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 // May 7, 2018 Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer, who took the executive reins from Sam Brownback just three months ago, made a brief appearance at the Iola Public Library Saturday evening, where he held a friendly 40-minute conversation with a dozen interested Allen County residents. Billed as a getting-to-know-you event, the conversation was … Continue reading Colyer for Gov.
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 13, 2017 Skeeter has a theory. Here it is: the Midwest produces more and better clowns because the Midwest — lovely though it can be — is, for the most part, dull. Kids here, says Skeeter, are compelled, by the encircling boredom into which they’re born, to create their own kinds … Continue reading Meet Skeeter
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 // February 22, 2019 We all know the Frankenstein story: Mad scientist, through a special alchemy of repurposed flesh and raw electricity, invests a humanoid creature with life. The creature then proceeds to turn on his creator, and in this act of rebellion we’re meant to understand the ill-fated consequences of intellectual hubris, … Continue reading A Misunderstood Monster
by RICK DANLEY // July 14, 2017 In 1976, the Register published a three-paragraph notice concerning “pot corner”: “Nobody knows for sure how it was started, but a country road intersection east of Moran has been known for years as ‘pot corner.’ … The landmark gets its name from four chamber pots, one sitting on a … Continue reading The People of Pot’s Corner
by RICK DANLEY // June 16, 2018 Late last month Republican gubernatorial candidate and former state Sen. Jim Barnett took the unprecedented step of selecting his wife, Rosie Hansen, to be his running mate. In doing so, Barnett rejected the usual bits of political advice that suggest a candidate should choose a running mate based … Continue reading Love & Politics
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