Category: Letter

Adam Minter’s piece on Supervalu was very interesting and dramatic, and it got me talking with my broker. There doesn’t really seem to be a way out of this paradox: If investors get more information, they sell in a panic. If they don’t get the information they want, they still sell in a panic. It’s as if the whole context of a panicky marketplace is beyond the control of any particular company in any particular set of circumstances. You certainly cannot blame Supervalu for trying to control the response of the marketplace. From their point of view, it’s the horns of a terrible dilemma. It would be unethical, and so much worse in the long run, to hide any accounting error like this. On the other hand, why make it seem like a big deal by giving every sordid little detail to a public that’s already nerve-jangled about it? There is no such thing as information free of interpretation. The myth of transparency is that the marketplace will respond rationally, given all the information. But there is nothing obviously true or false about, say, an earnings statement. It means nothing until someone interprets the information. Or, to be more accurate, until the marketplace interprets the information. And in the current climate, that almost always means sell. Sell as fast as you can!
Doug Whalen, River Falls

Tom Bartel’s “Forgiving Rick Kahn” contains the typical, overused liberal excuse that nobody on the Democrat side of the house is responsible for the voters choosing Norm Coleman. Don’t forget, this is the same state electorate that chose Sen. “Do Nothing” Dayton (or did he change his name to Marshall Fields as well?) in 2000 to bookend Wellstone. Perhaps the voters in this northern bastion finally understand that being a Democrat means you drag your feet and spend all of your time with society’s fringe elements. Senator-elect Coleman and Governor-elect Pawlenty aren’t extremists. They played right down the middle with their political approach and it seemed to find a home with voters — particularly with those outside of the Twin Cities. It’s time to swim in the mainstream, Mr. Bartel. Let us keep the communities and country safe. I’m sure Mr. Kahn could even appreciate that from his Minnetonka home.

T.J. Chochrek
Edina

I think Tom Bartel (Forgiving Rick Kahn) is right-on in his comments surrounding the DFL debacle and downfall in this election. For quite a while now I’ve been convinced that no matter how on-track, pertinent or good-willed the Democrats or Greens and their respective platforms are – such will never be able to stand against the slick, merciless, inexorable, stop-at-nothing Republican Machine.

When Bill Clinton can be impeached for a “who cares?” sex-scandal but Americans continue to boost George W. and Cheney on our shoulders like prize quarterbacks despite the encyclopedia of blatant corruption, greed, underhandedness and warmongering that continues to shake our economy and world – it’s obvious that it’s all about marketing.

And while the Repubs will forever remain ruthless and devious, the Demos/Greens likely by nature never will be. So unless the Demos/Greens can find some means of convincing Americans of the worthiness of their message even half as effectively as Repubs can brainwash Joe Average onto their wagon, they don’t stand a chance.

Tara Jenson
Minneapolis

Tom Bartel forgot to mention the crowd (Forgiving Rick Kahn)– which started the first unfortunate move to create a partisan politcal event by booing the Republicans and clapping for the Democrats. That helped set up the Republicans to take the high road – in mourning, they sympathized; the Democrats threw tomatoes. And that behavior can be traced back to bitterness from the highly negative campaign Coleman chose to run against Wellstone.

Noreen Aldern Groethe
Minneapolis

I live a long, long way away, in Sydney, Australia, but follow as much of US politics as I can. I hardly had heard of Paul Wellstone until his tragedy during the mid-term elections.

The point is that reading Hans Eisenbeis’ ‘take’ (St. Paul: All Apologies) on Wellstone made me identify with not only the ‘universal parish politician’ (contradiction in terms as it may be) but with the strivings and happlessness of ‘John Citoyen’.

A succinct piece. An empathetic portrayal of politician and innocent bystander.

Sam AJ Pillay
Sydney, Australia

I want to give the Rake some enthusiastic and positive feedback on your columnists -Kruse, Collins and Ouellette. I imagine they each elicit some downright combustible flame-mail from some of the more touchy element out there, but I’ve much appreciated the topics these columnists have tackled and perspectives they’ve shared.

Even if my perspective is sometimes different, usually much thought and discussion is generated in my head and often between myself and friends. And new thoughts and discussion are always good because, to echo Jeannine Ouellette’s assertions in her most recent column, when’s the last time you or I had any new thoughts knocking around in our noggins – let alone any that really make a difference?

