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Biggish Events in Iowa in 1982
We’ve been watching for the house finch eggs to hatch sometime soon here. Remember they’re the ones who are nesting in the artificial Christmas tree on our front porch. The 2023 edition of the book Birds of Iowa Field Guide, written by Stan Tekiela says the house finch was first seen in Iowa in 1982.…
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The University of Iowa Role in the Science Behind Psilocybin for Psychiatric Treatment
On April 9, 2024, the University of Iowa educational podcast, Rounding@Iowa presented a discussion about the study of the use of psilocybin in the treatment of psychiatric and addiction disorders. You can access the podcast below. The title is “Psilocybin Benefits and Risks.” The format involves an interview by Dr. Gerard Clancy, MD, Senior Associate…
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Svengoolie Triggers Memory Lane Trip to the Drive Ins
Both Sena and I stayed up to see the cheesy 1972 horror flick The Gargoyles last Saturday night. No kidding, Sena stayed up for the whole thing! The show runs from 7-9:30 PM but the actual movie is only a little over an hour long. It’s about a clan of gargoyles that every 500 years…
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Getting Ready for the Solar Eclipse!
Sena has placed the order for our eclipse glasses and eclipse T-shirts. They should get here in plenty of time for the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. And if the weather is really crappy that day—we have 30 days to return them. There is an interesting history of eclipses on the NASA website. It…
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Svengoolie and The Comedy of Terrors
Last Saturday on Svengoolie, I watched for the second time the 1963 movie “Comedy of Terrors,” a slapstick horror spinoff of Shakespeare’s farce, “Comedy of Errors”—which I’ve never seen. I didn’t see the whole movie the first time around, and I can’t remember exactly where I saw it. Most likely it was on Svengoolie. The…
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Remember The Calling
I recommend Dr. George Dawson’s recent posts on seeing the practice of medicine as a calling and his passing a big milestone with 2 million reads on his blog. I wrote a post entitled “Remembering Our Calling: MLK Day 2015.” It was republished in a local newspaper, the Iowa City Press-Citizen on January 19, 2015.…
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Thoughts on Journalist Sydney J. Harris
I just have a few things to say about Sydney J. Harris, who was a journalist whose columns were syndicated to over 200 newspapers. I remember reading them in the Des Moines Register years ago. I ran across one of his books for sale on Amazon. I’ve never read any of them, but I found…
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The Iowa State University African and African American Studies Research Guide
In keeping with Iowa History Month 2024, you can have a look at the Iowa State University website “African and African American Studies Research Guide.” Iowa State University happens to be my alma mater, or in a way, one of them. I took my Bachelor’s degree there and later graduated from The University of Iowa…
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African American Women in Iowa History
In light of March being Women in History Month (as well as Iowa History Month), I’d like to share some history stories about an African American librarian from Mason City, Iowa named Esther J. Walls. In 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, there was an essay about her, “Esther J. Walls: The Role of a Black…
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Flight of Ideas on Junior Bald Eagles
A couple of days ago the temperature was in the mid-seventies, which is pretty balmy for February. We took the opportunity to get out for a walk on the Terry Trueblood Trail. It’s coincidental, but we did the same thing on the exact same date last February. It’s under the same condition for the most…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 