StateoftheOzarks Weekly

Sunday Circus

BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… SUNDAY CIRCUS. I’m flipping through the magazine, looking at pictures of a traveling circus that was documented as it wound its way through the Upper American South sometime in the late 1960s. The photos are in color, and a little grainy. The performers magnificent, but a bit worn. The photojournalist had been…

StateoftheOzarks Spotlight

Once Upon a Christmas

BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS. The wind was a ragged squall line in the dark, blowing hard over the Missouri Ozarks, dropping temperatures some 30 degrees not long after the sun — a distant orange ball — had passed beyond misty western clouds. The longest night of the year is upon us. The…

StateoftheOzarks Weekly

Underworld Gains

BEEN THINKIN’ ABOUT… UNDERWORLD GAINS. It’s late. I’m tired. I’m hungry. At least the gym is playing Hozier on the speakers. I shrug. It is the end of the month, the last chance for any personal records in February. I’m already sore. The six plates of iron loaded on the bar are not going anywhere.…