Brad Zellar These days you can’t turn on a television without encountering an advertisement for some pharmaceutical sleep aid, and sleep centers have sprung up all over the country. Yet for experts like Dr. Mark Mahowald, that explosion of treatment options—and the ceaseless wave of sleep-deprived patients seeking them—is both a blessing and a curse. That’s because … Read more
For my money Rupert Thomson is one of the most adventurous and consistently dazzling writers working today. He’s also criminally underrated (and largely unknown) in the United States. His 1996 novel, The Insult, featured one of the great untrustworthy narrators in recent memory: a man, blinded by a bullet to the head, who suffers from … Read more
Yeah, we know, that’s three plugs for Magers and Quinn events for August (and there’s another one to come), but what can we say? The competition is generally a bit tardy on their press releases, the Uptown behemoth just keeps getting bigger and better, and this month in particular the folks at M&Q have put … Read more
I broke my brain. I’m not shitting you. It was joggled around in some giant, anonymous pair of hands and tossed end-over-end, without hope or desperation, down a scarred velvet table in a dark and nearly empty casino. Have you ever felt like a moth that has been pinned to a post and is being … Read more
And pretty tough, all things considered. On the heels of losing three straight to the first-place Tigers, Michael Cuddyer, who was 11-for-21 coming out of the break, goes on the DL, and the Twins come right back and take two straight from the West-leading Angels. Post break: four straight wins, three straight losses, two straight … Read more
How many runners can one team strand? How many decent –and even great– pitching performances can one team waste? How does a team that scored 32 runs in a doubleheader in Chicago turn around and manage just 24 runs in six games coming out of the All Star break? I’ll be good and damned if … Read more
I ran my finger down the schedule –I was pissed off, and in a hurry– and if I’m not mistaken the Twins have now been shutout eight times this season. Three of those have been 1-0 games, two were 2-0, two 3-0. and one 8-0. So, basically if the Twins could have managed any sort … Read more
Remember the Dark Ages? I sure do. Man, do I ever, and, holy shit, were they ever painful. Remember 1996, the season that began with the announcement of Kirby Puckett’s forced retirement? That team went 78-84 (not that bad, really, all things considered), but the pitching staff had an ERA of 5.28, the third straight … Read more
You don’t believe me? All right, well then maybe you’ll believe William Shakespeare: Base men by his endowments are made great. —Richard II Get it? Base men. No shit, Sherlock (or Shylock). And then there’s this all-purpose taunt of opposing batters (useful for whenever The Great Santana takes the mound), from Love’s Labor’s Lost: Thou … Read more
The clock is ticking. The clock is always ticking, always tick-tick-ticking. The sun is burning, burning, burning. The moon is rising. The moon is rising. The moon is rising. The world is turning. This world is turning, turning, turning. Our hearts are yearning. Our hearts, our hearts, our hearts are yearning. The days get away … Read more