Posted October 03, 2018in Stray Thoughts
It’s confession time: I cannot say with confidence what transpired in that upstairs bedroom in a suburban home in Montgomery County, Md., on that summer evening, apparently in 1982, during a gathering of unsupervised, beer-drinking teenagers. Unless you have just awakened like a latter-day Rip Van Winkle, you know the
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Posted October 03, 2018in Feature 1
Des Moines man publishes Little Shoppe of Horrors magazine for 46 years…and counting. I had heard rumors about a man who had been publishing his own horror fanzine in the basement of his Des Moines residence for four decades. Since I was 15, I have been reading Fangoria, Rue Morgue and HorrorHound Magazine. So when someone
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Posted October 03, 2018in Feature 2
The hunt is on for playoff hockey in Des Moines. Tune up the Zamboni. Prepare the penalty boxes. Start practicing your slap shot. Here come the power plays, missing teeth, Minnesota accents, red lines, blue lines… In case you hadn’t heard, central Iowa’s on-ice action is starting to sizzle, and hockey fans are asking: “Is Des Moines
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Posted October 03, 2018in Feature 3
Neighborhoods embrace IMT Des Moines Marathon. Jamie Seitz remembers the first year she and her husband read signs that their neighborhood would be shut down for the IMT Des Moines Marathon. Driveways would be inaccessible. Vehicles parked in the street would be towed. “We were like, ‘Really? Does that really happen?’ ” recalls Seitz, who moved
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Posted October 03, 2018in Civic Skinny
Teree Caldwell-Johnson is thinking of running for mayor next year. And Sheriff Bill McCarthy is thinking of retiring this year. Caldwell-Johnson, 62, is well-known in Des Moines. She was Polk County Manager from 1996 to 2003, is the very visible chief executive of the Oakridge Neighborhood Services, has been on
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Posted October 03, 2018in Political Mercury
It feels, sounds and smells like surrender of the basic, motivating values of more than 40 years for me. And it will to most of you, too. The facts, though, are not on our side. They are quite possibly with a man who sounds an awful lot like a canary
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Posted October 03, 2018in Film Review
Fear-inducing madness is sure to scare — and no doubt confuse — younger audiences. The first children’s movie by director Eli Roth, known for grotesque, grindhouse films like “Cabin Fever,” “Death Wish” and “Hostel,” “The House with a Clock in its Walls” adapts the 1973 John Bellairs novel into a
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Posted October 03, 2018in Food Dude
Winner of CITYVIEW’s Ultimate Steak de Burgo challenge It was inevitable. Russians won an American election, yet no one called for an investigation of Kremlin collusion. Irina’s won the Ultimate Steak de Burgo challenge by collecting the most votes from CITYVIEW readers, beating out AJ’s, Sam & Gabe’s and Chef’s Kitchen in the finals. It’s
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Posted October 03, 2018in Your Neighbors
Major Finken rediscovers herself through pageant. When Mrs. Iowa Jill Finken competed at the Mrs. America pageant in August in Las Vegas, it is quite likely that she was the only contestant who is a mother, wife, lawyer and major in the National Guard, with a deployment to Afghanistan and air assault training
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Posted October 03, 2018in Joe's Neighborhood
There are more bikes than residents in the Netherlands. “Protected bike lanes are different from conventional bike lanes where the bike lanes are placed along the curb and protected from vehicle traffic. [East Grand] is the first of its kind in the City of Des Moines.” – City of Des
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