E.J. Becker

first off, if you missed any of our day at the dole broadcast, you can find pictures and podcasts on our rundown page.

when you take the entire show on the road, there’s alot of behind the scenes stuff that makes the show interesting.  i can’t possibly remember it all so here are some of the highlights from our 20 hours in lawrence and our visit to the bi-partisan dole institute of politics.

-bill lacy has a picture hanging in his office where he’s talking to ronald reagan on air force one.  pretty cool.

-ellen took part in a media panel in front of about 100 people on wednesday night.  the dinner that preceded split 30 of us up among 5 tables and dole staffers led discussions about the media and the race.  each table had a nice mix of media folks, staff, donors and students. pretty cool stuff.  and ku’s catering’s good too.

-ray strother is the democratic fellow at the dole this semester and told us at dinner that the way obama has run this election will change elections forever.  his use of technology will forever change elections from presidential races all the way down to dog-catcher.

-senator bob dole never threw anything away.  they have a white glove tour at the dole that displays every trinket, gift, paper and thing that he ever received.

-mary matalin is a huge fan of bob dole.  and she does a great interview while travelling on a train between new york and washington.

-at least one of the ku students who took part in our town hall discussion is now a dedicated listener.  (thanks annie.)

-mark can fly the plane from an hour away and we still hear him jump up and down and flail about when he wants us to break and go to commercial.

-and the dole institute puts on a good breakfast.  the cheesey potatoes and gravy were great.

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behind the scenes bill lacy, breakfast, dole institute, e.j. and ellen, ku, mary matalin, politics, ray strother

if you’ve listened to the show for any length of time, you know that i like food.  i like good food…and it doesn’t matter if it’s cheap or expensive.  i’m just as happy eating a double cheeseburger from the mcdonalds dollar menu as i am eating a kc strip or pot roast nachos at the m&s grill.  every meal is an event.  so i make the most of it.

getting up between 2 and 3 in the morning really can put a damper on the first big event of the day…breakfast.  during the week, my first meal is usually prepared and consumed at 4:30am.  it’s often leftovers from a previous event (thursdays are the best because i eat the leftover burnt ends from the gas station) or a salad and chicken (i do try to eat healthy on occasion gary, but i won’t eat a protein waffle).

so when saturday rolls around, i’m always on the lookout for the best breakfast in kc.  what i’ve found is great variety (from andre’s to the blue bird bistro, from hy-vee to jerry’s woodsweather cafe).  but i’ve also found one particular kind of breakfast offering at numerous b-fast joints…i call it the cholesterol catastrophe. the restaurants that serve it call it something else.

last saturday it was succotash in the city market.  they call it “the kitchen sink.” it’s a pile of meat (in this case ham), potatoes, eggs, onions and peppers topped with cheese and then gravy just in case your heart is still beating. i am drawn to such breakasts because i like meat, potatoes, eggs, cheese, gravy, onions and peppers.  throw in a cupcake and we’re really in good shape!

the kitchen sink was fine. a relatively spicy sausage instead of ham…that would have made the difference.  (it also would have helped if i hadn’t had to send a plate back twice because it was dirty…and if the orange juice hadn’t tasted like celery — they use one juicer for everything).

still, i’ll probably give it another try.  they make pancakes as big as truck tires. i’ll probly give those a shot.  also, the menu has some interesting variety…so i gotta try again.  and…and they have BLUE velvet cupcakes…yes…i have my primary colors right.  last time i went, they were out, so i have to go back for one of those.

there are at least two other joints in town with cholesterol catastrophes and i definitely have my favorite.  watch for it!

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saturday morning breakfast blue velvet, breakfast, city market, kansas city, kitchen sink, succotash

You can tell it’s getting close to the big day.  More commercials than you can count. Constant talk about polls.  And the candidates are talking to Kansas City’s Morning News.

All week we’re talking to the folks in the big races in KS and MO, giving each 5 minutes to answer questions in as much or as little detail as they choose.  On Monday, Kenny Hulshof joined us for 5 minutes.  It was the first time I’ve interviewed him.  Clear, concise and had a good grasp of the time available to him.  I was disappointed that Jay Nixon did not respond to our invitation.

