Crazy year in food world
If 2016 had been human, it would have been bi-polar and heavily drugged. Trends came and went without regard for recent performances. For instance, a five-year movement toward higher restaurant [...]
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Posted January 04, 2017in Feature 3
Posted January 04, 2017in Political Mercury
Why Rod Roberts should be Reynolds’ lieutenant governor
First things first. The news of the appointment of the nation’s longest-serving governor, Iowa’s Terry Branstad, to be ambassador to China is encouraging for a host of reasons, from national [...]
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Posted January 04, 2017in Film Review
‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’
Unlike the original “Star Wars” films that balanced gritty sci-fi drama with sly comedy and an ever-present sense of hope, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is Gareth Edwards’ venture [...]
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Posted January 04, 2017in Food Dude
Sweet salsa and grand opera at El Sol Azteca
The year 2016 was disruptive to the status quo. Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for literature, the Chicago Cubs won its first World Series in 108 years, and Donald [...]
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Posted January 04, 2017in Your Neighbors
Saying “YES”: The world’s longest race began in Africa and ends in Iowa
While serving two weeks in poverty-stricken South Africa, Bill Raine saw children dying at such a high rate that graves were being mass produced, dug before anyone knew who would [...]
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Posted January 04, 2017in Joe's Neighborhood
David or Pinocchio?
The loud and angry Italian couple leaned into each other as they faced off like professional wrestlers getting ready for the big, slingshot-catapult, missile-dropkick finale to their match. Waving their [...]
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Posted January 04, 2017in Center Stage
Intense, intimate and jazzy
The city’s most intense musical theater last year took place practically in audience members’ laps. The audience sat eye-level with the players as they wove through the jazz club Noce, [...]
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Posted January 04, 2017in At Home With
Going home again
Whoever said, “You can’t go home again,” hasn’t spoken with Ron Choate. Choate grew up on the south side of Des Moines, a block from where he currently lives. He [...]
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Posted January 04, 2017in Book Review
Book Reviews
‘American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst’ By Jeffrey Toobin The events surrounding the 1974 kidnapping of heiress Patricia Hearst by a small [...]
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Posted January 04, 2017in Walks of Life
