Diesel Heart
St. Paul’s history bridged vividly to the present If there is an important local author—wait, scratch that. If there is an important author to read this year, it’s Melvin Whitfield Carter Jr. Carter is a St. Paul… Diesel Heart
Amid snow, summer reflections
The first blizzard of the season rolled in after Thanksgiving. It wasn’t a “doozy” (the technical term for “big,” I believe), it was one of those that unravel slowly in temperatures that hover around freezing:… Amid snow, summer reflections
The Uncomfortable Embrace
Social media is not going away (duh), and to succeed, businesses need to embrace it (again, duh). But it doesn’t have infect your life (much). “Facebook is the Internet for a lot of people,” said… The Uncomfortable Embrace
The Labor of Lobster
The price of lobster has dropped, but the cost to catch and process them it has not. Note: A version of this story was first published in Foodservice News in February 2013, thus explaining some… The Labor of Lobster
Photography, Dignity and Journalism
While looking through (and jettisoning) some virtual desktop materials, I found photographs I took for a story I wrote for Foodservice News back in 2009 about nutrition at assisted-living/memory-care facilities. It was an interesting story… Photography, Dignity and Journalism
Primate Blues
Mirror mirror in my hand Who’s the fairest creature in The land? Not the jerks back there that beWhen I turn this glass like this, You see? Rainbow hulks point their fingers, Turn their backs… Primate Blues
The Possum’s Window to ’68
If My Heart Had WindowsArtist: George JonesLabel/Year: Musicor Records, 1968 I’m not sure what was my earliest introduction to George Jones. Probably at the Court ‘n House bar in Eau Claire, Wis., where 25-plus years… The Possum’s Window to ’68
Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Author: Salman RushdiePublished: 2012, Random House I will admit it took me a while to get through this book, for all the usual reasons (work, child-rearing, house maintenance, sleep-deprivation). But there’s also this fact: this… Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Survey to impact coffee habit
Our land-line phone rang Tuesday night. Yeah, we have one of those. Call us luddites, but you just wait, cord-cutters. Your houses will float away like pilotless zeppelins. In addition to being a tether, the… Survey to impact coffee habit
Dapper Brass on the Street
Think positive. Think positive. That can be a tough chore if one digests news these days, but there are humans who walk the earth that manage to do more of that positive thinking than its… Dapper Brass on the Street