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Local Columns

Magic Mike 6XL: Gravity, that S.O.B.

Tiptoe is too great a phrase for it, and step is just an over exaggeration. My feet move forward, one then the other, a centimeter at a time, barely leaving the ground. My hands are out at my sides like a circus performer traveling across a wire. I think this helps, but in reality, it just ...

You’ll Figure It Out: IT’S SO COLD OUTSIDE THAT…

One of the great passages of generation to generation is the ago-old statement, "Why, boy, I remember when I was a kid, I had to walk five miles to school every day, uphill both ways." Or how about this one, "Listen boy, it was so cold when I was a kid that when I milked the cows, ice cream ...

Pastor’s Corner: “Made the grade!”

Remember getting an “F” in school? Ok, you didn’t study and deserved the failing grade. But what about when you studied and got an “F” anyway? Oddly, bad grades stick in our minds more than good grades. In high school, my physics teacher had multiple-choice questions on quizzes and ...

Magic Mike 6XL: The old man and the snow

It was around two in the morning. I was sitting on the couch in the living room watching TV. My father suddenly appeared. He had on slippers and a pair of underwear that should have been put out of their misery in the mid-nineties. He walked past me, out the front door, out the porch, and into ...

Iowa Outdoors: Bald Eagle Midwinter Survey

Every year over a hundred volunteers and DNR staff head out to spy on Iowa's Bald Eagles. Thankfully the eagles usually don't mind and we get valuable data that helps us to evaluate how these birds are doing in the state. Volunteers help with two surveys: The Bald Eagle Midwinter Survey and ...

Pastor’s Corner: “Peace-full dreamers!”

I’ve always been skeptical of dreams and dreamers. Personal experience tells me that when my mind is thrown into neutral as my head hits the bedtime pillow, bizarre dreams erupt. One dream had me “running” on a treadmill down an interstate highway in my robe. In another dream, I hosted a ...

Magic Mike 6XL: Board games and idle threats

I am gonna tell ya the story of last weekend. To do this, we need to travel back a little bit. In the time of my groovy adolescence, when my peers were playing shoot 'em up games on their little Nintendos or whatever, I was playin' board games. My Ma never allowed video games in my house past ...

You’ll Figure It Out!: New Year’s suggestions

Suggestions sound so much better than resolutions, don't you think? Here are those obvious ones; losing weight, exercising more, reading the Bible in a year, saving money each paycheck, quitting this or quitting that, and so on the list of those resolutions go on and on... Here are some ones I ...

Pastor’s Corner: Chocolate January!

January supposedly originated with the ancient Romans honoring their god, Janus. The Romans had only 10 months in their calendar year and the winter months were not named. Their calendar began with March, in honor of their god, Mars, the god of war and protector of agriculture. So, the winter ...

Magic Mike 6XL: Last story of the year

2023 is still on its deathbed, and everybody is changing the sheets already. New calendars are being hung up, fresh day planners are being bought, and some guy who thought Y2K was gonna be the end of the world stepped out of his bunker, looked around, said, "eh," and went back in. It's been ...