Education in St. Louis is a hot topic. We are, after all, the city of “Where did you go to high school?” a question so loaded with implications of judgment and box fitting it would make Cojo blush. Because, in St. Louis, where you went to school and where you send your kids to school means something. We all love to run through our "peek into your neighbor’s medicine cabinet" filter. It indicates income, status, religion and political views, just to name a few. It is such a hot topic I can clearly imagine the girls from The View tossing it around:  Elisabeth vehemently (OK, preachily) defending her choice to send her children to a private, elite school. Joy chipping in about her children’s progressive, newer-age (crunchy) school, and Sherri singing the praises of some uber-religious institution. And Whoopi, well, she would definitely support the public school choice, accredited or not. That’s just how she rolls.

Come April, the only thing in Busch Stadium more maligned than Mark McGwire might just be the good old fan favorite, the hot dog. Today the American Academy of Pediatrics published a policy statement online outlining the choking hazards posed by foods, coins and toys. Foods cause more than half of the non-fatal choking situations serious enough to require medical treatment in kids 14 and under -- and of choking deaths in kids under age 10, about 17 percent involved hot dogs, according to the AAP's policy statement.

With an eight-month-old at home, I’ve dreamed of a guidebook that would help me navigate that tricky first year.

This past week, rapper Jay-Z shared his reason for not participating in the 25th anniversary of “We Are the World,” a charity remake to help raise funds for Haiti earthquake relief. 

Said Jay-Z to MTV News, “I know everyone is going to take this wrong: ‘We Are the World,’ I love it, and I understand the point and I think it’s great. But I think ‘We Are the World’ is like ‘Thriller’ to me. I don’t ever wanna see it touched.” 

In a way, I kind of agree with him.