Kansas Day 1 - World Treasures, Wildflowers, and Wichita
Today marked my first full day in Kansas, exploring the state’s largest city Wichita. It’s not the official capital, that’s Topeka, but over the years it’s grown into the state’s unofficial cultural and business capital. I started out as I tend to by getting some coffee, at a lovely coffeeshop in the historic district called Mead’s Corner, which was sadly closed in the past year due to a new development project and increasing rents. I know I’m a slow writer, but it’s sad just how many places have had to close since I’ve been there. You would think places with historic significance might be safe, but alas progress marches on. The coffee was super good too.
One place however where history is very well preserved was an amazing gem of a museum called the Museum of World Treasures. It started as a small museum of Ancient Treasure from the personal collection of the founder, Dr. Jon Kardatzke, but it proved to be a popular addition to downtown Wichita and began expanding. By the time they purchased 3 complete dinosaur skeletons, it became clear that they were going to need a bigger space so they relocated to their current location a renovated 3 story warehouse in the Old Town district. They also changed their name to the Museum of World Treasures, because the collection had grown to encompass items from all over the globe and from all throughout history. The sheer size of the place cuts a mighty impressive figure;
Inside the, the individual galleries have themes, but the museum as a whole is just a magnificent hodgepodge of anything and everything that might inspire wonder. Just to keep you on toes, the museum opens with a 20 foot tall section of the Berlin Wall. It’s maybe not a treasure in the traditional sense, but this chunk of the wall is so complete and imposing that I think it really brings to life the horror and power the wall symbolized in a way that smaller pieces you see pop up in other museums can’t really muster. For me, I feel like this biggest historical focus the wall gets for people my age is the triumph of the moment it was torn down so it’s easy to forget just how long it was up and how much emotional and psychological pain it caused as a symbol of Communist oppression. To emphasize this point, the piece was complimented by a display of photos of people trying to scale the wall to escape and assorted ephemera. My parents actually lived in West Germany in the 80s, and it was a happy time for them so it’s crazy to think how different the world was a couple hundred miles away.
The first few galleries on the first floor were all natural history galleries. These began with an incredible 12 foot tall Tyrannosaurus Rex named Ivan, who was the biggest impetus for the need of a larger museum space. I loved that all the big dinosaur fossils had been given human names. My favorite for how mismatched the name was to the animal was Logan, a lovably named terrifying 34-foot long sea monster called a tylosaurus. Other fossil highlight include: a hideous Xiphactinu; a fierce ancient grey wolf; an adorable psittacosaurus or Parrot Lizard; and a truly bonkers specimen of a fish that was fossilized in the act of eating a smaller fish!
For a less boney animal specimen, there was this big fuzzy dope who had such a sweet smile for an apex predator:
After the animal galleries, I transitioned to the Rocks and Minerals Galleries, which featured an impressive collection of all manner of gems, crystals, and precious stones including huge hunks of real gold, baby blue feldsapr, barite rose, and gigantic amethyst geode crystals. Seeing all these wild shapes, colors, and sheens, it’s always incredible to me that these things just occur naturally.
My favorite fancy rock was this simple but exquisitely carved agate bowl, that a had a real tranquil, zen-like beauty to it:
The next string of first floor galleries were all dedicated to different world cultures. This started with Religious Art from Southeast Asia, featuring a room entirely filled with massive stone buddhas. The intricate symbolic carvings around the buddhas combined with the smooth calm faces were a real showcase of both the artistic abilities of the creators and the impressively versatile qualities of the medium.
My favorite was this particularly round and jolly fellow from China, because you just know they had to put up that “Please Do Not Touch the Buddhas” sign because of how rub-able his tummy looks.
Hindu artistry was also on fine display, with some insanely intricate sculptures and jewelry tied to religion and royalty from all over Southeast Asia. I felt like he bronze pieces were amazing for how well they conveyed the motion and personalities of the deities, but the gold jewelry was just so shiny and pretty it was hard to look away from.
Next up I hopped continents to Africa, where they had some centuries old sculptures made using a technique called lost wax casting wherein a piece of art is made with wax, a hollow mold is created from the wax, and that mold is then filled with molten bronze or whatever other metal you’d like to work with. This technique is believed to originate in Mesopotamia sometime around 4500-3500 B.C.E, and it was the predominant metal casting method around the world until the 18th century when more modern methods became more popular. I really liked seeing how versatile the different artists were with the textures they created from a heavily stylized crocodile to a more fully realistic herd of bulls, because you’d never guess to look at them that they were made using the same techniques.
