a paper sack to keep it safe and secure. he five games won in a single day made the newspapers and are memorialized in a plaque that hangs at Mathews-Dickey today. It was quite an accomplishment. But the more significant victories lay in the lives led away from the diamond by members of that team. Bernard, Goodwin, and Edwards launched into successful careers as teachers. Bernard would go on to develop an afterschool program with MathewsDickey for children at Scullin chool in the late 0s. dwards taught physical education at a variety of public schools and coached football and baseball as well, while also working with the boys at Mathews-Dickey. Goodwin, a Vietnam vet, taught at both of his alma maters, Blewett Middle School and Vashon, as well as O’Fallon Tech, Beaumont High

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and Clyde C. Miller Career Academy. He served as principal at Sumner High School. Goodwin retired in 00 and passed away in uly 0 6. Barry Shelton earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and also an MBA, and would spend his entire career at McDonnell Douglas, retiring as a senior project manager. He also served on the Mathews-Dickey Board in the 0s and 0s. Robinson, a longtime board member for the club, attended Hampton Institute in Virginia (now Hampton University), studying architectural engineering and later transferring to Washington University, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering. He also holds several advanced engineering degrees from Washington University and has worked over the years for a wide array of bluechip companies, including Missouri acific, lin orporation, Ralston Purina, McDonnell Douglas, IBM, CRD Campbell, city of t. ouis, wame Building roup, URS Corp. and AECOM. So when the sun is burning hot on one of those doubleheader days, when the sweat forms on MLB brows, when the bats feel heavy in their hands, the Cardinals might remember the nights and the day they swept a quintupleheader. Readers can honor this accomplishment and many others by taking part in the 60th anniversary celebration of the Mathews-Dickey Boys’ & Girls’ Club. It will be held virtually at 6 p.m. October 16. The event will feature a special presentation by Mathews-Dickey youth, alumni testimonials, music, and a special appearance by actor and native St. Louisan Sterling K. Brown, who once tutored at the club.


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[EXEUNT]

Two St. Louis Favorites Shut Their Doors Tenderloin Room, Byrd & Barrel’s Cherokee location shutting down Written by

CHERYL BAEHR

T

he Cherokee Street location of Byrd & Barrel and the Tenderloin Room in the Chase Park Plaza have closed. The last day of service at both restaurants was Sunday. Owner Bob Brazell announced the closures in a Facebook post last week, noting the difficulties that the restaurant industry has faced since the COVID-19 outbreak revealed itself to St. Louis this past March. “We all know that 2020 has been a tough year for many, especially those in the hospitality industry,” Brazell writes. “As a restaurant group we have adapted and pivoted at every point of change throughout the year. We fought through substantial losses and changed business models to keep our doors open and our teams working. Some of these changes worked and some were lessons learned.” As Brazell explains, the decision to close the Cherokee neighborhood Byrd & Barrel and the Tenderloin Room centered on his desire to minimize the losses from operating at less than half of the restaurants’ normal revenue. In doing so, he hopes that both restaurants can reopen when the industry returns to pre-pandemic business levels. Regardless of when that happens, Byrd & Barrel will not reopen its Cherokee Street location. Instead, Brazell announced that he is currently working with contractors and designers on a buildout for a new, much larger Byrd

Byrd & Barrel is leaving South Jefferson Avenue, but it’s set to reopen in a larger space at Hampton Avenue and Watson Road. | CHERYL BAEHR

The Tenderloin Room reopened in December before COVID-19 hit this spring. | ED ALLER & Barrel located near Hampton Avenue and Watson Road, in the former Bobby’s Place. While Byrd & Barrel is on track to reopen at some point in a new spot, the Tenderloin Room’s future remains less certain. Brazell emphasizes in the Facebook post that the restaurant will be back, but the time for that is unknown. Brazell opened Byrd & Barrel on Cherokee in 2015, converting a former Popeye’s into an irreverent

indie fried chicken joint. It is not a health food spot by any stretch of the imagination, but Brazell wanted Byrd & Barrel to serve as a local alternative to the fast food restaurants up and down Jefferson that could stand as an example of how to do comfort food well. Building on the success of Byrd & Barrel, Brazell and partners his Rick DeStefane and Ben Strake purchased the Tenderloin Room from its longtime owners last

