Our Iowa News Digest

Recent items of interest in our perhaps peculiar view

LET'S HEAR IT FOR BREITBACH'S!

Balltown, October 2, 2008 -- In this tiny northeast Iowa town, the legendary Breitbach's Country Dining has risen from the ashes -- literally. The 156-year-old bar and restaurant, located about a dozen miles northwest of Dubuque, burned to the ground last Christmas Eve. But owners Mike and Cindy Breitbach boldly rebuilt, and as the photo shows here, the new building has some nice reminders of its predecessor while being bigger and better than ever before.

THE MARLBORO MAN IS NOT HAPPY

Shenandoah, Oct. 1, 2008 -- Nearly everybody we know personally is thrilled with Iowa's new law which, since July, has prohibited smoking in public places. But we got a reminder, as we were strolling around my hometown of Shenandoah in southwest Iowa, that not everybody agrees. See the photo below here, of a sign in a store window in the business district.

WHAT A BUNCH OF FOOTBALL HOOIE

Cooper, September 16, 2008 -- We were distressed to see this brief sidebar report in the Des Moines Sunday Register's coverage of the Iowa vs. Iowa State football game, played in rain at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City last Saturday:

''The Iowa State and Iowa marching bands were not allowed to perform on the field Saturday, as officials tried to prevent deterioration of the waterlogged playing surface. Iowa State's band belted out music from the north end zone, while Iowa played in the south end zone.''

Uh, did the football teams go out and warm up on that playing surface before the game? Did that cause some deterioration? And just how much deterioration would two marching bands cause?

The bands are owed apologies.

By the way, the Iowa Hawkeyes won 17-5 over the Iowa State Cyclones. But it did seem like every time the Cyclones' offense tried to make something happen in the ''red zone,'' the playing surface there was indeed badly deteriorating. -- CHO

TALLEST CORN STALK & BIG TALK

Guthrie Center, September 6, 2008 -- We were browsing our way around the 150th Guthrie County Fair this past weekend in west central Iowa, and we noticed a display featuring the winner of the fair’s “Tallest Corn Stalk” contest.

Jacque Hoover, whose farm is near Monteith, southeast of Guthrie Center, had the tallest at 12 ft. 5 5/8 in. Besides the corn stalk being displayed there, there was a photo of her receiving the blue ribbon and a nice tiara, the latter of which must have been a special award.

And there was also this rather bold statement on an accompanying poster: “Attention, guys! Move it on over! The women are taking over!” -- CHO

THE HUMOR OF CHURCH MUSICIANS

Jefferson, June 9, 2008 -- Rev. Don Ries, pastor of our St. Joseph Catholic Church, began the mass on June 8 by noting we'd just had another drenching rain in the early morning hours, following several days of heavy rains and other foul weather.

''But our music people here at St. Joseph have a sense of humor,'' Father Ries said. ''You have to have a sense of humor to pick the hymn that they picked for us to open with today. So let's all open our hymnals to No. 634.''

And then we all launched into the 1991 hymn by Jaime Cortez, ''Rain Down,'' based on Psalm 33. Here's the refrain, which some in the congregation did not sound so enthusiastic about when they were singing it:

Rain down, rain down,
Rain down your love
on your people!

There were several more hours of rain the rest of Sunday. Enough already! -- CHO

WELCOME, STRANGER, TO COON RAPIDS!

Coon Rapids, May 30, 2008 -- U.S. Senator Charles Grassley probably knows Iowa better than anybody living in the state. Ever since Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford in northeast Iowa, was first elected to the Senate in 1980, he has made it a point to visit each of the 99 counties every year.

He also did a lot of traveling during his earlier six years in the U.S. House, and during his even earlier 16 years in the Iowa Legislature. But somehow he kept missing Coon Rapids, a town of 1,300 in west central Iowa. Grassley had not been here in 30 years, the Coon Rapids Enterprise reported recently. But on Friday, May 30, he made up for it -- spending three hours here visiting with local leaders and other citizens. He pointed out that he's been in Carroll and Guthrie Counties many times through the years, but generally it's been for ''town meetings'' in the county seats of Carroll and Guthrie Center. He said he finally made it to Coon Rapids ''because I knew Rachel Garst wouldn't stop pestering me unless I came here.''

SPRING '08: WET, COOL, BEAUTIFUL!

Cooper, May 19, 2008 -- In many ways, this spring of 2008 has been a nasty one -- late arriving, wet, cool, even cold. But in other ways, we've loved it. When have the tulips been prettier? Have you ever seen this many goldfinches before? And how about the flowering trees? When can you remember them more beautiful?

STARRING IN AUDUBON AS “ELVIS”

Audubon, March 31, 2008 -- Some of the most popular music concerts held in Iowa never get reviewed in the local or state newspapers or other media. Yet, they are generally performed in auditoriums packed by especially devoted fans. We refer, of course, to the local elementary school's periodic musicals. The one that started us thinking about this was held last Thursday, March 27, in the southwest Iowa town of Audubon, where music teacher Tami Meiners' fifth and sixth grade students starred in show titled, “Cinemagic.” You need to look at only one photo to know how much fun it was.

ONE EXCITING TRAIL BRIDGE!

Council Bluffs, March 31, 2008 -- Our bicycling friends Joe and Cindy Connolly of Council Bluffs are our official observers of progress on one of the most exciting cycling-related developments ever -- construction of the trail bridge across the Missouri River between Omaha and the Bluffs. The Connollys were out this past weekend, and sent back this photo of the construction project.

SECOND BEST BARBER IN IOWA?

Ames, February 18, 2008 -- Publisher Roy Reiman and Editor Jerry Wiebel of the new ''Our Iowa'' magazine may be on to something. As a promotional gimmick this winter, they asked their readers to nominate local barbers for a contest to determine the ''Best Barber in Iowa.'' Ten finalists were picked from throughout the state -- each won $200 -- and they all came together for a barbering competition on Saturday, February 16, in one of the handsome buildings in Reiman Gardens adjacent to Jack Trice Stadium on the Iowa State University campus here. Yes, publisher Reiman and his wife Bobbi were the lead donors funding the gorgeous and elaborate gardens at ISU.

The biggest surprise to us was that our personal guru Sam The Barber Kauffman, who cuts hair in the shop that has long served as our ''sample precinct'' in Audubon in southwest Iowa, finished only second. Word is that the winner, Kitty Snakenberg of Miss Kitty's Barber Shop in the southeast Iowa town of Ollie, out-talked him! The fact that anybody could out-talk Sam Kauffman is astonishing everybody back home in Audubon.

Maybe Kauffman's grandson Matt Kauffman, 28, of Granger, was most surprised at the outcome. ''Grandpa!'' this former champion wrestler said, ''you got beat by a girl!''

Snakenberg won another $500 for her championship.

The second biggest surprise to us was that all the finalists brought along big cheering sections, so big that at one point, more than 200 people were jammed into the building to witness the hair-cutting competition. If this kind of event can draw that many people to Ames on a cold Saturday morning in February, it seems to me that ''Our Iowa'' magazine could turn this into a major event at the Iowa State Fair.

Their first run at it, in Ames, was sure nicely done, complete with a barber shop quartet performming and WHO Radio's regular morning team of Van Harden and Bonnie Lucas on hand to report results to listeners across the state. -- CHO

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