BLUE BOOK IS BLUE AGAIN

Bekki Cook, Missouri's secretary of state who is from Cape Girardeau, tells the story about being called by Gov. Mel Carnahan when he was considering appointing Cook to the vacancy in the statewide office. Cook spent an intense few hours discussing the potential appointment with her family. Finally, her husband, John, issued an ultimatum: She could take the appointment only if she promised to restore the cover of the state's "Official Manual" to blue.

Cook officially announced last week the decision she made that day: the "Official Manual" will once again be the Blue Book. It had been blue for so long that it was commonly called that, even when recent secretaries of state fiddled with the color.

For example, Jim Kirkpatrick changed the book's cover to green, in keeping with his strong Irish leanings. More recently, Judi Moriarty changed the cover to mauve, which is a trendy way of saying the cover turned dusty pink.

All's well that ends well. The new book coming out in October will be blue. The Blue Book is back.