'Tis the season for giving, I guess, So I thought I would share a story with you.
You know the saying that no good deed goes unpunished?Well, just the opposiite occurred to me a few years ago. Only I didn't exactly start out trying to do a good deed. And I really didn't do it with anykind of payback in mind.
Confused? Read on.
About 4-5 years ago, I was on the road a lot covering University of Michigan basketball and football games for the Ann Arbor News. And in those days before Ipods, portable DVD players (or even laptops equipped with DVD players), that meant a lot of long flights where I could catch up on my reading.
One of the books that grabbed a hold of me was "Postville" by University of Iowa journalism professor Stephen Bloom. It was a true-life tale of a bunch of ultra-orthodox Jews who took over an eastern Iowa meatpacking plant in the titular town and the culture clash that ensued. Towards the end of the book, Bloom (a Jew himself) concludes that these outsiders areto blame for the bitter divisions in this tiny town; that their attempts to isolate themselves verge on outright hostility.
That epiphany occurred shortly after Bloom learned about the town's former doctor, Doc Wolf, whom everybody in Postville seemed to love. Wolf, who was Jewish but not practicing, regularly visite Chicago to load up on Jewish food such as pastrami, mustard and rye bread that he couldn't get in Iowa.
I loved this book. Not only because Bloom's tale of this unusual town was so fascinating, but he also wrote about what I myself had experienced in 1995 when I first came to the state as a reporter at the Ames Tribune. Like me, he moved to Iowa from one of the coasts, going from a part of the country with a thriving Jewish subculture to a part where there was almost none. There was never any anti-Semitism while I was in Iowa. Just a distinct lack of feeling comfortable, as if you were being kept at arms length because you weren't Christian.
I finished the book just before Michigan's football team was to play a road game at Iowa. And I was suddenly struck with an idea. Why don't I thank Bloom for his great bookby pulling a Doc Wolf on him? As some might know, Ann Arbor is home to one of the best Jewish delis in the nation: Zingerman's. I emailed Stephen, explaining who I was, my travel plans and offering to bring him some corned beef and rye from Zingerman's.He eagerly accepted. And on Saturday morning, just before the game, I delivered the precious cargo to Stephen, his wife Iris and his son Mikey. I was so glad I did it. They were wonderfulpeople. And it was something they truly apprecaited, I could tell.
A little less than a year later, Ann Arbor had some breaking news. University of Iowa president Mary Sue Coleman was leaving Iowa City to become the new president of the University of Michigan. Editors at the Ann Arbor News needed to send someone out to the state to discover what Michigan's new head honcho was all about. Though I was still in the sports department, they turned to me because they figured I was a former Iowan who was not only familiar with the state but would know who to interview.
Did I ever. One of the first calls I placed was to Stephen. Right after I touched down in Cedar Rapids (on the same flight as Coleman, I might add), I had dinner with him and Mikey. He gave me the full rundown of what Coleman's tenure at Iowa had been like, who liked her, who didn't like her and whom I should call to get the pithiest quotes.
It was exactly the head start I needed. Though I was in Iowa City for only one full day, I made the most of it. Yes, I covered Coleman's press conference where she explained her decision to leave Iowa and I even managed to interview her afterwards for a private Q&A. But I also talked to former presidents and professors who spoke about what made her so effective, student leaders unhappy with how she responded to the complaints about university apparel being manufactured under sweatshop conditions overseas and the local bookstore owner who talked about Coleman's weekly visits. I even managed to squeeze in a pertinent anecdote from Bloom:
"Shortly after Bloom penned the highly acclaimed book 'Postville,' about the culture clash between ultra-Orthodox Jews and residents of a tiny Iowa town, she quickly responded personally to a letter from a Cornell College religion professor demanding that the journalism professor be fired.
'While I understand that Professor Bloom's work is controversial and apparently quite offensive to you and others... University faculty enjoy broad academic freedom in their research and writing activities,' she stated.
I came home to Michigan receiving congratulations from all my editors. I had written the story with the kind of depth that similar articles from the
Detroit News and
Free Press had failed to accomplish. It went on to win an in-house writing award.
I continue to make Doc Wolf runs for the Bloom family whenever I am in Iowa. And yes,they are always much appreciated.
And yes, there's a moral to this story.
Never underestimate the power of corned beef.
