IOWA CITY — While many women her age are giving up collections, Erda Jo Thomas, 78, continues to see blue, as in Smurf blue. For, in about 20 years, she’s amassed a collection of more than 2,000 figures and items of the worldwide popular cartoon ...

CEDAR RAPIDS — The St. Luke’s bill for surgery, including 16 days in the hospital, came to $56. But that was 1919, a year after the hospital had weathered the flu epidemic. "We were surprised St. Luke’s survived," says Dot Hinman of Cedar Rapids. "The flue ...

VINTON — You can’t buy American cheese at the Cheesehead Cheese Haus. Then again, why would you want to when you can choose from dozens upon dozens of such intriguing Wisconsin flavors as chocolate fudge cheese, Colby cranberry and hot Jack habanero cheese? "I didn’t know if ...

WEST BRANCH — Expect to see some highflying Saturday morning as the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum kicks off its 50th anniversary. That’s when folks are invited to bring their kites and launch them into the breeze over Hoover Park. "We’re trying to recreate what ...

HILLS — As an artist who lost his parents, Pat Muller, 50, wanted to tell his story in a unique way. He turned to dinner, a pleasant time, and the plates it is served on. And he reflected on life, doing it with symbols rather ...

IOWA CITY — "Many homes are filled with sorrow and with sadness." The shock was felt around the world after the April 15, 1912, sinking of the Titanic. "Many hearts are filled with anguish and with pain." Everyone had heard it was indestructible. "And our nation now is wrapped ...

CEDAR RAPIDS — In the 1997 movie about the Titanic, rereleased last weekend in theaters, two men from the salvage crew doubt old Rose’s story. In fact, one of them checked her out, learned she was an actress and claims she’s a liar. "Her name was ...

MOUNT VERNON — In the Ault family, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. But that had nothing to do with the laws of physics; rather it was the elder Ault’s love of teaching and the younger Ault’s penchant for solving puzzles. Warren Ault, who ...

TOLEDO — The screen door stood open, the white board out front espoused a daily words-of-wisdom and a chocolate Coke was just a couple of spritzes away at the soda fountain. On Toledo’s main street (High Street) the Trojan Inn cafe nears its 50th anniversary with ...

CENTER POINT — A Red Admiral, a black butterfly with a red stripe on its wing, flits onto the white blossom of a pear tree in Dennis Schlicht’s front yard. "That’s kind of like the earliest on record," says Dennis, a student of butterflies for half ...