Cityview | Central Iowa's Independent Weekly

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Take a peek at some of the best and worst bathrooms in the metro

They have been called many names — loo, water closet, comfort room, dunny, netty and latrine. Al Bundy cared more about his than he cared about his wife. Elvis died in his. And in 1985, “Ghoulies” climbed out of them. We’re talking about bathrooms. One of the most private rooms in a house, the bathroom is the place where you can get away from it all.

Toilets have been around since the beginning of time. From pools, to plumbing-based toilets to outhouses to bidets, toilets have dramatically changed over the years. Romans were the first to use private type bathrooms in 1700 B.C. But the plumbing-based toilet didn’t come into play until around the 19th century, when the English upper class started to use them. Today toilets are fancier then ever, ranging in price from $5,000 (Toto Neorest 600) to $5 million (the Hang Fung 24k Gold Toilet). A new trend that is gaining popularity is the low-flow toilet, as it has been reported to save the average U.S. home 25 gallons of water a day and more than 9,000 gallons a year...Read More>>

Boswell won’t quit; Retirement facts; Skinny invests $2

Leonard Boswell doesn’t know why Republicans in Washington and in Iowa keep saying he’s going to drop out of his race for re-election to Congress — Doug Gross, always ready to stir the pot, repeated the rumor on Iowa Press over the weekend — but the seven-term, 76-year-old Democrat says the Republicans don’t know what they’re talking about.

A guy Skinny knows cornered Boswell at Thursday’s memorial service for John Ruan and asked him point blank if he’s running. “Absolutely,” Boswell replied. “Why the rumors?” the guy asked. “Republican games,” Boswell answered. The guy says Boswell looked terrific — he seems fully recovered from major health problems and complicated surgeries of a couple of years ago — and seemed eager for the fight. Boswell said he expects his opponent to be state senator Brad Zaun — Skinny thinks it might be Jim Gibbons — but the June 8 primary will decide...Read More>>

Dutch jazz trumpeter blows horn his own way

When you think of jazz trumpet, you think of masters like Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and Wynton Marsalis… American artists who helped shape the recognized sound of their instrument and genre.

But when you listen to the music of Dutch jazz trumpeter Eric Vloeimans, you not only hear traces of the aforementioned artists, but several classical European artists, too.

“I don’t necessarily feel like a jazz trumpeter, and I do not play the music like it was founded in America,” said Vloeimans in an e-mail last week from his homeland before leaving for a tour of the United States that includes his first-ever stop in Iowa at the Jewish Federation’s Caspe Terrace in Waukee on Tuesday, March 2. ...Read More>>

La Paris puts French back in Indo China

Southeast Asia’s contribution to Des Moines’ culinary diversity enters new territory with the opening of La Paris Café. Owner Chris Low explained that the River Bend neighborhood needed a sports bar and a coffeehouse, so La Paris became both in addition to an Asian restaurant.

Chris and his wife, Sue, have some experience with coffeehouses, having partnered in the excellent French Belwood Bakery outlets in the western suburbs. La Paris’ croissants and Danish were freshly made, laminated pastries a la Belwood. They anchored the coffeehouse menu along with desserts like key lime calypso and verrines (creams, crumbs and compotes layered in a glass) such as tiramisu, dulce de leche and white raspberry. Asian pastries and desserts like sesame balls, steam buns and Asian donuts (which use no yeast and hence are not as flaky as American donuts) were also offered. So were the Vietnamese breakfast staple banh cuon — rice paper crepes filled with pork and mushrooms, and resembling rice noodle rolls in Chinese dim sum. La Paris is the first coffeehouse in town to balance Vietnamese coffee drinks, bubble teas and smoothies (taro, mango, lychee) with espresso bar drinks...Read More>>”