“Forget the stereotypes of sugar and spice. Girls are mean…,” begins Amazon.com’s plug for Rosalind Wiseman’s hot new book, Queen Bees and Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends and Other Realities of Adolescence, just one of a whole spate of books and articles about surviving the terrors of girlhood. Terrors so fierce that … Read more
Like Moses coming down from Sinai with the Ten Commandments hot from the hand of the Almighty, Minnesota Law & Politics publisher Bill White will soon give us another Minnesota “Super Lawyer” list. The chosen will be revered among lawyers (or at least that is what they will tell their clients to justify higher fees). … 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
June is the month when Twin Citizens get out and really enjoy their parks in staggering numbers—especially our chain of lakes. More than 5.5 million joggers, skaters, dogwalkers, cyclists, and ersatz nudists visit our city parks annually. That’s nearly twice as many visitors as Yellowstone National Park gets each year. We can thank our city … Read more
Tom Dunlap owns the coolest slingshot I’ve ever seen. It’s mounted on the end of an eight-foot pole, and he can aim the whole apparatus like a crossbow. Amazingly, this is a professional tool, one he uses when he climbs and prunes trees. He also uses it for recreation, as he did the other day … Read more
A recent statistic indicates that total beer consumption in the United States is around 33 gallons per person per year for everyone 18 years and older. But wait a minute: If the legal drinking age in every state is 21, why are kids as young as 18 included in the statistic? Apparently someone in a … Read more
First the rumbles raged in England between the Rockers and the Mods. Slick leather-clad Elvis wannabes dropped a few shillings in the jukebox, hopped on their BSA Goldstars, ran some scooters off the road, and popped back for a pint before the rockabilly faded. Rockers mocked the Mods’ more stylish—but less powerful—scooters calling them “Italian … Read more
Monica Hammersten woke up at 3 a.m. one night recently. She smelled beef cooking. “And I think, ‘Oh, now what is that?’ So I come running downstairs. I had a bunch of hamburgers pattied out for the next day, and Jack had them all in a frying pan. He was standing there in his P.J.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
In Minnesota, the number on your driver’s license is a function of your name and date of birth. A woman with the maiden name Linda Louise Eastman who marries James Paul McCartney and takes the name Linda Eastman McCartney sees her Minnesota driver’s license number change from E-235-522-549-898 to M-263-522-162-898 because her last and middle … Read more