The Fez and The Fuzz

Cardinal baseball caps aren’t the only head-toppers of red in downtown St. Louis this week. The Shriners are in town, so the fez is on a whole lotta heads. And they are everywhere!

I got a kick out of one guy today wearing bright red pants, floppy bright red tennis shoes, and orange and red-striped leggings, ala Pippi Longstocking. Apparently, clown minus the make-up.

I felt bad when I heard that some of their vehicles had been broken into and a few mini motorcycles stolen. (One was later returned.) It’s kind of like saying, “Hi. Welcome to St. Louis! Now we’re going to bust up your trucks and steal your stuff.” Damn kids. Leave other people’s things alone, O.K.?!

To make their visit even more interesting, an alleged mass murderer/spree killer/serial killer (he’s been branded all three in different reports) was supposedly seen outside Busch Stadium on Monday night. The subsequent news coverage of this report yesterday morning sent Carole into a tizzy on Tuesday.

She called me around lunch time in a panic. “You be careful.” Yeah. Like what am I gonna do?

They ended up capturing the guy last night. Turns out all Carole’s fears were for naught. He wasn’t even in downtown St. Louis anymore. He was just a few miles from This D*mn House!!!

I’m glad they got the guy before he could do any more harm. (Assuming, of course, that he is guilty of the crimes they’re attributing to him.) Where he was captured is between a strip mall – where my friendly Ace Hardware is – and a Kmart store, and just down from another strip mall – an entire area that is usually filled with people at just about all hours. Recipe for disaster.

Talk about freaky. That’s just a little too close for comfort.