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Pride or Rhetoric? What Would Dr. Melvin P. Sikes Say?
I noticed the headlines about the DEI flap at The University of Iowa, the one with the official apparently spilling the beans about University of Iowa’s DEI program not going away despite being illegal while maybe being unaware of being filmed. I’m not going to retell the story. However, it does remind me of a…
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Time for My First Ever Facial Today
So, for the past several days, Sena has been bugging me to let her give me a facial. I’ve never had a facial; it never occurred to me; I had no idea what it even entailed. I looked it up on the web. I read things that kind of scared me. Facials can result in…
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Success of Johnson County Civil Mental Health Court in its First Year
I’ve been looking for other ways that Iowa addresses mental illness and its impact on homelessness and other adverse outcomes since my last post on the issue. It turns out that, despite Iowa ranking 51st out of all U.S. states for the low number of psychiatric beds according to the Treatment Advocacy Center statistics (in…
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Svengoolie Interviewed at the Comic-Con!
Hey, I thought it would be fun to share an interview that somebody did of Svengoolie at the Comic-Con in San Diego yesterday. Svengoolie is played by Rich Koz and he’s been around a long time. He’s definitely not thinkinig of retiring. The only way we would have recognized him is by his voice!
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Upcoming Svengoolie Movie: “The Black Scorpion”
Svengoolie intro: Calling all stations, clear the air lanes, clear all air lanes for the big broadcast! I plan to watch the upcoming blockbuster Svengoolie movie this Saturday night, “The Black Scorpion” and so far, I haven’t read much about it except for a couple of lines from a synopsis or two. A volcano erupts…
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It Takes a Village to Tackle Homelessness: What’s Iowa Doing?
After I read Dr. Dawson’s post today “More on homelessness and violence as a public health problem,” it got me thinking about what the situation on homelessness of people with mental illness and substance use disorder is here in Iowa. First, I looked at the 2024 Iowa Homelessness Needs Assessment, which is a thorough report…
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Extreme Heat Warning for I-80 Corridor
There’s an extreme heat warning from the National Weather Service for much of the I-80 corridor today and tomorrow. Heat indices of 95-110+ are expected. Cooling Centers in Iowa City, IA Cooling Centers in Coralville, IA Consider donating to the Iowa City Shelter House Beat the Heat drive!
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Mighty Hawk!
Today we saw this cool Red-Tailed Hawk on the fence—sort of, in a manner of speaking. This hawk was definitely not on the fence about getting brunch though. It would fly off the fence a few times and we expected it would come up with a mouse or squirrel or something—empty claws. The woodchucks are…
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A Few Words About the Panera Jumbo Cobb Salad
Well, I’m sure you’ll be relieved to know that I am lucky to still be independently mobile today after eating the FULL Panera Bread green goddess chicken cobb salad—as in full stomach. I’ll admit I didn’t know what I was getting into. You know the salad is big when it comes with a ladder. It’s…
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Shout Out to Dr. George Dawson for Post “The Autocratic Approach to Homelessness”
I want to give a shout out to Dr. George Dawson for his post today “The Autocratic Approach to Homelessness” in reference to President Trump’s most recent executive order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” As a retired psychiatrist, I look back and remember seeing the problem of the homeless mentally ill a lot.…
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