Mahatma Gandhi said, “To lose patience is to lose the battle.” Having a good lawyer helps, too.

Yes, getting angry is the easy solution, and we all know adults who use temper tantrums as their solutions to most every problem. It rarely helps. Meanwhile, if we are being honest, most all of us have fell victim to anger and responded in not-so-patient ways. What brings this on?

A waitress bringing the wrong order. An airline flight being cancelled. A co-worker dinging your car door. None of those signify the end of the world, but you might think so.

Thirty years ago, when legendary Des Moines restauranteur Babe Bisignano was still alive and operating Babe’s Restaurant, he expressed to me his distaste for The Des Moines Register’s dining reviews. “They can give me all the hell they want,” he told me. “But the new guy who puts everything he owns into opening up a restaurant, whose chef called in sick that night, whose waiters didn’t show. To tear that guy and his business apart in the paper is a damn shame.”

I often credit longtime CITYVIEW food critic Jim “Food Dude” Duncan on how he handles writing reviews on new restaurants, as he purposely gives them time to make a few tweaks from their opening day before he dines there and then often makes a follow-up visit before writing. Jim reminds us that criticism doesn’t have to be mean-spirited or angry.

Unfortunately, mean-spirited and angry criticism is more pervasive today as social media has become a magnet for those who have lost their patience to sound off. My friend Darren Tromblay, who once edited our publications and who continues to write for us, calls it “Internet Hercules,” noting how much tougher people are when they are online rather than in person.

I am reminded of all this as I rejoice that our publication websites are up again. After countless efforts to get this resolved with numerous start-overs in the migration of our data to a newer and larger server, GoDaddy finally got it right. I stated the facts in a column here a few weeks ago to let our online readers who were contacting me know we were aware of the problem and attempting to get it fixed. I was tempted to tear into GoDaddy, but the simple truth is that their employees were doing their best to resolve the problem. Ultimately, we had to force the situation by stating, after three weeks of our sites being down, we would be seeking legal remedies. Within hours, the proper data was migrated, and our websites were up again.

Those are the simple facts. Patience was, and seemingly always is, important. And so was our commitment to seek legal action — patiently.

Have a terrific Tuesday, and thanks for reading.

Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305

CITYVIEW announced its 2022 Best Of Des Moines readers' choices Feb.1. You can find all the results from the poll in the February issue of CITYVIEW magazine!

 Best Local Place to Worship
1. Lutheran Church of HOPE
2, Holy Trinity Catholic Church
3. New Hope Assembly of God

Meet Ann Noring

32-year teacher knits hats for students

By Jackie Wilson

For 32 years, Ann Noring has taught fourth grade at Crossroads Park Elementary in West Des Moines.

Noring had wanted to be a teacher since childhood, when she played school by writing on a chalkboard and instructing her “students” — both stuffed animals and dolls — lessons.
She says she chose fourth grade because it’s a fun age.

“They’re not quite teens. There’s no puberty drama, and they can dive into more content than the lower grades,” she explains. “I’m grateful for the lower grade teachers for the work they put in.”

From the April issue of Jordan Creek Living magazine.

Happy Birthday to these celebrities: Christina Hendricks, Eric Church, Bobby Cannavale, Amy Ryan, Frankie Valli, Noah Munck, Dulé Hill, Tyronn Lue, Willie Geist

SUBMIT: Send your birthday greetings and congratulatory notes to:tammy@iowalivingmagazines.com