–Illustration by James Dankert Sunday night –the worst handful of hours in the week– finds me a complete wreck, hoarse, hungover, and ruined by a weekend of stale air and even worse baseball. It doesn’t help matters that my attic apartment is so damn hot that I’ve spent the entire evening sprawled on the floor … Read more
There’s an interesting article on product placement in this week’s Business Week (via Romenesko, naturally). But not product placement like you know and love it–we’re talking product placement in the edit space of magazines. Toyota Corporation apparently approached Hearst, Conde Nast, and Meredith and asked executives to consider “product integration” in their pages. The thing … Read more
I think a lot of people have been saying this lately: the moderates among us Christians have to step up and make our views preeminent over those radically conservative Christians who would take over, and in some cases have tken over, our government. We’ve received some unexpected praise here for our cover story this month–primarily … Read more
The devilish man himself Damn, until reminded a little while ago, I forgot today was Bloom’s Day. Have a fried kidney, walk around town, try to sell some ads, wander into an Irish pub, and think of Leopold Bloom, Stephen Daedalus and James Joyce and all the good books you could have read if you … Read more
To serve and protect Not that anyone who has an ounce of time or a brain cell to spare is reading Katherine Kersten’s column, but in case you’ve already been to the dentist as much as you can afford because listening to the high pitched squeal of your dentist’s drill is more pleasurable than reading … Read more
–Senior Citizen Center. Livingston, Montana Ella was on the front porch, blowing into an empty bottle with a straw, shivering a fly that was trapped there at the bottom. The fly was woozy and slick with cola, and was rolling and tumbling in the little bottle hurricane that Ella was producing with her straw. The … Read more
A few things: That ugly business in the first inning has happened way too many times now to be dismissed as a mere fluke, but how the hell do you explain it? Beats the shit out of me. You know how many times the Twins have scored four or fewer runs now this year? I … Read more
We are tearing through the cabbage patch today, putting together the next issue,but we thought you might be interested in this over at MnSpeak, where we appreciate the frank talk about our humble little magazine, and we’d join in the fun, but too much too much too much. Let me just say that the thread … Read more
It’s really that simple. One guy should not ever have the opportunity to hit three home runs off one pitcher in the same game. It’s just wrong, and stupid, particularly in a close game. I don’t care who the hitter is, or who’s on the mound. And never mind that Radke was allowed to hit … Read more
I’m not kidding you, for about twenty seconds I thought I was looking at a giant snail, and I mean a really giant snail, just the soft, slimy part without the shell, maybe six feet tall and walking upright –or creeping– like a man. I saw the thing come slowly through the hedgerow at the … Read more