On a warm Friday evening, most of the lights were out at the Coffman Union bookstore on the U of M campus. In the back, though (the place is the size of a department store), a hundred chairs were set up and people milled about, greeting one another and conversing in English, Arabic, and Somali. … Read more
The call came on a cloudless weekday afternoon. “Hey, it’s Luther, I’m going to take off early and fire up the parabolic.” Needless to say, I rushed right over. “Fire” is not exactly the right word in this instance, as the only flame involved in the parabolic’s operation is more than ninety-one million miles from … Read more
When Bruce Wry was a marine stationed in Vietnam, he spent some time studying the local language. He never would have guessed that, forty years later, the Vietnamese he learned during the war would come in handy for selling cheese at the Minneapolis Farmers’ Market. “It’s nice. When the Vietnamese come here I can talk … Read more
On a Minneapolis fall morning, arriving buses plant casual-Friday-dressed workers along Hennepin Avenue. At most stops, jean-jacketed and khakied women and polo-shirted men stream out, but the passengers who disembark at 730 Hennepin are a different variety. They run the gamut of fashion, from dress shirts and polished shoes to hijabs to basketball jerseys to … Read more
Michael McGillis is at the Franconia Sculpture Park, standing in a pile of cut-and-scattered wood. He’s wearing shorts, heavy work boots, and a straw hat, and is looking sweaty and overwhelmed. His work in progress, Paper Cut, isn’t really turning out the way he’d planned. He began by digging a curving trench; in his mind’s … Read more
Lisa LaVerdiere is clearly tired of being asked the question: “How do you remember all their names?” “I tell people, ‘Didn’t you go to high school? Don’t you know two hundred people?’” she asks incredulously. The 225 or so animals that reside at Home for Life in Star Prairie, Wisconsin, may look interchangeable to most … Read more
As a born-and-bred St. Paul West Sider who lived for two years just a couple of blocks from Jerabek’s New Bohemian Cafe, I have to correct what—to a born-and-bred West Sider, no matter where he lives now—is a big, honking error [Rake Appeal, August]. The cafe (which is everything you write it up to be, … Read more
I could hardly believe what I was reading when I found the article about Hunky Dory [Rakish Angle, August]. I grew up on that resort. My mother Elna was a cook there from about 1942 to 1950. My brother and I have many fond memories of everything you wrote about. Al Sr. and Lily were … Read more
A friend and I saw your article about Lois Mansberger in The Rake [“Tomb of the Unknown Domestic,” June]. It struck us both to the core. As we talked about Lois more and more, we decided we needed to make a pilgrimage to her grave. We invited two other women friends we knew would want … Read more
**Note: See the July 20th NYTimes Magazine cover excerpt from Carr’s forthcoming book, The Night of the Gun. Carr discusses the book August 14th at Magers and Quinn Booksellers and August 18th at Common Good Books.** David Carr is slouched against the sweaty door of a cab whose shock absorbers long ago lost the battle … Read more