In the 19th century they called this a Chautauqua—a small group of professors or other assorted eggheads traveling the country to give lectures, spread wisdom, and just generally drop science. What this means to you is, grab the kids and get ready to fill your brain all the way to the top, because the Smithsonian … Read more
Talk about enlightened self-interest. This benefit, for 11-year-old Hendrix Johnson who suffers from a rare brain disease called Rasmussen’s Encephalitis, is a treasure trove of goodies. Paul Metsa and the Butanes, among others, provide the music. But dig the raffle and the silent auction—tickets to huge upcoming concerts like Cher’s farewell tour and Joe Cocker, … Read more
Talented though he is, Dave Eggers was also the most overhyped author of 2000. For a while there you couldn’t go more than 10 minutes without hearing how the brilliant young memoirist of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was shaking up the staid world of publishing. That has toned down, thankfully, but Eggers is … Read more
Worthington, Minnesota native O’Brien is best known as one of the more insightful writers to emerge out of the Vietnam War, chronicling the ongoing cost of the conflict in books like The Things They Carried , In the Lake of the Woods , and Going After Cacciato , which won the National Book Award in … Read more
It’s fittingly ironic that Umberto Eco finds such rich soil in which to plant his postmodern mysteries back in the Middle Ages. In his fourth novel, 12th-century Italy is a backdrop for the tale of Baudolino, an Italian peasant who becomes the adopted son of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, known as Barbarossa. Mixing … Read more
It’s been 20 years since Milan Kundera first published The Unbearable Lightness of Being and became literature’s equivalent of a rock star. It was the kind of book that American college students thrive on—Eurotrash romanticism, haphazard pop-philosophizing, and lots of adulterous affairs with mysterious Women of the Warsaw Pact. If you wore black back then, … Read more
It’s not as if I wasn’t expecting it. With tall genes scattered on both sides of the family, my kids were bound to surpass my (almost) 5’3” status eventually. But still it gave me a jolt to see my daughter Sophie’s shoulder edge above mine by a good inch when she sidled up to me … Read more
I adore a good horror film. I love these flicks because within 90 minutes I have the satisfaction of seeing the heroine prevail, and the delight of watching the monster meet a grisly death. Real life, sadly, is not like this. Heroes don’t win all the time, and after they are done tormenting you, monsters … Read more
According to African-American comedienne Moms Mabley, “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” Sounds like Moms could have been talking about conditions leading up to this past August melee in north Minneapolis. Once again, primarily white cops, who mostly live outside Minneapolis, confronted primarily black people … Read more
When reading your article on Ken Pentel, the Green Party candidate for governor [“It Ain’t Easy Being Green,” September], I felt a deep sense of envy and awe for Minnesotans. Out here in California, we don’t have public policies which encourage desperately needed third parties to participate in government. Third-party candidates in California don’t have … Read more