Today, Jim Slattery got outta bed and was in studio 10 minutes after the show started to take questions.  I was impressed…i don’t expect most folks to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed that early in the morning, but he was.  not sure he liked it when ellen brought up the whole urination thing, but hey…it was his commercial.

senator pat roberts joined us just after 6.  he, like slattery, gives a good interview (as you’d expect) and i don’t think there were any surprises…no “spread the wealth around” moments.

still to come this week, boyda/jenkins, graves/barnes and moore/jordan.

you can hear our interviews with the candidates here.

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behind the scenes e.j. and ellen, election 2008, kansas senate, roberts, slattery, urination

this morning, we had the third installment of our listener debate panel.  beth donovan, sam kane and kj turner were among the group of folks who volunteered to talk with us after each debate and review what they as listeners – not politicos – thought of the outcomes.

beth is a farmer, sam is a small-business owner and kj is a local webmaster. and all of these folks are really nice, cordial, fun to hang out with (at least early in the morning in a radio booth). but push the right buttons and watch’em go.

while we were prepping to switch topics from the economy, health care came up as the next topic to touch on and boy did things heat up.  as a matter of fact, ellen and i had to have been thinking the same thing: “here’s another example of when the good stuff happens during the commercial and never makes it on-air.”

not so.

kj and beth have very different ideas on “responsibility” (tom brokaw’s term…not outs) and they didn’t hold back (just ask mark who thought the control board was gonna explode because of the yelling). Check out the podcast here.

i think we came away with a couple of things.  first, there’s no clear solution to the health care question in the u.s. with such widely (and wildly) differing views.  second, it was interesting to hear how socialized medicine sounds so similar to having no health care coverage at all (again, this is in reference to the discussion on the podcast).  third, and this is something we didn’t have time to touch on, you have to wonder what will happen to the issue of health care once the election is held and the new president is seated.  will it be a priority or just another campaign talking point.

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behind the scenes e.j. becker, kansas city's morning news, kmbz, off-air, presidential debate

…has to be that video from the kansas city charter school that’s making the rounds.  if you haven’t seen it, it’s on our page at kmbz.com.

this was apparently made back in may and the teacher didn’t want it to end up online.  but it did and it raises some important questions:  should teachers be talking about politics or letting their politics rub off on students?  supposedly there are rules against it.  should the kids raise objections to thier teachers or can they?  are our young learing to repeat the mantra of someone else or are they learning to think on their own?

all, just some of the interesting questions that this video raises.  decide for yourself.

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behind the scenes

something different for lunch:  a kebab…at least that’s how i know it.  some people think of a kebab as meat and veggies on a stick.  i think of it as a pita, cut open and stuffed with stuff.  and THAT’s what i’m talking about here.

out on james a. reed road in south kc, you’ll find the olive cafe & bakery.  it’s a little grocery store with all sortsa stuff from mediterranean countries and the rest of the middle east.  there’s a deli with feta and olives, fresh breads and…and a fresh lunch menu too.

so i tried the chicken in a kebab (with hummus and cucumber salad) and the kofta (spicy ground beef) served the same way.  very tasty, very rich and very, very good. it’s a little out of the way, but it’s worth the drive. each sandwich, theoretically enough for 2, but a hungry person can certainly handle a whole one.  each was just under $5.  grab a drink and sit outside…enjoy the view of the …parking lot.

but believe me, you won’t be paying attention to the view for long.

when you’re done, just up the road is the cave spring historic site and nature center.   walk off lunch on the short but very green trails.  were it not for the occasional sounds of traffic, you’d forget you’re in the middle of kc.  and somewhere back there on one of the trails, there’s a big, pretty black horse (i’m sure there’s a technical name for it, but ellen would know that).  and don’t step on the turtles.

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other food

this can’t be good. they’ve given me a blog.  first problem is that the shift key doesn’t work on my computer so i can never get the stupid computer to type in caps.

here’s the good news, all the stuff that we talk about off the air, that never makes it to a (purposefully) open mic, we can write it here.

also, this’ll be a great place to talk about one of  my favorite things:  food. just typing about it makes me hungry.

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behind the scenes e.j. becker, kmbz, open mic