St. Louis Post-Dispatch Kevin Horrigan column

Source: St.迷你倉 Louis Post-DispatchDec. 28--A poll on the determinedly hip blog ghosted for St. Louis' decidedly unhip mayor, Francis Slay, asks St. Louis to choose from among the 50 most "influential persons, groups, places, ideas and events" of the year in St. Louis. One of the nominees is "whiskey bars."Whiskey bars? Is there another kind?In ancient times, all bars were whiskey bars, places where a man could go for a shot and/or a beer and not worry too much about hipness.Apparently this is over. In May, GQ Magazine announced that "Thanks to a new generation of genius bartenders and rebel distillers, whiskey is the official drink of the people."In October, the Gamlin Whiskey House in the Central West End (naturally) became St. Louis' first "whiskey house." According to the aspirationally hip Sauce Magazine, the bar has 270 whiskeys and makes "more than four dozen whiskey-centric cocktails.""The highly anticipated restaurant will focus on paring whiskey with creatively prepared comfort food," the magazine reported.Not being hip, my guess is that they focus on "pairing" whiskey and comfort food, not "paring" it, which is something you'd do to a carrot or a budget. I could be wrong. Maybe carrots and whiskey are the next big thing. I would be the last to know.My utter lack of hipness was a handicap in making my selections in the mayor's poll. I am not in the target demo for MayorSlay.com, which is focused on convincing young people, gay people, dog-loving people and bike-riding people that a man who wears a blue suit, white shirt and tie to cut his grass is, in fact, the mayor of all the hipsters.It seems to work. Another of the "influential persons, groups, places, ideas and events" on the MayorSlay.com poll is "Historic 4th Term." That would be Mayor Slay's fourth term, which he won in April, one month before holding his first fundraiser for what we can only assume will be the "Historic 5th Term," which (if everything breaks just right) could precede his election in 2018 for his "Historic 1st Term" as St. Louis County-that-Includes-the-City executive.A few of the "influential persons, groups, etc." on the list were familiar. "Hot-spot policing" is a novel new law-enforcement concept that calls for deploying more police officers in high-crime areas. Genius.Speaking of which, "donuts" are on the list, thanks to their having been rediscovered shortly before whiskey; to my knowledge, there are no donut-and-whiskey bars, but I could be wrong.I'm familiar with "Michael A. Wolff," the new dean of the St. Louis University Law School, with whom I've spent some time in bamini storages that aren't technically whiskey bars but just bars that serve whiskey. I knew that "IKEA" and "Whole Foods" referred to plans by these retailers to open stores in the city, thus adding immeasurable hipness, and "goats" referred to the mayor's urge to let goats do some of the mowing on city property. For reasons that defy understanding, goats are hip.I realized that "Boeing" was a reference to the goodie bag that the Democrats and Republicans for Millionaires coalition has prepared for an aircraft company, and that "guns" and "crime stats" were related and that "Veolia" referred to the mayor's efforts to spend $250,000 on a water department consulting contract that somehow was related to bus service on the west bank of the Jordan River.I was a little confused about the nomination for the "Sustainability Plan." Apparently the reference was to the city's sustainability plan, which (according to its mission statement) "harnesses the strength and spirit of its diverse community to create an economically, socially and ecologically vibrant City for present and future generations -- one that dynamically serves those who live, work, and play in the City's rich and celebrated historic landscape."However, it could be a reference to East-West Gateway's regional sustainability plan, OneSTL, which "is a plan for creating a prosperous, healthy, and vibrant St. Louis region. The Plan includes a vision, goals and objectives that outline what the people of St. Louis want for the future of the region as well as strategies, tools and resources for achieving the OneSTL vision."Are two sustainability plans sustainable? I do not know, but that's a lot of jargon to absorb. And what is sustainability, anyway?Also, is "OneSTL" different from "Better Together STL" or "Let's Talk St. Louis"? All three are nominated, but one is a sustainability plan, one is a community engagement process for recombining the city and county and one is a business engagement project.So I don't know who the most "influential persons, groups, places, ideas and events" of the year are. It's probably Walter Metcalfe, who pulled the whole Arch grounds project together, or Michael Wacha, the Cardinals' wonder, who staged the biggest arrival in St. Louis since Pierre Laclede. And Metcalfe can't get lefthanded hitters out.If the mayor could get Wacha to take a goat on a bicycle to IKEA and a whiskey bar, that would be totally sustainable. What a year that would be.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Visit the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at .stltoday.com Distributed by MCT Information Services儲存