holy cow ...

Tone of awe: oh, my god.


Parking lot of Cub Foods @ 60th & Nicollet.
Someone just told me there used to be a gas station there before the grocery.

never voted - yet

There was a fellow sitting across the table from me @ May Day a few days ago. His companion had asked where he was from, as he had an odd accent. Their discussion verged into his impending U.S. citizenship.

He is from South Africa, sort of. Born in the UK, he was an English citizen, but promptly left. Growning up and spending most of the first half of his life in South Africa, he never voted. "There was not point." he said. He never bothered to for 2 years back in the UK. He's lived here for 20 years. He can't vote here. In fact,

He's never voted.

Never.

There was a tone of amazement and eagerness in his anticipation of elections in November.

The first time I voted was in 1984. Walter Mondale & Geraldine Ferraro and John Rockefeller were on the ticket. The last time I voted was in April at the nominating convention for the Green party. I wish more American citizens would look at the opportunity to vote with the same awe.
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Food Fight: croissants

Food Fight: Trung Nam vs. May Day Cafe croissants
from City Pages:

If foods were gods and ruled over us, don't you think it would be butter that presided? Is it fair to say, then, that foods that are basically just thinly-veiled vehicles for butter are more godly than the rest? Possibly, in fact, godly period? When you're dealing with such divinity, it's kinda tough to choose between two, sorta like choosing between your mom and dad or something.

See who wins in a Croissant-Off: mom or dad.

One good way to judge a croissant might be its pillow-to-crunch ratio, its ability to simultaneously harness the butter to make the exterior of the pastry as flaky and crispy as the interior is soft as delicate. Trung Nam's got the ratio down. For a flat $1.50, you can score one of the St. Paul Vietnamese bakery's croissants in a number of flavors like coconut, blueberry, strawberry or almond. Rich and light, they're like buttery clouds.

Another good way to judge a croissant might be by how much butter seeps through the bag when you're transporting it. On these merits alone, May Day Cafe's croissant wins out. For $1.75 plus tax, May Day will deliver a pastry whose aura suggests no less than a choir of angels. The cafe's croissants are a bit smaller, darker and heavier than Trung Nam's, and also, dare we say, more buttery?

The Winner: They're a tad more expensive, but May Day's croissants honor butter and unite them with pastry in a way that is almost weep-worthy. You can almost see the purposefulness -- the precise, technical skill -- that went into making them. Yet at the same time they arenot at all fussy, with a simple, honest flavor. Bonus: The crunchy ends taste not unlike some of the best pizza crusts. Alleluia for croissants!
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Pond Hockey, pt. 2

Yes, we made it there. No, we almost didn't make it back. It was sooooo wet; being about 32 degrees, the rain was thick. Not thick as in #drops per cubic foot of air, but rather the #pounds per drop pounding on the side of one's face. The precipitation bordered between rain, snow & sleet. Once it hit the ground though, it was just wet. The boys & I attended the US Pond Hockey Championships today @ Lake Nokomis, in south Minneapolis. Not wanting to deal with cramped parking & icky weather, we took the bus. The best route stops on the other side of the block we live on; and the walk wasn't so bad on the hockey end. On the way home, however, ... ... ... Jr.Gopher#2 was just whooped. It's a really long walk for really short legs.

Strangely, the amount of ice on the sidewalks seems to be related to the general income/neighborhood. The poor people up closer to Lake Street, just north of us, don't seem to shovel their sidewalks nearly well enough. Once you head south into our part of the neighborhood, the sidewalks are nice & clear. Further south (read: increased per capita income), they become impassable. Not just a little bit of ice, but the "I haven't gotten off my Viking-cheering-potato-derriere to shovel my sidewalk because the path between the door & the SUV is just fine" kind of ice.

Route 14, south bound, heading down Bloomington Ave. towards Lake Nokomis (sort of).











Jr.Gopher#2 forgot his scarf. Suffering for one's progeny; man, my ears were cold.



















This, boys, is the great northern sport. On ice. Well, actually today on slush.



















It's too cold; Jr.Gopher#2 just isn't quite getting into the spirit of things.















Each team is required to show up with two different jerseys: light and dark. No one said it had to be unique. (The white jerseys with the green N are the now defunct NHL Minnesota North Stars.)










This is the only good shot I got of the goal. Yes, that box on the ice is the goal. It is basically a wooden box about 2 x 4 feet and 6" high with two holes in the front of it. Now that takes skill (a.k.a. luck)!






