We run in circles where people can get into rather heated discussions about prepositions and commas and such. Luckily, we also understand that these topics don’t exactly rock the coolness meter for most. That’s why Lynne Truss’s sassy grammar manual, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, caught our attention. It was … Read more
Khaled Hosseini gets up at four every morning to write, before he heads off to work as an internist in a private medical practice. During those wee hours, the good doctor works to resuscitate the lost world of pre-Taliban Afghanistan. Hosseini, a diplomat’s son, left his homeland when he was twelve, and grew up in … Read more
Early this year, the 1989 fatwa calling for Rushdie’s death, originally issued by Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, was reaffirmed–and it’s not just an idle threat; more than fifty people around the world have been murdered because of connections to Rushdie. Nonetheless, the author occasionally risks a public appearance such as this one, at which he’ll read … Read more
As a child, Galway Kinnell says, he was “shy to the point of being mutinous.” Today such a description might be applied to the adolescent writer of a brilliantly destructive computer virus. But Kinnell was born in 1927, which left him little choice but to become a poet. A highlight of his long career would … Read more
God, we hope so. At least as far as we’re concerned. This sprawling book is a random collection of observations about women and men, women without men, women chasing men, women chased by men, and men who aren’t worth the chase, unless it’s to hunt them down and exterminate them. It’s wonderfully sarcastic, beautifully reported, … Read more
The name, French slang for a fake diamond, implies gaudiness, but this new French restaurant is nothing but elegance. Chef/owner Don Saunders crafts simple dishes with sumptuous details. Even the salads dazzle: Mixed greens are dressed with a light and toasty hazelnut vinaigrette; a steak salad is mobbed by crispy fried shallots. With the inclusion … Read more
Despite all the technological retrofitting, not to mention the recent gutting of hours and slashing of budgets, libraries remain one of our most inspiring institutions. Sometimes they even take the show on the road, as with this festival. For nearly a decade, the Friends of the St. Paul Public Library has brought together an esteemed … Read more
Lucia Watson certainly feeds us well at her Uptown restaurant, but sometimes we just want to eat at home, in our own snug kitchen, wearing mismatched socks. That’s what makes her new bakery and takeout annex so brilliant: The baked goods are treat enough, but she doesn’t scrimp on the takeout menu, either. First-rate sandwiches … Read more
When you think about it, the Universal Press Syndicate does have kind of a sinister ring to its name. Did you know that this outfit, which distributes most of our daily comics, flies deadline-dodging artists to its Kansas City headquarters to work out some strips–under supervision? Indeed, “they are locking me in a room to … Read more
Therapists don’t seem overpaid at all, when you consider the parade of misery that walks through their offices every day. And watching a family squirm wretchedly through a bitter divorce has to be one of the less rewarding professional experiences. Yet, seen through the eyes of Noah Baumbach (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), and … Read more