Seeking Food and Fellowship on Pi Day
Pi Day is tomorrow, March 14. That’s pi as in 3.14, the irrational number with an infinite number of digits that never repeat. Used to calculate circumference, it’s represented by the Greek symbol p, and, much to my and other people’s happiness—even those of us who are bad a math—it’s caught on as a day […]
The World (Desperately) Needs More Kindness
The last time the current Republican president was in office I heard many people fretting about what other country they could move to. This time around, just over a month into his new term, I hear people worrying about having their passports up to date and their go bags ready. Go bags, filled with emergency […]
The Cleverness of Barn Cats
I live on a farm in Iowa where barn cats are part of the landscape. You don’t go to a pet store and buy a cat; they just show up on your property, then it’s up to you whether you make them feel welcome to stay. I’ve always been a dog person. But cats are […]
Be a Lighthouse Like Patti
Grief has struck again. I just lost my closest friend in Iowa, Patti Durflinger, to cancer. I was by no means Patti’s only close friend, she was a good and true friend to countless others. She was also a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a sister, and a daughter. She was a lighthouse, living her […]
How I Learned to Love Women’s Basketball
I’ve never been a fan of basketball. I don’t like the screech of tennis shoes on the wood floor and the cacophony of whistles and buzzers echoing in the arena. My disdain for basketball has remained fully intact my entire life until this past Saturday when I watched the University of Iowa women play Michigan […]
RAGBRAI: 500 Miles of Pie Across Iowa
We are making a documentary film called “Pieowa“ about the obsession with pie in Iowa. Really. People are so obsessed with pie they will ride their bikes 500 miles, braving sweltering heat and headwinds over 7 days, just so they can eat it every day! As part of the film we will be covering this […]
Pie vs. Cake: Bake BOTH to Support Mental Health
Valerie Van Galder is the creator of the Depressed Cake Shop. Cake may not be pie, but I’m a fan of anything that’s baked for a greater good. The DCS website, which is beautifully designed, reads, “Research has shown that baking is a pursuit that fits a type of therapy known as behavioral activation. Psychologists […]
Thanksgiving Pie: You Can Do It!
I’ve been seeing a lot of pie sellers’ posts on social media announcing they’re not taking any more pie orders for Thanksgiving, that they’re sold out. Didn’t order your pie in time? DON’T PANIC! You can make your own and I promise it will turn out fine. Making dough is easier than you think. Here’s […]
The Power of One Pie
Allison Engel is a playwright, a journalist, a political activist, a communications director, and so much more. She’s a force! (Read her bio and you’ll see what I mean.) We have a lot of writer friends in common because she lived part-time in Iowa, but she was also living part-time in LA, so when I […]
Diary of a Book Launch: Vulnerability and Trust
My official book launch date for World Piece is tomorrow, September 21, International Day of Peace. That said, the book has already been available for about a week, thus the release has been a slow roll-out versus a singular moment—a tide coming in instead of a wave crashing on the sand. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make […]