So kudos to them!!

Tara Jenson
Minneapolis

Thanks for the fine “Happy Anniversary” item last month [Good Intentions, September]. What an elegant expression of the mix of concern, anger, and hurt I live with as a result of the attacks, and the inadequacy, to put it mildly, of most of the public debate and actions that have followed. The juxtaposition of the attacks’ anniversary with that of the megamall is painfully perfect. Can we buy ourselves out of pain and fear, or be bought off of our concern about Bush, Cheney, et al.’s political and economic malfeasance? We’ll see.

—Jo Devlin
Minneapolis

Despite your accusation [“The Puppetmaster at Rest,” October], I planned to vote for Wellstone from the get-go, and I never saw one of Hillsman’s famous ads. And I sure as hell didn’t vote for Jesse (The Numbskull) Ventura, a man more interested in holding asinine grudges than in actual governance. Paul Wellstone’s success in 1990 was due to two things: His incredible skills at grass-roots organizing (he’s trying to lead the Democratic Party away from the expensive TV ad campaigns that comprise the meal tickets of people like Hillsman, and back toward old-style pound-the-pavement campaigns) and the monumental last-minute screwup of Wellstone’s 1990 Republican foe, Rudy Boschwitz. As for Jesse Ventura, he was on his best behavior throughout the 1998 campaign, actually managing to sound semi-intelligent, and even fooling a few lefties who didn’t realize his utter antipathy towards spending tax monies on government projects (unless these government projects were his own pet ones, such as LRT). His name recognition as a Minnesota-born major wrestling star brought a number of new voters into the ranks, and that was enough, in a three-way race, to take home the win. However, Ventura’s popularity didn’t last, which is why he’s not running for a second term. And as for why Bill Hillsman is finding it hard to get work nowadays: When one realizes that he’s gone from working for a Democrat who believes in using government to make things better (Wellstone), to a loose-cannon closet-Republican who hates government and governance (Ventura), to a man who told both Outside and In These Times magazines that he wanted Bush to win in 2000 (Nader), you’ve got to wonder about not only his self-proclaimed ethics, but also his loyalty. One suspects he’s not so much the idealist he claims to be. He is just another gun for hire.

—Tamara Baker
St. Paul

Stephanie March asks why New York is called “the Big Apple” [Down the Hatch, October] and notes that “one theory is that the nickname was coined by jazz greats like Charlie Parker.” While this is a popular theory, it’s been disproven. I’m attaching a research note by Yale librarian Fred Shapiro:

“The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang documents the usage of Big Apple by sportswriter John J. FitzGerald starting in 1921 to refer to the New York horse racing circuit. Since the dictionary was published, a 1924 column by FitzGerald has been discovered, in which FitzGerald pretty clearly makes the transition from talking about the horse-racing circuit to using Big Apple to mean New York City. The Oxford English Dictionary records a 1928 glossary of movie terms in the New York Times in which one of the entries reads ‘The Big Apple—New York City.’ Many people assert that Big Apple originated in a jazz context, but the above evidence clearly disproves this theory.”

While I’m at it, I note that March suggests that the term “upper crust” came from an alleged Depression-era assumption that only rich families would make apple pie with an upper as well as a lower crust. Unfortunately for these theory, the term “upper crust” in this sense can be traced back at least to 1836 and Thomas Haliburton’s Canadian comic novel The Clockmaker (and from context, there seems to have already been well known enough to need no explanation). That’s a good century or so before the Depression by my reckoning. The Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, which supplied the Haliburton citation, says that “the upper crust was at one time the part of the loaf placed before the most honored guests.” Nothing to do with apples, it appears.

—Dennis Lien
Minneapolis

I relocated to these barren wastes in April ’01, and spent my first year searching—mostly in vain—for anything remotely stimulating, or even interesting. Imagine my delight when, on my first anniversary, I stumbled across your magazine. (And imagine my disappointment when the very next issue featured that lame “Top 50” list [“Our Brightest Stars,” June]. Almost all of your “also-rans” were far more worthy.) I now look forward eagerly to each issue as my respite from this Minnesota bland. Your back page columnists—Kruse, Collins, and Ouellette—are particularly erudite and thought-provoking. It is a great consolation to know that, even though God may have forsaken this land [Good Intentions, October], good, intelligent writing has not.

—Eugene Dillenburg
St. Paul