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Fight Night: Local boxers prepare for Saturday matches.

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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867

www.iolaregister.com

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Above, Chad Betts plays Uncle Fester in Allen Community College’s musical take on “The Addams Family.” Below, Aaron Huskey and Emily Pierce, as Gomez and Morticia Addams, surround their manservant, Lurch, played by Judd Wiltse. The play runs tonight through Saturday at 7:30 at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center. Tickets sell for $6 for adults and $4 for students. REGISTER/RICK

DANLEY

They’re crazy and they’re kookie... By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register

“The Addams Family” is so firmly wedged in the popular imagination that, during the 2004 presidential election, the then-editor of the New York Times referred to John Kerry as having an “Addams Family face.” It was an unkind statement, and yet everybody knew, more or less, what he meant. (In case they didn’t, he went on to say of Kerry’s upper-crust stiffness: “It’s as if Lurch had gone to Choate.”) But before being turned into popular television, the Addamses — Gomez, Morticia, Wednesday, Pugsley and, of course, the alopecic Uncle Fester — appeared as casual fodder for the reader of the New Yorker magazine, who encountered the gloomy brood for the first time in a series of single-panel cartoons beginning in 1938. Seventy-plus years later, a group of producers aiming to restore the delightful darkness of Charles Addams’s original drawings —

the edges of which had been smoothed for a television audience, and their transgressive wit largely removed — created “Addams Family,” the musical, which proved an instant audience favorite on Broadway in 2010, and has

continued to fly its popular freak flag in the many cities around the world where it’s still performed. Beginning tonight at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, the musical will get a ghoulishly good airing from Allen Com-

munity College’s theatre department, under the everspotless direction of Tony Piazza. THE MUSICAL’S plot is a See ‘ADDAMS’ | Page A3

Medallion found; rains may hit FCD fun A nearly two-week mystery has been solved; the Farm-City Days medallion has been found. A searcher found the medallion hidden beneath the black mat covering the newly placed bridge along the Lehigh Portland Trail complex on the south edge of Iola. The finder — identified so far only as “Jason” — recovered the medallion earlier this morning. The news caps a frantic 13day search that had scores of folks looking — many along the trail, and even on that bridge — fruitlessly. Jason wins $1,000 for his efforts. MEANWHILE, forecasts for rain may prompt a few changes to tonight’s FarmCity Days activities. Organizers will decide by noon whether this evening’s free family feast, ice cream social and showing of “Angry Birds” will be relocated to the Recreation Community Building at Riverside Park. The events originally were slated to begin at 5:30 under the main tent on the courthouse square. “I’d say for people to go See FOUND | Page A5

Politicians get sense of voter anger By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republican leader Susan Wagle and other GOP candidates for Kansas Senate outlined a broad campaign platform Wednesday aimed at cooling voters’ anger with state government and Republican Gov. Sam Brownback, although they aren’t publicly breaking with him. The platform says the GOP candidates are committed to making the state’s tax system fairer, providing greater oversight of the state budget, working to create new jobs and ensuring greater transparency in government. Fourteen senators and 12 candidates signed on. The state has struggled to balance its budget since Republican legislators slashed personal income taxes in 2012 and 2013 at

Brownback’s urging as an economic stimulus. Tax collections have most m o n t h s Susan Wagle s i n c e ; the state potentially faces making budget cuts next year, and 14 conservative Republican legislators lost their seats in the August primary. Wagle, the Senate president from Wichita, said during a news conference Wednesday that the GOP candidates drafted their platform after hearing from thousands of voters who were mostly angry. She said they want those voters to know the candidates are disappointed in state government, too. But in the news conference and a follow-up briefSee ANGER | Page A5

Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 237

Among the participants at the Day at the Farm activities during last year’s Farm-City Days celebration were, from left, Micah Vogel in the pedal pull, Katie Womelsdorf and Debbie Morris and Vern Cranshaw. The 2016 Day at the Farm activities are Sunday. REGISTER FILE PHOTOS

Day at the Farm plans take shape By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register

A full slate of activities Sunday will put the “Farm” in Farm-City Days. For the second consecutive year, organizers have set up a “Day at the Farm” to wrap up Iola’s annual fall festival. The activities, many of which are interactive, should be entertaining and educational for folks of all ages, particularly those unfamiliar with farm life, noted

Steve Strickler, who owns the dairy. A number of special guests will be on hand for the events, including Kansas Department of Agriculture Secretary Jackie McClaskey, as well as a number of Allen Countians who formerly headed dairy operations. “We just thought it’d be a good idea to have people who knew a lot about dairy operations to help explain things,” Strickler said. The theme for the 2016 Day

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” — Mark Twain 75 Cents

at the Farm events is sustainability. From treating its own water to recycling waste byproducts, many of the exhibits will illustrate the work that ensure Strickler’s environmental footprint remains as small as possible. For example, the dairy catches rainwater runoff, which then is processed into clean drinking water through filtration and chemical addiSee FARM | Page A5

Hi: 85 Lo: 67 Iola, KS


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