Sledge Hockey was also being played. I've never seen this before. A nice fellow showed the boys the different sticks & how the sledge works. Now these are the people I felt sorry for ... with so much water on the ice, they are already only 5" or so above it anyway. With 2" water at one end, they are going to have really wet pants at the end of the game.
The were also the only group I noticed with mixed gender and ages. There was at least one woman in the game we watched, and the age group on the ice went from 30-something to one boy about 14 or so.


The carrot at the end of the stick this afternoon was hot chocolate at May Day Cafe. My favorite hangout. The best coffee in Minneapolis, btw. Tell them I sent you; they won't give you a discount, but they will be nice to you. Well, they'll be nice anyway as long as you don't wear an "I Love Bush" t-shirt.


Jr.Gopher#1 took this photo. I returned the favor & took this one:














I'm not sure how the odd lighting happened; it was a flash picture & there wasn't anything reflecting that should have caused it ...?

The Purity of Hockey

Lake Nokomis, just south of where we live, I assume either this morning or last year. Those are 25 ice rinks (

U.S. Pond Hockey Championships:
Get excited for hockey the way nature intended! Last year it was minus 20 degrees. This year it's mixed precipitation. Only Mother Nature knows who will win the Golden Shovel!

The boys & I are going tomorrow. Who needs the Wild?

While perusing the team names, there's
the expected: Mother Pukers
the befuddeled: Angry Chickens
the amusing: Frozen Pond Scum -- Zamboni Drivers -- Frozen Assets
The prognosticatory: Runners Up

The teams had an opportunity to describe themselves. For example:

• Six oldtimers from Grimsby Ontario Canada looking forward to some good old American hospitality. Hell we might even bring some of our beer to share with you fellas.
• Somebody told us that, win or lose, everyone in the 40+ division gets a free one-year supply of Guinness. So we've got that going for us, which is nice.

There's only 6 teams in the women's division. Surprising, given how many girls'/women's teams there are these days, especially high school teams here in Minn.

I have a totally irrational fear of skating on natural ice. Seriously. Total fear of falling through. Now ... look at the photo at the top. Look at the sheer number of people. They're not afraid... The ice is probably a foot thick ... you can drive your pick up out on to Lake Calhoun to set up your shanty ... They certainly use trucks to put the rink boards up ... right? I keep telling myself that it will be okay to let the boys out on the ice tomorrow. It's not going to collapse... right? ...

I have no idea which games we're going to see: Men's, Women's or Kids. We're just going to go. I might, however, need to find the bus schedule & $1.75, because as we drove by this evening from picking up Jr.Gopher#2, the parking lot @ Lk Nokomis was still packed. The tons of snow still lying all of the city have eliminated at least 10% of the parking spots, too. I'll try to call Lawyers A & B to see if they want to bring their kids, too.

Updates & pictures if we make it. And the ice doesn't collapse.

And ... Jr.Gopher#2 was at a substitute sitter for the day ... who took him ice skating. He was pretty happy about it, although he informed me "I fell down".

#7

2009: 19 people were murdered in Minneapolis

Jan 20, 2010: the 7th homicide is reported.

Not doin' so great in Friendly Minnesota.

The Golden Kilometer

The title is actually The Golden Mile, but Russia uses metric. Martin Cruz Smith has a new Arkady Renko novel coming out in March. As with any serial author, I cross my fingers & hope that the pressure to create excellence survives the pressure to simply write another novel. The thorough enjoyment of these works is not increased with frequency. I'm #72 on the library's waiting list. Which means I'll be able to read it about 1-2 months after it comes out.

I wish I had some divine ability to have IM from the publishing gods about my favorite authors. Amazon used to do that, but doesn't anymore (or if they do, I'd appreciate a note about where the function went). I don't mind waiting a while to read something. (A statement predicated upon an assumption I'll have the time to devote to a longer, more enjoyable read which shouldn't be interrupted by data analysis or public health courses ...) However, if I do know - I can jump the line at the library.

For example, the Hennepin County Library only has 4 copies of The Incredibles (I'm #20); given that it's not even vaguely new, I'm surprised at the demand. I'm even more surprised that the library system serving the most populated county in the state has 4 copies of a popular kid's movie. All 4 of us having to stave off the 1,140,984 of the rest of them for it.
-- from 10/30

Possibility of Winter Amusement

Well, our first real snow came last night. 7" at the airport. Supposed to be more today. Jr.Gopher#1 is already asking to go sledding. The boys pulled out the sleds this past weekend.

