Travel Diary: On the Good Ship Queen Mary 2, Part 2
For Iowa, wherever I may find her.
I wasn't born in Iowa, but I grew up there. I've lived in nine of theses United States, but still consider Iowa my "home state." Iowa may be the flyoverist of the flyover states. It isn't anyone's destination vacation, unless and Iowan is visiting another part of Iowa. There aren't very many books about life in Iowa and even fewer films: I always recommend The Straight Story as the best depiction of Iowa on film (it is also unique as being a G-rated film but directed by David Lynch, famous weirdo director).
I've been arguing for years that there is not much difference between an ocean view and a prairie view. Consider the Iowa prairie pictured on the left with the Atlantic ocean picture I took this morning:
Another place you can find Iowa is food. If you are an American, you probably have consumed a lot of high-fructose corn syrup. Where do you think that corn comes from? Iowa! The corn state has been growing a LOT of corn as this photograph from 1908 attests:
Iowa is also a leader in wind power, the energy source of the future. Perhaps a gesture toward making the world healthier and offsetting all the high-fructose corn syrup in processed food. Iowa giveth and Iowa taketh away, I guess.
Back in Lansing, one of my neighbors is Stu, who is now in his early 90s. Stu is a retired botanist and when we first met he told me he got his PhD at Iowa State University. “I’m a alum of ISU,” it told him, “class of 1984.” Stu said, “I was there before you, I got my degree in 1962.” So, we just missed each other there.
Here on the QM2, Michele and I are taking bridge lessons, a game which may be above my ebbing faculties. Yesterday we played with a gentleman who lives in Switzerland (lucky bastard). It turns out, he got his PhD in economics from... Iowa State University. He fell between Stu and me, his degree being granted in 1974. Clearly Iowa State is the Harvard of the Midwest which is why Harvard is so often called the Iowa State of the east coast.
The QM2, like many of these large passenger ships, has a library on board and a book exchange of the take-one-leave-one variety. Whilst perusing those shelves, I saw on the spine of one book a very simple title: Iowa. A book about Iowa right here in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. Pulling the book off the shelf, I made a shocking discovery:
It is in German. Fortunately for us all, the University of Minnesota--Twin Cities has certified me as literate in German back in 1992! And, I have a 1,439-day streak in German in Duolingo! So, applying my uncertified A2 level German skills, I will translate some of the back cover for you.
In 2022, Stefanie Sargnagel traded her comfortable Vienna sofa for a airplane ticket to the middle of nowwhere in the USA. She [something something] teaching Creative writing in Iowa. In the small town of Grinnell with 8000 inhabitants there is not [something something]. She partied (?) with the music legend Christaine Rosinger she [something healthy?] and nothing[?] [something about art maybe?].
As you can see, I will breeze through this book in an afternoon. "Middle of nowhere," indeed! Grinnell College is a very good school! Look at all those wind turbines! Did no one tell her about the corn? And what about Herbert Hoover, you sophisticated Viennese person?
"You can try," Iowa tells me, "but you can never truly escape."
jpj stories by John Jackson is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
