By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Jan. 27, 2020 — I have often said, cancer is a curious friend. And I still believe that – but sometimes it can feel like a friend has turned on you and causes you more grief than you deserve from a friendship. This is what I’m feeling right now with…
Chuck Offenburger’s college pal Tom Bailey and his wife Hunter, of Charlottesville, Virginia, have been on a cruise ship in the Persian Gulf during the recent time of high tensions in the Middle East between the United States, Iran and Iraq. The Baileys have shared the following observations and photos. By TOM BAILEY STRAITS OF…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Dec. 30, 2019 – We were talking politics in the living room of our west central Iowa farmhouse here the other day with our longtime pal Mary Riche, who is a very active Democrat in the Des Moines area. “We are living in very historic times,” Riche said. Indeed we…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Nov. 25, 2019 – For those of you who are seriously thinking you might caucus and vote for Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren or any other presidential candidate age 70 and older, really, you should know better. I was contemplating that over the weekend after seeing that…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Sept. 2, 2019 – Six months after I first told you this, I can’t say it any better. So let me again try to make it plain. I believe former Maryland congressman John Delaney is the “Real Deal” Democrat in this wild scramble for the presidency. And he now has…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Oct. 12, 2019 — What a summer. Thank goodness for October. I’ve always thought October was the perfect month for rest and rejuvenation. The weather is nearly perfect and there’s still plenty of time not to think about the upcoming holiday season. I changed my life significantly at the end…
By ROD WILLIAMSON NASHVILLE, Tennessee, Sept. 27, 2019 — From 1983 through 1994, I selected the National Anthem singers at Vanderbilt University athletic events. On the surface, this might appear to be a mundane task, but when your school’s home base is Nashville – “Music City USA” – the National Anthems are more scrutinized than…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER BANCROFT, Iowa, Aug. 17, 2019 – In this summer of mass shootings, suspicion of those different from ourselves, and outright hate, thank God for baseball, you know? Almost daily, the grand old game gives us good lessons – prepare well, get out of yourself, sacrifice for others, work together as a team,…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, Sept. 23, 2019 — I’m pretty sure I saw an eventual president of the U.S. on Sunday afternoon at the historic railroad depot in Jefferson in west central Iowa. Julian Castro, the 45-year-old former mayor of San Antonio, former secretary of U.S. Housing & Urban Development, twin brother of U.S. Rep.…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, June 20, 2019 — It was 30 years ago this summer when I decided to get my ear pierced and start wearing an earring. It was 29 years ago when I met Carla Burt during a bicycle ride on a recreational trail. Jim Green inspired both big moments in my life. …
