It's A Damn Fine Day To Be Inside

First off all, it’s all already a blur, but were those really the Suburbs I saw playing “Rattle My Bones” out there on the field at the Dome before the game? I like that idea. I like that idea a lot. I also very much like the idea of the Twins taking an early lead … Read more

And On The First Day…

Pop-ups, Nick Punto, Barry Zito’s curveball, the wondrous Johan Santana, and a measure of redemption for Rondell White. 55,542 screaming fans. The tying run on third base with two outs in the eighth and the AL batting champ at the plate. And the guy who killed the Twins was a player that pretty much everybody … Read more

Faith Of Our Fathers

–Michael Langenstein, “Play Ball” Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief. –Mark, 9.24 Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? –Isaiah, 53.1 And ye shall gird yourself for battle and go forth against that city where the wind blows without rest, and against the unbelievers for whom … Read more

You Call That A World?

I’ve got the world on a string. I’ve got the whole world in my hands. I’m on top of the world. I’ve got all the time in the world. Wonderful world. World of wonders. World of the future. Mattress World. Disney World. Sea World. Auto World. Tractor World. Reptile World. Sex World. Robot World. Sound … Read more

Cool Water

I could be mistaken –I could always be mistaken, I often am– but this seemed to be the scenario: I was asking for a glass of water. I was begging for a glass of water. I was so fucking thirsty that I could barely swallow. My tongue was all fat and fuzzy. It felt like … Read more

Mercy, Mercy

I fell asleep briefly and was startled awake at three a.m. Upon getting up and muddling about I was additionally startled to discover that there were apparently no pens to be had anywhere in the world. There was no ink. There were no pencils. There was no way for me to write anything down, to … Read more

I Believe It's Raining All Over The World

We are here and now. Further than that all human knowledge is moonshine. —H.L. Mencken I can at best report only from my own wilderness. The important thing is that each man possess such a wilderness and that he consider what marvels are to be observed there. —Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey ‘Whole thing works … Read more

Children Of The Damned

I was trying to remember where I’d seen the guy before, and it was driving me crazy. I had an image in my head, but I couldn’t quite find the proper context. Was he the sullen waiter with the black eye who’d recently served me at that awful new Italian restaurant in St. Louis Park? … Read more

Monday

There are such beautiful stories tucked away in even the quietest, most settled lives. Maybe people today don’t have the kind of access to memory that folks seemed to have in previous generations. The whiz-bangery of this world crowds out the wonder, and makes it hard to have, or recognize, singular experiences for what they … Read more