Posted May 27, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
Tollbooths are a rare bird in Iowa. We don’t pay a toll to travel down Grand Avenue to East Village, for example. We don’t toss money into metal baskets and wait for the arm to lift so that we can drive past the shops in Beaverdale. And, frankly, I have yet to get
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Posted May 20, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
Graduation time is always complicated when it comes to picking out gifts for the graduating seniors. For many reasons. But not the least of which is a harsh reminder that you don’t really know what is relevant to the graduating generation. You have aged. Yup, just a little. But I have
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Posted May 13, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
Three women sit at the corner table in Star Bar on Ingersoll. All blonde. All laughing. All comfortable in their skin. Periodically, they lean in to each other conspiratorially, then rock back in a whoosh of hilarity at some clever story or phrase or memory. Obviously, the fun table. Samantha, 17
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Posted May 06, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
“When the lilacs bloom, it’s time to start. Although some people do wait for the dandelions.” That’s good advice for almost any endeavor, don’t you think? And so the lilacs are blooming, and out we head. Beau Perry, Max the Dog, and myself. In search of the elusive morel mushroom.
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Posted April 29, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
The dapper white-haired man sits elegantly entwined upon himself — leg over leg, arms crossed lightly, waist turned gracefully inward. A flower waiting to open. “I started what is now as an international plant society about Gesneriads. That is the African Violet Family, you know.” No, I don’t. In fact, I
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Posted April 22, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
The clean water appears below us, deep down the shaft at Des Moines Water Works. A submarine view. The man and I gaze reverently down the tube. Neither of us talk. It seems we’ve discovered a new planet. Clean water. In a galaxy far, far away. My guide to Des
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Posted April 15, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
The line has only one other couple. Young and bright-faced. The docent takes them under her wing and gently guides them through the exhibit. We follow after. The birth, life and death of Anne Frank are on display for all to see. Made famous by her diary of two years
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Posted April 08, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
The school door swings open. A room. Just like any other schoolroom. That is, if your schoolroom was in Silicon Valley and was called Apple, or Google or Facebook. “If I were going to sit down at a dinner with 10 people at the table and ask everybody to draw
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Posted April 01, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
The grizzled man climbs up out of the litter-strewn riverbank at dusk. He hesitates. Flannel shirt wrongly buttoned over multiple undershirts, pants bunched on top of long underwear, a tight stocking cap pulled over a shaggy head with long white hair hanging from the sides. A homeless man. The blackened
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Posted March 25, 2015in Joe's Neighborhood
A knockout is clean and simple. You get knocked down. You don’t get up. It’s all over. No more floating like a butterfly or stinging like a bee. The end. A technical knockout is not so clean and not so simple. The referee calls the fight usually because the losing
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