Pages of Iowa History

“Iowa: A Definitive Collection” edited by Zachary Michael Jack of Oxford Junction and the topic of my Ramblin’ column in today’s Gazette, is really a fascinating read, whether you read only one or two of the 90-plus entries or study them all.
“I wanted it to be big and diverse,” Zachary said in a  telephone interview, [...]

Vietnam Memorial Dedication

Nine soldiers with Johnson County connections will be honored at 2 p.m. Saturday (May 30), the actual Memorial Day, with the dedication of the Johnson County Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the grounds of the Johnson County Courthouse. The ceremony includes a performance by the New Horizons Air Force Band from Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, [...]

Burma Shave Signs as Poetry

Mike Chasar, the subject of today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette, had a fun time collecting old scrapbooks for his award-winning dissertation about how poetry influenced Americans from 1880 to 1945. While I was able to cover a lot of what he wrote about in that column, there’s no way to everything from a 225-page scholarly paper. [...]

Ralph Deadman’s Final Trip

My post of April 8 recalled Ralph Deadman of Iowa City who died April 5 and had lived next door to my wife’s mother on Court Street. He was the topic of my Gazette Ramblin’ column of Feb. 4, 2001, because he collected skulls. I had a great time chatting with Ralph about those skulls — none of [...]

Sweet or Sour Severance

$65,170.
$71,398.
The first figure is the severance package received by Lori Barkema who recently resigned as director of the Cedar Rapids Public Library while the second is what Howard Collinson was awarded after he resigned as director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art.
Sweet if you’re Barkema or Collinson. Sour if, as our country wallows [...]

Merrill Sparks a Fascinating Man

What a joy to spend a couple of hours with a man of Merrill Sparks’ caliber.
Merrill, 85, a native Iowan who retired to Iowa City about four years ago (See today’s Ramblin’ column in The Gazette), has performed all around the United States and has known some really famous people including actor James Cagney, “April [...]

May Ralph Deadman Rest in Peace

I was sorry to see that Ralph Deadman died Saturday at the age of 91. He was the neighbor of my wife’s mother in Iowa City which led me to his basement one cold winter day to look at his collection — of skulls.
Of course, they weren’t real skulls. But Ralph loved how it played on his last [...]

Death by Meteorite

Friday’s “Ramblin’ ” conversation in The Gazette is with Ray Anderson, a meteorite expert who is giving three separate talks at this weekend’s “Meteorites of Iowa: Space Junk-Earth’s Treasure” show by the Cedar Valley Rocks & Minerals Society. It’s from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday and 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Teamsters [...]