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Byrd & Barrel was meant to be a local alternative to the fast food restaurants up and down Jefferson that could stand as an example of how to do comfort food well. year, breathing new life into the iconic space. Though the restaurant opened with much fanfare this past December, the swanky digs have proven difficult to convert to a COVID-19 business model. Brazell remains hopeful, however, that the restaurant will again serve guests at some point. “We are doing this now so that we can reopen when the time is right and things get closer to normal,” Brazell says. n

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[ L I B AT I O N S ]

Spreading Kindness Written by

THOMAS CRONE

J

osh Grigaitis may have figured out a few things in his life by now, but how to combine that elusive live/work idyll? That he’s got down. With a house on the serrated, northern edge of The Hill, he lives next door to his family’s longtime tavern, Pop’s Blue Moon. On the other side of the Moon is a building that once housed a neighborhood grocery and, later, office space. For years, he waited on that sortanondescript building to become available, and now it’s the home of Mighty Kind, a beverage brand that Grigaitis and a small crew of collaborators are hoping to see grow by leaps and bounds in the next year. For starters, Mighty Kind teamed up with WellBeing Brewing, a concern that put St. Louis squarely on the map of nonalcoholic brewing cities; their releases can be found on store shelves all over town. After some releases as a co-branded affair, Mighty Kind is now out in the market with its first solo effort, a 12 ounce, 10 milligram of CBD PineBerry Cannabis Seltzer, a fusion of pineapple, strawberry, organically grown hemp, carbonated wa-

ter and some moxie. Grigaitis credits Jaclynn Rowell for “making taste the number one thing” in all of their projected beverages. After meeting next door at the Moon, a hub of the “mindful drinking” community, the pair began to test out recipes on some very simple equipment, both at the Moon and in their new laboratory/office. “I’ve always been a foodie,” Rowell says, “the type of kid who’d mix all the Kool-Aid’s together.” The stakes are higher today. But the pair is still engaged in some very elemental ideas of combining fun flavors that can be had on their own or as part of mocktails and distinctive enough to stand out in what’s becoming a competitive field. The fun part was making prototypes with “a soda stream and flavor extracts” at the lab, says Grigaitis, but the business component of all this was never out of mind. Putting together the right elements took some time. Currently, their production facility is at 4204 Main Street Brewing in Belleville, a spot that could accommodate Mighty Kind’s hoped-for growth numbers. They’ve secured Missouri distribution through Craft Republic and are getting closer to distribution in Illinois, as well. They’re also in Oklahoma, a state in which they can self-distribute and also carry THC-branded/THC-infused product. That’s not yet a possibility in Missouri, though he feels that they’ll be able to ramp up that production here, too, once,

PineBerry Cannabis Seltzer by Mighty Kind hits the CBD market. | COURTESY MIGHTY KIND presumably, THC drinks become legal. “We expect to add states in this year, still,” says Grigaitis, adding that in Missouri “we’re in a lot of the small grocery stores and are waiting to get into the bigger chains who haven’t yet crossed the line into stocking CBD drinks.” By the time they do, more time will have passed for competitors to have entered the market. At the moment, Grigaitis says, Mighty Kind is not at the very beginning of the race, nor are they at the end, obviously. But “the bigger brands are starting to get into the game” and

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establishing some brand loyalty is key. In addition to PineBerry, an Original can at 30 milligrams is available, with a 20 milligram Heady Lemon next in line. Not lost on him is the fact that one of the prime local bars to switch to at least a partial N/A lineup of products, the Blue Moon, is operating at only partial, outdoor capacity these days. So launching the product at this moment means getting into stores and onto the radar of consumers as opposed to having sympathetic bar staffers help make the sale. He’s figuring that his company’s retail approach in the “ready to drink” CBD beverage market will work. Though he can’t help but daydream of better days when he passes the few dozen feet from his home, past his fam’s bar, to his office. COVID-19, he says, “really wiped out the on-premise part of this, which is another big part of my livelihood. I’m a big fan of social gatherings, and it’s a passion of mine to get these into people’s hands in a social setting.” Once in said hands, it’s up to the flavor and the resultant sensations to make further sales. And having tried a Heady Lemon, with its 20 milligram CBD content, we can safely say that it: A) tastes good, and B) leaves you feeling ... mighty fine. Good job, Mighty Kind. Thomas Crone is a longtime Riverfront Times contributor. He reports on a weekly basis about new releases from local distilleries and craft breweries.

