–Ralph’s Barber Shop, Okmulgee, Oklahoma –Bateman Park, Okmulgee, OK —On the tube in Ralph’s Barber Shop, Okmulgee, OK: Twins clinch 2004 Central Division title It shouldn’t be possible for nine hits, seven walks, and a hit batter to add up to four runs. That’s the sort of line the Twins regularly threw up last year … Read more
The tone of Paul Krugman in this morning’s NY Times was the first in a long time in which Krugman seemed to give in to his pessimism that the current administration will ever do the right thing–economically or otherwise. As his colleague Bob Herbert so aptly described it today, we’re ruled by “small men committed … Read more
This past weekend, it was hard to escape the feeling that most of the art world showed up on our doorstep to help celebrate the gala reopening of the Walker Art Center. This had the feeling of a truly remarkable moment—an acknowledged world-class art center turns its operating volume up to eleven. It is not … Read more
As I was driving around town today I was writing this country song in my head. I had the whole damn thing worked out –verses, chorus, tune, the whole shebang– and it was shaping up to be a real humdinger of drunken regret, a first-class jukebox classic, and something of a comeback record for me. … Read more
From the pages of Matthew LeCroy’s 1993 Belton-Honea Path, South Carolina high school yearbook: Damn, Dave Gassner was a lot of fun to watch today. He sure looked like one of those cool, crafty lefthanders who could have a nice, long career. Whenever the build-up on a guy places so much emphasis on the fact … Read more
—illustration: James Dankert All day I was looking forward to hustling home from my job as a lobby gnome at an office building downtown so I could settle into the couch to watch the Twins and Indians. Friday nights –like most other nights– are usually a clear, blank radar screen at Jumbo’s posh hovel, but … Read more
Well, it’s tax day, and in deference to all those people cavorting around the capital, hoping to catch a glimpse of their heroes David Strom and Michele Bachmann, here’s the most painful poem I know. It must be what it feels like for all of them today, for which I can’t really say I’m sorry. … Read more
Have you noticed over the last several seasons how every time a Central Division foe has tried to talk trash about the Twins in the media it’s seemed to result in an immediate upsurge in the quality of play from Ron Gardenhire’s charges? Granted, what qualifies as bulletin-board grade trash-talking in baseball is generally pretty … Read more
I figured out pretty quick that I didn’t have the goods to be any kind of a proper accountant, despite pissing away God knows how much money on what some fools would call an education. Maybe, actually, I should have said ‘real accountant.’ I lacked the discipline and the attention (and, frankly, the interest) to … Read more
William Wordsworth – Composed Upon Westminster Bridge Earth has not anything to show more fair: Dull would he be of soul who could pass by A sight so touching in its majesty: This City now doth like a garment wear The beauty of the morning; silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie Open … Read more