Conversations

Topics of Conversation in Iowa:
- Corn!  When it's ready, how to cook it, how upsetting it is that someone had the temerity to call something "sweet corn" when it *obviously* was not!  On the News:  dangers of methane build-up in corn silos, and how to avoid this.
- Hawkeyes! and any other college and semi-pro sport team.
- Snowblowers!  Advantages and disadvantages of various models, the effect of snow-blown rocks hitting houses with fiberglass siding, how important it is to point the blower away from your neighbor's freshly-blown walkway.  The best way to blow deep snow.  Electric starters? Yes!  Snow shovel?  Only for exercise, and it gets old fast...
- RAGBRAI!  Anticipation mounts only days after the recaps wane.  This is a week-long party, interspersed with bike-riding across the state :-)
- Leaves!  How to find out the very best day to go on a leaf-peeking drive, where to go, reminiscences of past trips.  Anxiety about finding a hotel for *that* weekend.  Can you do it all in one day?  Yes!  You'll never guess who I ran into while leaf-peeking! 
- Tornadoes!  What to do with all the strange items found in the fields after a tornado (answer - take them to the Fire station).
- Deer!  Drive carefully at dusk and dawn, since deer like to eat in the corn fields, and sleep on the other side of the road (it's almost a law with them).  In the News:  4 hunters shot in the first morning of deer hunting season.
- Caucuses!  Iowa has caucuses, which are different than primary elections.  Iowans still get inundated with political ads, just like everyone else.  sigh.

Just for balance, California topics would be:  wine, 49ers and Sharks, surfboards and skis, Bay-To-Breakers "race," movie premieres, earthquakes, mountain lions, and the initiative process (and more political ads).