Talk about your EOS with your doctor

For a long time, it's seemed as though Des Moines audiences were a little too ovation-happy for our own good. Any performance, dramatic or mundane, powerful or sloppy, life-changing or cut-rate, always seems to get a standing ovation at the end.

It turns out we're not alone. A critic in San Diego decries "Excessive Ovation Syndrome" in her town, which by all accounts should be a place more stingy with its ovations than Des Moines. After all, San Diego is the 8th-largest city in the nation. Surely they get more big-name concerts and entertainers than we do (with our half-million-person metro area), which one would expect might raise the bar a little.

It turns out Canadians are susceptible, too: Edmonton, just a short 1400-mile jaunt to our northwest, gives away so many ovations that it hurts the opera director's feelings. It's always seemed like we here in Des Moines are so generous with our ovations because we're hoping to stretch an ovation into an encore. Or perhaps it's just because we're so darned nice that we can't help ourselves but to thank everyone for everything in gratuitous fashion.

Either way, it's a good thing to know we're not the only ones with EOS.