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April Fool

Local Columns

The best April Fool joke to completely blind side me was pulled off by my reporters at one of the newspapers I edited during the early 1980s. They were a spunky crew: Two graduates from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut; the son of the guy who managed Madison Square Garden; a granddaughter of the Knight Ridder chain ownership; and a local woman named Cindy who managed to show them all how to do things faster and better. I was tougher in those days, tough in the way that if I got my teeth into a juicy story I could be like a hungry feral cat. The story on which I had most ...

It might be the best thing

Local Columns

When I was a kid I enjoyed listening to older folks talk about the changes they had seen during their lifetimes and their first-time experiences. First time driving a tractor, first time seeing an airplane, first time they had electricity on their farm … I enjoyed their stories. Thinking about some of these dear older folks recently, I realized that I have now lived enough years to join in those conversations. There are a lot of “firsts” that I can recall. For instance, I can remember the first time I realized what turn signals were. When my father purchased a new 1953 Ford he ...

Entitlements?

Letters to Editor

To the editor: Unfortunately, I am forced to agree with (President Donald) Trump on one point: we now live in a s-hole country. I was born, raised and educated locally. As a child I had some chores on the farm. After moving to town I raked leaves, shoveled snow, mowed lawns and had a paper route. Summers I detasseled and shelled corn and walked beans. As a teen I helped build a house for Hefty (Construction) and roofed for Anderson/Caulkins. I worked for Franklin Manufacturing in the reliability lab 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. before school. After that, a short stint at Modern Farms before ...

Highways of the past

Local Columns

Zipping down today’s interstate highways it’s easy to forget what Iowa’s highways were like just 70 years ago. Too young to remember? Well, let me fill you in. Though some two-lane highways were being widened at the time, many of Iowa’s primary roads and bridges were too narrow for the increasing amount of traffic and larger vehicles. Rounded curbs on hills threw your car to the left if you steered a bit too much to the right. In 1954 a white dash replaced a continuous black line as the center line on Iowa’s paved highways and a continuous yellow line identified no-passing ...

You, with pain in your eyes

Local Columns

This is for you with pain in your eyes. Years ago, I stood where you stand. I wrote those words way back in 1987 when I was managing editor of a Connecticut newspaper and a volunteer rape crisis counselor. I remember it was in the spring because I had just announced I was leaving the job to head to England. Sometime during the three months' notice I had given my employer, I stopped at the local grocery and almost immediately was approached by a young woman who said: "Oh my God. I've been looking for you. I was raped." She was the young woman who accompanied her friend to the ...

Your legacy will live on through how you treat people

Local Columns

In my profession we are called upon to help, serve, defend and stand up for the unfortunate or people who can’t do it for themselves, for whatever reason that may be. It is kind of odd to think back and realize that is exactly how my dad brought me up to act each and every day. He did it through his words but, most importantly, through his actions. He lived what he preached. He was a financial advisor, but he was so much more than that because of the relationships he built with the people he helped. The people he served would be having the best or even the worst day of their ...