I never had any seasonal allergies growing up, but upon moving to Kansas City I seem to have developed some. At work they mow the grass every Monday, and when I walk up the hill to the gym to work out I start out as a functioning human being and arrive at the gym as a sniffling, sneezing mess. I had bronchitis last month, and while I was at the doctor he told me that he's heard of many people developing allergies as soon as they move to KC. I guess in this case I really am allergic to the city.

Kansas City recently had a pair of municipal elections to, among other things, elect our next mayor. The gentleman who won has a wacky surname (earning my vote immediately after a cursory inspection of his platform) and looks like Saruman the White. In the picture on this page he is smiling somewhere beneath that vicious beard, but in his campaign literature that was mailed around he was often scowling, even when surrounded by small children. That he won despite his image just goes to show the power of a funny name in a local election. Now Mayor Funkhouser, gaze into your seeing stone and ask the Dark Lord if we should build a light rail system...