From the Mouths of Babes [Editor’s Note: my blog posts the past week have more been more intermittent — and spiced with NY anecdotes — because I just returned from there. Memo to self: put away the sharp elbows and aggressive driving (adaptive in NY, but out-of-place in the more congenial, laid-back Midwest.] Compiling an exhaustive list...Read More
“Banking” Warm Weather With the days perceptibly shortening and the weather cooling, humans and animals alike are busy storing up for winter. So, squirrels turn their attention to gathering acorns and other food. What do people store? Time outside. Practically every Minnesotan I know who’s free today is doing something outside, enjoying the beautiful (and...Read More
Checkout Line Charity What kind of monster would answer the question — posed publicly at a checkout line in front of (many) other customers– “would you like to donate your change to starving orphans (or some such)?” with a callous “No, thanks.” Me. I can think of (at least) three reasons why. One. It’s manipulative (see above),...Read More
What does $14 buy you in Manhattan? A hot dog ($8) and Coke ($6) at Yankee Stadium. Or . . . round-trip bus fare to Philadelphia on either the Megabus or Bolt bus lines (I took the former). Not only was the (double-decker) bus clean, modern, and on-time — it had free Wi-Fi, too!Read More
[I’ll take] “Awkward Acronyms for $100” Want proof that you’re in an urban, eastern seaboard state? (I’m in Philadelphia at the moment visiting relatives). The transportation system has a name that sounds like it’s a new kind of septic system, or maybe the plural form. In this case, that would be “SEPTA,” short for Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Somehow,...Read More
Re-Think NYC Minneapolis There’s a billboard campaign in Manhattan at the moment showing how the island would look if Central Park were developed, and the rest of the city . . . wasn’t. It’s a brilliant way of showing the amount of space we devote to each use. How would Minneapolis look rendered in such a...Read More
