Month: January 2008
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Crossing the Aisle
Yesterday, amid news of four ton satellites falling from the heavens and the pending departure of Minnesota’s last sports superstar, a glimmering beacon of hope shone from our nation’s capital. The House of Representatives, in one brief shining moment of accord, today put aside their rancor for a subject not involving burly men injecting illicit…
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Three Dozen Plus One
Today is my birthday. I’m not afraid of coming birthdays, and I don’t intend to stop the count-up. Despite all of its challenges (living with teenagers, IRS tax audit, five year old with pneumonia), through the mud and the stars, life on the whole is pretty good. So today is MY day, the one day…
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Foolish Fire
The small river town where I lived and worked for a time was in a pretty and neglected part of the state. When I first moved down there I used to tell friends that it was as if I’d relocated to a remote little corner of some obscure European country. There were rolling, wooded hills,…
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Shall I Read or Look at Naked Ladies?
BOOKSAll Shall Be Well; And All Shall Be Well; And All Manner of Things Shall Be Well The history of literature—up to and including the stuff piled on the new arrivals tables at your local bookstore—is crammed with oddballs and anachronisms. That said, it’s still a rare novel that can take such raw materials and…
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What You're Tasting When You Kiss
It’s a slippery, messy business, kissing. Two tongues meetings in one person’s mouth, touching and rolling and wrestling like snakes. The transfer of saliva. The hot, warm breath vaporous with what the kisser has most recently consumed. Not only that, even strangers do it. People who’ve only just met in bars; partygoers on New Year’s…
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Art Market
Not all fashion designers consider themselves artists, but there is certainly a fine art to developing an exciting and cohesive line of clothing, a one-of-a-kind gown, or, for that matter, a sock-monkey bikini. Just five years ago, when home-grown clothing was paraded on First Avenue’s stage at the first Voltage fashion show, resources in the…