Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

First, some housekeeping:

I bought boo-boos (family word for undies, nothing to do with "accidents") at a truckstop because ... they were there. I had miscounted my need in my typical last-second flurry of packing.

At Drlobojo's suggestion, I walked the 1 mile-plus to the Museum of Art on the Iowa campus ("plus" because first rattle out of the chute this morning, I took off in the wrong direction for about three blocks before I realized my not-yet-enough coffee mistake), and, of course, it's closed on Tuesdays! I shall return. Tomorrow.

Now, today.

Went first to one of the coffee shops that are everywhere here. Ahh, the caffeine-driven student life! Topped off my tank with a brewed hazelnut and a cinnamon roll as big as a baby moon hubcap, and took off -- in the wrong direction!

Realized my mistake and found the Old Capitol, which I enjoyed. Turns out that if I think of Iowa as a once-frontier state, and not as a Yankee state, it's pretty dang interesting! Especially if you throw in the Ioways, the Sioux and the Blackhawk War and "Blackhawk Purchase" and such. Very cool.

Then, to the closed University of Iowa Museum of Art. Then to the University of Iowa's little-bitty student union for a salad lunch (making up for recent gastrointestinal sins) and a bottle of water.

The union, under renovation, isn't that small, of course, but a running bragging right of Oklahoma State is that its Student Union is supposed to be the biggest one in the country. I'm not sure about that, but it is bigger than the one here, and you could stack a lot of hay in it.

Then, off to get a feel for the campus and downtown area. I think I have it in hand now. Then, to the famed Prairie Lights bookstore, where I overheard this interesting story:

A man behind a counter on the phone was telling a friend, incredulously, how in a new-book catalog he had read of this book about the demise of the funerary violin in post-Reformation Europe.

Turns out that the man, himself, is something of a violin afficionado and musicologist, and he had never heard of such. He said he thinks, "This is bullshit." So he makes some calls and, lo and behold, he gets quoted in the New York Times, then in The Guardian, and then the story goes on National Public Radio, and isn't it all just a hoot, but his discovery of an apparent hoax hasn't made him rich yet.

Took just a little Googling to find the story in The Guardian. The man I overheard apparently was Paul Ingram, quoted as the "bookseller in Iowa" in the story. Wow. Talk about ticklin' my erudite side.

Here's the book in question (literally in question): Rohan Kriwaczek, An Incomplete History of the Art of the Funerary Violins (New York: Overlook, 2006) -- apparently more "incomplete" than the author intended.

Then, to a cigar-friendly coffee shop called Tobacco Bowl. A real dive kind of joint. Perfect place to scan The Nation and one of the books I picked up at Prairie Lights:

Bart D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). The headline on this post is a line from this book.

The other book I bought was the companion by Ehrman, Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament, same publisher, same year.

Books I did not buy include Bob Woodward's State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III, because it will be 30 percent off at B&N before you know it, and Susan Estrich, Soulless: Ann Coulter and the Right-Wing Church of Hate, but laughed so hard when I saw it that I startled some of the quiet Midwesterners who were browsing books, unaware of the Typically Loud and Large Oklahoman Erudite Redneck in their midst! I'll probably buy the Estrich book later for the cover alone.

Oh, and I found the steakhouse at which Dr. ER and I will dine Thursday night, Joseph's Steakhouse, also within walking distance of the hotel. Hoo boy. They are proud of their beef in Iowa. I'll have to eat cheap potted meat on crackers for a month to justify the expense. :-)
--ER