Finally – the big time! Iowa’s famous tweeting senator, Chuck Grassley, tweeted about a story I wrote – or a package in Delta Sky magazine that includes a story I wrote. Too Funny. My 21-year-old son, an avid Grassley follower on Twitter, spotted it and passed it along! It’s a keeper….
 ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley)1/26/13 7:58 AM Iowans don’t brag(our sin)So we lucky DeltaAir does. Read Delta”Sky”:”The Iowa Advantage” Find out how great Iowa is. Pass it on BRAG/PROUD |
Filed under Airlines, Des Moines, Iowa
On a bitter cold day, while in search of a bowl of steaming hot soup, a friend and I decided to give Cafe Fuzion a try. It’s a small Vietnamese/Asian restaurant in a worn shopping mall on the east side of Des Moines. I wasn’t impressed when we went there several years ago for dinner but for lunch, it was fine and the Vietnamese soup I had – Pho (pronounced pheh – not pho, as I commonly mispronounce it) was excellent – great beefy flavor, meat that wasn’t too fatty or gristly or synthetic (which has been a problem at other Vietnamese restaurants), and steaming hot! I’ll be back.
Filed under Des Moines, DINING
Filed under Des Moines, DINING
Des Moines Performing Arts/The Civic Center
The Book of Mormon is arriving soon in Des Moines – and I bought tickets long ago for Feb. 2 (commonly know as Groundhog’s day but in this household as Dirck’s bday.) But according to the newly branded Des Moines Performing Arts/Civic Center (still commonly known as the Des Moines Civic Center), some cheap tickets ($25 vs. the $60 or so I spent) will be available by lottery. Not sure what’s up with that but interesting…see the new website: http://www.desmoinesperformingarts.org
Nine 2011 Tony Awards® say it’s the Best Musical of the Year. Vogue says, “It’s the funniest musical of all time.” And The New York Times says, “It’s the best musical of this century.” It’s THE BOOK OF MORMON, the Broadway phenomenon from South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Avenue Q co-creator Robert Lopez. The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart calls it “So good, it makes me angry.” Contains explicit language.
Visit Website: www.bookofmormonbroadway.com/home.php
Filed under Des Moines, theater
Des Moines
Driving through downtown Des Moines last night we were struck by the absence of the famous Weather Beacon – a 500-foot television station transmitter tower lined with lights that perked up the sky above the city, letting us know the weather forecast by its color and flashing/or lack of flashing. (Red meant warmer weather ahead; white – colder weather in sight; flashing meant precipitation.) My stepdaughter E. in particular was fascinated by it as a kid when she used to visit us from Oklahoma. “Does every city have a weather beacon?” she once asked. No – and now Des Moines no longer does either, alas. (Some other cities do have a weather beacon, according to Wikipedia including Dubuque, Sacramento,Sydney, Copenhagen, Toronto, Istanbul and New Orleans, where I’ll be next weekend. Who knew? See photos below!)
Word has it some genius is designing a computer app to replace the weather beacon but that’s hardly the same. More details from the DM Register:
Iowa lost two treasures in less than two days. First, Wall Lake native and famed singer Andy Williams died late Tuesday. Wednesday, word came from KCCI-TV the station was switching off its beloved Weather Beacon for good.
The beacon was to flicker off a final time at dawn Thursday. Station owners decided costs and upkeep of the colorful icon outweighed the benefits of keeping the beacon lit — much to the anguish of central Iowans who grew up with the forecast lights.
“We are losing a true landmark,” said Bernard Harmeyer of Altoona. “I always looked to the tower to see what was going on with the weather. It made (KCCI) stand out from the other stations.”
First lit in 1960, strings of colored lights at the edges of the downtown transmitter tower for Des Moines’ CBS-TV affiliate gave an at-a-glance forecast on the capital’s skyline.
But the traffic light bulbs used to create the colorful forecast are no longer manufactured. Station officials ordered custom-made bulbs, but the color flaked off the red and green bulbs, which regularly forced engineers to scale the 500-foot tower to replace bulbs.
The tower, KCCI reported Wednesday, was built to meet 1980s code, and any remodeling would have forced expensive repairs.
The Weather Beacon went dark in 1973 because of high energy costs. When KCCI moved to its current location at 888 Ninth St., the tower was rebuilt and the beacon returned in 1987.
Former Des Moines Register Iowa Boy columnist Chuck Offenburger rallied the station to return the beacon in many columns through the 1970s and ’80s. Now retired and living on a Greene County farm, he was ready to sound reveille in the 21st century.
“Occupy KCCI!” he said Wednesday. “Look what other fine restorations there are around Des Moines — the World Food Prize headquarters, the Temple for Performing Arts, Terry Branstad.