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CULTURE

American Ninja Warrior conducted a stealth operation in St. Louis, quietly filming a new season in the Dome at America’s Center from June to July. | COURTESY ELIZABETH MORRIS, NBC

[JUNGLE GYMS]

Ninja Wrap New season of American Ninja Warrior was filmed in St. Louis during the pandemic Written by

DANIEL HILL

L

ocal fans of prodigious levels of upper body strength and watching people play around on monkey bars on national television will get to feel an added dose of hometown pride when tuning in to American Ninja Warrior’s season premiere on Monday, for one really good reason: The entire new season was filmed right here in t. ouis. According to a press release from plore t. ouis, the Dome at America’s Center played host to some 150 competitors from June to uly while crews filmed the show’s twelfth season — the first series to be filmed for the NBC network since the start of the D- crisis. porting organizations across the country have grappled with the difficulties the coronavirus has brought to their competitions cough t. ouis ardinals cough

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This was the scene at the Dome at America’s Center. | COURTESY ELIZABETH MORRIS, NBC oh shit I better get this cough checked out cough . But American Ninja Warrior has the distinct advantage of being a solo activity, with only one competitor on the course at any given time. till, there s a lot of people behind the scenes making the show happen, and large groups of people can obviously easily spread the virus. ccording to the release, “more than 5,000 hotel room nights were used by contestants and production staff” over the month of filming. But, working with NBC’s production crew, the team at America’s Center took

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steps to make sure that the competition could go on safely. t. ouis was more than prepared to host NBC’s production crew for American Ninja Warrior,” says Kitty Ratcliffe, president of plore t. ouis. s part of our early response to D- , we sought expert direction from public health professionals to develop and implement health and safety protocols critical to successfully holding events. ... rom our local hotels to our restaurants and more, everyone had a hand in successfully and responsibly hosting this sizable production. e can t wait

to see the show and thank NBC for their invaluable partnership. The statement goes on to explain that the large production was a boon for local workers and businesses as well — local equipment rentals including vans, lifts and carts were used to help get things set up, and t. ouisans in the fields of security, medical personnel, skilled labor and housekeeping were put to work as well. “It took a village,” says Matthew Dewey, senior vice president and general manager of America’s Center. his was indeed a true collaboration between the facility, event staff, t. ouis ity ublic ealth Department, local unions, B and more to make it a success. his isn t the first time t. ouis has made its mark on the show in a fairly visible manner. ast season, the city s own yan hillips, guitarist and cofounder of rock band tory of the ear, competed on the program. hough he did not make it to the finals, hillips had nothing but glowing things to say about his e perience. “I literally couldn’t stop smiling the entire time I ran the course,” the guitarist wrote on Instagram at the time. m positive looked like a complete idiot! But it was hank you, for making a dream come true for me today. he first episode of the show s twelfth season airs onday eptember at p.m. n


Tom “Papa” Ray — and his record store — will serve as the stars of the episode. | SCREENSHOT

[ WA X ]

For the Record Papa Ray’s Vintage Vinyl Roadshow airs this week on the Nine Network Written by

DANIEL HILL

V

intage Vinyl, a St. Louis music institution for some 40 years — one that is frequently ranked as one of the best record stores in the entire country — is ready for its big premiere on the small screen. Papa Ray’s Vintage Vinyl Roadshow, a project years in the making, will be making its television debut this week on the Nine Network. As the RFT reported back in February 2019, the show is envisioned as a documentary focused on the independent record store as a cultural entity, with Vintage Vinyl owner Tom “Papa” Ray playing host. Ray and his team, which includes his wife Laura, who serves alongside Ray as a co-executive producer, first traveled to Santa Monica with the show’s producer, Brad Hodge, to pitch it in November 2018. “The pitch I was giving was this: What does it mean to be an independent urban record store in a city that is one of the great foundation cities of music in the world — we gave the world ragtime,

jazz, blues, soul, rock & roll, gospel — and yet somehow is always in the top-ten list of cities to avoid?” Ray told us at that time. “Especially after Ferguson, we are now branded as the Selma, Alabama, of the 21st century. So what does it mean to be that rarest of things in a city like that: a racial neutral zone? And what is the connection of music to culture, culture to music?” If all goes well with the premiere of the first episode, Ray and his team hope to continue the show as an ongoing docuseries of sorts. According to a November 2019 post on the show’s Facebook page, Ray and the other producers already have several episodes in the can. In this first one, the show will focus specifically on St. Louis, and Ray’s own shop, of course — as Ray refers to it in a recent social media post, the pilot is the group’s “love-letter to St. Louis and the healing powers of music.” But potential future episodes would see Ray traveling the world and visiting other well-known record stores and music communities. “The producer’s concept is, after three or four episodes about St. Louis — which I expect to have a heavy social and racial context to it, because that’s reality — then take it on the road, go to all these towns that have great independent record stores,” Ray told RFT when we first broke the news about the effort. “And this is not my words, this is the producer’s words: ‘I really want to have you out there as the Anthony Bourdain of vinyl.’ I said, ‘Really?’ But I thought about it for a while and I said, ‘Well, there’s two shows on TV about fucking cupcakes. Why not?’” n

