Obituary; Mike Lyon

Edward "Mike" Lyon
May 30, 1944-May 1, 2006

Edward "Mike" Lyon, 61, of Mapleton, Iowa died Monday, May 1, 2006 at
his home in Mapleton following eight years of prostate cancer and its
complications.

The Funeral Service for Mike was held Thursday, May 4 at 10:30 a.m. at
St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Mapleton with Rev. Dr. Scott Fiege
officiating. Burial was in Mt. Hope Cemetery at Mapleton. Norma Jean
Dose was the organist and Georgine Wessell was the vocalist.
Visitation was Wednesday, May 3 after 2:00 p.m. with a Prayer Service
at 6:30 p.m. all at the Armstrong Funeral Home in Mapleton.

Edward Michael Lyon was born May 30, 1944, to Robert Bayard Lyon and
Marie (O'Meara) Lyon in Ida Grove, Iowa. He moved with his family to
Schleswig, Iowa where he graduated from Schleswig High School with the
class of 1962. He served his country in the Iowa National Guard. He
was united in marriage to Barbara Glau May 24, 1964 in Schleswig.

Mike was a long time publisher, having been involved in the newspaper
business for over 40 years. He and his wife, Barb, published the
Mapleton Press, the Schleswig Leader and the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper
until February of 2006. He and his wife also owned and operated Lyon
Photography, with a focus on wedding photography, for over 10 years.
They also owned the Ink Spot, a screen printing and embroidery
business until 2006.

In 1985, Mike saw the potential of using a laser writer to replace
compugraphic equipment in the publishing of newspapers. He was the
first in the nation to start a desk top publishing system. He sold
systems in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota and also
consulted with publishers in many other states.

Mike received numerous awards over the years for his newspaper skills,
some including the Master Editor Publishers Award, the Iowa Newspaper
Association's highest honor, the INA's Distinguished Service Award,
the INA's first "Friend of Iowa' Newspaper Award, and the Iowa High
School Athletic Association's News Media Award. He was president of
the Interstate Newspaper Association in 1984 and a member of the Iowa
Newspaper Association Board for nine years serving as president and on
numerous INA committees.

In the Mapleton community, Mike was a very active citizen. He was a
member of St. Matthew Lutheran Church, a member of the Mapleton Club
where he served on their board and as president, helped start a Jaycee
Chapter in Mapleton, served on the Mapleton Fire Department and was
one of the founders and president of the Maple Valley Development
Corporation. He was instrumental in bringing the Maple Valley Medical
Clinic to Mapleton. For his civic contributions to Mapleton, Mike was
awarded the Mapleton Outstanding Citizen Award and the Mapleton Rotary
Club's Service Above Self Award, both in 2005.

Mike had a great love of the Loess Hills and the State of Iowa. Since
his diagnosis of cancer, he spent as much time as he could
photographing the hills, country churches and rural scenery. His
photos can be found in the June E. Nylen Cancer Center, Maple Heights
Nursing Home, and Mapleton City Hall, as well as in the homes of his
many friends. He also published a book of his country churches along
with poetry by his good friend, Georgine Wessell.

Mike is survived by his wife and best friend of 41 years, Barb; two
daughters, Rebecca Lyon of Sioux Falls, South Dakota and Patricia
Barnard and her husband, Mark, of Hugo, Minnesota; one red haired
grandson, Damion Scobie of Hugo, Minnesota; one brother, Doug Lyon and
his wife, Dee, of Schleswig, Iowa; one sister, Sandy Rickert and her
husband, Phil, of Santa Fe, New Mexico; his mother-in-law, Marcella
Glau of Mapleton; plus other family members; and many friends and
associates in the tri-state area.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Bob and Marie (O'Meara) Lyon and his grandparents

Memorials may be directed to the Mapleton Endowment Fund in Mike's honor.

Honorary pallbearers were The Mapleton Fire Department and The Mapleton Press staff.

Pallbearers were Tom McNamara, Bill Monroe, Ed Maier, Keith Robinson, Steve Oberg and Todd Sadler.

Arrangements were made under the direction of the Armstrong Funeral Home of Mapleton

Hey baseball fans, who loves ya? I just had to put this little Diamandbacks' news item before your eyes, because I know that they won't stay up there very long.

West	W	L	PCT	GB
Arizona	27	19	.587	-
Los Angeles	27	20	.574	0.5
Colorado	25	22	.532	2.5
San Diego	24	23	.511	3.5
San Francisco	24	23	.511	3.5

Memorial Day

Memorial Day an opportunity to remember
Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper & Schleswig LEADER, Thurs. May 25, 2006

Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

This is what General Logan wrote:

“The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.”