“Surely the Weather Beacon can be made over and given extended new life, too, can’t it?”
Sydney 
Brisbane 
Melbourne 
Kitchener 
Toronto 
Copenhagen 
Aachen 
Osaka 
Istanbul 
Fresno 
Sacramento 
San Francisco
Des Moines 
Dubuque 
New Orleans 
Boston 
Flint |
Filed under Des Moines
I met my sister and her daughters at a new place in the River North area (I think) of Chicago called The Slurping Turtle, cute place with good Japanese-influenced food run by a celeb chef (he’s on Top Chef Masters, we were told.) The best dish was the Tori Ramen a egg noodle soup with a poached egg, chicken, Chinese broccoli and pea pods. Also some good gyoza appetizers (potstickers) and duck fat fried chicken. On the drive home, I picked up my daughter in Iowa City and we went to one of her favorite places that I’d somehow never been to – Oasis, a middle eastern restaurant where I had a humdinger of a pita sandwich with perfectly cooked and seasoned chunks of lamb, felafel, chunks of cucumber and tomato, hummus. Excellent. Last night we did the $25 restaurant week dinner at Splash with four other friends. We were told the portions were slightly smaller for the discounted meal – which I thought was a bit stingy – but when the dishes arrived they were certainly big enough for me. The highlight was the key lime cheese cake and a chocolate dessert that was some of a round cake with a soft chocolatey center. And now I must stop eating for awhile….
Filed under Chicago, Des Moines
Be careful what you wish for. I’ve long wanted a frozen yogurt place on Des Moines’ Ingersoll Avenue and now comes word that two are about to open, within blocks of each other: Orange Leaf next to Gusto Pizza; Menchie’s a block or so west. I guess this is good. I’ll be looking for the Greek stuff!
Also surprised to see that Lululemon has set up shop in Des Moines’ East Village. Not sure if this is a good or bad sign. Good that a trendy athletic clothing chain is attracted to the neighborhood, which not long ago was a shopping wasteland. Not-so-good if chain stores start driving up rents and pushing out the independent shops that make the East Village distinctively charming. It does arrive just in time for the Hy-Vee Triathlon over Labor Day Weekend in downtown Des Moines.
Filed under Des Moines
We met Liang Chow and his wife about 10 – 15 years ago when our daughter took lessons at his then-fledgling gymnastics studio in West Des Moines. Who knew that he would become a darling of the 2008 and now 2012 olympics but it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Who knows what really goes on between a coach and star pupil but I do know that I’d trust my kid’s fragile body and emotions with him if I had a budding gymnast on my hands. He always seemed a bit unknowable behind his omnipresent smile (a stereotype I know) but he also seemed very calm and kind and dedicated. Just what you want in a coach, I’d think. So happy for him – and his star pupils Gabby Douglas and, in 2008, Shawn Johnson (who I no doubt watched as a kid when I sat through my daughter’s gymnastics classes. She’s a year older than our daughter.) Happy too for my adopted city and state to catch a little unlikely fame. Wonder who our next Iowa-trained gymnastics superstar will be? (A few contenders can be found on http://www.chowsgym.com.)
Filed under Des Moines
It is really more accurate to say that we are leaving the best western hotel in park city, Kansas, just north of Wichita. We arrived there yesterday at 3pm and didn’t leave until midday today. There was no reason to leave since we came for a family reunion and it was 104 degrees outside. We did make it to Saigon restaurant on. Broadway hearty view Vietnamese lunch. (I had the bun as usual, a cold salad of greens, noodles, char broiled pork and egg roll, aka no. 45 on the menu.)
Now we are back in the car driving on interstate 35, another six hours drive north to Wichita. The corn is prematurely brown due to drought..burnt up is the technical term, my husband tells me. Lawns and brown, not their usual green. My brother-in-law, a cowboy in western Kansas report he is running out of pasture for his cattle to graze, it is now 106 on our car thermometer.
Restaurants recommended my various relatives during the reunion:in Kansas city, Lulu’s for Thai.. Chez Elle, crepes; Amano in New Orleans.
Filed under Des Moines, Kansas City, New Orleans
During the past few summers, we’ve enjoyed going to see a Shakespeare Play performed by the talented performers involved with the Repertory Theater of Iowa, staged on the sweeping lawn of the Salisbury House in Des Moines, with the elegant Tudor mansion as a perfect backdrop. But this year, it doesn’t appear to be happening. I can’t find any sign of it on the Salisbury House or Repertory Theater website. Tis a pity.
Filed under Des Moines, theater
TakeBetsywithyou
TakeBetsywithyou 