My favorite pieces from the African collection were the ceremonial masks from different cultures all over the continent. I loved the dreamy, mythic (just a lil bit creepy) aesthetics, but the fact that they were also fully wearable, even that huge wooden one second from the left, was just some next level craftsmanship:
From there we jumped the Atlantic for some galleries of pre-Columbian Meso-American art. For me that meant a truly exciting amount of intricate gold jewelry (including the finest man/frog hybrid I have ever seen, which is saying something!) and ceramic effigy vessels that were just my favorite blend of ridiculous imagery with sublimely skilled craft.
My favorites on the ceramics front were these Quimbaya Slab figures because they had hilariously indifferent expressions and what I thought were outie belly buttons until the little plaque explained that the little bumps were supposed to be genitals and they were so high up because the guys are sitting on benches. I love it, and I love that nobody really knows what their purpose or story is. It’s a wonderful mystery.
The craziest things in this collection were a handful of items made from human remains, including a genuine shrunken head, a preserved Nazca trophy head (which is either an enemy killed in combat, or, more charmingly and strangely, a loved one), and a pistol with a stock made of bone. Pretty macabre stuff, but historically fascinating.
The next exhibit was one of my favorites in the museum: a 50 ft. timeline of coins from (almost) every single Roman emperor with annotations of highlights from each of their reigns. The designs on the coins were so impressive, especially given that some of the emperors only lasted 21 days before being murdered by a usurper. Beyond Julius Caesar, Roman history was a giant gap in education, so I was delighted by how much murder, conspiracy, and intrigue was in all the little stories. Our politics are insane, but no President ever got assassinated by their own mom. Emperors dying of natural causes were definitely in the minority. My favorite guy to read about was Claudius, because he was brilliant tactician and politician, beloved by a big chunk of the populace, but all the other ruling aristocrats hated him seemingly purely because he was ugly. Anyone who thinks the past was great is an idiot.
I also loved this painting Nero not quite having a big enough reaction to killing his own mom:
“Aw man”
The Ancient Rome love continued with some jewelry, pottery and art from the old empire. It’s incredible just how much has survived in relatively great condition after a millennia or two. My favorites here were: a relief from an ornately depressing marble child’s coffin and colorfully goofy mosaic portrait.
The next gallery went further back in time to ancient cultures more ancient than Ancient Rome (say that 10 times fast). There was a fascinating display of art, jewelry, and even a skull from modern day Italy’s Etruscan civilization. Researchers know very little about Etruscan culture beyond what was recorded in their art, architecture, and military history but the arts and craft-making skills on display were pretty impressive. The museum also had some items from Mesopotamia dating back as far as 3000 B.C.E.! My favorite piece here was a little stone cylinder carved with elaborate designs that ancient peoples would use like a signature stamp by rolling it across clay tablets to leave their mark.
From there we were back to the more well publicized ancient civilizations with various collected items from Ancient Greece. I’ve seen a lot of classic Greek pottery across all the art museums I’ve been to, but I’m never not impressed by it. It’s crazy how those ancient artisans were able to get entire stories and scenes on fully functional vessels. That blend of the ornate and the mundane is just so wonderful to me. I was also excited to see some ancient bronze battle armor because it reminded me off how briefly in middle school that dumb movie 300 made everyone really hyped on Sparta for a hot second.
Crossing the mediterranean, the next galleries focused on pieces from Ancient Egypt. Obviously my favorite items were the different mummies and sarcophaguses because they were the right combo of super morbid and stunningly crafted. In both the burial objects and the jewelry on display, I was shocked at how vibrant the colors still were after 2000 years. The blues in particular, from a material called faience, blew me away.
They even had an entire replica of a tomb room, with creepy exposed mummies and hieroglyphs of Narwhals which I would be fascinated to know if the Ancient Egyptians actually had documented sightings of.
Lastly for the Ancient world, there was a shout out to Macedonia’s golden boy, Alexander the Great who apparently went to the same Nose guy as Michael Jackson (which is a very topical and current joke).
Leaving the Ancient world behind, I made my way to the second floor taking a brief pit stop at a very chivalrous medieval mezzanine. Alas I didn’t bring the two guards a shrubbery so I had to keep on a-moving.
