Feminist leader Gloria Steinem worked in a Playboy club in the 60s to show women everywhere the working conditions of Playboy bunnies. But more than 30 women from the University of Minnesota had no problem putting their mother’s feminist ideals on the shelf for a little exposure in April, when Playboy arrived searching for women … Read more
All those late nights in April and May spent watching the Minnesota Wild’s astonishing West Coast playoff run left many bleary-eyed observers across North America rubbing their eyes and wondering the same thing: What the hell is it? On fleet forward Marian Gaborik, it looks like a cheetah. On plodding veteran Andrew Brunette, maybe more … Read more
On March 20, 2003, Quinn Keating Collins made his grand entrance on planet Earth. On April 29, 2003, his grandfather, Clinton Clarence Collins, Sr., took his final bow. My two oldest sons, Joseph and Alexander, knew their grandfather and heard, probably more times than they wanted to, the stories of Mississippi cross-burnings and ducking bullets … Read more
I first heard of Colorado mountain climber Aron Ralston’s daring self-rescue on the radio. I thought: “Wow! What an adventurer!” I stood daydreaming in the kitchen, up to my elbows in dishwater, and let my imagination fly. It was the fifth day… pinned to the north face of a brutal cliff… my water—gone. My hopes … Read more
Up till now, I thought I had absolutely nothing in common with G.W. Bush. Then, I was taking my daughter to the what-not shop in Dinkytown to find a birthday gift for a friend, and we saw a slew of magnets with ridiculous quotes from the prez. For example, “I know how hard it is … Read more
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s food poetry is some of the most beautiful ever written. He transformed tomatoes into heavenly beings. His ode to wine should be every serious vintner’s mantra. Even ordinary and unpoetic subjects—the artichoke or conger chowder—receive his divine dressings. But as far as my searches have revealed, Neruda seems to have skipped … Read more
Freud and Strauss offer contrasting impressions of the nightlife of old Vienna. Hitler painted a verbal picture of the same city as it was seen by those who could not afford Sacher Torte and waltzes, let alone dream therapy with the good doctor, those for whom the opera (the solemnities of Wagner, one gathers, rather … Read more
It’s the start of another four-week run of stand-up comedy classes at Stevie Ray’s School of Improv, the eponymous training center Steve Rentfrow named for his comedic alter ego. He does a pretty good Cosby impression, a bit that is intended to make a point about imitation, the fifth of what’s just been defined as … Read more
The first 30 feet of Fairway Drive run between six-foot hedges before halting at an iron gate. Visitors who activate the callbox are asked to identify themselves and the residence to which they are traveling. If the visitor has been invited by someone behind the gate, the iron bars swing open with a soft, slow … Read more
As a chronicler of the American West, Larry McMurtry has few rivals. He combines a gift for characterization with a sense of history’s sweep that makes his best work, like the Pulitzer winner Lonesome Dove, succeed as both regional saga and small-scale story of imperfect people in search of emotional connection. Wandering Hill picks up … Read more