Nose In Air, Tongue In Cheek

There's a magazine here in Kansas City called The Independent. I would imagine your city has a similar publication. The Independent's masthead calls it "Kansas City's Weekly Journal Of Society." It typically follows the tuxedo-clad social ramblings of our city's rich, famous, swanky and elite. It's pages are splashed with locally legendary names like Hall, Hockaday, Tivol and Helzberg. In other words, it's possibly the last place on Earth where you'd expect to find names like Regan and O'Neill, unless it was in a blurb about who swept up the hall after the latest cotillion.

And yet, there we are in this week's copy. In a column about the recently held Browne's Market 120th Birthday party, The Independent wrote "All the Irish from KayCee ("KayCee?") were present, including Rachel Casey and Ada Frazier from the Kansas City Irish Museum and Dan Regan and Keli O'Neill Wenzel from the much loved Kansas City Irish Fest."

Lest you think that I read the Independent regularly (they never seem to have it at the 7-11 on Linwood that I frequent) I was alerted to the story by an Irish Fester who works at the Kansas City Country Club. But I'll tell ya, I feel like Keli and I have taken quite a step up in the world. You might just see me at the Country Club next time around, dressed in a fancy tuxedo, milling around with the high society movers and shakers in our town. Yessir, from now on, look for me out there right in the heart of KayCee's beautiful and elite.

I'll be the one sweeping up.