The Des Moines Register – Kyle Munson
“The last line of defense for our civilized world is a ballroom inside the Hotel Pattee where I sat down this past week with 37 eighth-grade students from Guthrie Center and six of their teachers for an elegant three-course formal dinner and lessons in etiquette. No, this wasn’t greasy state-fair stick food or a platter-sized tenderloin from a roadside diner. (Both of those are fine in my book; I tend to subsist on convenience store sandwiches and Twizzlers as I roam Iowa.) It also wasn’t the typical 20-minute school lunch where students shovel in tater tots while texting.”(more)