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Looking for that perfect item once worn by your favorite female celebrity? Then you might want to check out Cady Auction Gallery in Cedar Rapids, 833 Shaver Road NE, which is having an auction beginning at noon Sunday, Nov. Nov. 22. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.) The collection was accumulated over a 20-year span by a Linn County woman who recently died. Her husband decided to sell the collection of more than 200 items of clothing and accessories so ...

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Today is the third Friday the 13th of 2009. The first two were in February and March. The last time this happened was in 1998. Bad Luck? Good Luck? Who Knows? You know the saying that celebrities always die in threes. If that's the case, this could be a triple bad day for folks who fear it, folks who have what's called Paraskavedekatriaphobia. Interestingly enough, Paraskavedekatriaphobia is derived from two Greek words -- Paraskevi (Friday) and dekatreis (thirteen) attached to phobia -- yet Greeks ...

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The U.S. Revolutionary War ended in 1783 and Iowa didn't become a state until 1846, yet surprisingly 43 Revolutionary War veterans are buried in Iowa soil. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.) At first glance, that doesn't seem possible, especially when you realize the average life expactancy at the time was about 50. Then you look closer and realize that these soldiers were very young when they fought, 14 or maybe 16 years old. They lived to ripe old ages of ...

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World War II veterans are dying at the rate of 1,000 a day, most taking with them all memory of their service to their country. The few who write down those memories, who wish to pass them on to future generations, should be commended. One such veteran was Richard Sanner, who grew up in Anamosa, Iowa, and died in 2000. He planned well ahead by asking his parents, in 1944, to save all of his letters home while he served in France, Germany and Austria. ...

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Harley Ransom, 97, proved he was up to the challenge when the leader of his exercise group at Meth-Wick, a retirement community in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, called in sick. He took over and put the group through its paces the morning of Oct. 21 - his 97th birthday. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.) "She called me and I'd done this before,"  Harley says. "But it was different this time. It was my birthday." Circling arms in place, doing squats with a ...

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Molly Mason has made it. She works in her Long Island, N.Y., studio, creating huge art sculptures for public display throughout the United States. She has been lauded for her creativity and skill. Her works will last for decades, if not centuries. And, like anyone who succeeds, Molly remembers where it began some 35 years ago at Cedar Rapids Washington High School and the University of Iowa.  So, this week, Molly, 57, returns to the Corridor for three reasons -- mentoring, money and ...

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Some laughs on Halloween: What's a vampire's favorite fast food? A guy with very high blood pressure. What did the three vampires order at the bar? Two bloods and a blood light. Why isn't Dracula invited to many Halloween parties? Because he's a pain in the neck. How do you tell twin witches apart? You can't tell which witch is which. ----- One Halloween a trick-or-treater came to the door dressed as "Rocky" in boxing gloves and satin shorts. Soon after the woman at the door gave him some ...

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I expected to be proud of my step-daughter's performance with the Linn-Mar "Marching Lions" high school band Monday night (Oct. 26) at the annual Indoor Marching Band Classic at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. But she did something that blew away me, her mother, and everyone else at the show that night. About the middle of the night, as Lauren Higgins, 17, prepared to play flute with her band mates, she approached emcee Scott Drzycimski with a simple request. "Today is my sister's 15th birthday," ...

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I couldn't help myself with the egg puns as I wrote my Ramblin' column for today's Gazette newspaper. When Jerry Mach of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, called to  tell me about the 5-inch long egg inside an egg that her daughter, Dee Heinrich and husband, Rick, of rural Marion, Iowa, had discovered, I just had learn more. It's not that I didn't believe Jerry -- I knew it wasn't an egg-saggeration -- I just wanted to see it for myself. As I walked ...

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Four weeks sober, Steve Sellers of Marion thought he had his drinking problem licked. His habit, over the years, had increased to two fifths of vodka a day. Knowing his wife might leave him, that he could lose his job, Steve become an outpatient at the Sedlacek Treatment Center at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids. As new snow fell one late January day in 1996, Steve rejoiced. “It’s a sign of purity,” he thought, surrounded by the whiteness. “God is telling ...

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Tony Plaut did. An art professor at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, Tony loves to play with his creative mind. He loves to tinker. He loves to collect old typewriters. And he's fascinated with gizmos that work without electricty. Enter the Typer Piper, an apparatus constructed from an old manual Remington typewriter, six wooden flutes from a collection of dozens discarded by a former student, a spare tire mounted to a rusty rim, a hand operated air pump and hoses connected ...

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It's no secret that newspapers are dying -- I've heard it periodically since I came into the business in 1974. But Bob Greene's latest book, "Late Edition: A Love Story," puts it on the table for all to see. And like any truly good love story, it draws me in and makes me sad that the object of affection has a limited life span. Greene is the guy who wrote a syndicated newspaper column from Chicago for 31 years  and among other things became ...

