STORM LAKE, Iowa, Sept. 16, 2016 — Thoughts you think while you watch the St. John’s Johnnies, the NCAA DIII football juggernaut from Minnesota, run-up a 33-0 halftime lead on your Buena Vista Beavers on a perfect September Saturday afternoon in the stadium on the lakeshore: — I sure got my money’s worth, having paid…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, Aug. 23, 2016 — For three consecutive Iowa State Fairs now, I have been part of the judging team for “Mother Podolak’s Chili Contest.” with the radio voices of the Iowa Hawkeyes football team, play-by-play commentator Gary Dophin and color analyst Ed Podolak. It’s been about as much fun…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER CENTERVILLE, Tennessee, July 15, 2016 — This is “The Third Weekend,” as African Americans with roots in Hickman County refer to this part of July — time for them to come back home to Centerville for a couple days. Then on Sunday, they all travel 60 miles east to Hadley Park in north…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER WEST DES MOINES, Iowa, July 6, 2016 — When an editor from the New York Times news bureau in Washington, D.C., spends four years interviewing, researching and writing a book on a baseball story in Iowa, you can pretty well figure it’s a story worth telling — and reading. “The Baseball Whisperer: A Small-Town…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Aug. 3, 2016 — I might need to “unfriend” a whole lot of folks soon. And this isn’t about politics. And it won’t happen on Facebook. When I stomp my feet, publicly call you out, or walk out on you, I want you to understand where I’m coming from and…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 2, 2016 — At our house, we’ve got the schedule cleared between 5 and 7 p.m. this evening so we can tune-in to the final broadcast by Garrison Keillor on “A Prairie Home Companion” on public radio. I’ve been listening to Keillor since his earliest nationwide shows, have read…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 4, 2016 — It’s been nearly 90 years since “knee-high by the 4th of July” was a legitimate measure of a good corn crop, going waaay back before Iowa farmers had the fantastic hybrid seed varieties that they use today. But our neighbor and pal Doug Lawton still good-naturedly puts up with our…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER BALLTOWN, Iowa, March 7, 2016 — Mike Breitbach pointed at me from another customer’s table the other day and told him, “That guy over there and I have been friends for 40 years.” No way, I first thought. But I quickly did the math, and, yep. The first time I came to Breitbach’s Country…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, Feb. 2, 2016 — I know many of you follow my yearly reading list. It was a good reading year in 2015, in fact, a record year for me. I finished it having read 66 books, including the Bible, cover to cover. Hallelujah. Amen. Here’s my full list, with my favorite…
CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, June 4, 2016 – I’ve got three strong feelings about the race in Iowa for the U.S. Senate as we come to Tuesday’s primary election. First, Rob Hogg, 49, of Cedar Rapids, is the best Democrat to come down the road in Iowa since Tom Vilsack, he is ready to serve…
