Rio bound
“There is always a certain game flow. When you don’t know beach volleyball, you don’t see it.” The women clear the net with ease. It looks like a water [...]
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Posted August 09, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
Posted July 27, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
Old surfers
The old surfers float out just beyond the harbor, waiting, patient, lions in the tall grass. The noses of their surfboards are high up out of the water while they [...]
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Posted July 20, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
Saved in Dublin
To save a rabbit is why the man jumped off the bridge, according to the newspaper reports. Somebody threw the rabbit over the O’Connell Bridge into the current of [...]
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Posted July 13, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
What exactly is a kidney worth?
What exactly is a kidney worth? It depends, doesn’t it? If it is 7 a.m. and your left eye refuses to open to the world and you have to [...]
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Posted July 06, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
The angry American
“I’m not waiting in any more lines.” His voice rises uncontrollably as he faces off with the bored Paris train attendant at Gare Nord, a major railroad hub in [...]
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Posted June 29, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
The Paris waiter
The Paris waiter stands immobile at the top of the sidewalk. Tall. Imposing. White shirt, black vest, white waiter’s arm cloth, black bowtie, white apron, black shoes. Everything is [...]
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Posted June 22, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
Under the umbrella
Do you have a moment today? I know you’re awfully busy. But why don’t you walk under the Crusoe Umbrella. That’s right, it’s downtown in Cowles Commons. No, it [...]
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Posted June 15, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
Capturing the wind
The 160 acres of black dirt was near Stratford, Iowa. Corn and beans and cattle and chickens and a large garden made up my grandpa’s farm back in those [...]
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Posted June 08, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
A graduation gift of 3 stories
Listen, I don’t have an actual gift. And of course I missed both parties. Not to mention seeing them walk across the stage. But I’m an ocean away as my [...]
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Posted June 01, 2016in Joe's Neighborhood
Sarajevo, Slipknot, and the Hawkeyes
“Where do you come from?” the young copper artists in Sarajevo asked. My wife and I told them. “But where in the United States?” they insisted. We went into [...]
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