Control
Two weeks ago I killed my cat. Well, technically, the vet did it, and it’s not called killing, it’s called euthanasia or putting down or, most euphemistically, putting to sleep.…
Occupy Iowa City No. 1
I am not actually occupying Iowa City (although this being Iowa City, we are transforming, not occupying. Liberating was rejected on the grounds of being too confrontation and sharing on…
Isn’t That Your Job?
Your week probably did not start at 8:30 on Monday morning with a health care professional telling you that you were gaining too much weight in your pregnancy and that…
Poetry
I do not care if you do not like poetry. People often ask me if I like children. The question always cracks me up. “Sure,” I say. “I like some…
Remembrance and Change
The events I’m supposed to remember, the ones that are supposed to have changed my life, are 9/11 and the Challenger explosion. And I do remember them: I was in…
Third Grade
I said to someone online yesterday that third grade was awesome. And indeed it was. It was the year my best friend showed up at Lincoln, because the alternative school…
Leaving the West
I was born back east. Anyone with an ordinary understanding of the geography of the United States will, upon hearing I was born Iowa, immediately wonder about my grasp on…
An Announcement
Dear Internet, I interrupt the irregularly scheduled programming around here to let you know that I am expecting a baby boy in 2012, due in theory on January 20. Thank…
Things I Learned Listening to Commercial Radio in Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois
My trusty car Viktor is equipped with a radio/tape deck and one of those doohickeys that you plug into your cigarette lighter so you can play your iPod through your…
Driving to Grinnell
Queen Anne’s Lace corn cattails Oxford Montezuma Brooklyn go West, young man the man once said once upon a time this was the West That’s what I wrote in my…