Some genius has scrawled “FUCK THIS MAILBOX” real big in marker on a blue box in front of the Northrop Auditorium. Now I guess this is supposed to be funny, but I will admit it angers me. They’ve got electronic eyes all over the place like a science fiction movie, but I can’t imagine … Continue reading Sign of the Times
Positively Fourth Street Revisited
Back in 1959 there was this improbable Jewish kid from Hibbing who rolled into town on a Greyhound bus. He flopped for a short while with a cousin at a University Avenue frat house before trading his electric guitar for a double-O Martin and renting a room above Gray’s drugstore. From Chronicles: “Above Gray’s, … Continue reading Positively Fourth Street Revisited
Bulls on Parade
As I’m driving to work, I listen to MPR’s Carrie Miller interview people about taking guns away from police and having social workers intervene in domestic abuse situations. I have to say I’m dubious because I’m staring at a melted traffic light. We don’t seem to be getting much for the billion dollars a … Continue reading Bulls on Parade
Sons of Anarchy
I hardly recognize my city . . . because this isn’t my city. We have a lot of guests and I think we’ll all be very happy to see them leave. Many are well-meaning, supplying aid and food donations. Some are here to protest and mourn. While others came here to destroy or to agitate. … Continue reading Sons of Anarchy
Minnesota Burning–Part 2
There’s always peace and graffiti down by the river. I did a bit of fishing this morning to refresh my mind from all the terrible events. I wrote first, so I didn’t get out to the water in time for any kind of bite. But I got in some great fly casting and took some … Continue reading Minnesota Burning–Part 2
Minnesota Burning–Part 1
Back in March, when I learned about the pandemic's potential severity, I could not sleep. Something was coming. Something I could not control or understand. I panicked. That morning, I instructed my wife to shop. I told her to stock up on canned goods. I explained that no one was going to risk their … Continue reading Minnesota Burning–Part 1
Sons of Liberty
They finally gave us washable cloth masks at work. When I brought one home, my wife commented that it looked like a young girl’s panties. That thought had definitely not occurred to me. Soft, small, white and, yes, cottony. That is, after Emily said it, what they looked like. I couldn’t get … Continue reading Sons of Liberty
Redcoats
The value of a human life is not diminished because there are seven and a half billion of us. Can you remember that scene in Schindler’s List when the little girl in the red coat ambles through the black-and-white rubble of a devastated city? She is that anonymous statistic bestowed with color, that rare … Continue reading Redcoats
Inside the Pig Palace—Smithfield Remembered
Author's note: It's been strange and horrifying to see my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota featured in so many news stories about the Coronavirus pandemic. The following narrative describes my experience working at the now-shuttered Smithfield meatpacking plant. The facility formally known as John Morrell's has been in operation since 1911 and was acquired … Continue reading Inside the Pig Palace—Smithfield Remembered
After the Plague
There were boyhood summers on the Dakota plains, when my mother would douse me with DEET and insist, to my acrimonious protest, that I wear long sleeves even if the temperature was a sultry 87. Sometimes, if the mosquitoes were swarming over the porch in the evening, she would forbid me from venturing outside … Continue reading After the Plague
