Monthly Archives: December 2013

Dec 22

New York Times dialect quiz

Posted on Sunday, December 22, 2013, at 12:05 AM by Jeff

Take the 25-question test, with somewhat randomized questions, based on the Harvard Dialect Survey, and see your “heat map”. My map centered in Iowa, with Minneapolis, Rockford, and Grand Rapids closest in language similarity. But I think I’ll need a … Continue reading →

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Dec 20

Ron Burgundy is an Iowan

Posted on Friday, December 20, 2013, at 10:23 AM by Jeff

Will Ferrell is taking this “Anchorman” thing very seriously. In addition to various in-character appearances on TV, he wrote a book — not as Will Ferrell, as Ron Burgundy. As in, you can buy a fictional character’s autobiography. (Random observation: … Continue reading →

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Dec 19

What happens to stuff in a closed school?

Posted on Thursday, December 19, 2013, at 3:56 PM by Jeff

The scale is very different compared with what would happen in Iowa, but a Chicago NPR station found out that a couple old schools there are serving as equipment and textbook repositories for material from 43 buildings the city closed. … Continue reading →

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Dec 19

Early Christmas present for Cyclone fans

Posted on Thursday, December 19, 2013, at 11:02 AM by Jeff

😀 With UCONN’s loss tonight, Iowa State is now the only school with both men’s and women’s basketball teams still undefeated #cyclonenation — Ashley Hagedorn (@AshleyHagedorn) December 19, 2013 This may or may not be true on Christmas, since the … Continue reading →

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Dec 18

On the road to Ollie

Posted on Wednesday, December 18, 2013, at 3:34 PM by Jeff

November 15, 2013 County roads V67 and V5G are both signed on the north-south road between IA 78 and Ollie, pop. 215, which was IA 304 until the Great Decommissioning of 1980. In Ollie, V5G splits off on a northwestern … Continue reading →

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Dec 17

‘Choice’ in school calendar really isn’t one

Posted on Tuesday, December 17, 2013, at 12:15 PM by Jeff

When the Iowa Legislature last session passed a law to enable school districts to measure a year in 180 days or 1080 hours, instead of just days, it was supposed to create flexibility. Instead, by removing a long-standing provision, it … Continue reading →

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Dec 17

License Plate Letters — BYJ

Posted on Tuesday, December 17, 2013, at 12:32 AM by Jeff

It looks like a race with the calendar to see if the B’s are exhausted before the new year.

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Dec 15

Logo similarity

Posted on Sunday, December 15, 2013, at 1:43 PM by Jeff

The website for WDAM in southern Mississippi uses this logo on the bottom of the page (the NBC logo is absent in the header):  (wdam.com) That bears an uncanny similarity to what KWWL used earlier this century, but currently does … Continue reading →

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Dec 13

Iowa DOT wants to close interstate rest areas

Posted on Friday, December 13, 2013, at 5:32 PM by Jeff

I don’t have time for a full-fledged writeup about this important issue at this time, but here are some links: Iowa plans to close some rest stops (Des Moines Register) Plan to close rest stops worries truckers (Des Moines Register) … Continue reading →

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Dec 13

Another rant against ESPNU

Posted on Friday, December 13, 2013, at 12:20 PM by Jeff

Friday is first Iowa-Iowa State men’s basketball game in a quarter-century where both teams are ranked — but unlike Lafester Rhodes’ command performance of 1987, many Iowans are not going to be able to watch. It’s not (just) because of … Continue reading →

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