Saturday morning coffee

Good Saturday morning, campers--let's throw it around a bit and also check in on what's going on in the ol' Cowtown, shall we?

- Perhaps it's a fitting testament to successful professional team ownership that the Kansas City Royals have now lost eight straight while their local colleague franchise, Sporting KC (Major League Soccer), goes for the team's eighth straight victory.  Sporting KC is the only locally owned franchise in Kansas City.

- This month's GQ magazine named Baldwin's Men Shop in Leawood (located next to North at 119th and Roe) as one of the 25 best mens stores in the country and the "best place to buy jeans, period."

- In the past seven months we've experienced the deaths of Steve Jobs, Don Cornelius and Dick Clark.  These three men had, arguably, the biggest impact on music of anyone over the past fifty years.  Jobs, of course, simplified the ability of consumers to download, save and organize digital music.  Cornelius created a venue for soul music, introducing African-American musicians to a wider audience and creating opportunities for talented dancers to gain exposure nationally.  Clark, "America's favorite teenager," helped to legitimize rock-and-roll and helped provide a forum for new music artists to have a national audience.  No one has had the influence of these three on modern music.

- In Germany, Monika Moser was recently reunited with her cat--16 years after it went missing.  A hiker found the cat as the feline had apparently been living in the woods the entire time.

- Kansas Citians, check out Genessee Royale, a small restaurant located in the West Bottoms.  The bistro, started by those who own Happy Gillis, serves breakfast and lunch.  It's cool to see the renewal and development taking place in this historic area of K.C.

- K.C. also has a second Swagger location.  The popular Wornall Road bar and restaurant, featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, has opened a second version in the old Margarita's space on Holmes Road, just north of Jack's Stack Barbecue.  Swagger has an extensive beer list with some 60+ brews.

- Speaking of brew, craft brewers sold 13% more beer last year while the top 10 major brewers continued to experience sales declines.  There are now over 2,000 crafter brewers in the U.S.  (Source:  The Daily)

- Movie rental recommendation of the week:  Collateral, a Michael Mann film from 2004, starring Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx.

- Until recently, it's been unseasonably warm this spring across seemingly the entire country.  In a Gallup poll, 52% of Americans say the effects of climate change are already apparent; 29% say the effects will start sometime in the future; and 15% say it's all a myth.

- And, finally, perhaps shopping in thrift stores does pay off.  In Ohio, a man bought a print of a crudely etched face for $14 in a local thrift shop.  The print turned out to be an original--signed by none other than Pablo Picasso.