The century-old Enstrom photo studio is located on an out-of-the-way street in the tiny Iron Range town of Bovey. An otherwise modest wooden building with a flat front and a new addition jutting out from one side, the studio’s most distinguishing feature stretches across its second story: an enormous hand-painted black and white mural of … Read more
Maybe you’ve seen the new billboards on Snelling, Grand, or Highway 94: “Banana Chips Can Cause Figure Skating,” and “Fun-Size a Cow”—ads enjoining us to rediscover or reconsider the meat snack, those salty mystery sticks most of us save for camping trips or are storing for the apocalypse. Those tough, pungent treats most of us … Read more
The Mother-Goose-does-Vegas tone of the TCF Holidazzle Parade seemed at odds with my method acting background. With more than two hundred and fifty lighted characters brought to life by a different group of volunteer actors each of the twenty-one evenings the parade marches between November 25 and December 23, a cohort of dressers, lighting technicians, … Read more
The floor of Ms. LaVie’s School of Loving Arts, inside the Golden Valley Wellness Center, is spread with cheap blankets and plush pillows. Fifteen pajama-clad students sit in this “cuddle puddle” nodding solemnly as Marcia Baczynski explains that dry humping, or “basically pretty much having sex with your clothes on” is not okay here (Rule … Read more
Mainstream is attending the Episcopal Church. Non-mainstream is practicing Zoroastrianism. Mainstream is owning a golden retriever. Non-mainstream is breeding Rhodesian ridgebacks. In the universe of non-mainstream things, it’s hard to conceive of two things more arcane than Michael Barone’s passions: pipe organs and Citroën automobiles. The host and producer of public radio’s Pipedreams, Michael Barone … Read more
The other day, we noticed one of those traffic-counting devices on the Cedar Lake bike path—the little black hose that crosses the trail and enters the silver lockbox. It tallies the number of vehicles that pass. We also noticed some kids jumping up and down on that hose, and we did nothing. This … Read more
Dan, of Edina, writes: I thought you would be interested to know they are still reading your subversive rag in St. Petersburg, Russia. This picture is of Dan and Amy Steinhagen and 8 year old Thor Sheinhagen at the Peterhof Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. Author(s) and Location: Daniel Steinhagen
Nancy Spannaus writes: I’ve attached a shot of Glory Kibbel and myself at the Matterhorn on a late September/early October trip to Zermatt, Switzerland. We waited anxiously for 3 days for a clear day and unclouded view of the Matterhorn. On the third morning, we opened our hotel room drapes to this view. Truly a … Read more
Randee Laskewitz writes: Here I am with my friend Sally Cleland, enjoying one of the last balmy days at Pelican Lake near Nisswa. MN. It was “some juicy tidbit” we were sharing. Author(s) and Location: Randee Laskewitz
Hi, Attached is a picture of my son and I reading the RAKE at the Statue of Liberty in NY during our vacation last week. Marcia and Gabe Bethke Author(s) and Location: Marcia and Gabe Bethke