Susan Wiegand - Kansas City's Most Enchanting Personality?

Several years ago, my wife and I attended a fundraiser for some cause at the home of Scott and Rhonda Burnett. Scott and Rhonda are wonderful hosts - warm and fascinating people with great stories to tell, but also interested in the stories their guests have to share. And they tend to invite diverse, outgoing and interesting guests, so an evening at the Burnett's house is always an opportunity to expand your universe of luminescent people.

On the Burnetts' porch, we met a tall, graceful woman with a vivacious smile and dramatic but comfortable flair. She told us of her book - Cooking as Courtship, which she described as less of a cookbook than an approach to food. A couple weeks later, I ran into her at a breakfast spot, and she was kind enough to sell me a copy of her charming book. (Some friend has since borrowed this book and adopted it, so I need to buy a new copy. I don't resent my friend's adoption - I hope whoever it was is enjoying it.)

Since then, I have visited her converted fire house on Troost - a reclaimed building converted into space for her comfort clothing - Ideal Garment and Scientific Panty. I have discovered her book online, and I have discovered her blog. Go read this post on "The Stories We Tell Ourselves" and you'll get a taste of her thoughtful but relaxed approach toward life and living. Or try "Dressing the Part, 2" - here's the first paragraph:

We dress the part. We just do. We dress the way we think others will expect us to dress for the particular role we are playing at any particular moment. We dress the way we think a professional whatever dresses. We dress to look bohemian, or suburban, or to appear to be part of the elite, which is a very complex dress code, indeed, whichever elite you are thinking of. It is no easier to infiltrate the costume conventions of the upper east side, than it is to fool the second grade junta, or the trailer park high-trash. Cool is still cool, and you probably aren't, and you probably are going to try to dress in some way that will suggest you are. Or might be.

Some Saturday, when you're lounging around the house, feeling kind of blah and uninspired, head on down to the Firehouse at 4518 Troost. You don't have to buy anything, though you may want to. But you can't buy the sense of alertness to the beauty and charm of the world - she gives that away.