Reading Two Books About My Place

Cover images of two books, both from Amazon.com.

This summer, I’ve read two novels that offered more than the usual pleasure that any novel does of taking you out of the everyday world into someone else’s vision of the world. One reason I liked them is because these two summer reads were both set in my part of the planet.

“The World of Pondside,” by Mary Helen Stefaniak, is an interesting novel, part mystery, part suspense, about a death at an Iowa City fictional nursing home, and the slightly shady back story of a computer game that is set at that nursing home.

“Motel Sepia,” by Dale Kueter, is more of a crime drama, set in Cedar Rapids in the 1950s at a real motel, although the crime is fictional.

In “The World of Pondside,” Pondside Manor, a long-term care facility and nursing home, is recreated in a computer game in which residents and staff can have their own avatars and live their best lives. The administrator becomes a hot New York fashion designer. Long ago dances and events live again through the memories of some residents, brought to life in the game partly through digitized photos.

Image I made of Mary Helen Stefaniak when she was a visiting writer at Mount Mercy University one day in fall 2022.

A kitchen helper, Foster Kresowik, has helped Robert Kallman, a younger resident affected by Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, bring his vision to life via the game. And, at the start of the book, Kallman is discovered dead in the pond and the computer server that runs the game is gone. Was it suicide? Murder? Was there something about the game tied to Kallman’s death?

One thing that’s great about “Pondside” is Stefaniak paints interesting portraits of contrasting characters. One of my favorites was Erika Petersen, a U of I nursing student who gets a job at Pondside Manor. She’s young, she’s a sorority sister, she’s pretty—and she’s very bright. Besides studying nursing, she also studies computer science. And thus, she offers some of the more interesting twists and at times takes a leadership role.

To me, the idea of a nursing student studying computer science is an unusual combination, but not beyond reality. I teach at a university with a large nursing school, and I know some of our brightest students study nursing—they have to be bright, nursing is a demanding field of study. And, now and then, I’ll encounter one with enough transfer credits and gumption to add some unexpected other field. So, Erika, to me, seemed like a familiar kind of driven young woman.

Two of Stefaniak's books for sale at MMU last fall.

In the book, Stefaniak kept me guessing, and I was not expecting many of the plot twists. It’s a unique, timely book, firmly set in today’s world.

“Motel Sepia,” in contrast, draws from a world that was rather than the world than is. It is set in a motel in Cedar Rapids established by a Black couple who run several successful businesses. Early in the book, there is a brutal murder in Illinois, and somehow you know that the murder and some crimes in Cedar Rapids (a “kissing bandit” is politely robbing local establishments) will collide.

In the meantime, Roy and Lillian Sanders are busy, very busy, running their motel. And Roy is concerned about race relations. The motel is one of the few stops along Highway 30 in the 1950s that welcomes Black guests, and the motel becomes an unusual place where White and Black people sometimes come together.

Dale Kueter also wrote a nonfiction book about the Vietnam War and spoke at MMU in 2015 during a series on Vietnam. Image I made of him then.

It was fun reading about Cedar Rapids of the 1950s. The businesses and other settings are of a bygone time but still familiar, too. I was not alive when the book was set and I never had been in Cedar Rapids before the 1970s, so it is not a time I have any memories of. Yet, I liked seeing my town of the past spring to life.

I enjoyed both and would recommend both. It was fun this summer to read two diverse works of fiction set in places nearby.

Uniting Our City Under a New Banner

From Cedar-Rapids.org, city web site, the new Cedar Rapids flag.

I am not really a flag person, but I like the new Cedar Rapids city flag, unveiled by the city on Sept. 18. Symbols have some importance--I wrote on this blog earlier about Mount Mercy's new Fall Faculty Series, and each series has been unified in its communications by a series logo.

When Mount Mercy College became Mount Mercy University some years ago, the unveiling of the U's new logo was a key feature of the big announcement.

Some flags cause consternation. The Nazi banner is illegal to display in Germany. Here in America, it's just in incredibly poor taste, although it, like the battle flag of the Confederacy, at least serves so the rest of us can quickly identify the most awful people among us.

And now we have a new flag, meant to represent the Cedar River, the land, some flood control and our protection via star-wielding ninjas.

Although, to me, the nice new flag also vaguely looks like it could be from some obscure Central or South American country. Perhaps my city has appropriated the proud national banner of Val Verde.

Another image from city web site--the new flag flies.

And thus, we have a new civil symbol. I’m not sure it was an important project during a pandemic, but I do think the green-blue, end-of-island shape is attractive. It replaces a city flag designed by the 1960s that was rather dated (see image in Gazette story in link in the first paragraph).

