Category: Letter

I have a new respect for the lady [Katherine Kersten, as profiled in “The One-Woman Solution,” February]. Does the Star Tribune know that they have readers in out-state Minnesota that may be conservative? What is your definition of “neo-con”? That word is thrown around and many people have no clue what it is. I think that Kersten is intelligent and has a desire to dig into subjects. It could be that she is far above the other Tribune writers and they are jealous. I’m not sure why the writer of this article doesn’t think she would appeal to redneck conservatives. The rednecks that I know in Brainerd are Democratic-leaning in their voting. I think the Tribune and possibly the writer of this article don’t know what a conservative is.

David Speers of Madison, Wisconsin and Nancy Miller of St. Paul recently called upon the Lincoln Family at the new Lincoln Museum in Honest Abe’s hometown of Springfield, Illinois.

They had along The Rake’s October 2006 all-music issue, and it inspired some fairly solid verse. Writes Miller:

In these times of war and strife,
Lincoln led a similar life.
So we decided to stop and see
Just how this country came to be.
Here we are at the Springfield place,
Where Lincoln’s history can be traced.
What tunes today would Lincoln deem
Worthy of the local music scene?

In his profile of Katherine Kersten, Brian Lambert states: “nor does she stoop to … cynical mangling of facts…” You can argue about her cynicism, but as I recall when she was writing occasional policy pieces for the Star Trib op-ed page, those pieces were usually followed by letters to the editor stating where she got her facts wrong. As for Central America, she says that “in particular [her] experience with Central America” was very important. Nowhere in this piece does she say anything about the death squads and massacres. Brian Lambert doesn’t raise the question either. You can do better.

It’s rewarding to see Brian Lambert back in print once again. Despite being a failed newspaper columnist and a fired radio talk-show host, Lambert’s hiring by The Rake must be complimented. By employing him—“an embalmed white man”—to “sneer about” Katherine Kersten. The Rake displays both its hostility to conservative viewpoints and selective devotion to diversity.

With all due respect, your “raking” over of the Strib [“Go Down Moses,” February] doesn’t resonate with me, a Strib subscriber. Au contraire, I’m of the opinion that the Strib is actually turning out a much-improved product since the takeover. I have no other conflict of interest in coming to the aid of the Strib. Also, we in the Twin Cities do not have a lack of other significant news sources, especially with the availability of the Internet and other media resources. I think it’s a bunch of bunk that media law apparently still considers concentration of newsprint sources as a competitive factor! It’s ludicrous!
By the way, I believe that The Rake is a superior journalistic publication. I also read City Pages and sometimes local immigrant/foreign-oriented publications (e.g., Chinese, Vietnamese, Hmong, Latino, for a contrasting viewpoint). It’s very interesting how our primarily Scandinavian culture has become transformed by other cultures, leading to cultural diversity.

What a fabulous idea! Leave it to The Rake to figure out that men have a pretty good fashion sense when it comes to their ladies by sending four of them on a shopping trip [“Guys and Paper Dolls,” February]. My husband has this same knack. I think it works for guys who are especially attuned to their ladies because they know what their ladies like, but also what they’d like to see them in. Kudos to the guys for picking these outfits!

After reading Joseph Hart’s article “When Harry Met Betty” [February], I pulled my well-used 1974 Betty Crocker’s Cookbook off the shelf and turned to page 108 to refresh my memories of the cake my mother used to bake in the 1950s. Under the “Orange Chiffon Cake” heading, Betty Crocker included the following bit of info, with no credit to Harry Baker, which I thought Joseph Hart and your readers might enjoy:

“Now a long-time favorite, chiffon cakes were originally developed in our kitchens to combine the fluffiness of sponge cake with the richness of butter cake. In this version, a gay garnish of orange segments hints of the bright fresh flavor in the cake.”

Stephanie March reported last month that Super Bowl Sunday is the number one day for avocado consumption in the U.S. Reader Dennis Lien pointed out to us that, according to the California Avocado Commission, Cinco de Mayo-related sales account for fourteen million pounds of the green god of fruits, while Super Bowl-related sales are in the eight million pound range. However, Stephanie March points out this, from the Hass Avocado Board (which is evidently the big dog in the avocado world): “(January 4, 2007) – The Hass Avocado Board (HAB) today announced it anticipates that football fans across the country will consume an unprecedented 53.5 million pounds of Hass avocados during the Big Game on February 4. That’s enough to cover Miami’s Dolphin Stadium football field end zone to end zone more than 20.5 feet deep in Hass avocados. Big Game Day is projected to be one of the largest Hass avocado consumption days of 2007.”

So, all we can really say is that Hass avocados are certainly piled higher and deeper than mere California avocados. But we haven’t yet figured out how deep we could pile the Mexico City Plaza de Toros. We’ll try to get the answer for the May issue.

While we’re on the topic of football snacks, we might as well add that Velveeta sales during the week of the big game are thirty-two percent higher (or is that deeper?) than an average week and we got that stat from a Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs at Kraft Foods.

Melanie Kim and Layne Bittner went to South Africa last year on a very specific mission: To study the promise of reconciliation in the wake of apartheid. They were traveling as part of a team from Columbia Heights’ Church of All Nations that included four Koreans, two white Americans, a South African Indian, a Kenyan, and one African American. “Our church is focused on racial reconciliation and celebrating the multi-cultural makeup of the Twin Cities,” Bittner said. “What better people to learn from than South Africans?” The pair had their picture snapped just outside of Cape Town while taking in the scenery along the wondrous promontory at Cape Point.

I grew up in Saudi Arabia, where my parents worked for Aramco (Arabian American Oil Company). I found the article “Postcards from Saudi Arabia” [December] to be a very memorable and well-written description of life in the country based on my experiences growing up. Both my parents and I have many insights on the country from having lived there and been a part of the community up to and right after the first Gulf War. My parents started as farm kids from Minnesota, yet ended up as educators living in Saudi Arabia for twenty years, and lived through the first Gulf War. They gave me the opportunity to see the world as many have not, and I am very appreciative of the experiences I have had. I spent my formative years in Saudi Arabia (second through ninth grades), then had to return to the U.S. for boarding school due to Aramco policies, but was allowed to return during breaks. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit soldiers in the desert during the war and spend time with them over Thanksgiving and Christmas at my parents’ house in Dhahran. I’ve got great memories of the country as a child and am always amazed at the change that took place within the country and region after Saddam invaded and the U.S. landed as a military force. I love the article and it brings back many memories of a culture not many can experience.