Up until this summer, Jen Everett had an ordinary routine. She would wake at 7:30 a.m., go to work as a project engineer for a construction firm and then come home around 5:30 p.m. to her partner and their thirteen-year-old son in south city. In her bits of spare time, though, she took photographs. And…
If a man were on trial for murder and adopted the “gay-panic defense,” it would sound something like this: I’m sorry I killed the victim, your honor, but he winked at me, and he’s gay, so that’s provocation. I deserve a lesser charge. On August 25, Illinois joined California as one of only two states…
It’s a Saturday in a small town in Missouri. There’s a beauty pageant underway, and a young teen — we’ll call her Tya — is nervous. She keeps to herself all day long. She thinks she doesn’t fit in with the other girls. She stays at the edge of room, looking in. She has never…
It’s hard to believe chef Rob Connoley when he says he doesn’t like beets. Consider his “Rolled Roasted Roots” dish. He uses the core of a red beet like the veal shank in ossobuco, then slices the remainder of that beet — plus a golden one — into thin strips, which he wraps around the…
When I think “quick weekend getaway,” I often neglect everything across the Mississippi River. That’s a mistake, because for years it meant I overlooked the historic hamlet of Elsah, Illinois, on the Great River Road. A friend and I visited briefly in July. Within five minutes, I found myself plotting to come back for a…
I consider Alton, Illinois, the undiscovered Sausalito of the Mississippi River. It’s a picturesque town about 22 miles north of the Arch, a place with dramatic topography and grand vistas. It also happens to have mysteries below the surface. And a Historic Museum of Torture Devices. The museum’s proprietor is Janet Kolar, Alton’s hearse-driving (and hearse-racing)…
Sick of hearing about health care? In late July, after seven years of promises and drama, congressional Republicans failed to pull off a wholesale repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare. Now this week, they’re trying once again. But even if this most recent effort loses steam, that’s no excuse to tune…
[THE SASHA’S SHOT] Cathy Thomure Sasha’s on Shaw 4069 Shaw Blvd., 314-771-7274 Cathy Thomure slung her fair share of shots during the seven years she worked at Novak’s, the legendary (and now-defunct) LGBTQ bar. Now she dwells in the more relaxed vibe of Sasha’s on Shaw, where she’s the general manager. But she still makes…
Dexter Peebles may be a 29-year-old St. Louis boy, but his alter ego, Cheyenne Devereaux, is a Southern belle relatively new to town. “Before, she was just mine,” says Peebles. “Now, sharing her with other people is incredibly freeing.” Photographed by Susan Bennet in her studio on Lemay Ferry Road, Devereaux danced to Florence +…