And whatever you might think of this proud new symbol of an OK small city, I think most of us could agree it’s far superior to our other prominent civic symbol—the toilet brush of five seasons. Five. Why five? Four seasons and a fifth one to scratch your head and wonder.

Wikimedia commons, image from Eric James. The "Tree of Five Seasons," which never looks like a tree.

So what do you think of the new city flag?

Notes from Cedar Rapids Mayor Candidate Forum

Photo from thegazette.com, CR mayoral candidates Brad Hart and Monica Vernon.

When it really didn’t matter, Monica Vernon, candidate for mayor of Cedar Rapids, could not come up with an answer.

The question came during the rather lengthy introductory phase of a “Mayoral Forum” sponsored by The Gazette and CBS-2/Fox-28. Matt Hammill of 2/28 asked 20-minutes worth of rather fluffly personal questions, such as “What was your first job?” or “How did you meet your spouse?” I suppose I didn’t hate the one-on-one interviews, but honestly I was not a fan either.

After questioning Brad Hart, Hammill asked Vernon what Disney song she would most like to sing. She didn’t come up with an answer until she mentioned some old song from Snow White. Me, I think the appropriate Disney song for the evening would be this:

“I Wan’na Be Like You” because it was amazing how similar Brad Hart and Monica Vernon were and how much they both want to follow closely the path established by the current mayor. They had mostly identical answers—their placards almost completely agreeing during a Gazette-asked “lighting round” where they held up “yes” or “no” answers. The biggest disagreement was whether 2nd Avenue should have been closed—Hart was a yes, Vernon a no.

Me, I’m thinking it’s like a cow’s opinion. It’s pretty much a Moo point (extra credit if you get the “Friends” joke).

They both love, love, love outgoing Mayor Ron Corbett, which seems like another reference to the Disney song. If he were in the race for re-election, neither would challenge him.

On balance, I had several reactions to the forum. First and foremost, way to go, Todd Dormann and Lynda Waddington. The two Gazette opinion writers asked substantial and interesting questions. Score: Newspaper journalists 10, TV journalists 0.

I’m not even bummed that the question I submitted—how the candidates react to the sexual harassment issued and #metoo movement—wasn’t asked. The questions that were posed were more local and more relevant. Maybe my question will be part of the follow-up The Gazette hinted it might do with unused query.

My second reaction is that I’m not too worried about the outcome of this election. Both Vernon and Hart are establishment candidates. In choosing these two as the top vote getters, it seems to me that the body politic in Cedar Rapids wasn’t too upset with local leadership. That’s kind of where I stand, too.

I went into the night leaning towards Monica Vernon, but open-minded. Brad Hart did impress me as intelligent and capable, but, even if she didn’t name the Tessa Violet rendition of a Disney classic as her favorite song—as well she should—I would say my plan to vote for Vernon was strengthened by the candidates’ demeanor and answers at tonight’s forum. Although, to be fair, I also think if the chips fall the other way, Hart is not a poor choice for mayor.

My view of debate. Sadly, a friend from MMU said there were empty seats in the auditorium. Wish I could have been in one.

Finally, being the attendee who worked hardest to get there didn’t do me any good. Despite riding a bicycle in the cold dark, I was put in the overflow room, which was a bit irritating as the audio didn’t work at first, and there were some rude “stage whisperers” in behind me helpfully making it harder to hear. As it turned out, the audio was improved shortly after the forum began, and all I missed was Zach Kucharski’s introduction of the forum and Matt Hammill.

So, on balance, thanks Gazette  and 2/28 for putting this event on, and  CR Library for hosting. Also thanks to Tessa Violet for being Tessa Violet.

About 9:30 p.m., I pass the Rockwell-Collins pond on C Avenue. Both candidates would go to Connecticut to make the case to new Rockwell-Collins owners to keep jobs in Cedar Rapids.

Make Me A Robot—Amelia 2.0 is Compelling Movie

Art used on movie poster, from Facebook page for the movie.

“Make me a robot, take, take my soul.” Tessa Violet.

I had hoped to go to the premiere of the movie “Amelia 2.0” at Collins Road Theater, but did not make it. But I did see the film Aug. 10, when my wife and I attended the 4:50 p.m. show.

At the showing, there was a fairly small audience, and that seems a bit of a shame. “Amelia 2.0” is a well done, compelling movie the raises life and death questions. From a play produced in Cedar Rapids called “The Summerland Project,” “Amelia 2.0” tells the story of Amelia Summerland, a woman who dies of a brain aneurysm. But as she slips away in a coma, a high tech corporation, with HQ in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, makes Amelia’s husband an offer.