MPR's Bob Collins is creating yet another fun little sport: the Golden Snowball. The meteorologist who most closely predicts the actual snow fall wins. Wins what? Who knows. Bragging rights.

Just another way for Midwesterners to jaw about the weather, a favorite topic after one picks sides in the "F-'em, get out of town" or "God, Western Civilization will fall" in the battle of which national sports team is whining about the State paying for a new stadium while the State is trying to figure out how to cope with a $1.2 Billion deficit. I'll leave you to guess which side Mr.Gopher & I are on ...

.

Hey You! Election Day is Tuesday!!!

While not as immediately apparent in its importance as, say, last November, you

NEED TO GO VOTE!

Election Day here in Minneapolis is critical for two big reasons:

• The City Council is trying an end-run to consolidate power by eliminating the Park & Rec Board. Vote NO.
• The City Citizens will be able to use the Ranked-Choice (or Instant Run Off) Voting for the first time.

GO VOTE!

This method of voting requires a hand-count.

The fact there are no electronic machines involved means the election results won't be in until December. However, unlike the last election to-do here, this won't involve million-dollar law suits.

VOTE!

Here are video explanations of it from MPR. It's brilliant. Voting with Post-Its. Really good visualization.

If only one person gets to win: the Mayor



If more than one person can win: City Council


YOU STILL NEED TO GO VOTE!

If you're confused about how to vote, post your question here & I'll answer it. As long as it is before 10 p.m. Monday night. My civic duty doesn't superceede getting a good night sleep on this topic.

Last night's excitement

Over near the Pillsbury silos just north of the river, some underground storage tanks are getting removed. They're burning off the remaining propane. The Jr.Gophers thought it was pretty impressive - we had a field trip last night to enjoy the sight in the dark.


Photo: Mpls Strib, Jim Gehrz

The Sounds of Silence

Since the airport shut down one of the runways for construction, the traffic to Minneapolis-St.Paul Airport over our house has more than doubled: more planes and much lower approach paths. It is occasionally extremely annoying. Like when you can't hear the person sitting next to you. Some people in our neighborhood are doing some serious NIMBY whining. "waa, you didn't ask my opinion." At least this is only temporary. Maybe they can get a feel for what it's like living in the parts of the city where no one really gives a damn about your opinon because no one there votes/makes above minimum wage.

It was noticeable Saturday morning that Air Force One had stopped by. At least the only noise we had to overcome was Jr. Gopher #1's soccer game. Our neighborhood's mail-list had this posted (we're at 36th & 16th):

Dear Mr President,
Thank you for coming to Mpls today. Those of us that live on the N/S airport
runway area of S. Mpls appreciated the quiet of the early day. You are most welcome anytime!
Mala V.
34th & 16th

Creative Capitalism

A Minneapolis mail carrier exemplifies the ideals of entrepreneurial spirit.

"... postal inspectors placed an undercover surveillance camera in Dolan's postal vehicle, and observed him smoking from a glass pipe and selling drugs along his postal route."

... he "spontaneously stated that there was methamphetamine and marijuana in the vehicle,"

... Dolan admitted smoking methamphetamine but denied selling drugs while working. He also told police he planned to quit smoking meth."

This last point is like saying "the check is in the mail". And, I guess the mail man is the one who would know.

Sure, it's amusing, but I doubt it would have made such a splash if the first sentence of the article wasn't:
" ... has charged Paul J. Dolan, 53, the brother of Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan..."

Business bonus points

Last night I was at the Varsity Theater over in Dinkytown. Behind the bar were two signs:

Bottled water: $1.50

Ear plugs: $1


Just as I'm in the midst of a series of papers on occupational hearing loss for PubH 6020 ... perhaps I'll mention it in my next paper. At least if I decide to go back there for a concert, I won't need to worry about having my own ear plugs. I'm curious to know whether or not the employees there have to wear them during shows?

With a name like Dinkytown, do you wonder ...?

These are some seriously impressive photographs: from the riots Saturday night in Dinkytown (part of Minneapolis). “We understand celebrating spring, but it should not involve starting fires and breaking things,” Rinehart said.

What a nice break from studying. You start drinking at noon, are hammered by six, and nobody is wiser at the end of the night when flash grenades go off and your friends are together in being sprayed with chemical irritants. - editorial

Rewind to Morgantown. I was a student at West Virginia University from '83-87. The big wild party event each year was in Sunnyside (read: student ghetto) after the Pitt game. It went overboard into a riot '84 when we beat Penn State for the first time in 30 years. I had to walk through the area on the way back to my dorm. Walk through being the operative word. I and several other members of the WVU Marching Band left our uniforms on for the trek. A matter of personal safety. Those students were setting cars on fire. (the party goers, not the band :)

Michigan State University in '99 had so-called "riots" two years running, once after losing the NCAA basketball tourney, and the other after winning. That constituted overturning city police cars and setting them on fire.

