Previously:

The Political Year in Pictures – 2013 – part 1 (December 29, 2013)

The Political Year in Pictures – 2013 – part 2 (December 29, 2013)

Over the course of the last year we covered a number of government and political events in Missouri (and elsewhere), in the process taking thousands of photographs. Most of them didn’t make it into the blog. Some of the things we saw and heard made us smile, made us think, made us gasp, made us hope, and made us despair. We thought we’d provide a retrospective of some of the pictures and stories we consider to be memorable.

Ah yes, August:

It wasn’t our photo.

August. The Missouri State Fair Rodeo caused quite a stir. And we were close to the center of it. Yes, the rodeo clown incident:

….Most of the traffic spike has subsided. Near as we can tell, the main post, ancillary posts, and our site entry URL combined for a traffic spike of 35,000 unique hits. That’s the equivalent of three to five months (depending on the time of year) of normal traffic. We’ve had traffic spikes in the past, just nothing like this[.]…

At the Missouri State Fair last night (August 11, 2013)

Of state fair rodeo announcers and clowns: res ipsa loquitur (August 12, 2013)

You know you’ve struck a nerve… (August 12, 2013)

What happened in Sedalia didn’t stay in Sedalia (August 12, 2013)

We don’t get a lot of mail (August 13, 2013)

If heads rolling was a rodeo event… (August 13, 2013)

Seriously? (August 14, 2013)

The Rodeo, The Crowd, Their Clown & His Announcer (August 16, 2013)

Rodeo Quote of the Week (August 17, 2013)

Ye shall know them by their fruits (August 19, 2013)

“Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries. “ (August 20, 2013)

We get clown mail (August 20, 2013)

In that period we also took a trip to St. Louis to cover the Rural Letter Carriers Association National Convention:

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) addressing the National Rural Letter Carriers’ Association

convention in St. Louis, Missouri (August 13, 2013).

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) at the NRLCA convention in St. Louis – August 13, 2013 (August 13, 2013)

And a few days later:

The Governor’s Ham Breakfast at the Missouri State Fair – 2013 (August 15, 2013)

It just wasn’t as well attended this year.

Then there was Syria. Our coverage of Representative Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City town hall on Syria on September 5, 2013 was noted at another a-list national blog:

Suppose they gave a town hall before rushing off to war and everybody came (September 5, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City (September 5, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City – part 2 (September 6, 2013)

A short interview with Rep. Cleaver after last night’s town hall (September 6, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City – part 3 (September 7, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City – part 4 (September 7, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City – part 5 (September 7, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City – part 6 (September 7, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City – part 7 (September 8, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City – part 8 (September 8, 2013)

Norman Rockwell ain’t got nothin’ on the real Kansas City – part 9 (September 8, 2013)

September was definitely interesting.