One of the fastest-growing cities in the nation, Olathe was reportedly named for the Shawnee word for "beautiful."
Category Archives: Magazine Writing
America’s Best Places to Live 2008: No. 12, Highlands Ranch, Colorado
Just 12 miles southeast of Denver, Highlands Ranch is a young unincorporated community -- only 27 years old this year. Settled by Native Americans long ago, it remained a series of farms and ranches until the 1980s brought suburban development.
America’s Best Places to Live 2008: No. 28, Gilbert, Arizona
In the early 1900s, Gilbert was known as the Hay Capital of the World. Today it is a bustling small city and the fastest-growing town in Arizona in the last decade.
America’s Best Places to Live 2008: No. 30, Chandler, Arizona
Feathered hats may not be the rage anymore, but Chandler's annual Ostrich Festival certainly is: It's the town's nod to the ostrich farms that used to dot the area.
America’s Best Places to Live 2008: No. 32, Bolingbrook, Illinois
Not too many places near Chicago can go by "village" anymore, but Bolingbrook claims the title proudly.
America’s Best Places to Live 2008: No. 33, Loveland, Colorado
In the late 1920s, Loveland's Spring Glade orchard was the largest cherry orchard west of the Mississippi River, contributing to a million-dollar cash crop.
America’s Best Places to Live 2008: No. 39, Shawnee, Kansas
With a heritage of pioneering and fur trading, Shawnee has roots going back long before Kansas was a state. Once a small farming center, Shawnee's population has boomed, more than tripling in the last three decades.
America’s Best Places to Live 2008: No. 44, Westminster, Colorado
Westminster's location between Denver and Boulder puts it within easy reach of regional businesses and entertainment. But there sure is a lot to do right here in town: movie theaters, recreation centers, golf courses, parks, hiking trails, and hundreds of restaurants and retail stores.
America’s Best Places to Live 2008: No. 47, Scottsdale, Arizona
The epitome of an upscale shopping destination – the New York Times described its downtown as "a desert version of Miami's South Beach" with "plenty of late night partying and a buzzing hotel scene."
My Morning Jacket Does an About-face
All Patrick Hallahan wants is a hot dog. It's an unnaturally warm Halloween night in New York City, and Hallahan and the rest of the boys in My Morning Jacket have just arrived in Manhattan, completely exhausted from the trip. The Tennessee-based band -- a little bit country, a little bit rock and roll, and very much indie -- is here to record their new album, Evil Urges, the follow-up to their critically-acclaimed breakthrough, Z. But the only urge they've got right now is for late-night grub, and they've got it bad. Good thing they're in New York City.