Coffee beans and comic books

Good morning, BASE! One of the several things putting spring in my step this Thursday (in addition to the fact that it's actually starting to feel like SPRING outside!) is the hot mug of Outreach Africa coffee that's going to make me a very productive public policy researcher today. We talked last meeting about the idea of finding ways to distribute these coffee beans more widely, and I'm proud to announce that the Iowa Policy Project is now officially an Outreach-Africa-coffee-bean-brewing office! As the primary coffee drinker in the office, I hold some sway over such matters, and I've just installed a new coffee grinder next to the coffee machine and the adorable little cloth bag of coffee on our kitchen shelf.

In other news, I just wanted to advertise a great event coming up in a few weeks; the next installment of the UI Lecture series is coming to Hancher on April 6 and will be Marjane Satrapi, author of the autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis. Ms. Satrapi writes about her childhood growing up in Iran. The book is amazing, and you may know that it's just been made into a movie (French with English subtitles). I read this book a few years ago in a course on politics and literature, and I've been recommending it left and right ever since. If anyone wants to borrow my copy, you would have to give me something really valuable to hold in reciprocal hostage. . . or you could go buy your own, beautiful copy and then come with me to the lecture on April 6.