The Rake Magazine

Once a year the Prospect Park neighborhood opens the doors of the Witch’s Hat Tower. This 1912 landmark is visible from many vantage points in the Twin Cities owing to the fact that it sits atop one of the highest points within city limits. It was built because the homes perched in the immediate vicinity … Read more

At the south end of Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport, adjacent to an east-west runway, there is a single row of parking spaces off Post Road. This provides a vantage point to watch planes landing and taking off. If the weather is nice, a few planespotters congregate here among the loitering limo drivers and couriers who … Read more

At least 10,000 whitetail deer will give their lives this year to auto-animal conflict, converting Minnesota’s roads into a 130,000-mile dinner table for a growing population of crows. Depending on when you count, Minnesota’s whitetail population rises to about 1.1 million (about 20 percent of the state’s human inhabitants) before the fall hunt. At a … Read more

It’s been a year and a half since the passing of Mahlon Nickence, the best-known voice of WOJB-FM 88.9 in Reserve, WI. Since then, former program manager Dave Kellar has resumed hosting the Saturday honky-tonk show that brought Mahlon his notoriety. On Saturday nights, the station’s switchboard still lights up an hour before the show … Read more

I hadn’t smoked pot in more than a year, but why not? I’d just packed up and dragged everything I own 1,700 miles from Minneapolis to Seattle. Quite a daring move. I was feeling like Lewis and Clark in one, Amelia Earhart, a pirate even. A little marijuana? Peee-shaw. I huffed a huge drag. Unfortunately … Read more

There are days when Morrill Hall, the main administrative building at the U of M, seems like a beehive of activity, and other days, usually in the summer, when it seems like a morgue. On the day President Mark Yudof announced he would be leaving for Texas, it was both: A solemn mood hung over … Read more

You love them or you hate them. But would you lose your career over them, the way Kris Hasskamp did? The Rake revisits the tetchy subject of personal watercraft, just as our lightheaded governor pledges to drive one all the way to New Orleans. Kris Hasskamp began her difficult crusade to regulate jet skiers five … Read more

Two watch-at-night thrillers that rely mainly on mood and atmosphere for their impact, each very pleasurable in its own way. Be warned: Neither is very big on the element of surprise or particularly strong in plotting. Mothman is of the MTV generation in its abrupt, disconcerting imagery; it’s a glossy B-movie that charms by its … Read more