Aug 29

THAT is the first “song” on Mars?

Posted on Wednesday, August 29, 2012, at 1:12 PM by Jeff

If any Martians are reading this: On behalf of the entire human race, I apologize. Please do not invade us.

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Aug 29

My Armstrong/space column

Posted on Wednesday, August 29, 2012, at 12:41 AM by Jeff

Printed in Tuesday’s Register, online here.

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Aug 28

More on “A Place for Heroes”

Posted on Tuesday, August 28, 2012, at 1:02 AM by Jeff

Filming continues in Traer. It sounds like they staged one of our customary Memorial Day services. Yes, that is one of my relatives making an appearance.

“The man inspired me. Very moving. It’s nice to see patriotism passed on,” said Max Morrison, U.S. Marines Corp veteran, who appeared in the movie.

Morrison was one of about 30 local veterans who took part in a Memorial Day scene held at the Traer Memorial building Tuesday. Morrison and the veterans appeared with Sorvino, who gave a touching speech.

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Aug 27

Construction update for Sioux City

Posted on Monday, August 27, 2012, at 1:05 AM by Jeff

Rebuilding I-29 through the area is halfway done, the Sioux City Journal says — but that means there’s another five years of work ahead.

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Aug 25

Neil Armstrong, 1930-2012

Posted on Saturday, August 25, 2012, at 3:06 PM by Jeff

The world has lost a pioneer.

EDIT 8/26: I have replaced the picture after Charles Apple’s blog pointed out the previous one used Buzz Aldrin’s footprint. More pictures and information there.

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Aug 25

The Alphabet Bowl

Posted on Saturday, August 25, 2012, at 10:45 AM by Jeff

Last night, AGWSR beat BCLUW 13-6 in a cross-district Class A game. “It was the alphabet game,” one of the guys said on the Iowa Sports Spotlight Scoreboard Show (broadcast on radio and Channel 13.2).

Alphabet game? No, make it bigger. They are two of the three five-letter-acronym schools in the state. Alphabet Bowl. This needs to be a thing. You don’t need a trophy, just a title — although they could play for a box of Alpha-Bits. West Lyon and Central Lyon/George-Little Rock play the Beef Bowl. (CL/GLR is the third five-letter acronym although that nomenclature is not normally used.)

Speaking of alphabet soups, the tripleheader-ish sports merger of North Sentral Kossuth and Armstrong-Ringsted will be going by the name of “North Union.”* This is another data point in the small but growing trend of districts partially or entirely separating from geographic names and adopting some other name entirely because there are too many hyphens otherwise. (It’s similar to the problem that arises when two people with already-hyphenated names get married, I suppose.)

*Not to be confused with Union of La Porte City, Remsen-Union, or North Fayette of West Union.

EDIT 8/26: Oh, and East Union of Afton, too.

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Aug 24

KWWL piece on “A Place for Heroes”

Posted on Friday, August 24, 2012, at 12:20 AM by Jeff

Article here. Video embedded below.

Norbert Caloud’s name got misspelled again, but Cecelia Podhajsky’s is fine. Go figure.

KWWL.com – News

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Aug 23

Obama’s visit and Tama County

Posted on Thursday, August 23, 2012, at 12:43 PM by Jeff

When President Obama did his three-day trip across Iowa last week, he came through Tama County. The president’s Tuesday leg included going north from Oskaloosa and then west for stops in Haverhill and Marshalltown, then back and along 63 north to Waterloo.

The Toledo Chronicle has details on the pass-through and also about previous politicians’ stops in the county. This is believed to be the first time a sitting president has been through the county at least since World War II*,  but we have had many candidates (including Hillary Clinton at the end of 2007). As a sitting president, he gets all the security trappings, including a reported 44-car motorcade of state and county patrol cars, while riding an armored bus (nicknamed Ground Force One by some).

The Traer Star-Clipper got media credentials to Obama’s speech in Waterloo and has a report and pictures. (It’s not a minor issue or undertaking for a weekly paper to do that.) In the gallery is a picture of the bus rolling through Traer:

After speaking in Marshalltown in the afternoon, the president hopped aboard his bus, bound for Waterloo, and passed through downtown Traer as well-wishers were lined up and down Main Street to cheer him on. The president gave waves to the crowd as the bus passed through the Main and Second Street intersection.

Mitt Romney’s bus has also been in the area.

*EDIT: Both Roosevelts made train stops in Marshalltown, according to the Chronicle article, so it’s possible that they saw the area.

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Aug 22

Well, the Wildcats do own the Longhorns right now

Posted on Wednesday, August 22, 2012, at 2:07 PM by Jeff

You can get a license plate in Texas with the Kansas State logo.

(via @jonfmorse)

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Aug 21

Southbound Ankeny rest area closed

Posted on Tuesday, August 21, 2012, at 6:00 PM by Jeff

That happened yesterday.

Officially, I-35 has 88 miles between rest areas. Fortunately, the Des Moines-area exits in between have easily accessible facilities. (US 20, not so much.)

This is a timed post.
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