Author Archives: Jeff

Dec 26

Albion Methodist Church building to be torn down

This isn’t in Tama County, but close, and it’s right there for everyone to see on IA 330 in Albion. I saw the “No Trespassing” sign on the plywood covering the entrance of Albion UMC, and I wanted to find … Continue reading

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Dec 24

So cold it broke the chart

Readings taken in Marshalltown this morning, from the National Weather Service: Merry Christmas.

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Dec 23

No, I will not tweet my face to the cloud

Ouch (from Nieman Lab): Today, teens are about as likely to start a blog (over Instagramming or Snapchatting) as they are to buy a music CD. The linked Atlantic piece about “the stream” is an interesting read, too. The blog is … Continue reading

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Dec 23

On really, really small-school football

The Omaha World-Herald’s Dirk Chatelain follows a team taking a 368-mile one-way trip to play a 6-man football game in its last season. There are some parts of this story also applicable to Iowa.

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Dec 22

New York Times dialect quiz

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

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?

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

😀 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

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

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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