That said, has it been good?
“Honestly, if I center myself and think back to the campaign, to the things that made me feel like I helped Funk and was a part of it, yes,” Gloria says. “But if I pay attention to all the mosquito bites, it’s not so good.”
Mosquito bites like those allegedly from former Mayor Kay Barnes’ aide Steve Glorioso, who was fingered by KCPT host Nick Haines in this column for continuously phoning in dirt on the Funk.
Given Squitiro’s somewhat bumpy entry into the world of political backbiting, would she just as soon see it come to an end?
“Yes, recall him please,” she quips in reference to Internet sniping on her husband. “I beg you.”
Kidding aside, it’s been an extremely busy time for Family Funk.
“We’ve given up our lives completely for this job, and that sounds real whiney, but the reality is, we wake up living and breathing the job, and we go to bed living and breathing the job,” Gloria says. “We were prepared for hard work around the clock, (but) we weren’t prepared, though, for the level of viciousness. Honestly, there’s only maybe a dozen people (engaging in that), but they’re very vocal, and it appears like there’s more when there’s not.”
The question is, why?
“That’s the question of the century, or the last seven months,” Gloria says. “I mean, why would people want to stop you from helping lift up those who have been left behind for so long? Is it a sport? What is it? If I played like that, it’d keep me up at night.”
The high point thus far: “I guess it’s still what it always was,” Gloria says. “Getting the opportunity to do a whole lotta good for a lot of people.”
The low: “Coming to terms with the viciousness of it, and, I guess, after you’ve been married (nearly) 30 years, having to maneuver a new life. We never expected the celebrity part of it (for Funk). I mean it’s like being a movie star. The mayor? Who cares? But he can’t move without people coming up to him. They adore him, and they come up unabashed. But Funk is not into the power of his position in the traditional sense.
Stay tuned for more of the Gloria interview in Monday’s column.
Waiting on Dane
Good thing there aren’t parking problems at the Sprint Center. The time it takes for people to get inside is taking a toll on patience. Dane Cook, for example didn’t hit the stage until 7:57 p.m. last Sunday. He was supposed to be on at 7.
Tyler Harry, son of KSHB sports dude Jack Harry, and girlfriend Korie Decker, both 18, arrived about 15 minutes before the show and were greeted by a crowd trapped outside for the drug and weapons shakedown.
“It just took so long for us to get in,” Decker says.
When I got there around 7:20 p.m., throngs of people still were waiting in the concession lines, giving the impression that the show was being held up to make sure everybody had time to drop cash. After an hour-and-10-minute show, followed by a brief encore, it was over.
“It could have been longer,” Decker says. “For the price of the tickets.”
Heard on the street…
•Eat this: Harry and Decker ordered chips and salsa in their suite. The cost? With sales tax and service charge, it was $49.20 plus a 20 percent (voluntary) gratuity of $10, bringing the total to 80 cents shy of $60. That didn’t include drinks.
•MLS cup half full: That was the headline in ESPN the Magazine’s recent sum-up of Major League Soccer post David Beckham.
The good news: “Average attendance was 16,770, up about 1,200 fans per game,” ESPN writes.
The bad: “New York and Kansas City were abysmal at the gate, averaging 12,979 and 10,066, respectively.”
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