The President Celebrates Her (Mostly) Hometown of Iowa City

Lincoln Park, Chicago — The Lincoln Park Trixie Society today noted, with what its President described as “appropriate pride,” the inclusion of Iowa City, Iowa on CNN's list of the best cities in the country to visit, where it placed eighth. Dr. Ashley Munroe, the Society's Founder and Executive Director, issued a statement accepting the honor on the city's behalf.

“Iowa City is, in every way that matters, my hometown,” said Dr. Munroe. “I spent four formative years there, earned a Bachelor of Technology from the University of Iowa, and learned to parallel park on Clinton Street. That the rest of the country is finally catching up is gratifying, if a little late.”

Dr. Munroe is, by birth and by cattle, from Griswold — a community of roughly one thousand in Cass County, some two hundred miles southwest of Iowa City, where her family farms to this day. She regards the distinction as a technicality. The two places, she notes, are linked by the state of Iowa, by a shared Casey's, and by the four years she counts, without qualification, as residency.

The President sees no meaningful difference between the two. Iowa City has a pedestrian mall; Griswold has a grain elevator visible from most of the county. Iowa City has the Writers' Workshop; Griswold has a woman who writes the church bulletin, and writes it well. Iowa City hosts the downtown street festival pictured in CNN's coverage; Griswold hosts a fire-department pancake breakfast, which Dr. Munroe maintains is “the same energy, at a better price.”

Asked whether Griswold had also been considered by CNN, Dr. Munroe called the omission “CNN's loss” and declined to elaborate. The Office of Society Intelligence has been asked to prepare a separate note about Griswold.

“A hometown is not where you were born,” Dr. Munroe added. “It is where you decided to be from. I decided on Iowa City. Griswold understands.”