Brock About Town

Move-in week is typically considered a nuisance. After all, nobody likes sharing the road with a bunch of 20-year-olds who have no business piloting a scooter, let alone a U-Haul, and there is something fairly depressing about the knowledge that the relative peace and quiet we’ve been enjoying for the last few months is about […]

Is it just me, or has this already been an insane summer? In the wake of the CDC’s declaration that fully vaccinated adults are OK to go out without a mask, provided they’re not in a crowded indoor area, the good people of Iowa City have totally lost their minds. People are licking the handrails […]

Like most reasonably content adults who were once painfully awkward teenagers, I prefer not to think about the first 16 years of my life, but I am reasonably sure that I spent them in Cedar Rapids. Immediately after high school graduation, I moved down to Iowa City, presumably to receive an education of some kind, […]

Last week, I read an article (in a publication which shall here remain nameless but is not known for its socially responsible attitudes) that posed the question: Where should we go for spring break? Since the author chose not to supply for their audience the correct answer to that question, I will. Nowhere! For the […]

Isn’t it amazing how since the beginning of the pandemic, life is technically very eventful but not especially exciting? The 46th president of the United States was inaugurated last month, with a not-inconsiderable amount of drama. The less said about that the better, I think, but suffice it to say, your friends who built an […]

I’ve never understood why people make such a big deal out of the new year. Jan. 1 is a featureless, arbitrary day like any other that exists in the yawning chasm between Christmas and the first day it’s safe to go outside without your parka, and it’s always struck me as a bit naïve to […]

Note: The CDC and health officials in Iowa and Johnson County do not recommend in-person family gatherings this holiday season due to high rates of community spread of COVID-19. As I floated, adrift in the sea of time, I received a message in a bottle of sorts — a DM from my editor, informing me […]

In April, when this whole pandemic situation was still relatively fresh, you could talk yourself off the ledge just by thinking, “This is OK. It’s all OK. We’re going to stay inside and wear our masks and before we know it, this whole thing will be over. By Christmas, it’ll all be a distant memory.” […]