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Author: rkcunningham

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Posts by rkcunningham

The Gateway Arch is lame

Posted on October 28, 2017 (October 11, 2017) by rkcunningham
in american history

Today marks the completion of St. Louis’s most monumental claim to fame, the Gateway Arch. Designed by Eero Saarinen and sheathed in stainless steel, the Arch instantly became the symbol […]

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Tagged Carl J. Ekberg, Sharon K. Person, St. Louis, St. Louis Rising

Fats Domino and Jimmy McHugh

Posted on October 25, 2017 (October 25, 2017) by rkcunningham
in music

If you like Fats Domino’s rollicking style of Fifties rhythm and blues, you owe it to yourself to try out The Complete Imperial Singles. It is a six-disc collection filled with […]

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Tagged Fats Domino, music, popular music

Make your own deep dish sausage pizza with this recipe

Posted on October 11, 2017 (October 4, 2017) by rkcunningham
in Chicago, food

Sausage, an inexpensive meat as long as you avoid foodiepreneurs trying to sell you fennel-infused giraffewurtz, still offers you the chance to go carnivore on the cheap. Homeslice in Lincoln […]

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Tagged Chicago Food Encyclopedia, pizza, recipes, sausage

Sausage in Chicago history

Posted on October 11, 2017 (October 4, 2017) by rkcunningham
in Chicago, food

In an era where you may find any sort of foodstuff on your gourmet pizza, the classic za with sausage not only gets overlooked, but looked upon suspiciously, as if […]

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Tagged Chicago, Chicago Food Encyclopedia, food studies, pizza

Cheating for more than just NCAA basketball recruits

Posted on September 27, 2017 (September 27, 2017) by rkcunningham
in sports history

It would be easy to call a significant part of the NCAA basketball landscape a cesspool of cheating, money, and other sins. Indeed, an oft-alleged mariner on those dark waters was […]

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Tagged Albert J. Figone, college basketball, gambling, NCAA, sports

Entoloma salmoneum, an attractive fungus

Posted on September 20, 2017 (May 2, 2017) by rkcunningham
in Illinois / regional, natural history

Entoloma salmoneum (Peck) Saccardo  Entoloma salmoneum can be found growing alone or scattered in leaf litter under hardwoods, or in moss under conifers; frequently on rotting, moss-covered conifer logs. When […]

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Tagged Andrew S. Methven, Michael Kuo, midwest, mushrooms, Mushrooms of the Midwest

It Is National Cheese Pizza Day

Posted on September 5, 2017 (August 11, 2017) by rkcunningham
in Chicago, food

The Boring Pizza? Oh ho, not at all! Cheese pizza is a godsend perfect for kids’ birthday parties and church meetings. An icebreaker. A hand across countless divides. A relatively cheap […]

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Tagged Chicago Food Encyclopedia, food studies, pizza

On Mutinus elegans, a mushroom both naughty and smelly

Posted on September 5, 2017 (May 2, 2017) by rkcunningham
in Illinois / regional, natural history, photography

Mutinus elegans (Montagne) E. Fischer Usually at least partially submerged in the ground; appearing like a whitish to pinkish or purplish “egg” up to 4 cm high; when sliced, revealing […]

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Tagged Andrew S. Methven, Michael Kuo, midwest, mushrooms, Mushrooms of the Midwest

200 Years of Illinois: They Haunt By Night

Posted on August 31, 2017 (August 9, 2017) by rkcunningham
in Illinois / regional

Forget Halloween. August is the time for monster mashing in Illinois. One peruse of the state’s long history of monster sightings shows that warm summer nights bring the cryptids out […]

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Tagged 200 Years of Illinois, folklore, monsters

Who Was Jesse W. Weik?

Posted on August 23, 2017 (August 7, 2017) by rkcunningham
in biography, Lincoln

Seven-year-old Jesse W. Weik was in the crowd when Abraham Lincoln’s funeral train passed through Indianapolis on its way to Springfield. Weik’s father, an immigrant baker and grocer, lifted his […]

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Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Herndon's Lincoln, Jesse W. Weik

Let’s observe National Soft-Serve Ice Cream Day one day early

Posted on August 18, 2017 (August 14, 2017) by rkcunningham
in Chicago, food

There’s nothing more American than soft-serve ice cream. It provides the dairy and sweetness we crave in an attractive shape atop a sugary cone that encourages mobility. And we dispense […]

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Tagged Chicago Food Encyclopedia, food history, holidays, ice cream

The King and Us

Posted on August 16, 2017 (June 28, 2017) by rkcunningham
in american history, biography, music

This week marks the anniversary of the death (?) of Elvis Presley, a transformative cultural figure of the twentieth or any other century. If you have memories of that afternoon in 1977, […]

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Tagged Elvis Presley, music, rock and roll music
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