Baker's heartbeat

Example of letter sent out by America's health  insurance companies to their customers. The number of Americans without health insurance decreased dramatically after the Affordable Care Act passed and became law, but in recent years the number has started to creep up again, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation (kff.org), a leader in studying the topic. Some 28 million Americans are currently estimated to be without the coverage. In early 2018 I became one of the uninsured for the first time in my adult life. It was disconcerting to say the least. But I knew something about the subject as a daily newspaper journalist who had reported on current health issues. I also am very healthy, overall, so considered not paying for the pricey insurance. Family members and friends strenuously objected to this idea so I signed up. My insurance agent is a nice gentleman who lives in Davenport, but I gotta tell you, the health insurance industry is a wacky business indeed. To...

Reeling in the years at the Taxslayer arena Our seats from the stage allowed a nice view of the show, overall Nineteen? Remember the 70's? Some of us were teens in that era, spending our high school and college years during the decade. There's an anthology of Steely Dan music, four discs, 1972-1980, and it contains much of the music of our youth. That's what we found for a little while, Wednesday night at the Taxslayer Arena, Moline. Steely Dan -- Donald Fagen these days -- and a 12-piece band performed Sept. 4, and although Fagen's voice was thready at times, he was able to capture some memories in the tunes. The well-filled arena was filled with folks who remembered 19 maybe 40-50 years ago. Steely Dan started out the night with "Black Friday," but most of the best-loved music came at the end of the show, with "My Old School," and a terrific rendition of "Boddivesta." Musicians younger than Fagen showed their expertise, e...

  We're in front of CIBC Theatre, Chicago Tickets we got through the box office Our seats in the theatre ... This shows distance from the stage. We spent a few days in Chicago recently and found a new, yet old, way to get tickets to one of the hottest musicals in the country. It required a pretty long walk, a few minutes in line, and we came away with two seats only about 20 rows from the stage. Like many readers, I saw offers of "Hamilton" tickets on social media; I swear every time I called up Facebook in August, there would be a pitch for the show. However, we are wary of online methods to buy tickets since a friend was burned in the process of purchasing tickets to the Paul McCartney concert in Moline, held in June. Craig has a cautionary tale that we certainly respected. Hence it seemed smart to just go to the box office at the CIBC Theatre, which has had the show for several months. The theatre was just over a mile from our hotel, so we hike...