Siftings

Snow Blind
Jan
13
Snow Blind
“Good luck summarizing that” I said to QCTimes reporter Brian Wellner as Saturday’s strategic planning worksession concluded.  Mayor Gluba and the City Council had devoted another three hours to an open discussion of our challenges and opportunities and the Times and WQAD were there to report on...
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Durable Goods
Jan
13
Durable Goods
The conference table is quartersawn white oak.  Governor Branstad greets Mayor Gluba first, and shakes hands with Aldermen Gordon and Edmond next.  I go last, cause I’m the hired help.  The non-partisan hired help so, with the Governor’s Legislative Liaison Jake Ketzner with us, the room has four...
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Tick Tock
Jan
10
Tick Tock
Easy is inversely correlated to distance.  Resisting ice-cream.  Making a putt.  Spelling on a whiteboard.  Terminating someone’s employment.  Peace in the Middle East.  On second thought, easy is inversely correlated to the cube of distance. SAU professor Dan Ebener is facilitating a strategic...
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Craig’s Friday Countdown - The Schools ...
Jan
08
Craig’s Friday Countdown - The Schools ...
Schools Which Didn’t Kick Me Out   As President Obama unveils a plan to expand access to community college for all students, here’s the ranking of schools that have kept me occupied after missing high school graduation with my class for failing English four or five too many times.   8 -...
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Oaths & Other Promises
Jan
07
Oaths & Other Promises
There are toddlers and babies in the Council Chambers.  That means one of three things.  1 - Someone is so upset about something they’ve brought their children.  2 - There are older siblings getting some recognition.  3 - There are young mothers or fathers being sworn in as police officers or...
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Migration
Jan
06
Migration
Caribou of the tundra trudge through ten to fifteen winters before fate catches up.   Mine have made it through thirty-eight, surviving longer than the company that made them.  Old-school Sorel Caribous, the ones made in Canada before the company went bankrupt, are legendarily tough.  Not sure if...
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Permanence
Jan
05
Permanence
Post-it notes on a whiteboard.  Can there be anything less permanent?  Bubbles.  Clouds.  Pizza delivered to teenage boys.  Confidence in a Bears quarterback.  We did use permanent ink rather than pencil on the post-it notes.  So that’s a start.    The nine pages of notes from the Strategic...
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Craig’s Friday Countdown Roadmap Representation
Jan
02
Craig’s Friday Countdown Roadmap Representation
Iowa's Re-Envisioned Economic Development Roadmap lists 34 Iowans who serve on the board and project taskforce that oversaw creation of the report.  The 34 live or work in the following cities / regions:   1 - Pella 1 - Muscatine 1 - Council Bluffs 1 - Dubuque 1 - Cedar Rapids 2 - Ames 3 -...
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Clippings
Dec
29
Clippings
Attachment dies hard.  The Chicago Tribune now arrives by mail, four or five days late, but we still subscribe.  No such delay for the QCTimes, which magically appears on the front stoop every morning like a proper newspaper should. Today’s editorial was well done and gets you thinking, like a...
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Admonitions
Dec
26
Admonitions
I got lost.  I had been here a month or so in the fall of 2001 and was supposed to look at something in Centennial Park.  I couldn’t find a park, so I headed back to City Hall.  I described where I went and was told the collection of mud, gravel, chain link and rusting metal buildings was...
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