Author Archives: Jeff

Dec 10

2019: The Year in Food (2)

2. 8-ounce top sirloin, Big Texan Steak Ranch, Amarillo, Texas (July 17) The Big Texan Steak Ranch is a Route 66 landmark. It’s the home of the 72-ounce steak challenge — but the fine print is, you have to eat the rest … Continue reading

Posted in Trip Reports | Comments Off on 2019: The Year in Food (2)
Dec 09

2019: The Year in Food (1)

In lieu of the trip reports I have not prepared for publishing, I shall spend the next few days regaling you of my adventures in gastronomy (well, adventures to me, anyway). They will serve as a shorthand of where I … Continue reading

Posted in Trip Reports | Comments Off on 2019: The Year in Food (1)
Dec 08

Good luck, Lucas

Lucas Grundmeier, my former Iowa State Daily and Des Moines Register cohort, has been named the Register’s opinion editor. I have yet to make peace with people around my age being in charge of things. (Like running a football team. Or … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Good luck, Lucas
Dec 06

Will Douglas Avenue get the three-lane treatment?

US 6 through the Des Moines metro area, and especially from Merle Hay Road to Altoona, can be a slog. But it remains an important corridor through Des Moines’ neglected north side. Unfortunately, the proposed solution for redevelopment of the … Continue reading

Posted in Construction | Comments Off on Will Douglas Avenue get the three-lane treatment?
Dec 05

End of an era for Iowa Public Television

(You can stop watching the above at the 1:50 mark.) Just after marking its 50th anniversary of serving Iowans, the “Iowa Public Television” name is going away. According to the December issue of Advance magazine, when the new year starts … Continue reading

Posted in Iowa Miscellaneous | Comments Off on End of an era for Iowa Public Television
Dec 04

North Winn memorabilia given to Minnesota school district

July 25, 2016 If Laura Ingalls had lived in Burr Oak, Iowa, 130 years after she did, she would have been a student at North Winneshiek Elementary School. Unless, that is, being three miles from the Minnesota border, she went … Continue reading

Posted in Schools | Comments Off on North Winn memorabilia given to Minnesota school district
Dec 03

Traer clinic undergoes rebranding

First, the good news: Traer still has a doctor’s office. It’s still in the building from 1976 that I can still walk through in my mind. But on October 25, all remaining traces of the independent practice once called North … Continue reading

Posted in Tama County | Comments Off on Traer clinic undergoes rebranding
Dec 02

The fallen and the rising

Towns that lost their only school building that I am aware of, 2010-19: Lineville, Stockport, Lost Nation, Menlo, Arcadia, Vail, Cincinnati, Crystal Lake, Lohrville, Mystic, Ringsted, Rippey, Ute, Denmark, Battle Creek, Hawkeye, Sabula, Titonka, Coggon, Walker, Boxholm, Clearfield, Dows, Elma, … Continue reading

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Nov 29

Matt Campbell’s Gundy Mitzvah

The Mike Gundy Bar Mitzvah, for those unaware of the term, is when a football coach becomes a man. (It can also be applied more broadly to well-humored male-identifying individuals.) Today, a day before Iowa State plays in the Little … Continue reading

Posted in Sports | Comments Off on Matt Campbell’s Gundy Mitzvah
Nov 27

Combined, complete football playoff brackets for 2019

I shouldn’t have to do this. I don’t really have to do this. And yet, I do. This is, once again, my way of expressing extreme brow-furrowing at the IHSAA for being strange in how it goes about publishing finalized … Continue reading

Posted in Sports | Comments Off on Combined, complete football playoff brackets for 2019