boone county fair

spent the last week working long days at the county fair. like any good team, our photo staff left it all on the court. the fair itself struggled a bit with the weather. stormy the first few days and then unbearably hot. lessons learned: stop torturing myself and wear shorts, less planning and more wandering, fair car racing calls for earplugs, take at least one ride on the ferris wheel, more carnival, more scene-setters, less "event" and more "life."


Emma Piotter, 11, holds Brixie, a dark Brahma Bantam rooster, as sister Corey, 13, cleans his feet before the poultry competition on Wednesday.



Sydney Westfall, 12, pets her rabbit Daisy in the small animal tent.



Alex Kerr-Totten, left, watches as judge Tony Perryman evaluates his chicken during the poultry competition. Kerr-Totten won the reserve champion ribbon for the large hen category.



Zach Westfall, left, and Kyle Perry, right, react to an unfavorable first place decision by judge Sharon Stephens in the Mini Rex breed category. Perry's sister Laura took the championship ribbon.



(Left to right) Kelly Wilsdorf, 13, Kelsay Bruns, 11, Laura Perry, 11, and twins Ella and Clara Wright, 11, wait for judge Sharon Stephens during the Best of Breed Class 4 bucks compeition in the Small Animal tent.



Braden Clayton smiles at the judges during the 2-year-old division of the baby boy contest.



Danielle Mortimer performs a baton routine that earned her second place in the junior talent show.



Bryan Biswell, 14, right, smiles as Boone County Fair Queen Ally Walker exits the stage after kicking off the Fiddler's Frolic.



Johnny Izgrig, 17, and Leslie Rice, 16, of Centralia, watch the side-by-side mud racing through the Grandstand fence.



Dawn Sherrill, Boone County Fair Queen First Runner-Up, wipes mud from her boots before entering the multipurpose room for the talent show.



Derrek West, 12, waits outside the barn after cleaning his steer for competition.



Sarah Grant, 10, leans on her steer Gabriel after cleaning him for competition. Grant raised the steer from a bottle calf. "He's so sweet," says Grant, "He doesn't really care if I lay all over him."



Sarah Grant, 10, relishes the moment after getting a blue ribbon for her steer Gabriel as her father David, left, praises her performance in the ring.



Sampson, a Boston Terrier, carries a horseshoe clipping around the barn before the start of Society Horse Show Finals.



Boone County Fair Queen Ally Walker kills time before a ceremonial ride around the main arena for the Society Horse Show.



Cheryl Perkins relaxes as a friend styles her hair for saddlebred competition in the Adult English Pleasure Championships.



Cheryl Perkins rides Trefethen to a second place finish in the Country English Pleasure Championship at the Boone County Fair.



Kara German rides Worthy's Sunflower in the Pleasure Equitation Championship.

randomness. i've been working on a story since memorial day, hence the daily grind posts. more on that later.

backyard mood lighting.


big necklaces are all the rage. didn't you know?


local soccer team holds a last practice in the dark before an international tournament.


creek walk on a rainy day.


local drum corps and dance team practice for upcoming shows.

in the summer months our sports department is strapped for stories. with no collegiate games and the nearest pro-baseball team in st. louis, they start thinking outside the box and we get some great non-traditional stories. i wish we did more of this during the sports high-season. there's a lot of passion at all levels of play and great stories on and off the bench, or field, or sportscourt.

pee-wee football


a local fire cheif's son was the focus of the story that day. bo suffered a concussion the day before and was unhappy sitting out most of that day's tournament play. "Coach I feel fine, I really feel OK."



sarah carlisle started training dogs at age 8. she was the youngest person ever to win the U.S. National Junior Dog Agility Championship in 2006. the dog she competed with in that event died two weeks later of kidney failure. "I learned that you never know when your last day with that dog will be. You just have to love them every minute."

she's starting at the bottom of the dog agility circuit again with two new dogs, mira and charlie. "I compete for the joy of my heart and the love of my dog," she explains. Ribbons don't mean much.

i'm excited the 2008 poynter summer fellows are finally posting stories online. the fellowship was an amazingly intense time for me last year. i was beginning to get impatient. how can i live vicariously through the new fellows without a web update!

looks like this year there's more video and broader beats. the learning curve to develop new skills and explore a new community is steep, but keep checking back. every week is better than the last.

for those headed to st. pete for this year's geekfest, the poynter fellows archive is a great place to get a feel for the different neighborhoods. reading the st. pete times and searching their free archive is also inspirational. so much good journalism goes on in that *other* bay area.

the missouri redneck games weren't quite up to the standard of the original, but we had a fun staff outing.

entertainment included toilet seat horseshoes...



a john deere obstacle course...



bobbing for pig's feet...



and a mud pit for belly flops and other madness.













yee-haw. you can see our staff audioslideshow here.

senior show-me state games. billiards.

photographed a memorial service for two lawmen killed 75 years ago. the local sheriff Roger Wilson, and missouri state-trooper Ben Booth, the first to die in the line of duty, were shot by suspected bank robbers at a roadblock in 1933. the story of that day was recited by a highway patrol historian. i was moved by the inclusion of the story of the survivors, the wives and children left behind to endure the Depression. there were no death benefits for troopers at the time.

Rae Jesse, a niece of the state trooper, placed roses on the grave of Alice Booth who raised two children on her own after her husband's murder. “She was a trooper, too,” Jesse said.

while i get some photos together for an update, i'll afflict you with the latest marketing effort by the Get About Columbia Coalition. it's the catchiest jingle i've heard in a long time and it actually makes me smile when i hear it and then it makes me want to bike or walk instead of drive. argh, effective.




the little 5-note whistle has become a verb in the tribune photo department.. as in "Did you woo-woo-woo-woo-woo to pizza lunch today?"

ps, and if anyone has an idea what words best describe a whistle other than "woo", let me know.

the a/c in my house has been on again off again (mostly off again) the past two weeks. until the landlord replaces the condenser, i'm doomed to fitful sleep on sweaty sheets. sounds restful, don't it? this has only increased my fantasizing about moving to another house in the neighborhood.

in the current fantasy i have a broad wooden front porch lined with honeysuckle that sits up a small rise from the street. i'm swinging in a hammock in the night breeze, the sky doing that after-dusk-indigo-fade-to-black thing. i can hear crickets and frogs. a neighbor passes by on an old creaky bicycle. fireflies swim lazy figure-eights below.

i've run the neighborhood a lot this month looking for new "for rent" signs. nothing yet. maybe the porch will have to stay a fantasy for another year.

without changing anything, though, my neighborhood is pretty sweet. i'm about a mile from a great swimming lake, a mile from my office, biking distance from good coffee, good indyfilms, and good friends. last night i walked over for a hitchcock movie in the park (very reminiscent of austin, without the parking nightmare).

i'm trying hard to recognize the salad days and enjoy them in the moment. nothing against shakespeare, but every time i use that phrase i thank the coen brothers for raising arizona. brilliant in so many ways. i tried to find the one specific clip from the movie, but if you care to watch, it's 3/4 of the way through this one.



seize your salad days.

101

the barrage of today's updates has pushed me over 100 blog posts. thanks for keeping up with me, all 10 of you.

yesterday there was a soapbox derby down broadway.

T’Shere Peal, right, plays catch-up with Christopher Willard in their first-round race down Broadway in yesterday’s annual Soapbox Derby Race, sponsored by the Downtown Optimist Club.


Haley McKernan, 8, of Columbia lays a hand on her soapbox racing car, “Haley’s Comet,” before the start of her first ever competition.