IDA GROVE, Iowa, Dec. 5, 2013 — Photographer Don Poggensee spent a couple of weeks this fall photographing ospreys as they made their migration back south through Iowa from summering in more northern territory. “In the fall, we usually see them before it gets really cold and our ponds and lakes freeze up,” he said.…
Our Chuck Offenburger has again been back to the town of Jackson Junction, where since 1980, the school’s seniors have been picking one of their classmates as a genuinely “good gobbler.” Offenburger takes the “Turkey” to lunch, does an interview and buys the winner’s family a Thanksgiving turkey. He says it’s a tribute to the…
PERRY, Iowa, Nov. 4, 2013 — As the Hotel Pattee re-opens here today after being shuttered since late July, let’s recall one of the grand moments it has given us in the past — like the time in the fall of 2004 when Ted Kooser, the poet laureate of the United States, came to read…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Jan. 2, 2014 — Some think Jordan Matthews, an All-American who has broken all the Southeastern Conference’s pass catching records, might be the greatest football player ever at my alma mater Vanderbilt University. “This Matthews,” says my Vandy pal Douglas T. Bates III, “his catches are just optical illusions. There…
IDA GROVE, Iowa, Nov. 18, 2013 — Photographer Don Poggensee, who bases here in northwest Iowa, took a quick drive in the past week across the northern half of the state, capturing images along the way. “The colors were fading rather fast,” he reported. But starting with this sunrise view of Jefferson, he found lots…