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All About the Potato Salad
I recently got a checkup for my retinal tear surgery about 4 months ago. My surgeon was pleased with the outcome. Partly based on my good outcome, he shared that he was guiding his trainees on the wisdom of not necessarily always going with the new surgical procedures for the disorder, which happens not infrequently…
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Factual or Fictional or Felgercarb
I’ve been watching a couple of shows about Alaska that are pretty much Bigfoot tales. One of them is The Alaska Triangle and the other is Alaska Killer Bigfoot. And when I looked on the web to find out more about the TV shows, I learned a new word, “Felgercarb” (alternate spelling “felgercarb”). It means…
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The Kindness of Strangers in a Parking Lot
This is a post about how easy it is to forget where you parked your car in a big parking lot, say at the grocery store, and ways to help prevent it. This sometimes attracts the kindness of strangers, which is puzzling because it’s not very clear how helpful they can be in this situation.…
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The Cigarette Waltz
A couple of days ago we heard a ballet called The Cigarette Waltz by a French composer, Edouard Lalo, on one of the Iowa Public Radio (IPR) classical music programs. The announcer told a little anecdote (most of which I didn’t hear) about the saying “Smoke‘em if ya got’em” which he traced to the World…
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Wendy’s Offers the Impossible Strawberry Frosty
Sena told me that Wendy’s will now be offering the strawberry Frosty, for which she and many others have been clamoring for years. The media announcements call it historic. Was there ever a strawberry shortage to explain the absence of a strawberry Frosty? It never seemed that way. It was predicted in December 2021, but…
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D-Day for All Soldiers in World War II, Including African Americans
Today is D-Day, which was the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare, and there is plenty of history to read about it. It was the Battle of Normandy during World War II, which lasted from June to August of 1944. There is also the history of African-American soldiers in World War II. Unfortunately,…
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Ransom’s Cigar Store in Mason City
I was thinking yesterday about Ransom’s Cigar Store in Mason City, Iowa. There are actually a couple of reasons why it’s on my mind now. The first thing about Ransom’s is that it’s an old pool hall on 120 North Federal Avenue. It looks like it has been there for a century. Decades ago, probably…
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All Gave Some…Some Gave All
Yesterday, Sena and I drove out to Oak Hill Cemetery to get some snapshots and video clips of the new Coralville Veterans Memorial. It’s still in progress, with plans for stone medallions from each branch of the military. Even now, it’s beautiful and inspiring. That includes the inscription on the Tribute Walkway: All Gave Some…Some…
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Mysteries in History
The title of the post is “Mysteries in History,” and before I chose it, I realized it had a familiar ring to it. It’s from Men in Black II. It’s an imaginary, cheesy, very low budget TV series narrated by Peter Graves in the movie. And it’s actually the perfect title for what my wife…
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The Flag of Honor at Fire Department No. 4
We took a walk this weekend on Scott Boulevard and eventually found our way to Fire Station No. 4. At first, we were struck by what looked like a real Dalmatian apparently sitting just inside the door. It was a pretty good sculpture. Just behind it was a large American Flag hanging on the wall.…