There's a really interesting paper (2003) which references both WVU and U of Minn (there was a riot here in '03 after the men's hockey team's championship game).

• WVU - over 1120 street fires have occurred since 1997 related to sporting events (five times the national average). In 2002, the City of Morgantown incurred over $430,300 in property damage as a result of “street” arson.

• More than $250,000 in property damage occurred at Michigan State University following the March 27-28, 1999 riots that resulted in 132 arrests, including 71 MSU students.
  

The Sounds of Silence

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/about/mpr/central_corridor/

For those of you here in the Twin Cities, or just in Minnesota, or ... hell, anyone of you:

please write to the Light Rail authority and tell them that putting a train line 12 feet from a recording studio is stupid. The met council finally, after years of haggling, has approved extending the rail line into St. Paul. This will go 12 feet from the Minnesota Public Radio station's building, which also houses American Public Media (a.k.a., MPR). I think I'd be pretty annoyed if I was a parishioner at one of the churches in question - ooops, sorry, you can't pull the hearse up to the front steps of the church any more, there seems to be a train platform there.

If nothing else, please tell them that they need to perform the assessment required by the Fed. Transport Auth, which they haven't done.

Met Council
Chair Peter Bell
e-mail: peter.bell@metc.state.mn.us
phone: 651-602-1390
mail: 390 Robert St. N.
St. Paul, MN 55101

other addresses are in the link for Mayor Coleman & Gov. Pawlenty


Thank you, for any of you who can do this. I appreciate it.

MPR's suggested text: although I know all of you are intelligent enough to write your own ... since you likely don't even live here, it's a simple cut & paste job.
"Please listen to Minnesota Public Radio's concerns regarding the Central Corridor Line and consider all options, including an alignment change, to protect this vital institution!"

Dysfunctionality, USA

I have never seen any production by Arthur Miller. The Crucible, Death of a Salesman, All My Sons, nope. Haven't even seen the movies made of of all 3 of these.

Friday I corrected this literary deficiency and went to see A View From the Bridge, courtesy of a friend's extra ticket. We managed to miss the first scene courtesy of my bad directions. Set in early 19-something Brooklyn, this is the story of an Italian-American family (uncle-aunt-niece) who take in a couple of illegal immigrant cousins (married & single brothers) from the Old Country and the ensuing drama.

If this is what Miller's work is like, I'm surprised no one has done research to determine if there's an association between watching his work and an increased suicide rate. I guess the fact I was just morose, rather than seeking oblivion from the misery and futility of life, is due to the acting quality one normally finds at the Gutherie Theater.

Perhaps it was the initial "I wandered into the set of All In The Family" feeling, but I spent the first act wondering what god-awful thing was going to happen. The blatantly obvious foreshadowing in Scene 1 of some neighborhood guy ratting out illegal workers to the INS was so blatant that perhaps it was intended to leave me wondering 'when is he going to rat out these fellows' throughout the next 90 minutes? (BTW "submarines" must be an archaic antecedent to "wet backs").

Another surprise was the realization that the initial production date was 1955. I'm subsequently left unsurprised that the House Committee of UnAmerican Activities thought he was an undesirable character. The attitudes of the main character, Eddie, were unsurprising and perfectly acceptable for the 50s. Gays weren't exactly a widely embraced sector of American society; suspicion of illegal workers marrying just for their citizenship papers persists today. But, the final confrontation with his feelings for his neice, and his method for demonstrating the unworthiness of another man's affections for her was shocking. I just can't come to grips with that having been done in 1955. I suppose if it managed to shock me in 2008, it is a credit to the playwright's ability to draw me in to the play's setting, rather than my own.

The Actor playing Eddie was the picture perfect image of a 40s blue-collar archetype. I can see where Archie Bunker came from. The woman playing the 18 year old niece was an annoying version of the all-too-often-seen character which must be advertised as 'bouncy enthusiastic dotting daughter who is required to bouncily skip around the stage at all times'. Good lord, almighty - who in their right mind wants an actress to behave like this? Have you actually seen anyone over the age of 6 walk around the house like this? Dorothy on the Yellow Brick Road ain't got nothing on this chick. If this was supposed to underscore her non-adult behavior towards her uncle, being his 'little girl', it failed and simply annoyed me. There must be other ways to convey this.