Most of the South refused to celebrate Memorial Day until after WWI and even then, several Southern states held ceremonies on separate days.

It is said that after that war the battlefields in France were covered in poppies, so that they looked blood red. Scientists now think that all the iron from the actual blood and decomposed bodies of fallen soldiers actually effected the soil there in such away as to drastically increase the yield of the natural poppy population.

The phenomenon led poet John McCrae to write his famous poem in1915:

“In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.”

This moved a woman named Moina Michael so much, that she wrote her own poem:

“We cherish too, the Poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led,
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies.”

She’s the one who came up with the idea of wearing red poppies on Memorial day to honor those who died serving their nation during war. Not only did she wear one, but she sold poppies to her friends and co-workers with the money going to benefit servicemen in need.

In the 1920’s, the Franco-American Children's League sold poppies nationally to benefit war orphans of France and Belgium. The League disbanded a year later and it’s organizers asked the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) for help. They’ve been selling poppies to help support the families of service personnel and veterans ever since then.

To help re-educate and remind Americans of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed in Dec 2000. President Clinton declared:

“As Memorial Day approaches, it is time to pause and consider the true meaning of this holiday. Memorial Day represents one day of national awareness and reverence, honoring those Americans who died while defending our Nation and its values. While we should honor these heroes every day for the profound contribution they have made to securing our Nation's freedom, we should honor them especially on Memorial Day.

In this time of unprecedented success and prosperity throughout our land, I ask that all Americans come together to recognize how fortunate we are to live in freedom and to observe a universal ‘National Moment of Remembrance’ on each Memorial Day. This memorial observance represents a simple and unifying way to commemorate our history and honor the struggle to protect our freedoms.

Accordingly, I hereby direct all executive departments and agencies, in consultation with the White House Program for the National Moment of Remembrance (Program), to promote a 'National Moment of Remembrance' to occur at 3 p.m. (local time) on each Memorial Day.”

No matter how we feel about the War in Iraq or the threat of war in Iran, we can all send our prayers out for the families of our men and women currently serving in the armed forces. And if only at 3 o’clock in the afternoon this Monday, we should take a moment to remember and give thanks for the men and women who have given their lives in return for the rights and privileges we all enjoy as Americans. And if you have a chance, buy a poppy.

Graduation 2006; Commencement Address from a bitter burn-out

Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper & Schleswig LEADER, Thurs. May 18, 2006

Greeting class of 2006. What can I tell you? Not much that you haven’t heard already.

Your generation is so super-saturated by multi media that there’s not much of your life that you haven’t been hearing something on you earphones, on the TV, on your computer or game system. If anything you’ve been inoculated against actually hearing anything valuable. Few of you really read, you skim. Few of you focus and pay close attention when you’re spoken to, you multi-task.

Actually, I’m not dumb, I know that very few of you are actually reading this. Most of my readers are over 30. Really a lot of us in my age group don’t have time to sit down and read a column like this, most of my readers are probably over 50….60…..okay, 70 even. See the wonderful thing about those folks is that they read because the want to and they- you won’t believe this, they enjoy reading and like to do it as a leisure activity. Someday you should try it. Who knows, you might even like it.

It’s not necessarily your fault that you ignore most of what’s thrown at you, you’re wired that way. How can you know what’s important when the stream of input, information and stimulus never stops? And it’s just as well, who can blame you for only paying attention to what you choose to? Your generation is probably more cynical, jaded, and skeptical than any generation before you.

I’m not sure if that’s my generation’s fault or that of the Baby Boomers before us, but you’ve been sold to, lied to, and pandered to more than any generation before you. When the Boomers went to college someone told them that television was a vast wasteland. Today, pretty much most of the society you’re about to enter into as adults is such a wasteland.

The good news is that together capitalism and technology are simultaneously providing you with more opportunities for choice and at the same time more and more isolation. Download your own mix onto your MP3 player, cell phone or personal game/media/entertainment device and close out the rest of this mixed up world.

I’ve lost you already haven’t I? Say, could whoever’s cell phone with the ring tone “My lady humps” by the Black Eyed Peas, pleas answer the call or shut it off?

Oh, by the way, you’ll appreciate this- don’t worry about either of the two wars that are going on or the ones on the horizon. Unless you volunteer, you probably won’t have to fight them. When the Boomers were your age, they got drafted. Today it’s us Generation-Xers who are over their fighting and dying because they keep calling up all of our National Guard units. You’re welcome.

