My friend and former roommate from college Dan (yes, ladies, that's really him -- he's single!) forwarded this link from my old paper The Daily Iowan to me. The article in question, written by the paper's ad sales manager Jim Leonard, happens to be a fond recollection of the night Norm Macdonald (note the capitalization: mine is correct, theirs is not; they also spell Darrell Hammond incorrectly -- don't they have a copy chief anymore?) and two of his Saturday Night Live costars came to Iowa City to cap off some celebratory week or another. It turned out to be quite controversial, mostly because of Norm. His act started out blue and got even bluer. (I recall the phrase "I saw a lady fuck a pig once..." popping up in his material.) The show, which was co-sponsored by the UI athletics department and a local company called Aegon, attracted quite a few families. (And, not surprisingly, they got the best seats, while the students got stuck in the balcony.) The first two performers (Hammond and Jim "Goat Boy" Breuer) were fairly inoculous, but when Norm wandered on stage, already drunk, and started in on his mischief, people started leaving by the truckload.

Anyway, you can read my own recollections on the subject here, taken from my DI column at the time.

On another tack, the biographical note at the end reveals that Jim is retiring next year. Jim was always one of the good ones, and I'm sure he still is. I can just hear his gentle, winking voice in the piece. He was probably the friendliest of the older generation of workers at the paper, which was mostly populated by students from the university. He was quick with a kind word, and even volunteered to draw a cartoon or two for the paper when he felt like he had a unique take on it.

Anyway, check out the piece(s). Good stuff, good memories. Good times... I'd go back if I could.