Category: Letter

I was raised on a small family farm in central North Dakota but have been a resident of Minnesota since I married in 1991. Since then I’ve lived in cities and towns varying in population, and I have never been able to understand one thing many Minnesotans seem to have in common. This one thing is the apparent need to look down their noses and belittle North Dakota and her inhabitants. Why? What has North Dakota done to merit such regard from Minnesota? Yes it is a sparsely populated state. Yes it is cold and windy and has mosquitoes. Yes the economy needs a boost. Why do you feel the need to publish something that would be more injurious to North Dakota’s image? Does The Rake feel threatened in some way that it sees fit to advertise North Dakota’s difficulties? Shame on you for sneering at the state’s attempts to boost its economy, and for trivializing its successes. I find articles such as yours personally insulting as well. It insults the intelligence, hard work, values, and choices of my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. I couldn’t imagine a better way to have grown up, and I am fiercely proud of my North Dakota heritage. One thing that North Dakota and Minnesota actually do have in common is that The Rake is a tool used to spread manure.

Brenda Reister
Waconia

“In the Altogether” by Colin Covert [cover story, February] contained an unfortunate claim that Covert had once “picked up a wretched case of psoriasis from the slimy sauna in the Detroit YMCA.” In fact, psoriasis is not contagious. Researchers posit that a combination of genetic and environmental factors cause psoriasis to occur in an individual. Stress or overexposure to the sun are examples of what may lead to the outbreak of psoriasis in someone with a genetic predisposition. Psoriasis is not “picked up” in saunas or from anywhere or anyone else.

Clinton Dietrich
Minneapolis

We were expecting a bag-full of complaints for our slightly racy cover last month, but none arrived. Several readers, like Dave and Dave, did ask which of our staff members posed for the nudey photos, and we’re not telling. Thanks, too, to Dan, Joan and a couple others (see letters above) for pointing out that psoriasis is not, in fact, contagious.

Send along your own rakish reflections to: letters@rakemag.com. But please remember: We assume submissions are intended for publication, and we cannot return materials sent by mail. (Don’t send valuable originals!) Letters may also be edited for length and clarity.

Melanie and Patrick of NE Minneapolis write: This picture is from our fantastic honeymoon through Scotland & England. Here we were enjoying the history & views of Rosslyn Chapel, which everyone knows by now is featured in The DaVinci Code. The chapel is ornate and
entirely made of stone; and it’s location on the hillside suggests there could be something buried below it. Sadly Tom & Ron were not there while we were visiting, but they along with a Hollywood size film crew had invaded this tiny town of Midlothian just outside of Edinburgh only a couple weeks earlier.

Nate Maddux and Mary Schwarz (Minneapolis) introduced the locals of Ronda, one of Spain’s southern “pueblos blancos”, to The Rake over a glass of sherry and some tapas…seen here perched above the town’s old arabic bridge spanning the 300 foot-deep Tajo Gorge.

The Andalusian town, about an hour north of the Mediterranean, was one of the last to fall during the Reconquista. It was taken from the muslims in 1485 AD, shortly before the king and queen expelled everyone but the Christians (and in doing so, much of the intellectual capital) from the peninsula.

“Ronda was the inspiration for Hemingway’s violent tenth chapter in ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’…the views from the cliff walls are pretty inspirational for something like that. Dizzying. ”

Paula and George Lopuch, of downtown Minneapolis, take Red-Handed to a whole new level with three different trips and three different issues of The Rake.

Africa: Our trip included a one-week safari in Kenya, where we held The Rake up exactly over the equator, much to the amusement of the locals.

Mexico: San Miguel de Allende, a most beautiful and historic arts colony in the Central Highlands of Mexico, is four hours’ north of Mexico City. This colonial city was founded in 1542, and the central part of town (El Centro) has been preserved as a national monument, no traffic lights, no neon signs, no fast foods, cobblestones, with a magnificent gothic church in the center (see behind my shoulder). Just wish we could have a copy of The Rake sent to us for the four months we’re away each winter.

Bali: Had a massage almost every day—at ten dollars for ninety minutes, how could one resist? Got in some temple-viewing as well; there are temples and shrines everywhere.

Jennifer Vogel’s piece on Eric Enstrom’s Grace photograph [“That Old-Time Religion,” December] provides thoughtful analysis of times when religion was “rooted in humility.” However, it neglects to note this image which captures Bovey, Minnesota’s “Christian background” is the official photograph for the state of Minnesota. I learned this a few years back when I (at the time a lapsed Unitarian) and my Jewish friend encountered the painted version of Grace hanging on the walls of the Minnesota secretary of state’s office. As an art historian and activist I find this situation choice of art fascinating. On the one hand, the image is perfect for Minnesota. The vast majority of elected officials are white, Christian men. True, many aren’t in financial straits, but still. Political discourse—be it about reproductive rights, gay marriage, or relicensing nuclear power plants—is aimed at a Christian audience. For example, during the June 30, 2005, Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s open house for relicensing the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant so it can operate 30 years beyond its current license, members of the public were told employees at the plant volunteered at schools and churches: not mosques and synagogues. So on a political level the image does seem to suit Minnesota. But then one thinks about all of the Minnesotans who aren’t white or Christian. It would be nice, especially for Minnesota’s children, to have a different state photo—maybe one that celebrates Minnesota’s diversity.

The January 2006 article “Seven Weeks on the Lean Streets” struck a chord when it pointed out the difference in availability of public facilities during one young man’s trek through the Twin Cities. I often hike through different neighborhoods; I, too, have long noticed the lack of public niceties in poor neighborhoods and the wealth of resources where wealthy people live. One building looks to be a really blatant example of this. The Loring Nicollet Community Center, located on the near south side of Minneapolis, posts it right on their front door: “Sorry—No Soliciting. No Public Restrooms. No Public Telephone. No Bicycles.” They might as well save a little money on the printing and just say: “Community Center—Keep Out.” Not surprisingly, even though I pass there on a regular basis, I’ve never seen anybody enter or leave that building.

In the description of the Grace photo, The Rake refers to one of the items in the simple photo as a “book” without further explanation. I assume most of your readers assumed that this book is a Bible. But as I was told by a longtime Bovey resident and neighbor of the photographer that the book is actually a dictionary. On the vote to establish Grace as the state photograph, an object status it would share with the pink and white lady’s slipper, the blueberry muffin, the monarch butterfly, etc., one of my colleagues was voting no because he considered that the theme was too religious and violated separation of church and state. I tried to argue that since the book was a dictionary the photo represented an endorsement of literacy, which he should support. He voted no; the bill passed and most people still think it’s a Bible. The Rake missed a wonderful chance to set them straight.

The cover of the January 2006 issue of The Rake asks, “ ‘The Sanctity of Marriage’ What are you doing to corrupt it?” In our opinion, the religious right has already corrupted marriage by discriminating against homosexuals, even for civil marriage (a violation of separation of church and state). Though we have been together for ten years, we will not get married until our gay and lesbian friends also have that right. Fortunately, as atheists, we are not compelled to draw our ethics from a “holy” book written by people who thought the Earth was flat and the center of the universe.