Your ideals are invisible clouds So try not to suffocate the poor, the peasants, with your sympathies. They know that you’re staring at them. —Jim Harrison, from “Easter Morning” Dance on, you pigs, what concern is it of mine? —Franz Kafka, Diaries, 1914 Could any of this possibly be true, these things you tell us? … Read more
Molly Ivins is my favorite columnist. She doesn’t pull any punches and is harder on the Dems’ incompetence than she is on the Republicans’ treachery. Anyway, here’s today’s entry, which was reprinted in the Strib. Sort of like what I said yesterday about Ford Bell. She talks about leadership. Dems get a clue.
A Ford worth driving We supported Patty Wetterling for Senate. It wasn’t hard. She’s a good person who wanted to be Senator for what she could do, not what she could be. But, for whatever reason–and many think she was pushed out by the national Democrats so they could clear the field for Amy Klobuchar … Read more
The King was widely regarded as a complete fucking jackass, a man who traded his Kingdom and his wondrous gifts for a chain of muffler shops. The Queen left him immediately, and was followed in short order by his retinue (for he had, in fact, once had a retinue). A few desperate and greasy palace … Read more
Does all this travel make me look fat cat? After slagging the Strib the other day, now I’ve got to be fair and give due praise for a front page story today on Norm Coleman’s travel habits. (However,for some reason, it’s not on the front page of the Strib web site as I’m writing this, … Read more
I don’t recall if the local giant ever actually claimed to have special powers. It did, however, seem to me that he conducted himself as if he had sprung from the pages of mythology. What I’m trying to say, I guess, is that this didn’t appear to be just another ordinary, run-of-the-mill giant. For one … Read more
James Surowiecki, one of my favorite writers, really ought to be allowed out of his gilded cage at the New Yorker a bit more often, now that he’s perfected the Financial Page (along with the Greatest Unsung Editor of Our Times, Susan Morrison). Well, at least he’s allowed to ask questions through the bars. Yesterday … Read more
SWF, young enough, not yet old, weird, fine-enough looking (and that’s not just therapy talking), absolutely no interest in or patience with mingling, machinery, or the usual fanciness. Likes nasty weather, flying and creeping and vulnerable things, C-SPAN when people are just sitting around sipping from glasses of water or clearing their throats, Jeff What’s-His-Name, … Read more
Having spent last week fasting, meditating, flagellating, and otherwise chastening and prostrating ourselves for the important job at hand, this week we’re busy tacking, gluing, hot-waxing, tucking, nipping the new issue–and we’re sure you’ll agree that all this radio-silence at the blog is going to be worth it. (Hint: Nudity! Much nudity!) But something I … Read more
Be sure to catch me at the Coon Rapids Home Center next week I couldn’t really decide how to start this entry. I thought of, “If I were the editor of the Star Tribune…”, but that’s too scary even to contemplate. I thought of “I wish they had an editor at the Strib instead of … Read more