by RICK DANLEY // October 14, 2016 It had been a crisp blue autumn morning when, around 11:30 a.m., a single rain cloud stalled over Gilbert Covey’s farm. “Starting to sprinkle a little bit,” said Covey, who stood amid a cluster of small outbuildings south of the family farmhouse. Heavy drops pelted the cement slab where … Continue reading Charles (not) in Charge
by RICK DANLEY // September 16, 2017 WINFIELD — On a warm mid-morning earlier this week, with a flock of purple martins wheeling high overhead and a soft wind rolling through the tallgrass prairie at the southern tip of the Flint Hills, Barry Barber invited me to look closely and with care at a large pile … Continue reading The Guru of Grass
by RICK DANLEY // March 10, 2017 It was an afternoon in late July of 2014. Aric Toler, living in Charlotte at the time and working in the corporate security division at Bank of America, was at home, scrolling through his Twitter feed. Toler was following the news coming out of eastern Ukraine concerning Malaysian Airlines … Continue reading Open Source
by RICK DANLEY // January 4, 2019 In the few months since their slow rollout, the guys at Red Beard Barbecue have put together what must be the most ambitious, locally sourced, well-made menu in southeast Kansas. Pulled pork with ancho barbecue sauce and homemade pickles. Fry-bread tacos with smoked chicken and house chorizo. A beef and … Continue reading The Beard & the BBQ
by RICK DANLEY // February 3, 2018 Forty years ago, a small boy in the remote hills of western Nepal waited with the men in his village to welcome the first motorized vehicle to ever enter their town. The approach was a slow one, the vehicle a tractor. When it arrived, the boy’s father and uncles … Continue reading Big Bang, Small Beginnings
by RICK DANLEY // September 21, 2016 One local gentleman, having shuffled off his mortal coil about a week ago, is doing more to influence county policy from the Great Beyond than he was ever likely to manage in his lifetime. Iola’s Feuerborn Family Funeral Service is in possession of a deceased individual whose sister is … Continue reading Bring Out Your Dead
By RICK DANLEY // June 6, 2018 Billy Ray Hayes was born and raised on a Cherokee reservation in eastern Oklahoma. When he was old enough to join the service, the U.S. government shipped him to Hawaii. At the end of his military tenure, Billy Ray stayed on in Hawaii, but eventually his money dried up. … Continue reading Billy Ray Hayes, Leaf Weaver
by RICK DANLEY // September 23, 2017 Fate smiled on eight high school boys Thursday morning when former Miss Kansas Adrienne Bulinski plucked them from among hundreds of students gathered at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. She sat them in a row on stage and, after a minute of lively banter, sang a suggestive version … Continue reading Blood, Sweat & Tiaras
by RICK DANLEY // July 31, 2017 Dennis Polson is a pleasant, genial man in a cowboy hat, tasselled boots and a turquoise neckerchief, who doesn’t mind smiling on occasion but who is dead serious about his barbecue. He’s the sort of kindly stickler given to the phrase “the rules are the rules.” The 73-year-old … Continue reading The BBQ Crew
by RICK DANLEY // July 14, 2018 In place of the usual hello, Mike Hook, the veteran pawnbroker and manager of DM Past and Present, has a phrase prerecorded on his mobile phone, which he plays when a customer first enters his small Iola shop. The audio is of a woman’s voice, tinny, robotic — … Continue reading The Value of Things
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