Thor Heyerdahl’s classic adventure story, The Ra Expeditions, has a lesson for agriculture. Heyerdahl wanted to prove that ancient Egyptian sailors could have reached the New World in traditional boats constructed of bundled papyrus stalks. He and his crew studied fresco paintings, three to four thousand years old, on the tomb walls of pyramids for … Read more
The administrative areas at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts can be rather labyrinthine, and are also closed off to the general public, so Corine Wegener, the diminutive assistant curator for the Department of Architecture, Design, Decorative Arts, Craft, and Sculpture, agrees to meet me outside the gift shop. After we pass through the security doors … Read more
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He was the blind man who lived in a library. That fact alone is worth a biography, never mind that Jorge Luis Borges is easily among the top ten most important writers of the last century. His short stories – no novels, alas – were masterpieces of breathtaking and abstruse complexity; some say his repeated … Read more
I have been in close personal contact with both President George W. Bush and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. I am embarrassed to admit I don’t recall my previous dealings with either gentleman, but somehow each has become convinced that he can count on my fervent support in this year’s presidential race. Awkward. What to do? … Read more
July 22, 2004 Hot time, summer in the city… and everyone is off to the cabin or congregating on Lake Minnetonka. Not a big boating enthusiast, my excursion to Lake Minnetonka on Sunday for the Napa Valley Block Party Wine Cruise was my first nautical venture in quite some time. I was amazed by the … Read more
August 9, 2004 We Minnesotans lament that our summers fly by so quickly, trying to pack so much into so few months of pleasant weather. Then again, we appreciate this yearly opportunity more than, perhaps, residents of southern California. During San Diego’s recent “Battle at the Bridges” golf tournament, a commentators mention the perfect weather: … Read more
August 18, 2004 For a wine drinker, especially one who prefers the big reds, cool August weather is not all bad news. Out the other night to the Metrodome, to witness the trouncing of my beloved Yankees (I can’t help it, I grew up there!) by those bully Twins, I was intimately aware of how … Read more
Robert Bly has so many projects going on at once, it’s hard to know whether to believe him when he threatens to publish another collection of poetry or razor-sharp social commentary. People know him as the man who launched a movement on behalf of his gender, and they may even know he’s a world-class poet. … Read more
Tara had it all: She was young, beautiful, married to one of the smartest, richest men in America. Now she finds herself divorced and middle-aged. In The Tree Bride, Indian expatriate Mukherjee picks up Tara’s story where she left off in Desirable Daughters. As Tara dives into the story of her ancestor, the Tree Bride … Read more