He was my favorite columnist and he and I began most days together with a cuppa coffee. His dry sense of humor and sharp wit were refreshing and his political leanings closely matched my own.

When my sil was in Saudi during the Gulf War, he was leaning against a jeep when Kaul walked up and said, "You look like you might be an Iowa farm boy." My sil shook his hand and proceeded to be interviewed by Kaul. He was quite impressed with how easy he was to visit with and the article was great, as well.

His puncturing of the stuffed shirts in the Iowa legislature was a springtime delight. He was so deft hitting the mark several times in a column.
And what he did to Nixon was a thing of legend.

he and a a fellow Register writer name of John Karras (IIRC) rode to work on bikes. Some friendly banter ended up in a bet of who could ride across Iowa.
So the challenge was thrown. They invited folks to join them and the rest is history. At least that is how I remember it.

Cool thing for me is that they will be rolling right by my house Saturday morning. I expect the first rider to pass before sunrise and the last one may be near sunset.

In many ways I really miss IA. Lived there from 68 to 89.

But I know it's changed a lot---for the worse politically. The religious right had already taken over the GOP in the state before I left. Most IA people had no experience to understand what was going on. Being in SoBapt churches in OK and TX from birth til college grad, I saw what was happening and was too unaware to comprehend what an unexpected shock it was to most Iowans.

Damn I loved reading his stuff. Farewell OT.