I have a financial advisor named Rich.
Choosing a financial guy with the name Rich seemed a better choice than the one named Broke.
I trust my financial guy named Rich because I figure he either has excellent credentials or very optimistic parents.
What’s in a name?
Dale Brouk is a candidate for presiding commissioner of Platte County. Well, that’s the plan. He is seeking the necessary signatures to put his name on the ballot as an independent candidate for the November general election.
Over the years I’ve met Dale a couple of times in person, used to talk to him on the phone occasionally and communicated by email fairly often when he was with the team at The National and they advertised with us. And all this time I thought his last name of Brouk was pronounced as Brock. In fact, I’ve had many of his fellow Parkville folks in conversation with me phonetically refer to his name as Brock. But alas, a lot of us have been saying it wrong, it seems.
The other day I spent a little time on his campaign website, where one line says this: “Meet Dale Brouk (pronounced as Brook).”
So there you go. Mystery solved. I’m assuming Dale knows how to pronounce his own last name. And it sounds like “Brook.”
Now I have to break my habit of saying Brock.
Most short-term rental options are not getting the hyped up, over the top financial promises that were being made more than a year ago in advance of the World Cup, which will be in KC June 16 through July 11. A lot of property owners chose to opt in to the short-term rental market, and most are going to be disappointed with their World Cup return on investment.
Also, some businesses–some small, some not so small–made significant investments and staffing plans spurred on by the predicted 650,000 visitors they told the public were coming to KC. Reality is setting in and it is becoming common knowledge that nowhere near 650,000 visitors are coming to KC for the World Cup.
The Kansas City Star catches a lot of heat in many circles, often for good reason. But I’ve found something good to say about the modern version of the Star, so stop now if you don’t want t hear it.
The Star has moved David Hudnall into a position as columnist for the newspaper’s opinion section. Hudnall, a Kansas City native and the former editor of The Pitch, is cranking out some great stuff as an opinion columnist for the Star.
He has been thinking outside the box and producing some outstanding work, including some long form pieces on topics such as the overblown World Cup attendance hype. For a couple of months now, Hudnall and The Landmark have been the only two media outlets busting holes in the ridiculous 650,000 World Cup visitor nonsense. Hudnall had a piece the other day on a lawsuit filed by a former assistant city administrator for Kansas City that was absolutely top-level stuff that–with an assist from some details in that lawsuit petition–gave readers a rare inside look at some of the nonsensical things that go on inside the walls of KC’s City Hall.
So if you see a link to something in the Star, take note to see if the article is written by David Hudnall. If so, you’ll want to check it out. He has been exploring some stories and angles that in past years the Star would have ignored or glossed over.
Dude is killing it right now.
It’s going to be an unforgettable summer and early fall here at The Landmark. An old friend alert is on the horizon. Be paying close attention in mid-to-late July when we’ll be rejoined in the office and newsroom by a name that will be familiar to some longtime Landmark readers, subscribers and newsmakers.
We’re also working on another surprise for you, target date of around Sept. 1 for that one.
Add to that the crazy political summer it’s going to be in general, and you’ll want to stay closely in tune with your favorite newspaper.
New Platte City Mayor Amber Brune confirms she will be hosting a “listening session” on the first Monday of each month and inviting residents to come in for a group chat in a relaxed setting.
Something very similar was tried for a time by a previous mayor, Tony Paolillo. It didn’t work out all that great, mostly because the listening sessions were basically hijacked by the very talkative city administrator at the time, Marji Gehr. Marji would filibuster her way through those sessions without much listening taking place. I think Marji talked so much and so fast because she was worried that if she paused to take a breath someone might ask her about the physical assault that took place at her table at a Mexican restaurant involving her very close friend, who at the time was the city’s public works director, and the male friend of another city employee at the time, who was bloodied by a roundhouse punch from Marji’s very close friend and co-worker, as the restaurant’s security cameras clearly showed.
Marji’s non-stop jaw jacking was just one step she employed to try to keep her presence at that crime scene under wraps, but it eventually all came out, thanks to some investigating by The Landmark.
Remember, confident people don’t talk non-stop at 90 miles per hour. Confident people have the urge to say nothing. Because they have nothing to prove.
Anyway, early indications are that Brune has much better listening skills than Marji, so let’s give the listening session format another chance to see if it works this time.
(Jack your jaws via email to ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
