Dear Reader: A slight departure today on these Highways & Byways. I decided to handle the following story in the style of the original Moristotelian’s Goines series as a tribute, reviving my character Flanagan for the process.
Goines was out driving one afternoon with the Missus when he saw an Iowa license plate and started wondering about the meaning of the French word “Moines.” He did a quick internet search, finding a statement from the ever faithful Wiki that the city of Des Moines, capital of the great state of Iowa, is named after the Des Moines River and its full French name translates to “the river of the monks.”
