Posted April 02, 2025in Feature 2
Growing up in 1950s Des Moines, my family’s backdoor neighbor was an elderly German professor of Humanities at Grinnell College. Because our backyards were our baseball fields, we kids had several run-ins with the prof whenever we tried to retrieve foul balls from his fenced-in yard. “Get out of
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Posted March 05, 2025in Feature 2
Des Moines, and Iowa at large, are often considered a flyover city and state. Tour locations for big-name music artists often include Minneapolis, Kansas City, Chicago, even Omaha — and then, maybe, Des Moines. Wells Fargo Arena certainly attracts household names, though. In recent years, Lil Wayne, Zach Bryan and
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Posted January 01, 2025in Feature 2
That aphorism is so rife with wisdom that it has been ascribed to the legendary philosopher Lao-Tzu, the Medieval Sephardic rabbi Maimonides, the Communist dictator Mao Zedong, plus the Buddha, the Bible and Native American wind talkers. Everyone wants to claim it. Its genius is realizing that charity can be best
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Posted December 04, 2024in Feature 2
Our Christmas classic for the holidays Publisher’s note: Forty-five years ago, when Michael Gartner was editor of The Des Moines Register, he walked over to the desk of writer Bob Hullihan and said, “How about writing me a Christmas classic for the holidays?” Hullihan said, “Sure.” And he did. It
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Posted November 06, 2024in Feature 2
On June 18, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, backed by the families of several murder victims, announced the launch of the first Iowa Cold Case Unit (ICCU). “We know that, with a cold case, a family is left in the dark, and a murderer is left walking free,” Bird said.
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Posted October 02, 2024in Feature 2
IOWA WILD Last season The Iowa Wild ended last season with a 27-37 record and 62 points, second to last in the Central Division, and missed out on the playoffs. This was the first season under head coach Brett McLean, who took over for longtime Wild coach Tim Army. The
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Posted September 04, 2024in Feature 2
Iowa is divided into 99 parts, called counties. If 99 seems like a lot, it’s not compared to Texas with 254 or Georgia with 257. Even in our own neighborhood, Missouri, Kansas and Illinois all have more. Why 99? About 183 years ago, sentiment dictated minimum and maximum sizes so
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Posted July 31, 2024in Feature 2
It goes by many names: lunch, brunch, brown bag, high tea, luncheon, nuncheon, dim sum, almoço, déjeuner, mittagessen, hirugohan, obiad and smorgasbord, to name a few. But what’s in a name? The things we call lunch today evolved from the Spanish word lonja, which meant “slice of ham.” That connection goes
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Posted July 03, 2024in Feature 2
Since 2021, several Des Moines suburbs have opened massive, multi-million-dollar, multi-use sports complexes. In West Des Moines, development costs for the MidAmerican Energy RecPlex were close to $60 million in 2021, according to the Business Record. Waukee launched Triumph Park in cooperation with Confluence and received positive shoutouts from Apple
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Posted June 05, 2024in Feature 2
It’s no secret that Iowans enjoy an adult beverage. Or two. While alcohol can have its drawbacks, and should be consumed responsibly, drinking has become ingrained in Iowa culture. Iowa State football fans have made a habit out of drinking mass quantities of Busch Light at bars in whichever cities
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