Mike Matson

A barber down the street kept a bowl of bubble gum in a cabinet, an incentive for kids in the chair for the first time to sit still for a trim. Doyle’s Barbershop was a one-man operation. He was a World War II veteran, who came complete with a demand-driven service-based skill, tattoos, white short-sleeve smock with shoulder snaps, and pockets bristling with tools. Kids from the Wichita neighborhood that was actually called Pleasant Valley could waltz in and snag a piece or t

Since the beginning of the year, those of us who live north of town out near the lake have been unable to get from Point A to Point B efficiently. When completed, new roundabouts at the intersections of U.S. Highway 24 and Kansas Highways 13 and 113 will save time and lives. Part of the work on K-13 involves installing a massive culvert box, a sort of poster child for infrastructure. A rectangular, reinforced concrete structure to channel stormwater under the roadway to pre

My name does not appear on the rolls of the Screen Actors Guild. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences remains blissfully unaware of my existence, much less inclined to shower me with nominations, though a man can dream. And if you go looking for me on the Internet Movie Database, prepare for disappointment. Still, your every-other-weekend Manhattan Mercury columnist has, in fact, managed to flicker across the silver screen. Three times. In one year. At 20, I w