Author: John Tribbett

It was 5:30 a.m. and it was pushing thirty below outside the Kemps Dairy on Minneapolis’s North Side. Mike White whistled a sunny tune as he loaded milk crates into the back of his truck. Like Dick Gephardt’s dad, he’s a milkman. Unlike Dick Gephardt’s dad, he’s still on his route. He delivers five days…

In a world gone mad with wi-fi, razor-thin laptops, and Xboxes, Dave Slabiak is fighting to preserve a questionable American icon—the pinball machine. “I live, breathe, and eat pinball,” he said the other day, staring through his Buddy Holly glasses to make sure his interviewer took in the gravity of the statement. Slabiak is a…

With the economy stalled in first gear, strip-mall stalwarts like Kmart have left cavernous buildings in the wake of their demise. This is bad news for shoppers, of course, but good news for motorsport enthusiasts. Built inside one of these defunct discount centers is Brooklyn Center’s Thunder Alley, the nation’s largest indoor go-kart track. Business…

Except for a few listing gravestones, you could easily mistake the vacant lot for a small park or the exceptionally large backyard of one of the lucky homeowners bordering it. A bus stop and a row of gnarled oaks describes one edge near the street. Two green beer bottles stand attention at a granite monument.…