Most of the second floor was dedicated to military history beginning with a small display case dedicated to the heroic Tuskegee Airmen of WWII, an all Black fleet of fighter pilots tasked with protecting bomber planes. They were initially given short shrift of outdated planes, but they made a name for themselves by having the lowest number of shot down bombers of any escort unit. They were incredible soldiers, and their amazing track record led to both big gains in the North African campaign and the fight for Civil Rights on the home front. The display included a uniform from Wichita’s own Dr. Donald Jackson, who trained with the Airmen but too late in the war effort to actually see combat. He instead completed another kind of valuable service, obtaining a doctorate in Veterinary Science and opening his own practice which he operated in the city for over 40 years. He was a godsend to the city’s animals, and a prominent Black business owner and community leader at a time when that was far from common anywhere in the country let alone central Kansas. It’s definitely a less flashy kind of heroism compared to being a fighter pilot, but I thought it was sweet of the museum to just honor someone for dedicating their life to doing good things.
The first big gallery on this floor was dedicated to the Civil War, which “Bleeding Kansas” was a bit of a hot bed for before and during. The exhibit brought together memorabilia from the most prominent generals on both sides including McClellan, Grant, and Lee. They also had a big display on the Naval ships and battles of the war, which were genuinely fascinating and unexpectedly in depth from a land-locked state. Lastly they had some uniforms from the 1st Kansas Colored Infantry that doubled as a more general tribute to African American Involvement in the war effort.
Next up was a collection of historical firearms, with the craziest one being a musket with a hatchet on the barrel for hand to hand combat which was pretty Heavy Metal.
In the hallway to the next gallery, there were a couple of surprises. The first surprise was two huge, elaborate and beautiful tapestries from medieval Europe that were mind-blowingly detailed for things made out of hundreds of little threads.
The other surprise was a nice display about Charles Darwin featuring excerpts from On the Origin of Species and original letters. Wichita’s a big city so it skews a bit more liberal, but Kansas has been pretty famously anti-evolution in the past so it was a pleasant surprise to see the museum take a pretty big stance in a very cool way.
Next up was the Hall of President’s featuring portraits and quotes from all 45 of America’s Presidents. The museum valiantly presented itself as apolitical, but I did have fun noticing a disdain for certain presidents creeping in when it came to the quotations they picked. Note how Obama gets one inspirational quote and one very insightful distillation of globalization (I don’t care what you believe politically, he was pretty easily the most well spoken President of this century). On the flip side, Trump gets a catchphrase and an attack on political correctness (you know what he means but it’s a funny word choice for someone in politics who doesn’t get a lot of facts right) and Andrew Jackson, someone who has shockingly enduring legacy for having been just awful, gets cut down to size with his only quotes being an encouragement to avoid thinking and “I have always been afraid of banks”. That last one was surely taken out of context, but I laughed out loud. History is messy, but I like that the curators are having fun with it.
The next wing of the museum was the largest of the military collections bringing together several galleries related to various aspects of WWII. The first of these galleries was a real highlight for me, showcasing propaganda posters from both the Axis and the Allies. It was deeply eerie to see how similar the artwork was on both sides, because it’s crazy to think that in every war each side thinks they’re the good guys even when they’re Nazis. Nothing gave me chills more than the sight of a sweet bucolic painting of a girl in a khaki trenchcoat holding a fund raising can with a swastika on it. The scariest thing about evil is how it can just become a normal part of everyday life. It did seem like a bit of throwing stones in glass houses though by the Nazi poster artists to (even correctly) caricature the US as racist in the midst of the shit their regime was doing. And while a lot of the US propaganda against the Japanese was incredibly racist, there is something so deeply wonderful about seeing a cartoon of Donald Duck throwing tomatoes at Hitler.
