Like an end-of-garden canning project, Labor Day clears the way for another season. Similarly, this week’s em space picks a few favorites from the summer and puts them together. This is a mixture of items seen on the workday screen and preserved in files instead of jars with lids. Different people have different tastes, but maybe some of these excerpts will appeal to you as well as to me.

Dena Hunter, 12, and her 7-year-old sister, Kara, both of Broadwell, agreed that the funniest part of the day was when a goat from the petting zoo ate Kara’s cup as well as the food in it.

– from an article by Cassie Hewitt

Tara is an older cat. She has all that silliness out of her and is very communicative. She has an unusual voice, a great purr and loves to cuddle.

– description in caption

Ginger and the other Chickens hatch plot after plot to escape.

Their project has a first name. It’s O-S-C-A-R.

Their project has a second name. It’s M-A-Y-E-R.

– from an article by Marty Ahrends about Zion School entries (including the one by Kelsey and Kaylee Carnahan) at the State History Fair

Real potatoes make real french fries.

– from coverage of the Logan County Fair

– from the Logan County Fair

In 1853, members of the Illinois State Agriculture Society decided to have an event to promote agriculture and mechanical art. Sangamon County donated the use of 20 acres on Springfield’s west side and contributed $1,000 to cover expenses. Admission was 25 cents.

The opening of the first permanently located fair was Sept. 24, 1894, and it ran for six days. Admission was 50 cents for adults, 75 cents for one person on horseback and $1.25 for a carriage load of four people.

Currently, the fairgrounds cover 366 acres and accommodate approximately one million visitors. Sixty loads of manure are hauled away each day, totaling 1,198 tons.

– from an article by Penny Zimmerman-Wills about the Illinois State Fair

If you’ve a notion to visit a place that’s not littered with McDonald’s wrappers or cigarette butts, if you really have a taste for seeing large, wild animals someplace other than the zoo, if you enjoy catching northern pike or northern lights, you’d do well to look into Northwestern Ontario’s lake-rich wilderness. This place is extraordinary, and the fishing’s not bad. Not bad at all.

– from an article by Neal Windham

The massive stone fireplace, the featured attraction on one wall, was patterned after those at New Salem, adding to the ambience of the tearoom, which feels like part old general store, part log cabin and part bed-and-breakfast.

– from an article by Penny Zimmerman-Wills about the Morning Star Mercantile and Café in Salisbury

Since I didn’t have the available funds to hire a professional, I was left to my own devices. A scary thought under the best of circumstances.

– Jeff Mayfield in Sports Talk

"After she left, George and I talked it over. He said, ‘It sounds like a good idea.’ I said, ‘But it’s not your head.’"

– Eva Dahmm (quoted in an article by Joan Crabb about Eva’s cochlear implant)

"She said it was the best zucchini bread she’d ever tasted!" exclaimed Abrigail Sasse as she met up with her parents, David and Gail Apel-Sasse, following her judging session.

– from an article by Marty Ahrends about local youth competing at the Illinois State Fair

With Produce Row on Row

The Slender Spires That Pierce the Sky

Owls and Bats and Hunchback Cats

– themes of arrangements in the floriculture class at the Logan County Fair

Pickle pointers

Pickle and pickle product problems

– from the University of Illinois Extension in Logan County

Obituaries on the LDN site are located at live/people/obit.htm.

Someone who died had a son and a stepson with the same first name.

One day the state office that reports the latest winning numbers for Lotto and Little Lotto sent a set for the Lottle Lotto.

Personal typos tend to be more major. One Friday evening I decided to stop back at the office to make a correction in a case of mistaken identity. I'd spelled out the abbreviation L.C.C. as Lincoln Correctional Center instead of Lincoln Christian College. While I was at it, someone alerted me to another mix-up. Because of a problem I’d had with bulleted paragraphs, an item in the marriage license category showed three names together: one male and two females.

As several long articles arrived, I saw an informal editorial remark indicating that there must have been a sale on words that week.