After eight years of "un-American" this and "unpatriotic" that, local conservative blog Minnesota Democrats Exposed pulled a new arrow from the quiver last week, accusing St. Louis Park native Al Franken of being "un-Minnesotan."
Franken earned the rebuke after he mocked a conservative undergraduate student during a flesh-pressing session at Carlton College in Northfield. The young Republican took his ordeal to Strib gossip columnist C.J., whose account of the incident was linked on Drudge Report.
We here at City Pages believe it's time for an offical inquiry into just where this "Mr. Franken" actually resides. When the state Legislature reconvenes in February, it should immediately call him before the House Committee on Un-Minnesotan Activities and ask, "Are you now, or have you ever been a New Yorker?" —Jeff Severns Guntzel
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Alec Soth stays sane by staying put
If Beverly Hills has a Main Street, it's Rodeo Drive—three blocks of palm trees and designer boutiques with names like Armani, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton. Impossibly expensive cars—Ferraris, Rolls-Royces, Lamborghinis—cruise down the strip. Paparazzi stalk red carpets and limousines.
From the balcony of a brand new Chanel Boutique one evening this past December, Minneapolis photographer Alec Soth, an invited guest at the store's glamorous opening party, surveys this scene, clad in a black blazer and black slacks he bought with the help of an former intern—"a real fashionable dude."
Read the rest here.
From the balcony of a brand new Chanel Boutique one evening this past December, Minneapolis photographer Alec Soth, an invited guest at the store's glamorous opening party, surveys this scene, clad in a black blazer and black slacks he bought with the help of an former intern—"a real fashionable dude."
Read the rest here.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
In defense of Rollback Smiley
The folks at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis took a controversial step in the January edition of their newspaper, fedgazette: They said something nice about Wal-Mart.
The hometown Fed elbowed its way into the shouting match over the notoriously imperial retailer this month when it published the results of an 89-county survey in Minnesota's Ninth District.
"Wal-Mart is widely believed to destroy local firms and jobs and to have a damaging effect on wages," the report noted. "But fedgazette findings suggest the opposite: firm growth, employment and total earnings were somewhat stronger in Wal-Mart counties and, in some cases, even in the retail sector."
Nationally, however, the average Wal-Mart worker makes less than $14,000 a year and requires $2,000 annually in public subsidies for school lunches, health care, and housing. And that's nothing to smile about.
The hometown Fed elbowed its way into the shouting match over the notoriously imperial retailer this month when it published the results of an 89-county survey in Minnesota's Ninth District.
"Wal-Mart is widely believed to destroy local firms and jobs and to have a damaging effect on wages," the report noted. "But fedgazette findings suggest the opposite: firm growth, employment and total earnings were somewhat stronger in Wal-Mart counties and, in some cases, even in the retail sector."
Nationally, however, the average Wal-Mart worker makes less than $14,000 a year and requires $2,000 annually in public subsidies for school lunches, health care, and housing. And that's nothing to smile about.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Foodie Fight
There has long been an unspoken etiquette among local food writers and restaurants: When criticism is dished out, it comes sweetened with civility.
Until two weeks ago. Over the holidays, Mitch Omer, a tall, white-haired Minneapolis restaurateur with a proclivity for cowboy boots, lashed out at Travel Channel star and longtime local food critic Andrew Zimmern.
Omer's celebrated 10th Street breakfast spot, Hell's Kitchen, has never been the subject of Zimmern's widely read column in Mpls.St.Paul magazine, but he nonetheless has a bone to pick with the Twin Cities' most famous foodie. In a screed posted on The Rake's website, Omer claims that Zimmern "bludgeons local eateries with a blunt instrument: his pen" while "sucking the gastronomic dick" of "stupid fucking elitist" establishments.
Drawn into the feud are two other local food critics, a food critic's husband, and the editor of Mpls.St.Paul magazine.
Read the rest here.
Until two weeks ago. Over the holidays, Mitch Omer, a tall, white-haired Minneapolis restaurateur with a proclivity for cowboy boots, lashed out at Travel Channel star and longtime local food critic Andrew Zimmern.
Omer's celebrated 10th Street breakfast spot, Hell's Kitchen, has never been the subject of Zimmern's widely read column in Mpls.St.Paul magazine, but he nonetheless has a bone to pick with the Twin Cities' most famous foodie. In a screed posted on The Rake's website, Omer claims that Zimmern "bludgeons local eateries with a blunt instrument: his pen" while "sucking the gastronomic dick" of "stupid fucking elitist" establishments.
Drawn into the feud are two other local food critics, a food critic's husband, and the editor of Mpls.St.Paul magazine.
Read the rest here.
Let's Twister Again
Clean out your basement and ready your crank radio: The annual "tornadic risk assessment" is out and we're on it!
Both of the twin cities made the "Top Twenty Tornado-Prone Cities" list: Minneapolis came in 12th, and St. Paul eked in at 18. Which, apparently, means that in order for a twister to find its way from one city to the other, it would first have to wind through Cincinnati, South Bend, Wichita, Lincoln, and Houston.
Skeptical? Tell it to cursed Twin Cities architect Willard Thorson—designer of Har Mar Mall and Apache Plaza. Both shopping centers were hit by tornados in the '80s and that guy was habitually looking over his shoulder for years. The "Har Mar Tornado," as it has come to be known, caused $47 million in damage.
Both of the twin cities made the "Top Twenty Tornado-Prone Cities" list: Minneapolis came in 12th, and St. Paul eked in at 18. Which, apparently, means that in order for a twister to find its way from one city to the other, it would first have to wind through Cincinnati, South Bend, Wichita, Lincoln, and Houston.
Skeptical? Tell it to cursed Twin Cities architect Willard Thorson—designer of Har Mar Mall and Apache Plaza. Both shopping centers were hit by tornados in the '80s and that guy was habitually looking over his shoulder for years. The "Har Mar Tornado," as it has come to be known, caused $47 million in damage.
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