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SAVAGE LOVE FANTASY FIGURES BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’ve been married for thirty years to the same man. I have dealt with his tantrums, his screaming, and his fits. He’s always had anger management issues. He strangled me once a few months after our son was born and never did it again. I would have left otherwise. He’s had relationships with other women but always swore it was just online. Then, a few years back, I got into an online relationship with someone. I never actually met this person, just as my husband claimed he’d never met the women he was talking to online. I had opened up to this person about our troubles and I talked about my husband’s anger issues and some other private things. This person encouraged me to have an affair, but I kept putting him off. Finally, I told him I did it, I had an affair, it was great, etc. It wasn’t true, but it seemed like that’s what he wanted to hear. About thirty minutes after I told him I got a call from my husband! This person had sent it all to him! All of our conversations, everything, every detail. My husband flipped out but we worked it out and moved on. Then a few months ago, right at the start of the pandemic, I found out that my husband has been speaking to other women. I also found out that he’s been meeting other women in hotel rooms in other cities and all this time I believed him about never meeting with anyone in person! He claims he has erectile dysfunction but it was clear from the messages I saw that he is having sex with these other women. So he’s somehow fucking other women despite the erectile dysfunction that prevents him from fucking me?!? I’m beside myself because over thirty years we built a life together and now I don’t know what my future is going to look like because of this. I can’t provide for myself monetarily. I still work full time but if I lose this job or retire, Dan, I will have nothing. And we both have medical issues. I don’t want a divorce because a secure future for both of us really does hinge on us remaining together. I know for a fact that he’s still seeing these

women while forbidding me from having even online conversations — to say nothing of relations — with another man. Neither of us can make it on our own. I don’t know what to do. Why wouldn’t he want an open relationship? Divorce Invites Serious Consequences Or Real Distress Your husband doesn’t want an open relationship, DISCORD, because he doesn’t want you to have the same freedom he does. And while he doesn’t want to be sexual with you for reasons that have nothing to do with erectile dysfunction, he doesn’t want you seeking sexual attention — much less se ual fulfilment — in the arms or inboxes of other men. Which means your husband sees you not as a human being like him, i.e. a person with needs and feelings and agency, but more like a car he keeps in his garage and refuses to drive and won’t let anyone else take for a spin. You’re not a car, of course, and you’re not his property. You were also faithful to him even as he cheated on you — even after he assaulted you — and you stayed in this marriage despite being deprived of sex and other forms intimacy. But even if you guys had been fucking on a daily basis for the last thirty years, DISCORD, even if your husband wasn’t an abusive asshole with anger issues, you would still have every right to indulge in sexual fantasies that don’t involve your husband and every right to explore those fantasies on your own time. Partnered or not, monogamous or not, we are all entitled to a zone of erotic autonomy. You say divorce isn’t a viable option for you, DISCORD, so I’m gonna recommend a different dword: detach. Make peace with your circumstances and the best of your living situation. Don’t go searching for evidence that your husband is cheating on you, just accept that he is. Don’t feel the need to confront him about his fucking hypocrisy, just accept that he’s a huge fucking hypocrite. And then, DISCORD, just like your husband, go and do whatever and whoever you want. You don’t need his permission to seek attention elsewhere. And if being honest about the attention you get elsewhere upsets your husband

— if being honest about swapping dirty texts with other men makes your husband and your homelife unbearable — then don’t be honest about it. Just as he made an effort to be discreet in order to hide the scale of his cheating and his hypocrisy from you, DISCORD, you can be discreet in order to avoid conflict and drama. Get back online, DISCORD, go make a new friend. And just because that last guy turned out to be a sadistic asshole who drew you out in order to blow up your life, that doesn’t mean the next

