Oct 25

When tillage begins, other arts follow

Posted on Friday, October 25, 2013, at 7:15 PM by Jeff

In the Atlantic’s list of “50 Greatest Inventions Since the Wheel,” six have to do with agriculture: Nitrogen fixation (a surprising #11), the Green Revolution (Norman Borlaug is one of the few people name-checked, at #22), the moldboard plow (#30), the cotton gin (#33), scientific plant breeding (#38), and the combine (#50). The whole list is interesting and comes up with things that are so common you forget someone had to invent them, like alphabetization and the nail.

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Oct 25

The Lansing Lugnuts were the Waterloo Diamonds

Posted on Friday, October 25, 2013, at 1:27 PM by Jeff

I wondered what had ever happened to the Waterloo Diamonds, after a cup with their logo had faded to near oblivion. From this excerpt from a 1999 book about female entrepreneurs, I found that the Diamonds became the Lansing Lugnuts, one of the wackier names in minor league baseball. (The Diamonds had other names before that while in Waterloo.)

The Diamonds/Lugnuts are single-A baseball; Waterloo has a different team now, the Bucks, which are part of a “collegiate summer baseball league.”

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Oct 24

Missouri map includes unfinished bridge

Posted on Thursday, October 24, 2013, at 12:32 PM by Jeff

After 3½ years, Missouri finally updated its state highway map. The previous one was labeled “2010-12” and this one was released just two months ago.

The biggest, most visible change is the addition of I-49 along US 71 on the western side of the state, down to Pineville. (Less notably, the interstate/business loop markers are now a lovely shade of barf, at least onscreen.) But then, when you look at the St. Louis area, you see a new interstate drawn in.

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Attached to that I-70 marker is the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge, which has been under construction and kind of under the radar for the past five years or so. As the Midwestern interstate system goes, it’s one of the biggest changes to an existing interstate in the past quarter-century. Other changes have been extensions (I-64, I-355) or new designations (I-49, I-88, I-39).

However, the bridge won’t open until next spring at the earliest. This is MoDOT’s attempt to future-proof the map, which says “Centennial Edition” but does not include a year or span of years. The St. Louis inset includes the new bridge, too, and has I-44 taking over that part of I-70 past the Gateway Arch, but with the existing exit numbers still attached.

Construction of the new bridge and surrounding interstate is being affected by, of all things, the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. In the fall 2013 newsletter (PDF), an Illinois DOT official said in regards to work on I-64, “If the Cardinals continue to be successful through the post-season, we are considering completing this project during non-peak traffic hours with lane closures.”

A close study of the construction plans reveals that the interchanges at either end will not be complete interchanges. Certain traffic movements won’t be included. When new I-70 opens, work on the existing Poplar Street bridge and the I-55/64/70 interchange will eliminate some traffic movements there too, notably former eastbound I-70/new westbound I-44/southbound traffic onto the PSB.

Elsewhere on the map, the overextended I-155 has been brought back to its actual length and endpoint in Tennessee, but there’s an I-670 shield sitting on US 71 between I-435 and I-70. Go figure.

The entire map can be viewed online here.

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Oct 23

Three dollar gas

Posted on Wednesday, October 23, 2013, at 4:08 PM by Jeff

It says a lot about the 2010s that I’m happy about this.

While it’s a nationwide thing, I wonder how much the blend change factors into this.

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Oct 23

Iowa stubborn

Posted on Wednesday, October 23, 2013, at 10:56 AM by Jeff

“As you can see from the survey, over 90% of our community does not want to reorganize. Therefore reorganization is not an issue. We can not discuss reorganization at this time. The community is united in their opinion on this issue.”

The quote is an excerpt from a letter from the Titonka school board, printed in the Titonka Topic Oct. 6, 1994. At the time, Titonka was in a quadruple-header whole-grade-sharing agreement with Buffalo Center-Rake, Lakota, and Thompson that had started in 1989 and was called North Iowa. Buffalo Center-Rake and Lakota officially merged in the meantime and was pushing hard for full consolidation among the districts. Titonka was staunchly opposed and before the end of the 1994-95 school year signed an agreement with Woden-Crystal Lake instead.

