The National Junior Olympics came to town last week. Unless you were in a hotel lobby or somewhere around Drake Stadium, you might not have known. It didn’t register with the city’s daily newspaper. The reporters and editors didn’t even mention it in their “Area Events” listings. That’s a pity,
Read More →Predictably, if Richard Nixon were around today he would endorse Gov. Terry Branstad’s bid for — yawn — yet another term in office. No news there. The reason for the endorsement might cause a stir, however. Nixon’s support would not be based on party loyalty. Rather Nixon would be impressed
Read More →Editor’s note: Last Friday, 64 men and women were sworn in as citizens at Jordan House in West Des Moines. Michael Gartner was asked to give some remarks. Here they are. Hello. I am honored to be here with Judge Pratt to welcome you as citizens of the United States.
Read More →Consider yourself cursed for the next 850 days or so. With the November election 120 or so days away and the 2016 election adding 731 more to the total, you’ll be cursed with tens of thousands of messages of hate, lies and stupidity — all appealing to the worst that
Read More →When you deal day in and day out with daffy politics and scary politicians, you run the risk of becoming a bit confused yourself. Maybe that explains why many of us were puzzled by the bizarre Sunday Register (May 18) editorial endorsing State Senator/Colonel Joni Ernst as the paper’s choice
Read More →Patty Judge was offensive then, and Joni Ernst is offensive now. Ernst, a U.S. Senate candidate, is making a lot of hay with her “let’s make ’em squeal” in Washington schtick, recalling her days of castrating hogs. Republicans are eating it up. It must drive Texas oilman Mark Jacobs, her
Read More →People who enjoy viewing with alarm or pointing with pride had a field day with the soap opera and showdown involving the National Basketball Association and its face-off with the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers. First there was widespread surprise and alarm that the team owner, Donald Sterling, 80,
Read More →Brain cancer is rare. According to the American Cancer Society, about 1.4 percent of all new primary cases of cancer found annually in the United States are of the brain or nervous system. It may be rare, but it is a bad kind of rare. And glioblastoma is perhaps the
Read More →Like any major cultural event, “March Madness” spans decades and lets us dip into many crosscurrents for added perspectives or to prove a point. For example, there were 67 games in the NCAA mens basketball tournament — including the four first-round or play-in games — and there are 66 books
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Robin Williams, nonsensical news and supposed ‘Wake Up’ calls
Much of the TV coverage of the death of Robin Williams called to mind how awful the news can be when clueless reporters babble in their efforts to sound profound or knowledgeable. The stuff I suffered through reminded me of when the local folks mispronounce Nevada, Madrid or Louisa as
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