Category Archives: Uncategorized

June 28, 2009: Apollo 11 command module “Eagle” at the National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC. The heat shield after re-entry kind of looks like the surface of the moon, doesn’t it? The command module is the one piece … Continue reading →

Consider the following. July 20, 1869: The Transcontinental Railroad has been complete for 70 days. July 20, 1919: The U.S. Army convoy taking the Lincoln Highway across the United States, “the largest aggregation of motor vehicles ever started on a trip … Continue reading →

December 30, 2005: Apollo-era Mission Control at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Reused from this blog post. Associated Press: Restored Mission Control comes alive 50 years after Apollo Meticulously recreated down to the tan carpeting, gray-green wallpaper, white ceiling panels, woven-cushioned … Continue reading →

May 29, 2009: Outside a low-rise midcentury government building, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Iowa connection: James Van Allen. I have been to just about every major installation related to the Space Race that isn’t in California. At both Cape Canaveral and … Continue reading →

It’s entirely possible that the number of non-Iowa DOT employees who regularly visit the online construction plans archive can be counted on one hand. (The link only works if you make sure the www is at the beginning.) But, as … Continue reading →

The news last week that famous Texas restaurant chain Whataburger has been sold by the founding family to an investment firm, and associated hand-wringing about what an expansion could do to quality, made me think of a blog post I … Continue reading →

Iowa man pilots historic C-47 in 75th anniversary of D-Day

Because I can, and a billion and a half people can’t.

The scene: Where the tall corn grows Status of the protagonist: Getting cross-eyed staring at spreadsheets, realizing that one was set up with different alphabetization rules than the other The internal dialogue: “Woof, transferring one data set to sync with … Continue reading →

For purposes of comparison continuity, numbers come from the tvseriesfinale.com website. A TV show has a series finale Sunday. You might have heard about it. It’s “last show that everyone watches at the same time” (in 2017!). It’s “the last show … Continue reading →