A 'pizza supreme' of punditry - with extra cheese - awaits you Friday

Join Iowa Writers Collaborative columnists for a 'lightning round' of commentary Friday.

WATERLOO — It’s a cornucopia of commentary and enlightenment by the oracles of Iowa op-ed.

Iowa Writers Collaborative, a collection of nearly 60 writers, invites you to, in immortal words of Saturday Night Live comedian Jon Lovitz, “GET TA KNOW ME!” (or us) in a live Zoom meeting noon Friday.

You’re invited — not just as a listener, but as a participant. Ask anything — within the bounds of good taste from these titans of tasty subject matter. All it requires is a paid subscription to one or more of the Iowa Writers Collaborative columnists.

The session is called “Office Lounge,” named after a dearly departed watering hole for old Des Moines Register staffers and other fellow travelers. that existed in the downtown heart of Iowa’s capital city.

A few of us in the hinterlands were privileged enough to make a pilgrimage to that sacred shrine of sagacity. It was part of a field trip to the Register for one of my Iowa State University journalism classes, co-taught by the late great professor William F. “Wild Bill” Kunerth.

When I recounted our excursion to an editor I interned with, Harrison “Skip” Weber of the Iowa Daily Press Association, and told him of our stop at The Office Lounge, Skip simply shook his head and said, “Kunerth’s got a fascination with that place.”

We hope you’re similarly fascinated with Friday’s Office Lounge Zoom discussion. A link to the Zoom conversation lurks just beyond the paywall at the bottom of this tome with a paid subscription.

To feast your eyes on the array of Iowa Writers Collaborative columnists, click here. It includes sportswriters, academics, authors, politicos and current and former journalists, ranging from Pulitzer Prize winning Storm Lake Times editor Art Cullen, to Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, to Black Iowa News editor Dana James, to Meskwaki poet Ray Young Bear, to the collaborative’s poet laureate Suzanna de Baca, and many others.

Friday’s session will be moderated by the Wrestling Raconteur himself, former University of Northern Iowa Panther grappler, veteran broadcast journalist and rural Renaissance man Robert Leonard Ph.D, a published author and anthopologist whose work has graced the pages of The New York Times.

Sound like fun? See ya down beyond the paywall for the Zoom link and join the gang Friday. It’s a perk to paid subscribers. Thanks for being here.