In 2013-14, Titonka is a school district without students. Everyone in K-12 is going to school in Algona, a year ahead of the official consolidation. The district name will not change.

I have already written in some detail about the school situation in the area and may expand that in the future.

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Oct 22

This is where your school district went, eastern Iowa edition

Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2013, at 1:02 PM by Jeff

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAJune 21, 2013: Who would’ve thought that Clear Creek-Amana students were so opposed to Tom O’Brien in the ACC?

North Liberty, the 30th largest city in Iowa,* doesn’t have its own high school. It’s not even in one district. (The same goes for Clive, and for the same reasons.) Instead, the suburb is divided between Iowa City and Clear Creek-Amana along Jones Boulevard.

The west half of North Liberty is also where a lot of development is happening, along with the Tiffin area and Coralville west of the mall.** Because of that, CCA, despite building a new high school and football field with artificial turf on the west side of Tiffin in 2009, needs to expand again. There’s going to be a bond issue vote in February.

According to the story from KCRG, one elementary school has gained 310 students in five years. That’s approximately the entire enrollment of the HLV district 30 miles west.

Note: CCA superintendent Tim Kuehl was at Gladbrook-Reinbeck until this year.

*At least until the next special census.

**In fact, the border between CCA and Iowa City runs through Coral Ridge Mall. But that’s a subject for another blog post.

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Oct 22

I’d say “Winter is Coming” but that’s too cliche

Posted on Tuesday, October 22, 2013, at 1:44 AM by Jeff

Let’s see how this holds up.

HOWEVER…HEAVIEST ACCUMULATIONS…WITH STORM TOTALS OF 1-3 INCHES…WILL LIE GENERALLY ALONG AND NORTHEAST OF AN ALGONA…IOWA FALLS…TRAER LINE…INCLUDING WATERLOO.

EDIT: Conditions in Marshalltown Tuesday afternoon, light snow/fog/mist. Yup.

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Oct 21

Historic school team nicknames

Posted on Monday, October 21, 2013, at 11:03 AM by Jeff

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July 21, 2012

As covered on the Murph and Andy radio show Friday (go to the 25:30 mark) Bud Legg of the IHSAA has compiled a list (PDF) of Iowa high school team nicknames in the first half of the 20th century.

Despite what the list says, though, Traer and North Tama’s mascot was/is Redhawks, one word. There’s also a list of current schools and teams (PDF) but it has “Red Hawks” instead of “Redhawks” as well.

My list of school changes doesn’t include nicknames, so it’s not quite as rich for Andy Fales to mine. He had plenty of fun with them Friday.

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Oct 18

A slightly new style on my end pages

Posted on Friday, October 18, 2013, at 12:18 PM by Jeff

(Shorter text: UPDATES! Finally!)

Photos from July 2012 have been added to IA 3, 9 West, 10, 12, and 148.

One of the issues with updating the pages for individual routes is that I have listed all the dates at the bottom of the page. When I insert a photo or two — or insert one, use an existing one, and replace one — that numerical correspondence to the credits becomes broken. I have to run through the lineup again, checking to make sure the first, ninth, 15th, etc. photo was actually taken on the date it’s attached to.

The synchronization issue really rears its ugly head when I already have 20 or more photos on the page.

In order to make that less of a problem in the future, I’m going to change where I write the date a photo was taken. Now, the date will generally be placed on the line under the photo giving the direction the picture was taken (“Facing east”). In the sections where I still have a cluster of photos all taken on the same date, I’ll make a universal mention early.

The odds are, if I hadn’t said anything, readers might not have noticed anything. But I thought I’d write anyway as a little bit of excuse rationale for why, despite taking quite a few trips, no new photos had been placed on end pages for months.

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Oct 17

From the Big House

Posted on Thursday, October 17, 2013, at 10:35 AM by Jeff

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October 5, 2013: Michigan vs. Minnesota in Ann Arbor. I had a pretty good seat. The game was one stop along a 3800(!)-mile road trip.

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