Posted November 28, 2012in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
Convenience is not a bad thing. You can buy your milk, pick up your dry cleaning, fill your prescriptions, gas your car and — is that your girlfriend in the canned-goods aisle? — go on a date, all in the name of one-stop shopping. Not bad. Moreover, the neon and
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Posted November 21, 2012in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
OK, here’s a game. I’m going to give you 34 letters. Absolutely no more. You get 34 letters to express all your love, sadness, joy or pain — about anything. Thirty-four letters to sum up your life or the life of another. I’m sorry, that’s all the directions there are
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Posted November 14, 2012in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
Boys as a group are not all that complicated. Just wave a few select items in front of their confused and suspicious eyes, and they will normally focus and charge forward. One such piece of shiny, red cape that traditionally gets a boy’s attention — as demonstrated by the Wooden
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Posted November 07, 2012in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
In this heated political time, when dignity is lost to righteousness, when loudness is mistaken for passion, when conformity is the misguided refuge of the battered soul, where are we left at the end of the day? Based on who won, you may be bemoaning the end of the world
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Posted October 31, 2012in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
There is certainly an Iowa morality. Right? You know the basics: Don’t toot your own horn when you win an award for best stocker at Hy Vee; don’t yell at people just because they cut in front of you at the buffet line (they must have their reasons); be polite
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Posted October 24, 2012in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
An alley can be a fiendish place. Tales from a host of ghoulish writers speak of dark deeds done in dark alleys. Perhaps the concern is that once you are in an alley, fleeing to the left or to the right is no longer an option. You’re penned in, and
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Posted October 17, 2012in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
When your wife is on the “edge,” you know that you need to tread lightly. She’s edgy. If you’re walking on the boat dock at Gray’s Lake, you know that you need to stay away from the edge. A misstep could find you in deep water. And you know you
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Posted October 10, 2012in Joe's Neighborhood, Recent Posts
It is probably best not to reveal too much of our inner workings, don’t you think? If people saw how weird we truly are, I suspect our neighbors’ fences and hedgerows would all get a little higher. As they should. And, frankly, it’s just hard to argue why you shouldn’t
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Posted October 03, 2012in Joe's Neighborhood
Bartenders are imbedded in the American psyche, don’t you think? What isn’t there to like about a bartender? He or she is the modern-day pirate. Not ethically pure, by any means, and not overly empathic (we are just one customer among many), but pragmatic in their advice. And, most importantly,
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