Ann Bauer It is a firmly established fact about human beings that we want what we cannot have. Once stores run out of Furbees or fetal Cabbage Patch babies or giggling Elmos, suddenly every mother’s child must have one. When exorbitantly-priced iPhones hit the market already in limited supply, people line up at 2 a.m. I’ve heard … Read more
Truth to tell, I’m not a big fan of these end-of-year Top Ten lists. They tend, I think, to be both subjective and showy: meaning listmakers record either what’s obscurely relevant to them or what will demonstrate their great intellect and breadth of knowledge, or both. Two years ago, for instance, every book reviewer in … Read more
I’ve spent only one Christmas alone — and by "alone," I mean myself and three young kids. I was recently divorced. My parents were visiting my sister’s family in Philadelphia. And my ex-husband, a "recovering" Catholic and practicing alcoholic at the time, had slid into his annual holiday slump. This is how I found myself … Read more
I had dinner with Robert Bly last week. Now you may think the biggest perks of my job involve food and wine and freebies but it’s not true. The best thing is meeting people like Bly and being able to ask anything I want. And here’s what I wanted to know: What’s up with men? … Read more
It is a fact that I have never made a decent pancake. My children could tell you this. For years, when they’d have friends sleep over and I’d offer—in the morning—to whip up my special whole wheat-and-yogurt pancakes, I’d get an urgent “No! That’s alright. We’re not hungry.” Then they’d sneak off to devour a … Read more
Maybe it’s an Edina thing. You step inside the city limits and suddenly you rather like a restaurant server who eyes you suspiciously for several minutes, then approaches sniffily to ask what you want. You don’t mind paying 20 percent more for a loaf of bread with goat cheese and olive tapenade than you would, … Read more
Look, I think I’ve been honest right from the get-go. I’ve never been a foodie. In fact, I’ve always been a little squeamish about diehard foodies. And I stumbled into food writing because I was an out-of-work English professor who needed a job, not because I stayed up nights dreaming of the perfect creme brulee. … Read more
I work out at the Y five or six times a week, so I see a lot of naked women. There are very elderly ones who stand crookedly in the shower, bones protruding, washing their thinning, silver hair. Others have bodies so wrinkled, the folds of skin fall like ripples from their shoulders to their … Read more
For a Jewish Gen X’er, I have a strangely regressive Protestant work ethic. For instance, I tend to feel guilty when I have fun while I’m on the job. And after last Thursday at Thomas Liquors — let me tell you — my conscience is simply awash. These guys are crazy, in a very good … Read more
It is that time of year when we pause and give thanks for small blessings. And among these I count Uptown, where my husband and I (who are saving up to send a kid to college) have had a succession of brilliant but inexpensive Saturday night dates. In this era of Transformers on 16 screens, … Read more