Last evening I was with what seemed to be about 200 or so others who had gathered to honor Sami Rasouli at the Crescent Moon Banquet Hall in northeast Minneapolis. Sami: native of Najaf, Iraq; thence Minneapolis resident and restaurateur and U.S. citizen; thence back to Najaf to work at restoring destroyed relationships between the […]
I am reading less and less newsprint, including the e-mail types of news which compile the news of the day from one particular point of view. Usually these days I tend to find myself skipping over the ‘same old, same old’ spin (the word ‘pundit’ comes to mind), and paying more attention to letters to […]
I’m of the age where attendance at memorials and funerals are a frequent activity, while marriages and christenings are uncommon. We have quite a passel of grandchildren, so maybe this will change in a few years, but for now, that’s the routine. Yesterday, it was the memorial for Dottie Garwick at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist […]
Under cover of night, I snuck a comedian out of town this morning…. Really, I wish I could tell stories like comedians can, but in this case my story is a true one. My daughter-in-law, Robin Menier, who lives and works in Woodbury and represents acts, had a comedian she represents as their house guest, […]
November 6, 2012, “we, the people” will select, by our vote, or by our non-vote, an entire assortment of representatives, from local to national level. We’ll vote well-informed, or ill-informed on candidates and on issues. We will be solely responsible, as always, for our action (or inaction). We like to ‘slice and dice’ our elected […]
Over a year ago, in mid-April 2011, a coffee acquaintance, a generation ‘south’ of me in age, asked me a question. As a second job, he’s long been a local volunteer fireman. One of his duties was to handle his units retirement investment fund. Apparently their fund was not doing well – they were getting […]
I stopped by Woodbury Heritage House on Friday to take the monthly snapshots. The sign was up announcing that today, the 2nd Sunday afternoon, the House will be open for tours, as it is every 2nd and 4th Sunday afternoon during the summer. (click to enlarge photos). These days the house looks a bit bedraggled […]
After the first week the conversation about the Affordable Health Care Act has (it seems) been politically narrowed down to this: “it’s a tax” (therefore it’s evil). It is this because geniuses with words like Frank Luntz have determined that the word “tax” resonates negatively with people. It’s a ‘dog whistle’ word. We’ve been conditioned […]
We always go to the Afton parade. It is nearby, and it is the only parade I know that you can watch twice – the units double back down the same street, and pass each other. Today I went by myself. It was just too hot. This is a major election year, and this day […]
Happy 4th of July. Most likely I’ll be walking in a parade unit in Afton MN, supporting the candidacy of U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. Campaigning is tough on the best of days, but July 4, for a statewide candidate, is truly impossible. So, I’ll walk and people watch and in Afton there’s the additional benefit […]