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At first when I heard that Roberto Ampuero taught University of Iowa students how to improve their writing in Spanish, it didn't make sense. But when I talked to him for today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette, it makes perfect sense to have a master of fine arts program for writing in Spanish. "Our idea," Roberto said, "was why not offer an MFA in a country where 45 million people have a close relationship with Spanish?" Robert, 56, seemed like the perfect person ...

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On Oct. 17, 1989, I sat down to watch the third game of the Bay Area World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics when, suddenly, the TV went off and whole earth shook around me. It wound up being a 7.1 on the Richter Scale, a big one, that halted the World Series for a time. It's on my mind now not only for the 20th anniversary, but because the Los Angele Dodges and the California Angels are ...

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When The Rubber Band takes the stage at 7 p.m. Tuesday night at the Nob Hill Ballroom north of Decorah, Iowa, it symbolizes a return to the '60s. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.) Formed in 1966, The Bubber Band had gone by other names before it settled on that one. It played a lot of the popular music of the day around Northeast Iowa, mostly at Matter's Ballroom south of Decorah, which burned in 2003, where it was the ...

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Sometime this summer on my way to work down First Avenue in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, I spotted Muffler Man waving an American Flag. Later, I noticed he was joined by a small dog with a rubber tongue hanging out of his mouth. Then this green caterpillar wriggled onto the scene. And now there's this great big bull. How cool is that, I thought, stopped by to see what was up. Seems Paul Mahurin of Marion, lead technician at  the Midas muffler shop at 3230 First Ave. ...

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What a great tour I had the other day of the new/old barn that has been erected in the last couple of months on the Dusty Sylver and Mike LeClere acreage on the northwest edge of Center Point, Iowa. The century old barn near Manchester was torn down in June by Amish workers who drew seven pages of diagrams to help someone reconstruct it. And Dusty and Mike (right), along with Dusty's nephew, Mike Silver (left) of Cedar Rapids, did just that, putting ...

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When I sat down to chat with Rachel Powell of Keota the other day, I was not only charmed by her nice, sweet manner, but inspired by her life work, from taking care of kids as a teen in Kansas to working as a registered nurse delivering 400 babies in Indiana to helping people plan funerals in Iowa. This woman, 93, has spent her life helping other people. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.) Rachel was a registered nurse in Indiana when ...

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"I've got some bad news," joked Mike Myers when he called from Williamsburg on Monday. Bad? How bad? Oh, yes. As I said, he was joking. "We won," Mike added with a laugh. "By a foot and a half." If you recall, Mike and his wife, Tracey, entered the Our Iowa magazine and Edward Jones tall corn contest this year. They picked up some of the special tall growing Brazilian and Mexican corn seed this spring and planted it across  the driveway from their ...

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I am continually amazed and impressed at the brave face people like Joan Decious are able to wear when facing a limited amount of time on earth. Joan, of Anamosa, was give four to six months to live when she was diagnosed with brain tumors on her 59th birthday -- Feb. 20. (See today's Ramblin' column in The Gazette.) It has now been more than seven months and, as she told me, she takes each day one at a time. Today ...

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A little girl was at her first golf lesson when she asked an interesting question: "Is the word spelled p-u-t or p-u-t-t?" she asked the instructor. "P-u-t-t is correct," he replied. "Put means to place a thing where you want it. Putt means merely a vain attempt to do the same thing."

AMBLAR, after my own heart, minus the "R" and with an "a" in place of an "e" spotted on a beige Chevrolet Cavalier in Cedar Rapids flying a black and gold Iowa Hawkeye flag with Minnesota Vikings stickers on the back.

You not only hear the notes of the huge 1896 Kimball pneumatic organ housed in the relatively small Union Sunday School building in Clermont, Iowa, you feel  them. It is an uplifting experience, a testament to the fact that organs have been used for so long to evoke emotion as they call people to worship. As I sat near the keyboard watching four organists -- Steve Story of Hawkeye, Sally Boie of Hawkeye, Marvin Kerr of North Liberty and Otter Dreaming ...

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Iowa has been known as the corn state for decades, even though it was the musical "Oklahoma" that touted corn growing as high as an elephant's eye. And Iowa has been known as the tall corn state since the 1940s when Don Radda (left) of Washington, Iowa, began nursing special corn seeds to new heights. He set the world record in 1946 with a corn stalk that grew 30 feet and 7/8ths inch tall. I've got a postcard of it by ...

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I waited too long to have a colonoscopy. I’m 56. It should have been done at 50. Or 40. My mother was diagnosed with colon cancer at age of 64. She was given 2 1/2 years to live. She died less than a month after her 67th birthday. Her mother died at 67, too. Of colon cancer. Yes, heredity has a lot to do with it. That’s why my wife, Suzanne, bugged me about it for years. “When are you getting a colonoscopy?” Suz would ...

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