Sign a nondisclosure form and medical release, and we’ll scan your wife’s brain into a robot.

That’s the vehicle for the movie to explore basic questions. What does it mean to be human? If thoughts of a human brain could be mechanically reproduced, would the machine have a soul? If you could preserve the consciousness of a loved one in a robot, would you?

The answers are neither simple nor straightforward, and different characters in the movie are allowed to react in different ways. For example, there is a conservative senator from Iowa who leads a crusade against the project—but he’s not an evil character at all. He has decent motivations, and his own mortality is an important plot point. One of the scientists working on the project basically falls in love with Amelia, even though he helped create her as a robot. Her husband ends up not being to accept that she’s human, while one of her creators develops feelings for her as if she were.

And maybe she is. The movie steers away from presenting a final answer. It’s the same question posed by Robert Heinlein in what I think of as his best book, “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.” If a machine can think and feel emotions, is there a point where it’s no longer a machine?

Given the nature of the “Amelia 2.0” story, it seemed inevitable to me that the project would go wrong. Frankenstein didn’t exactly have a happy ending. This movie is a tragedy in a classic Shakespearean sense.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen it, I urge you to do so. And I hope the popularity of the movie will spread. I hope future showings at Collins Road will be packed. You’ll see some familiar faces—the movie stars some actors that have been in major films—and it’s nice that local actor Angela Billman moved from the play “The Sutherland Project” to play Amelia is “Amelia 2.0.” The Gazette reviewer enjoyed this film, too.

It was also fun to Cedar Rapids on the big screen. There was a movie of that title (“Cedar Rapids”) several years ago that was cringe worthy, and seeing the city in a movie of more depth was nice. The cameo by Mercy Medical Center and the Cedar Rapids Public Library as key locations was fun to watch. And I did like the embedded plug for TCR.

But I would have liked the movie, I think, if it had been filmed in Madison, Wisconsin, or Austin, Texas. As a narrative, it holds together well and provokes many reactions. Don’t go thinking that you’ll see a light comedy. Do go, expecting to see a compelling story.

Local Student Group Scores Post-Flood Headlines

Front page of MMU Times.

What did you think of the flood of 2016? What did you think of the media’s coverage of the event? How did you learn your information about the flood? What Cedar Rapids or Iowa media outlets did well or poorly in covering the story? Did you watch daily briefings live from the city of CR on social media?

I’m not asking for no reason—I’m interested in gathering information on the flood of 2016 media coverage to write about it. And I’m writing about one small aspect of that media coverage today.

It’s interesting to see how a detail of one story will sometimes grow beyond expectations. Such is the case of one point in the flood of 2016 aftermath. The Cedar Rapids flood narrative is the heroic tale of a city coming together and working shoulder-to-shoulder to save the city. It’s a cool narrative, and there is some fire behind that smoke, although it’s also true Mother Nature was kind to us in that the flood crest this fall was below expectations—in sharp contrast to the disaster of 2008 when the crest exceeded all predictions.

Anyway, the Mount Mercy University business club, Enactus, led by the Energizer Bunny, professor Dr. Nate Klein, was engaged in that sandbagging effort. And students in the club were talking about what would happen to the all the sandbags.

Post flood, the club came up with the idea of turning sandbags into commemorative handbags. And it staged several bag emptying events, which turned out to be catnip to the media. TV needs video. KCRG covered the story, twice. The story was also covered by KWWL. On Saturday, Oct. 8, The Gazette featured it on its front page.

Photo by Liz Martin of the Gazette, posted on their web site, www.thegazette.com. Derick Siddell in U Center.

Audio from the KCRG story was picked up by Iowa Public Radio and run statewide on its noon news show, River to River. The story was also posted on Radio Iowa’s site, although I didn’t hear any Radio Iowa news reports on air—but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t some.

Closer look at Times story.

Even the MMU Times, the student newspaper of Mount Mercy University, featured the Enactus effort on its front page.

A student, Derrick Siddell, became the sort of public face of the Enactus in this story. Nate the Great was also recorded, but most media stores found Derrick irresistible.

Well, good for you, Enactus. It’s a good thing that you’re doing. I think the media buzz is a bit out of proportion for the importance of the story, and probably reflects a hunger for more “good news” out of this potential natural disaster, but then again, I don’t fault the MMU group for that. The story brought positive media attention to the university where I teach. So, kudos.

And the Enactus sandbag saga shows that, even on a local level, an aside of a main event can sometimes take on a life of its own and become a new narrative.

What else did you observe about the media and the flood of 2016? Please comment.