The next gallery was all about the Pacific theater of the war, in which I give the museum a lot of credit for talking about the truly staggering death tolls that other Asian nations (though most extremely China) incurred at the hands of Japanese military forces. I feel like the narrative of the Pacific front is largely framed as the US vs. Japan, but there was a lot more going on within Asia with centuries old Conflicts between neighboring nations really boiling over in some truly horrifying ways. For various reasons, this “hidden holocaust” of the war never quite made it into popular culture or educational texts in the West the way other aspects of the war did. The museum posits that this was partially because after we committed our own war time atrocity with the atomic bomb, it would be a bit of pot calling the kettle black, and during the Cold War when China sided with Russia, we needed to foster an alliance with Japan and holding them responsible for war crimes might have disturbed that shaky truce. I would also add that undoubtedly a dollop of old fashioned racism would also be a pretty big factor for the ignorance around these attacks, as Western Pop Culture tends to homogenize “Asian culture”, ignoring lots of historical and cultural differences between vastly different nations. What is very hard to ignore, and I apologize for the faint of heart for sharing it (feel free to skip this block of photos but I feel like it’s important), is images like the one below of a Japanese soldier holding a decapitated Chinese civilian’s head and smiling for the camera like it’s not the most ghastly thing imaginable. It was haunting.
Next up was memorabilia from the European front, with uniforms from different divisions on both sides, a Nazi flag that had been captured and signed by all the American soldiers in the victorious infantry, letters sent covertly from Auschwitz prisoners as well as the papers German Jews were forced to carry around, and an incredibly emotional photo of French citizens biding their last free troops a bon voyage as they sailed to meet up with allied forces in Africa.
Now maybe this is years of associating Nazis with being the bad guys in movies and video games, but I couldn’t help feeling looking at their weapons and uniforms like they were also actively trying to look like the bad guys. It’s one thing for a regime to do terrible things, but they also looked really scary doing it which is just that little extra bit more evil.
Next was a smaller gallery of items from WWI. The guns and uniforms to my uninformed eye all looked relatively similar to the ones from just a few years later, but the thing that did turn my blood cold was a display about the invention of using and gas and chemical based bombs for the first time complete with a surreal and terrifying image of a soldier and his horse both wearing gas masks like something straight out of a David Lynch nightmare.
The next gallery was split between the Korean and Vietnam Wars. There were some amazing photos of beautiful countrysides (which I wish had been taken under happier circumstances), uniforms that had been adapted for the different terrains and climates of East Asia, spooky but awesomely designed Pop Art protest posters, and a nice shout out to brave USO performers complete with a sweet photo of Marilyn schmoozing with a group of soldiers.
Things took on a relatively more lighthearted tone with the next gallery about Medieval knights and days of yore. I’m sure these battles were just as scarring as the ones above, but there’s at least enough time and distance away from them to not feel still emotionally raw like all the 20th century wars do in so many ways. Instead it was just fun to see the pretty sword designs and marvel at how uncomfortable suits of armor must have been.
There was even some great religious artwork depicting crusading knights and ladies looking very stern and oddly sharply angular. The clothing designs are richly detailed but everyone’s face just looks so miserable which naturally I got a huge kick out of.
Next, we went back to more recent memory with a special exhibit about life behind the Iron Curtain. This gallery contained some interesting Communist trinkets, mind-blowing black and white photographs of bombed out Europe, and, on a lighter note, a special display about one of my new favorite wartime stories ever. During the tumultuous time of the Berlin Airlift, a US pilot named Gail Halverson felt bad for some a group of Children he met standing along a Berlin Blockade so he promised them that next time he fly by he’d drop them off some candy bars. They asked how they’d know which plane was his, and he said he’d wiggle his wings earning himself the delightfully ridiculous nickname Uncle Wiggly Wings. The good Uncle was true to his word and on his next airlift mission he had the soldiers in his plane drop candy bars attached to handkerchief parachutes to the children of Berlin. He continued to do it on every mission, and the crowds of children looking out for his wiggly wings grew in grew. Word of Halverson’s kind gesture spread, and his direct superior officer was unhappy about it, but it turned out that Major General William Tunner, who was in charge of the whole operation, really thought it was a sweet idea and encouraged other pilots to start dropping candy too, calling it “Operation Little Vittles”. These candy bombers eventually ended up dropping 23 tons (!) of sweets to the Children of Berlin over the course of the Airlift, and one soldier’s silly act of kindness snowballed into a massive act of goodwill toward the innocents caught up in international turmoil. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t tear up a little.
And Last but not least was a wonderful hodgepodge of Celebrity memorabilia that really went all over the map. My favorites were: a leopard print hat from Marilyn Monroe; a first edition of Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven; Lucy and Desi’s trademark pearls and hat respectively; autographs from the cast of Blazing Saddles; a vinyl record from the singin’ cowboy Roy Rogers; a ridiculous suit worn by Benny Hill; Robert Frost’s formal cape (a thing he apparently had); dolls that had belonged to Louisa May Alcott; and Aunt Bea’s suitcase from the Andy Griffith Show. I loved how little connective tissue there was between these items, and it just made me all the more excited for whatever was going to be in the next display case because it could literally be anything.
