Steve Perry He is responsible for getting Paul and Jesse elected. Minnesota’s premier political ad consultant is the very best in the business. So why’s Bill Hillsman sitting this one out? Photos by John Noltner If American politics were the fount of democratic possibility it’s made out to be, Bill Hillsman would be a very rich man … Read more
You could run but you couldn’t hide. In the weeks surrounding the release of Bruce Springsteen’s new record, the man was everywhere. Interviews in Time, Rolling Stone, and the New York Times, a live concert from the Jersey shore, Letterman appearances on two consecutive nights, three installments of Nightline—yes, Nightline, because even though it’s not … Read more
Alas: the pitter-pat of shuffling feet on the stair that Martha Stewart hears each day when she awakes is not the stirring of guests invited for a festive country weekend; it’s the SEC closing in. Last month ImClone boss and “family friend” Sam Waksal (her daughter’s boyfriend, later her own) took his perp walk for … Read more
The daily news cycle is a hungry beast with a short memory, so maybe it should come as no surprise that the revelations of Minneapolis FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley came and went so quickly. Still, you’ve got to credit W and company. The administration has dispatched her story with impressive speed and political acumen. First … Read more
The Funniest President traveled to Wall Street recently, on a mission to kick shins and take names. Since entering public life W has scattered behind him a string of linguistic pearls the likes of which many older Americans still recall fondly from the TV show Kids Say the Darnedest Things. “I know how hard it … Read more
On the shelf in my fourth grade classroom—north wall, near the front—there sat the obligatory set of junior encyclopedias. Now and again during lulls in study time, either Brenda S. or I would go and retrieve the R volume. Then, hunched conspiratorially near the back of the room, we would inspect at length the cross-sectioned … Read more
Here is Jim Carrey, telling you pretty much everything you need to know about Jim Carrey: “I just knew [from an early age] that I needed a lot of attention from a lot of people and I needed to prove to the world that I was magic. That was the underlying factor in everything. It’s … Read more
On a recent Sunday at Knollwood Mall in Hopkins, a dozen or so baseball card dealers and traders huddled grimly behind folding tables as the occasional stray shopper passed by. A mere two or three years ago the weekend card shows were several times the size of this one, and prices were astronomical. Not anymore. … Read more
This morning I sat around watching it rain outside and trying to cull some signal moment from the many hours I spent with my friend Nellie Stone Johnson, the labor/civil rights legend who died April 2 at the age of 96—some little story that might sum her up for purposes of a remembrance like this. … Read more
I shuffled past the television this morning—March 11, the six-month anniversary of the shots heard round the world—in time to see Lisa Beamer on the Today Show, weeping at the behest of Katie Couric. (At 45, the terminally pert Couric is still the cutest succubus on television.) My first thought, I’m ashamed to say, was … Read more