Propaganda and the photo column

A recent photo column for the paper, here is the text block:

Once upon a wartime, Uncle Sam wanted YOU (!) to join the U.S. Army. He still does, but if that doesn’t fit into your life plan, you can fire away at Osama bin Laden right here in McHenry County.

Jaison Glawe of Woodstock works the “corn cannons” at Stade’s Dairy Farm in Johnsburg. “I’ve been here from the beginning,” Glawe said of the game. “I’m a regular carny. Shooting at bin Laden, well, I dunno, I guess the makes the whole thing a little more bearable.”

The cannons essentially are tubes, that use compressed air to shoot the hardened ears of corn into the sky, across the field, and hopefully right into the target.

Hitting the giant head is harder than it looks. I watched for nearly an hour as people cycled through, firing hundreds of shots on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Of the hundreds of shots I witnessed, two made contact with the target. The prize for nailing the Captain of the Axis of Evil? An extra ear of corn.