Orgasms aren’t the only sweet release. guy you meet online is going to be a sadistic or vindictive asshole. Billions of people get online every day to chat with strangers and millions of people share explicit fantasies with strangers every day. hile revenge porn is definitely a thing — and definitely a crime — it’s almost always jilted IRL lovers who lash out the way that asshole did. If it was even remotely common for people to be exposed to their spouses the way you were exposed to yours, DISCORD, if it happened even .01% of the time, we would hear about constantly. We don’t because it isn’t. But to be on the safe side, DISCORD, you might to keep it anonymous. Don’t share your real info with someone you only wanna swap hot fantasies with and never intend to meet in person. And when your husband is being an asshole or just generally getting on your nerves, DISCARD, you can fantasize about the statistical likelihood that you will outlive your husband by many years. Because orgasms aren’t the only sweet release. Hey, Dan: I just read your advice for CATMAN, the person who asked if there was a name for his specific and newfound fetish: He wants to marry a submissive bisexual guy and then pick up and dominate submissive women together with his guy. As I read it, I wondered is this a sexual fantasy or is it a fetish? Then I wondered what the difference is between a fantasy and a fetish. Is there one? Does it matter? Knowingly Investigating Newly

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Kinky Yearnings What CATMAN described — what CATMAN was looking for — was a relationship. He was fantasizing about his perfect partner and wondering if he was out there somewhere. Since literally everyone does that, KINKY, I wouldn’t describe fantasizing about a perfect partner/partners as a fetish or a kink. Vanilla or mildly kinky or wildly kinky, we all want that perfect match, i.e. a person or people whose sexual desires and/or relationship goals parallel our own. nd a lucky few manage to find someone who comes really close. People don’t just fantasize about sex, of course; people fantasize about dream jobs, dream vacations, dream weddings. (Wedding fantasies aren’t about who you’re marrying but how you’re marrying them, e.g. a destination wedding, a traditional wedding, a non-traditional wedding, etc.). But when it comes to sex, KINKY, fantasies are best understood as scenarios or situations that incorporate important elements of a person’s sexual desires — desires which may involve kinks or fetishes or may not. Think of fantasies as sexy little movies we screen for ourselves in our heads and kinks or fetishes as optional plot points and/or props. The natural follow-up question: What’s the difference between a kink and a fetish then? While people often use those terms interchangeably, KINKY, they mean different things. Dr. Justin Lehmiller recently unpacked the difference on Sex & Psychology (www. lehmiller.com): “Kink is a very broad concept that encompasses pretty much any form of sexual expression that falls outside of the mainstream. This includes the eroticization of intense sensations (such as mixing pleasure and pain), playing with power differentials, deriving pleasure from inanimate objects, role playing, and more... [whereas] fetishes involve heightened attraction to certain objects (like boots and shoes) and/ or body parts beyond the genitals (like feet and armpits).” So, all fetishes are kinks but not all kinks are fetishes. I hope that clears things up! mail@savagelove.net @FakeDanSavage on Twitter www.savagelovecast.com

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THE GREEN DRAGON CBD

IS A ST. LOUIS, FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESS THAT RECENTLY OPENED ITS FLAGSHIP LOCATION IN CHESTERFIELD Did you know that your body already produces cannabinoids every day as part of a key system that runs throughout your body and helps to regulate almost every part of your body’s functions? CBD is one of many natural cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant, and is used to promote overall health and wellness, as well as to deal with many health challenges. Our company’s mission, and the physical store itself, was constructed with the intention of helping to educate both existing and brand new potential users on every aspect of CBD. The education center includes video, wall displays and printed material to help customers explore CBD and related topics. The inviting environment, much like a spa, is supported by knowledgeable and friendly associates. We are excited to have created an animal friendly establishment, where 5% of all pet product sales go to benefit Stray Rescue of St. Louis. When you are ready to buy CBD, you have the largest selection of top-quality, trusted brands and

products anywhere. Select from many product categories to find the best method based upon personal preference:Jack CBD Oils & Tinctures, CBD Flower or Pre-Rolls, CBD Topicals, CBD Gummies, Edibles, Drinks, CBD for Pets, CBD Vaping…and more! In addition to the store resources, the online presence, at www.thegreendragoncbd.com has dozens of blog posts covering many topics of CBD usage, CBD myths, and unique testimonials from CBD users. You can also place orders online for delivery at-home. 15% off for all first time customers in-store, or go online for special web offerings!

The Green Dragon CBD www.thegreendragoncbd.com 14856 Clayton Rd Chesterfield, MO 63017 (636) 220-7278 Open Mon-Sat 8am-9pm, or Sun 9am-6pm


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