Imagine how my ears pricked up this summer when Coralville, of all the "hapless burgs" in Iowa, rated a special segment on CNN. Ditto when just last week on "The West Wing," the NBC drama about a highly fictitious president of genuine depth and intelligence, once again Iowa was in the spotlight. Now, as I attempt to digest Pete Peterson's "Running on Empty"-- one of the most frightening books ever written about our nation's bankrupt future -- what should I come across in its opening pages but the absurdity of an "indoor rain forest" in Iowa. The common theme? Startling government waste.

Iowa was already famous for producing pork. We were already the home state of every rube in Hollywood's imagination. Until recently, Eastern intellectuals were sure to know only one thing about Iowa: that Ottumwa was the hometown of Radar O'Reil-ly. Now that MASH is off the air, the first response you will hear when travelling to any of America's blue fringes will certainly be this: "Iowa? Isn't that where they built that crazy rain forest?"

Ted Townsend and David Oman are the ones who don't "get it."

Tim Shriver

Coralville