Breaking News

Local Columns

What’s missing from houses these days?

Take an afternoon drive around an urban or suburban area anywhere in the Midwest. Look at the houses. What is missing from these homes that would likely have been there 50 years ago? Give up? How about a television antenna? Fifty years ago you would have found a television antenna on most residential rooftops. The advent of cable television initiated the disappearance of the rooftop antenna. Then satellite receivers took even more. When commercial broadcast TV went digital in 2009 the new technology eliminated the need for some rooftop antennas. Nowadays internet streaming makes ...

Knowledge talks, wisdom listens

When I learned to read I quickly became a little nerd, reading anything I could get my hands on. It’s amazing what a kid can learn by reading, especially when he finds stuff he shouldn’t be reading. While I have learned a great deal from reading, I’ve learned even more from listening — to parents, mentors, friends, bosses and peers. The earliest bit of wisdom I recall was from my mother. “Don’t tell lies!” she warned as we walked to school on the first day of kindergarten. Her words are well-remembered because I was a bit of a prevaricator at the time. I learned it’s ...

What an education

The best formal education of my life came through two professors at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, when I was doing master’s work in creative writing and acting. Anne Greene and John Hawkins released me from the kind of secondary education boundaries created by the metaphorical mental handcuffs some paths of education place on budding students’ creative energy. My undergraduate at Iowa State in journalism was peppered with some intensely dedicated professors, Tom Emmerson and Bill Kunerth highest among them. But for sheer launching power, I remember not just the ...

Red and yellow, black and white …

Growing up in rural Iowa in the ’50s and ’60s I was not exposed to much diversity. Our small-town schools in those days were nearly all white. In kindergarten and first grade I had a classmate from England. Other than her accent, which I thought was cute, she was like the rest of us kids. A couple of years later a classmate who was also a neighbor was the son of a Native American mother and a white father. Sonny was a good friend and we had a lot of fun playing together. At my first full-time job I worked with a young Mexican lady. Maria was an excellent worker and I have ...

A perfect pain in the rear

Okay, I’m a senior citizen now and I’m mature enough to admit to my faults. My jaws crack noisily when I eat apples and I snarf down popcorn too quickly. I bore my family by repeating jokes and personal anecdotes and my Dutch stubbornness and German temper sometimes get in the way of human harmony. I preach “sermons” worthy of Billy Sunday when I get disgusted with someone or something and I have been known to have been too frugal. This list, unfortunately, goes on. The stain of original sin did not pass me by. One fault I have difficulty admitting, however, is the fault of ...

The Daily Freeman-Journal and Kendall Young Library are hosting two candidate forums

The Daily Freeman-Journal and Kendall Young Library are partnering to host two candidate forums relevant to the upcoming Webster City School Board and City Council of Webster City elections. These forums will take place at Kendall Young Library. The school board forum will be on Monday, October 27, from 6 to 8 p.m. The City Council of Webster City forum will be on Tuesday, October 28, 6 to 8 p.m. Moderating these events is Bill Shea, editor of The Messenger, Fort Dodge. The forums will follow the following format: First, each candidate will be allowed time to address the ...