Last weekend we were in L.A. for my folks 50th wedding anniversary. More on that later.

This weekend we're in St. Louis. My wife's sister died very suddenly of breast cancer last spring. Sally owned a fine art gallery in town, and was a pimary force behind the St. Louis Art Fair (Denver-ites -- think Cherry Creek Arts Festival -- only better). We're giving an award in her memory tomorrow.

So we're traipsing across melting asphalt around booth after booth of art of all media, from artists all across the country (and an Argentinian). 133 chosen from 1770 who applied. Each choosing judge had to check out 6 submitted slides per artist. Yep, 10,000 pieces to consider...

The common themes are the extraordinary innovation in the work -- and Sal.

We haven't talked with an artist yet who didn't know her. Most didn't know she'd passed until they arrived here and read the letter from the organizer.

There are innumerable food booths and many stages for music. We sat in the shade and listened to a quartet perform an ode to onomatoepoetic (sorry, spell checkers...) Thelonius Monk ...

The kids pretend they are jurors ranking the artists. My son so far has about twenty-one favorites. The quality deserves that inability to choose...

We watched a glass-blowing exhibit for a half hour. Three young dudes from the SIU Mobile Glassblowing Studio (aka "Aunt Gladys"). Two actually blew and molded and fired and chopped and drooled a vase before us all, using kilns mounted on the back of a motorcycle-carrying-sized trailer and old-fashioned iron tools from Italy. Cool.

The third dude was the glass-jay -- working the crowd with a headset, firing (sic) us up, pointing out the point of greatest risk, talking up temperature. Could have been a booth at Comdex ... or a disco. Very cool.

One artist who sells silver and gold pieces of extraordinary beauty speaks of a decade of Sal's effervescence. Extraordinary personality, he tells her two sisters, and I think, well, that's all of them.

Volunteers for MoveOn are signing people up to work precincts for Kerry. He spoke here last night, at the convention for the American Air Traffic Controllers Association. Pounded government union = rousing support for anyone but Bush. (My wife asked who's manning the control towers this weekend...) As it happens, my brother-in-law is in town to talk to the group, too. He and I started a venture which provides pilots and this union with FAA medical advice. Polls show Kerry is tied with Bush in Missouri. Have to talk to my bro-in-law about his Bush-leanings....

Here's a painting from the fair I like to call 'Colin Powell' (heh heh...)

My son insisted a couple of months ago that the plaque Sal received for 'businesswoman of the year" for Clayton, Missouri, reside on his bookshelf.

Another art organization brings back her smile;

We do.