One of the coolest things though was vintage church organ which was a beautiful piece of machinery that also happened to be next to a little display case with original manuscripts by Beethoven, Mozart, and Frank Sinatra (the three great classical composers)!
After all that marveling at man-made treasures from around the world, I decided to make my next stop about nature, so I went to Wichita’s beautiful and sprawling botanical gardens, Botanica. Founded in 1987, Botanica now encompasses 17 acres of gardens containing all manner of flowers, trees, and plants. The first few gardens made for a colorful splash of a first impression with a vibrant collection of annuals and perennials from the region. The vivid flowers were complimented by elegant towering trees that provided gravitas and shade to the paths between gardens.
The wildlife was accompanied by occasional sculptures thematically linked to the particular gardens they were placed in. An early highlight of these was a piece called Harvest Joy by Gary Price that very cleverly incorporated the artist’s work with the gardens’ bread and butter in a really sweet way.
The first garden to really blow me away was the Margie Button Memorial Fountain Garden. The namesake fountain is one of Botanica’s most beloved features and for good reason. It is a whopping 35 feet in diameter, is actually shaped like a flower with four petals if you could see it from above, and features three levels of water, sprays, cascades, hand-painted ceramic tiles and lighting to really make it a breathtaking work of several different types of craft. While the fountain is understandably the centerpiece, the flowerbeds that spiral it around it are no slouches either with a rotating assortment of beautiful seasonal flowers making up the inner circles and the gardens’ award winning rose and peony gardens making up the outer rims. Taken all together it makes for an unbelievable strolling experience.
Up next I made my way to the Butterfly House, a 2880 sq. ft. netted habitat for over 50 species of native and exotic butterflies and plants they love. It was so immersive, and I couldn’t believe how comfortable around people the butterflies were. It didn’t happen for me but a couple of other guests were able to get them to land on their fingers. I just marveled at them from a distance, because it’s insane just how many intricate designs they have on their wings. I was also constantly impressed with their ability for camouflage as at least a dozen times I would think I was just looking at a flower or leaf when all of a sudden it would fly away.
Probably because some of them were so clever at blending in, the house also conveniently put a breakdown of all the species currently on display and what plants they gravitated toward to help point you in the right direction. They also had a display of butterflies still in the chrysalis stage of their metamorphoses, which was fascinating. Caterpillars turning into butterflies is probably the most magical thing we all get completely used to and unfazed by.
In a lovely moment of serendipity, I was able to capture this impressive Monarch posing in front of his own image. What a show off.
After the butterflies, I took a lovely shady walk through the woodland gardens, which were more rugged and rocky but also incredibly peaceful.
One of Botanica’s big draws is their massive and interactive Children’s garden. It loved seeing the playful art around these gardens, but it was a beautiful June day so the place was pretty popular and it felt really weird being there without any kids, so I let the children have their gardens to play in (Cat Stevens would undoubtedly be proud) and I went back to the main trails.
I was delighted to discover that the next garden I walked by was dedicated to cultivating plants that help provide habitats for native birds, and that as a way of making that more interesting for visitors they had included a gigantic bird’s nest fit for Sesame Street and a photo station where you can look like a giant turkey. I was so happy.
Up next was a lush aquatic plant garden, which couldn’t have looked more serene:
Continuing the theme of excellent water features, my next stop was the gardens’ Koi Pond Pavilion, a sheltered patio providing views of the entire estate surrounded by wonderfully goofy fish. The guy all the way on the right looks like he’s staring right into your soul.
The next few gardens pulled out all the stops on eye-popping-ly varied flowers of every shape and color imaginable. They were just dazzling.
This rosey fella was my personal favorite because the petal pattern is just so complex and intricate it’s hard to believe it just sort of happened without the flower having any grand intentions.
The next gardens were cute because they were accompanied by a meticulously designed model train set and miniature village that ran throughout the flowers and because the stone walls had hollowed out squares nearly filled with various plants comfortable growing at odd angles and adding a little to whimsy to everything.
