Bill McClellan

1 week ago | stltoday.com | Bill McClellan

“They put the last clean shirt on my brother, Bill” — The AnimalsI called my former colleague Joan Bray on Tuesday and asked if she was feeling triumphant. “I don’t know about triumphant,” she said, “but I woke up this morning with a serenity and calmness I haven’t felt in a long time.”The day before, a federal bankruptcy court judge had ruled that the FM signal for community radio station KDHX could be sold to a Christian radio station.

2 weeks ago | stltoday.com | Bill McClellan

I was at Woofie’s Hot Dogs in Overland recently. A group in front of me studied the menu, trying to decide what to get. After they placed their orders, I placed mine. A young man from the group approached me. “Are you from Chicago?” he asked. “I am,” I said. “I knew it,” he said with a grin. “I could tell from the way you ordered.”I smiled. It’s nice to be recognized as a sophisticate.

3 weeks ago | stltoday.com | Bill McClellan

The government is going after Harvard? I used to sit next to Eliot Porter. He was a Harvard graduate, the first one I had ever met. He suffered from Famous Father Syndrome. His dad, Eliot Furness Porter, was a wildlife photographer, birds mostly. The father had graduated from Harvard with a degree in chemical engineering, and then graduated from Harvard Medical School. Instead of practicing medicine, he became a photographer. If you Google him, you will find some of his famous quotes.

1 month ago | stltoday.com | Bill McClellan

John Wolfe Jr. was born in December of 1926. He was a curious child, very much into the news. As the world careened toward war, cowboys and Indians were replaced by toy soldiers. Wolfe and his friends dug foxholes in their semi-rural neighborhood in Ladue. When he graduated from grade school in 1940, the German Army was overrunning Europe. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, Wolfe’s father, a circuit court judge, enlisted in the Army. He was 46. He was commissioned a captain and assigned to intelligence.

1 month ago | stltoday.com | Bill McClellan

For 20 long years, beginning in 1947, the Chicago Cubs wandered the desert. They had a single winning season and even then they finished seventh in a 10-team league. They were almost always at or near the bottom of the standings. But they played on God’s own grass, under God’s own light. Their best player was the saintly Ernie Banks. Their fans came to believe in the virtue of suffering. It never ends well, was the message at the heart of our belief system.