Opinion

I recently wrote a column about Taylor?s Maid-Rite in Marshalltown, and received more feedback from this story than any I can remember.The crux of the column was this: a well known story had it that, a few years ago, Taylor?s didn?t put ketchup out on the counter because hobos from the railroad track wandered up and mixed ketchup with water to make a tomato drink. I checked this story out, and Taylor?s denied ...

To the editor:I was seriously wronged back in 1999 and 2000 by part of our local government. I was told the statute of limitations won?t allow me to sue. So I guess that?s water under the bridge.Now I?ve got this question! Is everyone blind or what? I wrote a letter to our governor back in 2005 explaining how to stop meth and it would work.Why is it these state representatives still allow pseudoephedrine ...

To the editor:DID YOU GO TO THE WEDDING??The date: Dec. 3, l981, Sunday, Thirty years ago.Scheduled time: 1:30 p.m., actually happened 1.5 hours late.The place: New $750,000 dome where laborers worked furiously on MIU campus to complete the 24,000 square foot women?s golden dome in time for the wedding.The groom: Douglas James Henning age 34, born in Winnipeg Canada in l974 started practice of TM ...

April 19, 2012Richmond, Iowa To the Editor:I read Linda Wenger?s account of Tuesday morning?s meeting of the Washington County supervisors in the April 17, 2012, edition of The Washington Evening Journal. This meeting appears to be nothing more than a propaganda show by Supervisors Miksch, Rich and Mangold, and I would like to reply to two statements that were reported in the article.RUSS?s recent Preliminary...

For 15 years, our family had a pet cat we called ?Tiger.? We got Tiger from a litter of kittens on a farm that belonged to a family friend. I told my friends at school that we named it Tiger, and I quickly learned that was hardly an original moniker. In fact, the name has to be up there with ?Whiskers? as one of the most popular cat names of all time.In my family?s defense, our Tiger actually resembled a tiger. ...

April 11, 2012 To the editor:I?m confused. Those who know me might say, ?That?s nothing new,? but please bear me out. I?m primarily speaking to my brothers and sisters in Christ. There?s a lot of talk about gun rights lately. I have an image of a person wearing a shirt that says, ?I love Jesus? and with a clenched fist they are shouting ?Right to Life? and in the other hand they are holding a gun. This is ...

The weather so far this year is really concerning me. Yes, this is me looking a gift horse in the mouth about the mild winter that we had, but so far the facts seem to support my somewhat paranoid view.The long and the short of it is that so far this year we have already had more than double the number of tornadoes. Unofficially, I have to ask, since when do we begin having tornadoes in April? Living in the ...

Dear Editor, Once again this year our church will host the Our Time National Youth Conference. We will have 40 churches bringing groups of teens from all across Iowa and the Midwest for a powerful two-day youth event. I want our neighbors to be informed that we will have a professional fireworks show during this conference. The Show will take place on Thursday, April 19,2012 beginning at 9:25 p.m. The show will ...

It?s not often that one can witness the death of a town. The demise is usually a gradual process of population dwindling to nothing, mostly because the family farm is fading away. But when the town?s mayor publicly announces a city council vote to unincorporate, it is worthy of attention. And attendance.Especially when the town is Mount Sterling. Tiny Mount Sterling, next to the Missouri State Line in Van Buren ...

There?s a certain power in silence. In a recent cover article by Time Magazine, it was pointed out that, in our world where extroverts, or the loudest, get the most attention. Introverts, or the quieter people, may be the better adjusted. Being a card-carrying introvert, I like that theory.Have you ever been in a crowd of yakking, noisy people and just wanted to scream, ?Would everyone just please shut up!??Ther...

I like mysteries that can be figured out quickly.Last week my morning shower water pressure at Southgate was a little more than a trickle. I was more concerned about a water heater going bad than the annoyance of a less-than-satisfying shower.When I pulled out of the Southgate drive at 7 a.m., the ditches on the east side of Highway 1 were filled with water. I assumed it rained a little more than I thought ...

To the editor:Readers, I want you to consider the voices of those that you do not hear, to listen for the sounds of nature that are diminishing or no longer there. They have been waning for decades and in one century alone, have disappeared forever from the planet.During this summer, I kept my eye on the telephone wire near my house where at least three or more mourning doves sat each day. Sometime in very ...