Tom Arnold on Trump tapes, his favorite Iowa stuff and the time he challenged his father to a fight
Tom Arnold is among the rarest of Iowans, having survived both the Razzie Awards and the kill floor at Hormel. There’s a generation of us who may have first met him via Roseanne, but the man has spent decades showing up in wonderful places: Austin Powers, True Lies, The Simpsons, The Best Damn Sports Show…
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Letters to the Editor
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Letter to the editor: Like millions of migrants, my dad is indispensable
By Anthony Arroyo, Des Moines ICE is a continuation of America’s oldest tradition: state-sanctioned violence against people of color, especially Latinos. It grows out of a history that has always…
Letter to the editor: Minnesotans are showing us how to defend freedom
By Patricia Bowen, Iowa City Minnesotans across races and origins, faiths and genders, are demonstrating that the brave of us stand with and for each other. And the cowardly MAGA regime…
Letter from Joe Bolkcom: It’s time to clean the statehouse
Iowa Republicans can’t be trusted to manage your money anymore. Their reckless revenue and spending decisions have made a shambles of the state finances. They have created a huge $1.2…
Thoughts on a terror campaign from an Iowan living in Minneapolis
I am no journalist, no reporter, and also not inclined to repackage the uncomplicated and readily evident facts of the last few weeks from my home here in Minneapolis, pretending…
Local Album Reviews
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Album Review: The DZ Combo — ‘It’s Just Your Turn’
It's Just Your Turn by The DZ Combo Have you ever been served dinner by a friend with a passion for food? Every course is presented with love and a…
Album Review: Kinji — ‘Thunderhead’
In the same way nature’s counterpart forewarns of dreariness and thunderous disruption, indie musician Kinji’s newest EP Thunderhead starts as the calm before the storm, only to break open, laid…
Album Review: Strange News — ‘Liar’s Curse’
Liar's Curse by Strange News It is reasonable in an increasingly unreasonable world to crave nostalgia. As AI and surveillance technologies continue to invade our lives and each day’s news…
Album Review: Calmer Feeling — ‘Pianos in the Fields of Color’
This is one of the few times I can compare a song to the music you might hear in a swanky therapist’s office and mean it as a compliment. “Waiting…
Book Reviews
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Book Review: ‘Groceries’ by Nora Claire Miller
Groceries by Nora Claire Miller spills into the hybrid terrain to challenge expectations of mixed-genre. It opens a narrative sentence and bulldozes parts of speech to reach its own truest…
Book Review: ‘Burnt Mountain’ by Emily Wilson
The most prominent, consistent feature of these poems are the heady — even baroque, indulgent — descriptions of the natural world. (I wrote “descriptive” three separate times in my notes.)…
Book Review: ‘Midwest Futures: Poems & Micro-Stories From Tomorrow’s Heartland’ edited by Randy Brown
Midwest Futures (Middle West Press) is a short, albeit stout collection of poems, short essays and stories that encapsulate the Midwest across time and various corners of our region. The…
Book Review: ‘13 Notes from Napoleon, Iowa: Musings on the Edge of the French Empire’ by Anna Barker
For several years, University of Iowa literature professor Anna Barker has produced a steady blizzard of commentary on classic French literature: Hugo, Stendahl, Dumas, Balzac. In her debut book, 13…
Food & Drink
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The Black Rose will continue as an online bookstore after closing its West Branch location
The Black Rose, the West Branch bookstore and cocktail lounge that opened earlier this year, has closed its brick-and-mortar location, owner Ashley Kofoed announced on Sunday on social media. “This…
An Iowa State grad co-invented the Rice Krispie Treat (then never made them again)
Marshmallows, Rice Krispies, a little butter and your mom’s best 9”-by-13” Pyrex baking dish — the only ingredients needed for that ubiquitous, always-welcome fixture of the Midwestern potluck, the Rice…
SpareMe, beloved bowling and pinball destination in downtown Iowa City, is shutting down
SpareMe Bowl & Arcade is closing. The downtown Iowa City bowling alley will shut its door for the last time on Wednesday night, SpareMe announced Friday on social media. It…
With ‘Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat,’ chef Samin Nosrat boiled cooking down to its elements. At Hancher — and with her new book — she reflects on why we set a table in the first place
If there’s anything we all could use at the end of 2025, it’s comforting food with good company. Helping patrons get into the holiday feasting mindset, Hancher Auditorium hosted a…
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