What we eat, what we should eat and what we will be eating soon. What we eat and what so-called experts tell us we should eat are like airplanes with no connecting airports. My favorite explanation of this is that medicine is the softest of all sciences, and nutrition is the melted butter of medical science. [...]
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What is it about our local dining establishments — or who is it — that make them special? Restaurants are so much a part of our lives that it’s hard to imagine a time without them. Yet they really have only been around for about two-and-a-half centuries. One school of thought is that they were an inadvertent byproduct of the French Revolution. [...]
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Iowa Wolves begin play on Nov. 2 at Wells Fargo Arena. Coming soon to a theater near you — Wells Fargo Arena — is Iowa’s most talented group of roundballers. The Iowa Wolves are shooting to have basketball fans howling with excitement this season while offering premium on-court action, halftime extravaganzas and other exciting arena attractions. NOTE: The G League is the NBA’s [...]
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How’s the new Hilton convention hotel doing in downtown Des Moines? Who knows? Somebody does — probably a lot of somebodies — but not you, even though as a taxpayer in Des Moines and in Polk County you, in effect, own the place. Hearing that the 330-room hotel might not be living up to expectations [...]
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Enduring some disquieting treatment in President Trump’s Council Bluffs media pen On this night in Council Bluffs, there would be the stage antics, the stand-up routine from the president, the hand-waving, the impersonations from behind the official seal. I’d surely report some zingers from our commander in chief — his now exhausted labeling of Sen. [...]
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A 2-hour-and-20-minute film with more style than substance A man wearing a long trench coat and matching fedora enters a hotel room cautiously. Once inside, he immediately locks the door — deadbolt and chain — closes the curtains and places a handgun from his coat pocket on the radio stand. After a short while, he [...]
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Eggs & Jam is a rare bird in Des Moines. Its exact array of plumage, diet and song has not been seen or heard here before. The breakfast hotspot is not just about bacon, eggs, hashed browns and toast. Nor is it a breakfast buffet with an endless fountain of bloody marys. It’s the immediate [...]
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Licensed to hate and “officially awesome,” this Terrorhead helped orchestrate an official Guinness Book world record. A certificate hanging on Charlie Edrington’s wall says he helped organize “the loudest roar at a sports stadium” in the history of mankind. When one hears this sort of far-fetched claim, usually it’s a bunch of hot air, but this time, it’s certified by [...]
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He’s not your traditional food critic. “The guys running this restaurant are from Hyderabad, India.” Now you just have to wait for it, folks. There’s always more. His mind is sparking and firing and making connections. Wait, wait, wait… “Hyderabad is to India, food-wise, what Parma is to Italy and Lyon is to France and [...]
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“Triple Espresso” is a regular part of central Iowa’s cultural landscape since its original, record-setting run in 2002. Having experienced this laugh-filled show many times, I can’t recall a single scene where cups of caffeinated beverages took center stage. Like its namesake, however, “Triple Espresso” is an experience to be savored many times. The consumer [...]
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Iowa is speeding toward a dangerous crossroads this week, and there has been too little discussion about what might occur and zero discussion about what the state should do. Trustees of Iowa Wesleyan University, the second-oldest college in Iowa, meet on Thursday to decide whether the institution will close next spring. The Mount Pleasant school [...]
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Cute but stubborn pets are part of Silvia Verhofste’s “farm safari.” When Silvia Verhofste was in fourth grade, she tucked a baby goat in a basket and took it to school for show and tell where her classmates excitedly gathered around her to pet it. The next year, she brought another baby goat into her [...]
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Turning lemons into lemonade. Steve White is probably Iowa’s greatest impresario, though he prefers the less descriptive word promoter. He brought world-famous shows to Iowa and the rest of the nation from the 1970s until recently. He calls himself “mostly retired” now but still works with Widespread Panic and invests in shows. We asked him [...]
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Performs honky-tonk road show at Wooly’s When Whitey Morgan was a child, his grandpa played guitar, strumming the tunes of Johnny Paycheck, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and other country classics. He demonstrated several country chords while Whitey soaked in the melodies, practicing on his own. When Whitey became a teenager, he began listening to classic [...]
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Hard rockers party band. When the band Gimikk arrives at a venue to play a concert, they use a familiar football game strategy. “We do a no-huddle offense,” says lead singer James Brinker. “If it’s a bachelorette party that just came in, we know they want to hear dance tunes. If we go to a [...]
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Beaverdale’s cozy neighborhood bar The Beaverdale area is a proud neighborhood tucked between the western suburbs and downtown Des Moines. Beaverdale boasts several close-knit bars in its downtown, including the Beaver Tap. Located at the corner of Beaver and Urbandale, the location of The Beaver Tap accommodated various bars since the late 1950s. The Bon Ton (not the department store) entertained [...]
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You want answers? UFO investigator is working for the truth. “Iowa is known as a hotbed for triangles, although we have other shapes as well.” — Beverly Trout, Iowa MUFON’s chief investigator Martians. UFOs. Aliens. Life on other planets. Whatever you want to call extraterrestrials, 61 percent of the people on planet Earth believe other [...]
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