When Mr. Coffee Was The Must-Have Christmas Gift For Java Snobs

Few coffee aficionados are putting a Mr. Coffee machine on their wish list. But 40 years ago, it would’ve been at the top. The appliance revolutionized the quality and speed of home brewing.

A line of plants growing in hydroponics farm.

Should Organic Food Be Grown In Soil?

There is a battle going on in the organic industry over hydroponics, the technique of growing plants without soil. The debate gets at the very heart of what it means to be “organic” and may change the organic food available to grocery store shoppers. To be labeled as organic, fruits and vegetables are required to…

Lemon cake

SantaCon & Other Weekend Possibilities

No, that’s not your imagination. Santa is taking over Lawrence this weekend. SantaCon is back at The Sandbar (17 E. 8th St., Lawrence, Kansas) on Saturday from 2 to 11 p.m. It’s a pub crawl and meet up and there are more beards on ladies than you can believe. Santas are asked to contribute $5 to…

Wonder woman

Wonder Woman’s U.N. Job Comes To An End

The news broke this week: Her controversial tenure as honorary ambassador for the empowerment of women and girls will conclude on Friday.

chickpea, cherry, and ginger salad

Spokes Café and Cyclery Wheels into Quality Hill

Kansas City’s attraction to the pairing of coffee and bikes is more than a cyclical development. Spokes Café and Cyclery, a new café and bike shop in Quality Hill (1200 Washington St., Suite B), is the latest in a collection of bike and coffee-related businesses under one roof. Maps Coffee Roasters produces small-batch coffee roasted…

Ballerinas on stage.

The Weekend Starts Today

It’s going to be cold this weekend. For realz. Temps may drop to the single digits. In other words, it’s time to get out the wool socks and long johns. And, if you are are into it, whiskey. It is not, however, time to stay home and give yourself a case of cabin fever. Fight…

Keith Thompson

On Tap | Brewery Emperial gearing up to open in the Crossroads

After 20 months, an urban beer garden is nearly ready to open at 1829 Oak. Brewery Emperial, a joint project from Room 39’s Ted Habiger, brewmaster Keith Thompson and Rich Kasyjanski, joins the growing microbrewery district in the east Crossroads this month. “I’ve always liked what a brewpub represents for the community and neighborhood,” Thompson…

Florence Crittenton building

Take 5 For Your Health

KDADS Policy Change Creates New Budget Worries for Youth Psychiatric Facilities  Dana Schoffelman sees one way to keep serving Kansas children with serious mental health needs without going under financially: taking fewer of them and supplementing with out-of-state children. Schoffelman, executive director of Florence Crittenton Services in Topeka, has new financial concerns because of a…

A man playing in a band.

Honoring Innovation

Kansas City has been a special place for jazz for nearly 100 years. Since its inception in 1997, the Charlotte Street Foundation has noticed and honored this heritage, most recently by awarding a 2016 $10,000 Generative Performing Artist Award to pianist, composer, educator and band leader Eddie Moore. Moore is a popular and well-known presence…

Stiff Tab For Vital Statistics

Back in February, a nonprofit group called Reclaim the Records filed requests for Missouri birth and death listings from 1910 through 2015. The California-based outfit describes itself as a “group of genealogists, historians, researchers, and open government advocates who are filing Freedom of Information requests to get public data released back into the public domain.”…

U.S. Kids Far Less Likely To Out-Earn Their Parents, As Inequality Grows

“It’s basically a coin flip as to whether you’ll do better than your parents,” a Stanford economist says.

Fly larvae

Colorado Startup Tries Cutting Food Waste With Garbage-Munching Bugs

Americans waste a staggering amount of food. Instead of letting it rot and wreck the environment, some entrepreneurs want to put it to work feeding insects, and see the potential to revolutionize how we feed some of the livestock that provide us our meat. Phil Taylor’s enthusiasm for insects is infectious. The University of Colorado…

Title Reading: Go with the Flow: Holiday Edition

Go With the Flow | Holiday Edition

Tacos

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party & Other Weekend Possibilities

This is why you buy Christmas sweaters and wear them in public. The 12th annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party is tonight from 8:30 p.m. to 12 a.m. at the Tower Tavern (401 E 31st Street). The party is a benefit for Operation Breakthrough. General admission tickets are $50 and VIP tickets, which include entry at…

"Michelle T. Johnson On My Grandmother"

Cliffie’s Final Chapter Isn’t Her Last Story

This past November was probably my toughest month. The election, of course. But I also lost my grandmother exactly two weeks later. There are a lot of people I love in the world, starting with my first love, my mother, but my grandmother and I always had a special kind of love. Our communication dimmed…