Siftings
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 -...
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...
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...
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...
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 -...
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...
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...
Dec
25
Craig’s Friday Countdown 2014 iPod Additions
2014 iPod additions
A year-end Top 10 song list? A Top 50 list? Couldn’t decide so let’s do both. Not saying these are the best 60 songs of 2014, or even that they’re 2014 songs (a few aren’t). I am saying these are the best 60 songs added to my iPod in 2014. Ms. Swift was left off (as were...
Dec
23
Winter Break ?
"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." So said Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby. As I stare out the window of the Budweiser Champions Club at Modern Woodmen Park, there are roughly 83 geese not waiting for...
Dec
18
Craig’s Friday Countdown - Strat Plan Prep Pages
Strat Plan Prep Pages
Mayor Gluba and the City Council will be meeting Saturday for a strategic planning session. Staff has assembled a preparatory 61 page collection of information with a mix of facts, observations and process advice. Here’s my favorite 12 pages.
12 – Page 14: A HBR summary...
