I called a friend of mine with the idea of setting up a time when we can have coffee. By the way, it wasn't My Neighbor Al, the Health Nut with whom I was talking. I had some Italian Dark Roast with Al and his wife Diane this morning, and I'll get around to writing about what we talked about when my schedule gets a bit lighter. Anyway, in my phone conversation with the other friend I referred to earlier, we talked about several things. Finally, I said, "Hey, listen, let's make a friendly wager on what's going to come first--the next Iowa blizzard, the next Hawkeye basketball victory or the first time the new editor at the paper writes something meaningful." To which my friend said, "I'm betting on the blizzard. The Hawkeyes won't win another basketball game until next November, and the new editor, Amalie Nash, won't write anything that makes sense until Gannett transfers her back to Detroit in 18 months so she can take over the 'My 2 Cents Worth' beat there. It takes me about 5 minutes to read the paper on my computer these days, but I did notice that the most recent story the new editor wrote was about the comics section. I guess that's why she's called the paper's vice president for audience engagement. She's been in town only a couple of weeks, and already she's acting and writing like Diane Graham."

The Blizzard wins. Photo courtesy of Google.