I pick up your magazine every month. The March cover [“Murder by Numbers”] seemed too much for me to bear. But then a friend told me there was an accounting of every murder that took place in Minneapolis last year. I went directly to victim number thirty-six, my son. His name was Pestelence V.D. El-Shabazz, … Read more
Hello – I have always enjoyed the red-handed pictures and blurb. We took two pictures and couldn’t decide which one you would like better: the classic Alamo or the Air Force Reserve Jet Car which goes 400 mph and runs on biodiesel. While the rest of us toiled away in below zero temps in early … Read more
My friend Thomas and I were in Dubrovnik, Croatia, for two-weeks this past December. The town was getting ready for St. Nicholas Day–when the children receive chocolate in their stockings–and part of the celebration is a parade of the Dubrovnik Region Old-Timers Car Club. Well, it was quite a surprise for us as we sat … Read more
Thank you for the moving and chilling story about Fozia Mussa [“Country Girl,” April]. I am glad she, unlike so many others, is getting the opportunity to explore her potential and is doing so much with it. There certainly is more than enough racism and xenophobia in the world. However, many if not most of … Read more
Psychiatrist Kevin Turnquist gave an excellent response, conservative and correct, to important questions about “depression” and related issues [“The Doctor is In,” April]. I find that the word “depression” nowadays is loosely used and over-used by the general public. Where once we were “unhappy” or “down” or “moody” or “low,” now we are “depressed.” This … Read more
In the April Rake [“Cuddly Kierkegaardians”], Dan Sinykin mused that “Søren Kierkegaard … wrote more than thirty books during his life (1813-1855) on topics ranging from faith to seduction. That’s a lot of ink for a man whose favorite thinkers, Socrates and Jesus, never penned a word.” I’d agree that Socrates and Jesus never saw … Read more
I am writing in reference to the “Dance Dance Competition” article in the April issue. Although I appreciate any visibility that dance receives in this community, I do not feel this article speaks to the comprehensive nature of dance education available to my students at Summit School of Dance nor to the positive benefits gleaned … Read more
These are a couple of recent pics from a recent trip to Jalisco, Mexico – where humpback whales migrate for their mating season. In the first, you can see The Rake, the tops of a couple of whales, and a “water spout”. There were four males and one female in this group, where the males … Read more
Here are two photos from our recent trip to Kuwait. While there, we went to the Kuwait fish market where they hold daily auctions of local fish and “foreign” fish (caught in non-Kuwaiti waters). The action’s wild, with a few hundred buyers vying for bucketsful of various varieties of fish and shellfish to be sold … Read more
Fifty years ago I was a young bride planning to rent an old Iowa farmhouse. My rural mother-in-law shared her successful bedbug remedy [“A Bedtime Preyer,” April]. She said: “Wash and air-dry all bedclothes. Center the bed in the middle of the room. Put each leg (bed leg) in a pail of turpentine. Don’t smoke. … Read more