Our "Office Lounge" open today at noon

I'll be at a funeral, but I invite my readers to join my Iowa Writers Collaborative colleagues and their subscribers for our monthly chat on Zoom.

DES MOINES, Iowa — It’s time for another Iowa Writers Collaborative rally on a “last Friday of the month noon hour” Zoom call. That means we are inviting our subscribers, like you, to join many of us today — Friday, April 25 — at 12 noon CDT for another conversation in the “Office Lounge.”

That’s what we call these special hour-long Zoom discussions, which we’ve named after the legendary Des Moines bar that for decades was a hangout of news reporters, editors, newsmakers and politicians in the capital city.

Many of our 80-plus journalists, songwriters and poets will join host Robert Leonard, the former newsman for radio stations in Pella and Knoxville, who is one of our IWC columnists. As subscribers, you can comment on our columns, give us story ideas, ask questions and talk about current public affairs.

I won’t be able to join the conversation today, as I’ll be attending the funeral of a friend. But I invite my subscribers to represent me in today’s Office Lounge chat.

You may recall that the deeper story about the old Office Lounge is a pretty good one.

Dorothy Gabriel

Presiding there was a wonderful woman, Dorothy Gabriel, who succeeded her former husband as the bar owner. She was assisted by her children as they grew up. If you don’t know the story of the old bar, or have forgotten it, you can read it again by clicking right here.

You can click here at 12 noon CDT to join us in the “Office Lounge.”

Thanks for your continuing readership and support of my “Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger” columns, as well as the work of my IWC colleagues.

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You can comment on this column below or write the columnist directly by email at chuck@offenburger.com.

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