Yesterday afternoon I went to a farewell gathering for Lois Swenson, a lady I hardly knew, but who I knew well through numerous intersecting ‘circles’ of relationships with others. Lois was unknown to me, but well known through others…. That hundreds of people would pack a suburban church on a pleasant Sunday afternoon was a […]
When I awoke last Friday morning, and saw the first news of the carnage at the movie theatre in Aurora CO, the first thing that came to mind was the horror at Columbine High School in 1999. It became the basis for my post one week ago today. As I write media is beginning to […]
The below commentary, by myself, appears in today’s Woodbury Bulletin. It is in response to a front page article and editorial in last weeks Bulletin: here and here. I know nothing about the person who is calling the meeting, nor anything about what her motivation might be, nor who will come on July 31st (I […]
UPDATE Sep 12, 2012: Here’s an interesting hour with samples of Le Vent du Nord music and discussion of Franco-Fete on Bonjour Minnesota radio program Sep 11, 2012. CONTACT INFORMATION: Check in occasionally. Scroll to end of this post. Francophone, Francophile, French-Canadian ancestry…or know someone who is, or is interested? Consider passing this post along, […]
UPDATE July 23, 5:15 p.m.: I went to Dark Night Rises this afternoon at the Woodbury Theatre, where it is showing on three screens, thirteen times today. I admit that had the tragedy not occurred, I probably would not have gone to the film. But it did, and I did. Of course, everybody is entitled […]
“In one form or other we [Garrison Keillor and I] both talked about our gratitude for an America ideal now grievously threatened, both [of us] having found a forum not only for whatever message or minstrel entertainment [we] had to offer but now aware of the very real threat that those rites of passage may […]
UPDATE: Followup posts here and here. Out and about this afternoon I noticed that Dark Knight Rises is playing at our local Woodbury Theatre, and the parking lot was packed. What these two facts might mean, I don’t know. The front page of the Variety section of this mornings Minneapolis Star Tribune gave the film […]
Last evening I was with what seemed to be about 200 or so others who had gathered to honor Sami Rasouli at the Crescent Moon Banquet Hall in northeast Minneapolis. Sami: native of Najaf, Iraq; thence Minneapolis resident and restaurateur and U.S. citizen; thence back to Najaf to work at restoring destroyed relationships between the […]
I am reading less and less newsprint, including the e-mail types of news which compile the news of the day from one particular point of view. Usually these days I tend to find myself skipping over the ‘same old, same old’ spin (the word ‘pundit’ comes to mind), and paying more attention to letters to […]
I’m of the age where attendance at memorials and funerals are a frequent activity, while marriages and christenings are uncommon. We have quite a passel of grandchildren, so maybe this will change in a few years, but for now, that’s the routine. Yesterday, it was the memorial for Dottie Garwick at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist […]