Author: Kelli Ohrtman

  • Fresh as a Faux Daisy

    Not so long ago, if you heard “wipe” used as a noun, you probably thought of a baby’s bottom. That was in the late nineties, when baby wipes made up eighty-two percent of the “wipe market.” Now, of course, you can buy disposable cloths soaked in just about any kind of fluid and stuffed into…

  • Axis of Evil

    The blond woman grabbed the shiny brass pole and, with a single athletic move, flipped her body upside down, her legs splayed—toes pointed, mind you—on either side of the pole. As she slowly slid down, she stared at her audience with confidence. Christina Aguilera’s “Dirrty” blared from the sound system. Heading down to the hardwood…

  • Pro Tools

    So who is that guy who’s seemingly been hogging the karaoke machine for four hours straight in the Hunan Garden bar? He is Ray Evangelista, and he has been offering evening entertainment at this downtown St. Paul restaurant three nights a week, six hours each night, for the past sixteen years. Hunan Garden owner Joe…

  • "You Ashcroft!"

    On a recent international flight aboard Northwest Airlines, a reporter was pleased to learn that the movie would be Sideways, the popular Alexander Payne film that has uncorked a million bottles of pinot noir. Of course, in-flight entertainment is notoriously prudish about dirty words. Sideways is a film that has a full nose and thick…