Want to meet our columnists?

...The Office Lounge will open on October 28. Learn more!

On Friday, October 28, paid subscribers to ANY of our Iowa Writers’ Collaborative columnists are invited to meet the columnists who make up this illustrious group. We are holding a Zoom gathering featuring our writers and a few of our close, personal friends. That means YOU if you are a paid subscriber to at least one of our columns (including this roundup of links).

Our own Iowa Boy and Iowa Collaborative member Chuck Offenburger writes about why we call this monthly gathering of the clan the Office Lounge in his column today. Here’s something to wet your whistle. You’ll want to read his hilarious, well-reported column about ‘our’ Office Lounge, next to The Des Moines Register building:

Big ideas at the Office Lounge, Chuck Offenburger

DES MOINES, Iowa, Oct. 23, 2022 – The Office Lounge, a downtown Des Moines bar that was a legendary hangout for Iowa journalists from the 1960s until it closed in the 1990s, is “re-opening” this week, and you’re all invited.

Oh, the original owners-operators Rocky Gabriel, his ex-wife Dorothy Gabriel and their daughter Roxie Gabriel Beck won’t be there.  They’re deceased. 

But we’ll honor their spirits and the spirit of the little bar where a whole lot of big ideas were launched back when…

read the column here: https://open.substack.com/pub/chuckoffenburger/p/big-ideas-at-the-new-office-lounge?r=fkojq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

The route to the Office Lounge from the old R&T alley

---

Your weekly roundup of columns:

LAURA BELIN

October 17 edition of "Capitol Week" is online

How Iowa Supreme Court's McDermott, Oxley have decided big cases

DOUGLAS BURNS, CARROLL

DAVE BUSIEK

"Judging" Senator Grassley

ART CULLEN

No place you would want to be is safer than Iowa

SUZANNA DE BACA

Dead skunk in the middle of the road

The offerings

DEB ENGLE

The Dalai Lama's Foreword

JULIE GAMMACK

Road trippin'

Wouldn't you love to have a crystal ball

JODY GIFFORD

It's a Gay Day

BETH HOFFMAN

When is "local" really local?

DANA JAMES

I delayed my colonoscopy during the coronavirus pandemic: Don't make the same mistake

BOB LEONARD

Beth Howard: Ambassador of Pie

Government isn’t the Enemy

CHUCK OFFENBURGER

Big ideas at the new “Office Lounge”...

BARRY PIATT

What About Chuck?

MARY SWANDER

Herd Them, Chase Them, Cuss Them

ED TIBBETTS

The cost of democracy

---

The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative can’t stem the tide of market forces decimating local journalism. However, we are linking readers directly to Iowa writers. If you are interested in this content, please consider subscribing to as many local columnists as possible. And, please, support your local newspaper.

Here’s our current list:

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Des Moines

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, Waukee

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Cheryl Tervis, Boone County, Coming Soon

Thank you to Iowa Capital Dispatch for sharing our commentary with your readers.

And, for a weekly roundup of our columnists, subscribe here:

IOWA WRITERS’ COLLABORATIVE