Chef's picks from today's paper

This week's edition of The St. Louis American is sure to disappear from supermarket newstands almost instantly, and not only because its political commentary antagonizes a candidate or two running street operations that are known to pull pleasant stunts, like taking down the opponent's yard signs or dumping stacks of papers that take them to task.

This paper will go fast because it has a particularly tempting McDonalds coupon insert.

I caved in today and redeemed one of the coupons in the insert: medium fries free with the purchase of a Big Mac. I'm sorry, the Big Mac remains a delicious sandwich; and my daughter (six-piece chicken nugget, small vanilla shake) and I dined at a suburban franchise that served the freshest damn lettuce I have ever encountered on a piece of junk food.

Gutter cuisine has its appeal. Though there was no chef working the room at Mickey D's pointing out house favorites on the menu, I hereby offer the kitchen's picks from this week's American:

* I love Sandra Jordan's profile of a local couple making and marketing panty hose for women of color;

* Bill Beene speaks with an ESL sister girl writing songs for the likes of Hannah Montana;

* Jessica Bassett has a heartwarmer about when the professor meets the projects;

* Carol Daniel delivers painful truths about raising a generation of spoiled children; and

* The Political EYE pens an open letter to Chief Joe Mokwa.

With no results yet from our document request, we didn't have a whole lot to add to the Joe Mokwa towing scandal story by way of news, though Alvin A. Reid and I split a byline on a piece that ties the scandal to the outcry for City control of the City police and shows how Mayor Francis G. Slay was ducking for political cover on his token "no" vote against Mokwa's severance package.

I'm waiting for the documents before I believe what has been reported about that severance package. (The free legal fees were certainly the whopper!) Ed Rhode of the Mayor's Office tells me there is no record of Slay, Chief of Staff Jeff Rainford, or Director of Personnel Richard Frank corresponding about this crucial matter, which means either Easy Ed didn't look hard enough or it was all worked out over at St. Raymond's.

The City police, who have been nice enough to check in on Confluence City from time to time (hi, Erica!), still owe us an accounting of this. I don't think a severance package assembles itself!