Opinion
Working in your PJ's
Vinton Today gave us a chance to try something many dream of, but never get the chance to do....work from home.
Before you try it, you have this idea that you will sit at your computer in your jammies, with a hot cup of coffee, while you work.
That might be true.
What no one tells you, is that it's sometimes much harder to actually get anything done while working at home.
Advice and definitions for city-dwelling farm writers
In order to enlighten us city folk journalists about the realities of farm life so we can write better stories about farming, the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and the Iowa Newspaper Association sponsor occasional educational events for city-born farm writers.
I attended such an event about five years ago, with about two dozen other journalists from around Iowa.
Regifting etiquette: Making the most of Christmas 2011
After learning what you received for Christmas from friends, family, neighbors, customers, associates, and your ex-sister-in-law’s first husband’s second cousin, whom you may or may not have briefly dated in college, you now know exactly how many of those gifts you plan to give to someone else next Christmas.
'Moonbeam' history
A 30-year-old nickname that made its way back to the headlines of early 2011 has had many in the American media digging up old newspaper articles to find out why, and how, California’s new – and former – top excecutive ended up being labeled as “Governor Moonbeam.”
How I wish Mike Royko could see the news now.
Keep Facebook about faces, PLEASE!
Tonight I turned on the computer after a few hours completely off line, checked into Facebook, had those warm fuzzies as I commented about how we had just had our whole family out for our Christmas get together, and how fun it was to see everyone around, and how I was feeling so blessed that everyone is happy and healthy.
I clicked the "share" button then my page updated and immediately I said, "EW!", shivered and hit the button that hid THAT post.
Provoking your New Year's agitations with force and persuasion
Every year at this time, we hear people talking again about "resolutions."
Lose weight.
Stop smoking.
Spend less time watching TV.
Say nicer things about my bosses/colleagues/relatives – or at least stop saying what we think of them in front of our children.
Old Long Gone Song: An ode to resolutions soon forgotten
It only takes, according to people who like to count this stuff, about 17 days for the average American to say, "Oh, never mind" to his or her New Year's Resolutions.
Tonight – December 31, 2010 – the people who have with nothing to better to do are standing up at some city street, looking up to the sky to let some giant piece of metal tell them it’s January.
The sights and sounds of a prison in progress
In a few months, perhaps, the unwilling occupants of the new Benton County Law Enforcement Center will hear the sound most-often associated with prisons: The echo of a door clanging shut.
From the outside, it appears as though the building is nearly ready for use. Most exterior brick work has been finished. Why many in law enforcement are concerned about Iowa's new 'Shall Issue' gun law
If – under the new law that went into effect Jan. 1 – Mark Becker had walked into the Butler County Sheriff’s Office on the morning of June 23, 2009, and requested a permit to carry a handgun, that sheriff would have been required by law to issue him one.
Becker would not have had to “reasonably justify going armed.
A friendly visit from the Ghost of Christmas past
For Ebenezer Scrooge, the Ghost of Christmas Past was sort of creepy and scary. And sad.
But for us, this year, it was kind of cool.
In this age of Wii and Kinectics and 3D movies, I received, as a gift, something that is not available at any of the stores that sell all of those things – a 1970s video game.