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Signs of Anecdotage
I remember when we were kids, we used to get gifts of fruitcake from well-meaning older ladies in our church. I think that’s where I first learned how to lie. If my little brother and I didn’t praise the weaponized loaf of glazed, syrupy candied fruit studded with rotten walnuts, we caught hell from Mom.…
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The Visible Flame
I began rereading the book Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison today, which is Leap Day. Given what little I know about Leap Day and Leap Year in general, there isn’t a connection. I first read Invisible Man well over 40 years ago. It was a paperback and I took it with me to Huston-Tillotson College…
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Facial Hair and the Masked Worker
I’ve seen the news warning us about how facial hair can interfere with the N95 respirator mask seal. It’s connected with the concerns about the novel coronavirus which you no doubt have heard unless you live under a rock. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reiterated their warning about how certain beard and mustache styles…
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I’m Late for Valentine’s Day
I’m a little late for Valentine’s Day, but you could give me a break because I’ve been a little busy being retired. Don’t throw things at me because I’m getting too old to duck. And I did get my wife a card, flowers, and some candy on time. It was something else I forgot. It’ll…
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Milestones
I got a nice, if puzzling surprise today. At a faculty meeting I was recognized for my 10-year anniversary of service at our hospital. It’s an important milestone, even if it is wrong. They scheduled this small event a couple of months ago, but I was too busy on the psychiatry consult service to break…
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Market to Market Memories
I’m a fan of Iowa Public Television (IPT) and I recall watching the show Market to Market, a show which I knew nothing about because it dealt with agriculture. Not everybody who lives in Iowa is a farmer, you know. I remember the days when Chet Randolph was the host. He had a wonderfully deep,…
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The Iowa River Landing Sculpture Walk
I had so much fun with the giant chicken post on January 25, 2020 that I thought it would be nice to revisit the subject, only this time take a butt-freezing tour of the entire Iowa River Landing (IRL) Sculpture Walk. We took the walk Tuesday, January 28, 2020. The weather was typical for Iowa…
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A Giant Chicken
Last week, we were out at the Iowa River Landing (IRL) and saw a giant chicken. It’s actually a metal sculpture entitled Iowa Blue: The Urbane Chicken, 2013, one of 11 such works (all installed in 2013) of art making up the Iowa River Landing Sculpture Walk, located in the Coralville Marriott Hotel and Conference…
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Bridges: An Essay on MLK Day of Service 2020
The Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is today and the University of Iowa has taken a quote from King to set the tone each year for this event. This year it is: “Let us build bridges rather than barriers, openness rather than walls. Rather than borders, let us look at distant horizons together…
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Thoughts on Etiquette
I sometimes wonder about etiquette. Take the sandwiches in the featured image today. Of course, you can’t actually “take” them; don’t be so literal. My wife, Sena made them for lunch yesterday, after we’d worked on clearing a lot of snow and ice from our driveway and sidewalks. We were ravenous. Sena ate the neatly…
Go Retire Psychiatrist 