Assignment: Hiking The Location: Undisclosed Boone County The house that I grew up in had a heavily wooded and unexplored jungle just beyond my backyard where my neighborhood friends and I would spend most of the summer. Wandering through that forest, we would create forts, fish in the lake or forage for anything edible we […]
Assignment: Dog-Friendly Dining The Location: Logboat Brewing Co. I’ve always been a dog person. Throughout the years, I have met just about every breed of canine. I enjoy getting to know each and every one of them, as dogs seem to have completely different personalities. Since I like to get them riled up as I […]
Assignment: First Fridays The Location: North Village Arts District If you haven’t experienced the festivities at First Friday in the North Village Arts District, you’re missing out on a fun evening. I think everyone should make it a point to head over and see how that area comes to life during the twilight hours once a month. […]
Assignment: Opening Day for the Kansas City Royals The Location: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri Nothing signals the start of summer like Major League Baseball. In February, I was concerned that summer wouldn’t happen because of the MLB lockout, but the players and owners were finally able to settle their differences just in time to belatedly start […]
The goddess has left the building. She is the Roman goddess of fertility. Her moods cause the seasons to change. And the common people of Rome identified with her more than any other god. When the 10-foot-4 statue of Ceres, goddess of agriculture, mounted the Missouri State Capitol dome in 1924, she planned to stay […]
At some point in our lives we become primary caregivers for an aging family member. My most recent patient wasn’t a parent or a pet. It was a Pontiac. From the tow truck’s shotgun seat, looking through a shoebox-sized side mirror at my car in chains, I had time to reflect on her journey. In […]
Your children were perfect angels when they visited Santa. They get that from you. But not everybody’s Santa experience was perfect. Not mine. My bad Santa experience happened when I was a grown adult. My first job out of the Mizzou School of Journalism was selling advertising for the Rolla Daily News. As the rookie […]
You don’t see this every day, not on a Midwest neighborhood side street. Riding my bicycle home from the MKT Trail, I cut through one of Columbia’s stately old neighborhoods, a sweet spot tucked behind Garth and Rollins streets, populated by 80-year-old trees and the professors who planted them. The streets are quiet, more bicycles […]
The November entertainment calendar in any college town is bound to be a little lopsided. There’s usually a flurry of shows and activities during the first few weeks before things quiet down following the Thanksgiving egress. Quietly, though, since nature abhors a vacuum, comes the influx of prodigal BoCoMo natives to gather with family and […]
I was running late. Hannibal was still an hour away. So I took a short cut. My car was making good time on the back roads, slicing down straightaways that squeezed between flat soybean fields, where traffic is sparse. The phone lines drooped and rose in rhythm from one telephone pole to the next. My […]
More than any of the blues fests I’ve attended over the years, this month’s Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival in Stephens Lake Park showcases local players front and center and in their best light. Any given year Chump Change, the Bel Airs, Fried Crawdaddies and their ilk have kept the tone fierce but mellow […]
Assignment: Vacation The Location: North Captiva Island I rarely take a vacation. I consider myself lucky because I enjoy my work. What I do doesn’t really feel like work. That’s why I named my company Recess, Inc., because it’s playtime all the time. So, when I do take a vacation it is usually forced upon me. I […]
They do it at Disneyworld. They do it in Colorado. And now you can do it in Columbia. While world-class talent entertains you from two stages at this year’s Roots N Blues N BBQ Festival, you’ll be wearing the latest digital fashion. Roots N Blues N BBQ is going cashless. Put away your wallet and […]
The entire planet is coming to your backyard this month. If you believe the hype, our highways will be jammed, restaurants overflowing. Latecomers to Columbia’s total eclipse will find no room in the inn. Better stock up on snacks. Sun Chips. Moon Pies. Get creative in the face of this onslaught of humanity. It’s a […]
Missourians can’t help it. They keep tearing Lawrence down. Apologies to the good people of Lawrence, Kansas — both of them — but there’s bad blood between them and us. You know most of the story: The Civil War really began along the border between Missouri and Kansas, long before the first shots rang out […]
“Poetry is my life’s blood,” Chuck Berry said, on meeting Columbia Public Schools’ Linda Harlan, circa 1991. The best way to end this tribute is to begin at the end: Chuck Berry’s appearance in Columbia in 2009, an outdoor performance on Ninth Street — his last local show of seven, since 1993. Columbia Public Schools […]
“While no individual can be said to have invented rock and roll, Chuck Berry comes the closest of any single figure to being the one who put all the essential pieces together. It was his particular genius to graft country and western guitar licks onto a rhythm and blues chassis in his very first single, […]
Assignment: Out and About The Location: Near Twin Lakes Park I grew up near a small pond that lurked about 200 yards through densely wooded terrain. I spent summers of my youth hanging out in those woods and fishing that pond with buddies who lived in the neighborhood. That area seemed endless, but we all […]
Queenie was pissed. She’d just overheard that the American Dog Museum is leaving Missouri, moving from St. Louis back to Manhattan. It was a blow to Queenie’s psyche. That’s what I believe she thinks. But who knows? We’d just given her a bath, an event she tolerates like a cat. And the mailman just rang […]
Part One: Chuck Berry was, in so many ways, the iconic Missourian. He told tall tales and reveled in language, especially the poetry of vernacular. His seeming close-mouthed cussedness in later years was an attitude that kept many a Missourian alive during the tumult and confusion of the Civil War. And despite everything, he shared […]