Acting aside - I find I'm generally not great at assessing the merits of actors in any meaningful way beyond 'I like it' - the framework within which the action occurs was really nice. The theater is big enough to allow a complex set to be built. This provided plenty of space without needing to have a huge footprint. The little details, especially how the secondary sets were moved in/out were nice. E.g. a group of longshoremen bring in a huge crate, open it, and voila! the desk for an office scene is left on the stage's skirt. The primary set of the family's house remained intact, while the other scenes were set around the skirts of the stage, allowing the home life of the typical dysfunctional American family to remain the center point of the story, keeping it in view the whole time.

Right after the set design, as the best part of the show was Rudolpho, the single brother who - of course - falls madly in love with the family's niece at first sight. Perhaps he was remarkable simply by dint of not being some stereotype. He flung himself into the part with the same enthusiastic un-self-consciousness that one expects from the character himself.

I have no set recommendation scale for plays, as I do for movies. So, "would I recommend it?" Yes, I would. Although it's not a 'drop everything and go see it if you can'.


Hmmm... I suppose I need a scale for theater ...

Worth the price of tickets & babysitter: go see it!
If there's an afternoon matinee ...
Well, if someone else has an extra ticket ...
You need to balance your checkbook, don't you?

Chaotic anniversary

Well, we made it to #5.

2 weddings, a trip to Greece, Green card hassle, travel just to visit relatives totally sucking up vacation time & disposable funds, moving to Minnesota, having 2 children, switching jobs once, balancing graduate school & children, and moving again. Yup. Nice quiet transition to the new phase of my life. I think this was the first time I completely failed to notice my other anniversary when it passed (a pleasant realization that it isn't much of a factor in my life any more).

Graduate school & moving into Minneapolis rather much prevented the celebration our April anniversary. So, since we conveniently have two of them, we just figured we'd celebrate in September. Saturday was the actual date. We decided to go out to a nice restaurant & movies. Since the movie we wanted only had a 9:05 showing, we called our older babysitter (hereafter referred to as #1), figuring a 16 year old is better off waiting till 11:30 p.m. than a 13 year old (hereafter referred to as #2). We scheduled her two weeks ago.

I hadn't heard from #1 by Thursday. I couldn't get her on Friday afternoon. Or Saturday morning. Or Saturday afternoon. Dinner time was rapidly approaching for the boys, which should have coincided with feeding the two demons previously acknowledged as our sons. Thankfully pasta is a reliable pacifier at the dinner table.

I tried reaching our #2, despite the late night we had planned. She wasn't answering her cell phone. Well, it's not as if she expected me to call. I called her home, to find out that she's busy. Her mom, however, said if we got desperate, she'd be willing to take the boys if we brought them to her house.

I called another girl recommended by our landlady, despite never having used her before. No answer.

I was willing to offer higher-than-normal rates due to the zero-scheduling time. "Hi, I'm willing to pay you extra if you can be here in 20 minutes," should have been a great inducement.

6:00 departure time passed. #1 is extremely punctual. At this point, I'm actually worried about her.

I call Sitter #2's mom. "Hi, Carolyn, this is Elizabeth Tobias. I'm desperate."

The boys went over to her house, where they apparently had a nice time. Despite, as Michael informed me this afternoon, being stepped on by the family dogs while he was asleep on the living room floor.

We went to an Indian restaurant with delicious food. I ate way too much. With a smile on my face the whole time. Apparently we and half of Minneapolis all showed up at the same time. Despite the very long wait (worth it), we had enough time to enjoy a leisurely meal.

This is point at which our celebration ceased to be chaotic.

Mongol was a good movie.

Hopefully anniversary #6 will be a bit less hectic. I'm not betting on it, though. It will probably be in September again, since I'll likely be getting ready for my thesis presentation in April.

Exercise does a body good?

Mpls school district discussions on making more kids walk to school ...

The report also highlights small changes. The number of bike-riding students at South High School quintupled with one action: The school installed new bike racks.

Don't visit

I realized that I invited everyone to come visit for this display of civic freedom and oppression. Don't. Apparently there's a "no fly" zone from now until the 5th over this entire corner of Minnesota. How the hell are the delegates getting in? Carpooling from Madison and Duluth?

So it begins

For all practical purposes, the Republican National Convention is underway with the first police raid of the convention.