A picture of Broadway Street in Gilbert from 1910 looks surprisingly similar to one taken yesterday. Sure, there are now streetlights and pavement and tall trees, but the strip is still lined with old-fashioned, flat-roofed buildings, none more than a couple of stories high. While nearby Ely, in catering to canoeists and nostalgia seekers, has … Read more
If there’s one thing the mainstream media loves more than creating its own celebrities, it’s a good old-fashioned rags-to-riches story. So much the better if that classic American journey involves flesh peddling at one end and a prominent masthead title at the other. That’s why there’s no hotter commodity in local journalism these days than … Read more
Kristina Larsson always wanted to dance, but she was turned off by the phony smiles she saw fixed on the faces of most performers. “When I saw flamenco, I thought, ‘Wow! They’re not smiling!’” she says. It was that subtle epiphany that helped this Minnesotan fall in love with a dance associated with the sultry … Read more
It’s not just the prices that are low at Wal-Mart. Journalist Liza Featherstone has written extensively about the world’s largest retailer, exposing its many abuses of its employees and the effect its labor practices have had on the culture of work in the United States. Her new book, Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for … Read more
Yeah, yeah. In some ways I have that “old soul” thing going on (though I find that expression to be fundamentally jive). Lately, however, some form of latent immaturity has started to kick in. For instance, I recently walked into a conversation at work among a group of people who were discussing the joy–and excitement … Read more
“It was like two philosophical trains running past each other on parallel tracks,” said Brad Shinkle, describing Russian and American art during the twentieth century. “Each had little or no awareness of the other—what it consisted of, or its rationale.” Shinkle is president and director of the Museum of Russian Art, the only institution in … Read more
Dick Clark is not pleased about the headlight situation. Oh sure, he’s driven his fair share of luxury automobiles, both domestic and European. He has even leased various Japanese models, though he finds the lack of headroom troubling. But every day lately, Dick finds he’s spending more and more of his valuable time thinking about … Read more
In just a matter of days, the new toll lanes on Interstate 394 will open, giving thousands of commuters in the western suburbs the option of paying to escape the bonds of gridlock as they make their busy way to and from downtown Minneapolis. The last time we drove west on I-394 it was not … Read more
About two years ago, a Northfield, Minnesota, man named Fred Herzog had a vision that made him weep for hours each day for weeks on end. “Jesus came to me and said, ‘You are crying out to the souls of people in South Minneapolis,’” he said. “When I discovered South Minneapolis, it was narrowed to … Read more
The other day, Northwest Airlines informed the union that it wished to lay off six hundred mechanics. In recent years, Northwest has had a near-perfect record measured on the only scale that really matters—mechanical failures leading to tragic crashes. Some thanks is surely due to the men and women who are responsible for keeping things … Read more