I guess I don’t know what you’d like for a job. Hmmmm, let’s see…Gee, it looks like most of the ones where you could have earned a decent living for yourself and a family out of high school have been sent overseas. A lot of them are being filled by illegal aliens.

Gosh. I guess you’ll have to go to college if you want something barely adequate where you can at least eke out a living paycheck to paycheck.

Oh, I’m sorry, you may not understand a big word like “eke.” I understand that our collective vocabulary has been suffering some atrophy as you’ve grown up. Let’s see, to eke is to… to eke is to… well, trust me, you’ll be doing a lot of it. Hope you get good at it. “Atrophy?” That’s where things sort of unravel and fall apart and…sort of like this paragraph.

Of course, you weren’t hoping for job security or health or retirement benefits were you? There haven’t been many of those since they killed most of the unions twenty or thirty years ago. Oh, I guess you could enlist in the military, they certainly need people lately.

I guess that most graduation commencement addresses contain advice. Hmmm…I’m stumped on this one. It’s a little too late to suggest that you pay attention, do your work, put your name on it and turn it in. Do your best sounds a little bit trite. My advice would be to get rich. The richer you are, the easier it is to stay that way. The Richest 2% keep getting the most tax cuts. It’s also funny how the more money you have the lest you need, there are lower interest rates, fewer penalties, more complimentary perks.

No, no that’s not good advice because that’s too hard to accomplish and too many kids make that their only goal or dream for their futures when they’re in high school.

I guess that the best advice I could ever give you would be to stay positive. Yeah, that’s it, “Stay Positive.”

Oh, and how about, “Do as I say, not as I do.” ? That’s a good one. But I bet your parents have shared that one with you.

TIME Magazine Archive Article -- My Problem with Christianism -- May 15, 2006

TIME Magazine Archive Article -- My Problem with Christianism -- May 15, 2006

My Problem with Christianism
A believer spells out the difference between faith and a political agenda
By ANDREW SULLIVAN

Are you a Christian who doesn't feel represented by the religious right? I know the feeling. When the discourse about faith is dominated by political fundamentalists and social conservatives, many others begin to feel as if their religion has been taken away from them....

What to do about it? The worst response, I think, would be to construct something called the religious left. Many of us who are Christians and not supportive of the religious right are not on the left either. In fact, we are opposed to any politicization of the Gospels by any party, Democratic or Republican, by partisan black churches or partisan white ones. "My kingdom is not of this world," Jesus insisted. What part of that do we not understand?

So let me suggest that we take back the word Christian while giving the religious right a new adjective: Christianist. Christianity, in this view, is simply a faith. Christianism is an ideology, politics, an ism. The distinction between Christian and Christianist echoes the distinction we make between Muslim and Islamist. Muslims are those who follow Islam. Islamists are those who want to wield Islam as a political force and conflate state and mosque.

Holy cow, this writer has it exactly right. A dear Catholic friend clipped this article from their copy of Time for me. Sometimes it feels like either I'm not allowed to be a Christian because I don't support President Bush on EVERY thing he does or that frankly, I'm ready to quit Christianity, except for the fact that I still believe in Jesus and the Bible.

Please click the link to read his entire article, it's not long.

Java Jam!

You've heard of grren tea right? big deal with dieters and people who want more antioxidandt.
Well this article proves to me that there is a God and He might just love me after all...

Green Coffee Promotes Weight Loss?

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News

May 1, 2006— Coffee made out green, unroasted coffee beans promotes weight loss, according to a new study on compounds that are naturally present in the beans.

The discovery mirrors earlier research on green tea, which was found to slightly increase metabolism and to speed up the body's ability to burn fat. Green coffee appears to have a more potent effect.

"If a human consumes one kilogram per day of food (2.2 pounds) containing 10 grams (.35 ounce) of green coffee bean extract for 14 days, the increase in body weight may be suppressed by 35 percent," said lead author Hiroshi Shimoda.

Shimoda, who is a scientist at the Oryza Oil & Fat Chemical Company, Limited, in Aichi, Japan, told Discovery News that consuming regular, roasted coffee will not lead to much, if any, direct weight loss.

He and his colleagues determined that there are two key types of compounds in unroasted coffee beans. The first is caffeine. The second is chlorogenic acid and its related compounds. Heating destroys the acids.

"Chlorogenic acid is stable and normal at room temperature, but it is unstable at high temperatures," Shimoda explained. "Normally, coffee beans are roasted at a temperature of around 240 to 250° Celsius (464-482 degrees Fahrenheit). Roasting leads to decomposition of chlorogenic acid and forms brown aromatic Maillard reactants."

