Author Archives: Jeff

Jan 06

Iowa high on Senate seniority chart

Roll Call has published a list of the 113th Congress organized by seniority for both the Senate and House. Chuck Grassley is in sixth place (up from 11th in 2009) and now the only senator left who was originally elected … Continue reading →

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Jan 05

N-flation

This is what the Devaney Center basketball court looked like Jan. 26, 2011 (my picture): And here’s what it looks like now. (I originally had a screencap from CBS, but the link has a wider image.) Big Ten logos at … Continue reading →

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Jan 02

My column on baby names

In the Register on New Year’s Day, in case you missed it.

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Jan 02

Entering Year 13

The first Iowa license plates with the current background went into circulation Jan. 2, 1997. Plenty of things have changed: The metal got thinner and plates are no longer stamped The text went from blue to black Slashes were added … Continue reading →

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Dec 31

The fuzzy math of bowl season

Memphis, Tennessee — In four years, Paul Rhoads has taken Iowa State to three bowl games. With this 31-17 loss to Tulsa in the Liberty Bowl, he also has three seasons with losing records. Despite the 6-7 record, this is … Continue reading →

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Dec 27

Tama County upgraded to “severe drought”

The U.S. Drought Monitor map for Iowa shows a batch of central counties along US 30, plus Polk, Dallas, and Guthrie, in Stage D2 (“severe”) instead of D3 (“extreme”). The Register explains why the snow helped.

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Dec 26

Half a Pizza Hut

More than a decade after losing a full-service Pizza Hut, Toledo has one again, sort of. A small standalone building west of US 63 that was originally for a Subway (that moved beside Hardee’s) and then became a Sub City … Continue reading →

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Dec 23

Break

Unless something particularly interesting comes up, this blog will be on hiatus for the next week and a half or so. I should’ve just done it with all the schools that got two more extra days of break. A possible … Continue reading →

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Dec 21

It’s the end of the world as we know it

and I feel fine. What are we going to use for a doomsday date now? (This is a timed post. If the world ends you won’t see it.)

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Dec 19

Fifteen years ago today

“Titanic” was released in theaters Dec. 19, 1997, and I saw it about 10 days later. It’s been that long. Wow. Still my favorite movie, although I’m biased toward the subject material; I was very interested in the Titanic before … Continue reading →

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