One of the nuttiest things in this same garden as the train set was a potted flower that had been outfitted with a kaleidoscope so you could spin it around and watch it make surreally pretty fractal images.
Next up I went into the greenhouse where I was excited to see all the funky succulents and cacti that thrive in the artificial desert heat. These are easily my favorite plants because they’re all just so goofy looking.
Inside the main lobby of their was an astounding special exhibition of dreamy almost impossibly sculpted ceramic art from Japan. I foolishly didn’t jot down any of the artists’ names but I did get totally mesmerized by their handiwork.
Because I always forget to look up, I almost missed noticing that the lobby also had a pretty fantastic dome made out of Stained Glass. The dome had originally been built for a restaurant in the 70s, but when the business owners sold the place Botanica purchased the dome and carefully reinstalled it piece by piece in its new home. The process must have been nervewracking, but the end result is pretty glorious.
The last garden to visit was the Chinese Garden of Friendship, a beautifully designed tribute to Wichita’s sister city Kaifeng. Kaifeng was at one point the capital city of the Sung Dynasty, so the garden is carefully designed in a traditional Scholar style that was popular during that time period. This style of garden is divided into a Southeast part dedicated to finding a peaceful place in the “earthly world” and Northwest section dedicated to finding spiritual connection to the “heavenly world”. The entire space was filled with incredible art and architecture inspired by Chinese history, religions, and cultures, and it was really a wonderful and place to walk around and contemplate the nature of all things. I never expected to find this much traditional Chinese architecture right in the middle of Kansas but it would not be the first or last time I was pleasantly surprised this week.
My favorite part of the garden obviously was that a simple ceramic design that was on top of a garden wall revealed itself to be scales on the back of a gigantic dragon if you followed them all the way to the end. What a stately fellow!
And lest you think the garden was all art and architecture, the flowers there were no slouches either bringing in bold patches of bright colors everywhere they bloomed.
As I bid a fond farewell to Botanic after a lovely couple hours of strolling, I saw one more amazing piece of art in the form of a backlit glass painting of the gardens’ most prominent residents.
All that strolling had me working up quite an appetite so I made my way the charmingly aggressively named Bite Me BBQ. I knew Kansas City was famous for its barbecue but I wasn’t sure if it was the Kansas one or the Missouri one so I figured I’d have to sample both states’ wares just to be safe. I was not at all disappointed. I went big and ordered a two meat combo plate, which came with some monstrous slow cooked spare ribs, thinly sliced smoked turkey breast, fluffy mashed potatoes with white gravy, corn on the cob, and bread to clean all the sauce up. It was a veritable feast and everything was absolutely delicious. The ribs were some of the biggest and meatiest I’ve ever seen, but turkey is such a surprisingly rare thing to find in BBQ joints despite being so tasty smoked that it might have actually been the star of the meal for novelty. Throw in a very funny waitress who kept teasing me about being from Boston but not knowing anything about sports, and it was basically a perfect meal.
After dinner, I went to a fun little dive bar called Barleycorn’s where I thought there might be an open mic. I wasn’t totally wrong, as they do do (ha) comedy mics but tonight it would be a mixed mic with musicians too. Those can be fun, but they can also be tough and I was feeling exhausted from my busy day so I decided I would just pass on the entertainment for the night. Since I was there anyways though, I did enjoy the bar, getting a pint of Buffalo Sweat, which was a very gross name for a very delicious creamy milk stout from Tallgrass brewing. They also had pinball, so between that and some friendly other bar patrons I had a pretty great end of the day even without an open mic.
Favorite Random Sightings: a hardware store called Hep-you-fix-it; a delightfully otherworldly salon called Planet Hair; “Every butt needs a good rub” (a BBQ slogan); and a tie store called Uniquitie
Regional Observations: The public art in Wichita is weird and wonderful:
Albums Listened To Today: The Very Best of Kool and the Gang by Kool and the Gang (just Jungle Boogie); The Very Best of Sam & Dave by Sam & Dave (fantastic); The Very Best of the Meters by the Meters (just Cissy Strut); The Very Best of the Pogues by the Pogues (just Streams of Whiskey)
People’s Favorite Jokes: none today but one from the net-
Child: "Mom, can I go out to play?"
Mom: "What? With those holes in your pants?"
Child: "No, with the kids next door..."
Songs of the Day:
Some damn fine outfits
A Tour De Force
Bonus points if you can understand a single word Shane’s saying