He added that these fragrant chemicals give roasted coffee its characteristic flavor and aroma. Green coffee, by contrast, has no aroma and tastes slightly bitter.

For the study, Shimoda and his team fed test mice a diet that contained one percent green coffee bean extract. Some of the mice also received food in which only a small amount of caffeine or a small amount of chlorogenic acid was added.

Analysis of blood, weight and liver function in the mice revealed that caffeine and the acid alone had little effect. Together, however, the compounds reduced body weight by 35 percent when compared with a control group of mice that consumed no green coffee extract over the 13-day period.

The scientists believe caffeine releases fatty acids from fat stored in the body. The chlorogenic acid and its related compounds then, according to the researchers, help the liver to process these fatty acids more efficiently.

Findings were published in a recent edition of BioMed Central Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Shimoda said that, based on the study results, "we recommend supplementation of the extract to food for weight loss."

Scientists at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, made a similar determination regarding green tea. Green tea is not usually roasted, so the catechin polyphenols in the tea that increase the rate of metabolism, along with caffeine, are not destroyed.

The level of caffeine is also low, with only about 30 milligrams per 6-ounce cup. Some people are sensitive to caffeine, which can increase heart rate and affect cardiovascular function.

Abdul Dulloo and his Swiss team, however, found that green tea only increases metabolism and fat burning by 4.5 percent. The researchers still suggested that green tea could serve as an aid to weight loss.

EEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeekkk!!!!

God save us. Is the internet really the beast?

Here's a doodle from my sketchbook of a capital

Backgrounds

Here are some computer wallpaper/backgrounds that I experimented with in PhotoShop the other day. If you like one, click on it to show it larger and alone in another window, then right-click on it and click set as walpaper.

Ed toon

I tried to run this in our little town paper a couple of weeks ago but there wasn't room. It's just as well, I don't think it's meaningful enough to be important and technically it's more of an experiment in combining cartooning and PhotoShop than anything else, it's not any remarkable demonstration of skills or anything. Still, at least it got my trying to cartoon again.

ClustrMaps - information visualization of visitor locations - zoom map

ClustrMaps - information visualization of visitor locations - zoom map
Check it out, these are all the places on earth that people have seen this blog. Japan, Australia, South Africa, Hawaii, Alaska, all over Europe, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and is that Chile or Argentena (my geography needs brushing up)?

Please email someone far away a link to this page and let's see how many places we can send it.

Excellent student

Who is this kid? Teddy Gieger-somebody? Some singer. Anyway, Chelsey, a Junior in my Drwing II class drew this. 14x20 pencil & graphite on newsprint. Pretty phenomenal, huh? I'm really proud of her, even if her subject matter is just eye candy for her bedroom wall.

Should I put it on my blog?

I just thought this was such a cool looking clock!

Bush approval below 30%

President Bush’s Job Approval Rating Reaches New Low of 29 Percent Positive, Down Seven Points since April

With just one-quarter of U.S. adults saying the country is headed in the right direction, this measure hits an 11-year low

President Bush’s job approval rating continues to decline, reaching its lowest level, 29 percent positive, since he took office in January 2001. This is the first time any poll has shown the president’s approval rating to be under 30 percent. On the flip side, 71 percent of U.S. adults rate his job performance negatively. Amongst a backdrop that includes a White House personnel shake-up, CIA Director resignation, and continued rising gasoline prices, only one-quarter (24%) of U.S. adults say things in the country are going in the right direction, while 69 percent say things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track. The war (28%) continues to be the most important issue for the government to address according to U.S. adults, followed by immigration (16%), rising gas and oil prices (14%), and the economy (13%).

These are some of the results from the latest Harris Poll of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone between May 5 and 8, 2006 by Harris Interactive^®.

what you can't...

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
- Pablo Picasso

"there was never a good War,
or a bad Peace"
-Ben Franklin

ART. Ask for more.

My kids think Man Ray is a villain on Sponge Bob

Guess what?

War in Iraq Less Popular Than Vietnam

A Gallup poll shows that, three years after the U.S.-led invasion, there is less domestic support for the war in Iraq than there was for the Vietnam War at the same stage. 57% of those surveyed now consider it a mistake to have sent troops to Iraq, as opposed to the 48% who felt the same way about Vietnam in April of 1968. The numbers are especially surprising given that, three years into the Vietnam War, the U.S. has already suffered more than 28,000 casualties, as opposed to the 2,417 announced deaths in Iraq.

Prom

I put the camera on the night setting just to see what would happen with the DJ's lights. Fun.

