Combustibles

“I didn’t know Mardi Gras was a religious holiday,” the kid said. “Well, it kind of is.” We were making Valentines. I was setting monkey stickers on a red paper heart and writing, “From Aunt Liz.” I had a spot of glitter on my cheek, and I said, “Eh, I’ll just leave it there. Mardi […]

Decline and Fall

When I was three, I went to Alcatraz. I was just visiting. They had our tour group walk into a cell, and they shut the door. I think they locked it. I think it was the darkest place I’ve ever been. I spent the next five years worrying about going to jail, although even in […]

Spirits

The mansion now seems as normal as the 1970s split level where I grew up. Which is nuts. That’s why I had to give all those tours, I guess. I started to worry I was like those New Yorkers who go through Grand Central’s great hall and don’t look up. If you can’t maintain your […]

Ballooning

“He looks like The Great Oz,” a friend wrote. I found this caricature while researching my house. Myers, the guy who built it, is in a balloon because he was a member of the Kansas City Aero Club. In his day, around the turn of the 20th century, flying was a dangerous, wacky hobby. Last […]