Note to Ann & Carol at the PRESS office

Hey you guys. I'm afraid Ted's column is going to have to take a hiatus this week. I just finished a 100 page history for our church, have stacks of yearbook proofs piling up on my desk and this minute (the hour 3-4 I'd take to think of something to write and the hour from 4-5 that I'd take to write it) I have to deliver a copy of that history book to the committee for proofreading and then hustle up to the Parish Center to help decorate for prom. I'm sorry. I hope this is early enough notice for you to find something from the extension office or somewhere to fill that page 3 hole. I plan to be back next week. It was wonderful to see you, even under such sad circumstances.

Farewell to Mike

Thursday I attended the funeral of my former publisher at the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper, Mike Lyon in Mapleton. I was about 5 minutes from town when I realized that I was a good half an hour early. So, I did what he would've done. I drove up into the Loess Hills with my camera and tried to decompress. Above are a couple of shots by a pond along a bend in the road South of Castana and North of Soldier.

WeSupportU

http://www.forest.ws/WeSupportU.htm

Man at war

It’s a losing battle. We should have known that. We should have seen that it was a quagmire waiting to happen, but no, we decided we had to go to war against the dandelions on our lawn.

We’re now in the third year of the insurgency. When it first started I figured I’d be a real man and do things the old fashioned way, on my hands and knees. I waited till a day that it might be fairly damp and I took one of those weeding forks. The thing is, the special operations surgical strike is supposed to be the best tool a warrior has. But obviously, our intelligence must have been bad. There were way more of the noxious weeds than I had previously assumed.

And even though this bunker-busting method is supposed to be the best way to get them roots and all, I think that our action only served to fuel the insurgency. There were even more dandelions the next year, and in even more places on the property.

So, I was determined to turn up the heat. An all out aerial assault. I searched out the most powerful chemical weapons I could find. My intention was nothing short of shock and awe.

The thing about weed killers is that your hand is what dies after about an hour of spraying this deadly dose of dandy lion killing drink. After flying sorties over several square yards I’d try to switch hands, but may left hand would tire much quicker than the right did. And it’s quite a operation to put the trigger-gun into one hand without dropping the jug or tangling up the hose.

The thing about bombing missions is that there’s always collateral damage. Sure enough, within a week there was all kinds of bald spots on the lawn where the weed-be-dead-and-gone had taken out an inordinate amount of innocent civilian grass. If only there was a way to eliminate the belligerent yellow terrorist invaders without sacrificing the natives.

Sure enough, the dandelions only increased their numbers.

Sometimes the only way to handle a situation is to cover it up or draw attention away from it. So I’d try to mow more often to that the weeds were still there, but their heads were cut off so that hopefully, from a distance, no one would notice that they weren’t just grass.

This year I have had to escalate. I came up with a three tiered strategy; rapid-grow grass seed on the bare areas, weed-and-feed-speckle-things fertilizer/weed killer, and another round of the spray (that now comes in a supposedly more effective and more localized foam). No more Mr. Nice guy, I figured.

Unfortunately, all the strategy and the best tactics in the world may not get the job done without good logistics. When I went to get supplies at the store, I was dismayed by the cost of lawn care products. The largest bag of the best name brand fertilizer was well over $20, so were the most reputable brands of grass seed. Here I’d just spent nearly $40 on fuel. What’s more the directions on the grass seed called for a roto-tiller. What a mess that would make of my lawn to tear up single square yards of bare spot. Not that I own a tiller in the first place.

But you don’t go to war with the tools you wish you had, you go to war with the tools you have. So I bought smaller sizes of off-brand products, and one of those little plastic hand-cranked fertilizer broadcasting (sowing?) thing-a-ma-bobs and I returned to the theatre of combat.

That was before the rains came. Reconnaissance is inconclusive as to the effectiveness of our latest campaign. If this didn’t take I suppose we’ll just have to pour more money into the ongoing war. Maybe we’ll even have to escalate again next year and contract mercenaries to carry out the battle instead of doing it ourselves.

“Daddy why don’t you like dandelions?” my girls ask me.

“Well, we just don’t like weeds, they make our yard look yucky, so I keep trying to get rid of them,” I explain.

“But dandelions aren’t weeds, they’re flowers,” our 4 year old tells me, “I think they’re CUTE!”

Many is the bouquet she’s picked for her mother or I that we’ve politely placed in a jelly jar vase on the kitchen counter. I guess we’ve got a lot of educating to do to win over the hearts and minds of these protesters.

Politics & Religion

"In religion and politics, people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second hand, and without examination."
~Mark Twain