Last chance to Dome-inate

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by the Night Writer

Tiger Lilly and I took an evening off from our writing endeavors to go to the Dome with a couple of her friends for the Twins-Indians game. I won the tickets in a drawing at work and they were pretty good seats, located next to the Twins’ bullpen in the fourth row. This was strategic and fortunate as Delmon Young flipped a ball into the stands after catching the third out one inning and the ball ended up at the feet of my daughter’s friend. It was also likely the final opportunity for me to take in a Twins game at the Dome where I had worked as a scoreboard operator for several years.

The evening didn’t start out too well, though, as the Twins lineup in these September days featured guys named Mendoza in the fifth through ninth spots. They were Brendan Harris-Mendoza at (putative) DH; Delmon Young-Mendoza, LF;  Matt Tolber-Mendoza, 3B; Carlos Gomez-Mendoza, CF; and Nick Punto-Mendoza, 2B. Fortunately the Twins managed a stirring come from behind victory in the bottom of the 8th (the only inning they scored) and Joe Nathan – after getting two quick outs – staggered to another save. In addition, Joe Mauer went 3-for-3 with a walk to raise his league-leading average to .371. A real highlight of the evening for me, however, was a trip to the scoreboard room next to the press box where I found three of my old buddies working. They waved me inside and we had a good time reminiscing about some of the events we’d worked and they repeated some of the jokes I had told back in the day (and had nearly forgotten). At one point one of the guys asked me, “Do you hear anything from your old pal Tony Kubek these days?”

I paused for a moment and said, carefully, “Tony and I don’t talk anymore.”

That all goes back to an incident between the famous ex-Yankee and broadcaster and myself that I related, along with several other anecdotes, back in 2007. Since the Dome’s baseball days are dwindling I thought I’d re-run that post here as a good-bye.

At Home in the Dome Continue reading →

Okay, don’t look…

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by Minfidel

Govt run

You can see the full-sized cartoon by Mike Ramirez here.

The text tells the story, though:

Government can fix health care.

Just look at Medicare and Medicaid.

Okay, they’re broke, but look at Social Security.

Okay, it’s broke, but look at the U.S. Post office.

Okay, it’s broke, but look at Amtrak.

Okay, it’s broke, but look at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Okay, they’re broke, but look at my budget.

Okay, it’s $16 trillion in the red, but….

Tiger Jack shack attack

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by the Night Writer

Having lived in St. Paul for a number of years, including a stretch in the Selby-Dale neighborhood, I am very familiar with Tiger Jack’s Store on Dale St. next to the northern entrance to Highway 94. Tiger Jack Rosenbloom was a black entreprenuer who, along with his wife Nurceal,  sold a little bit of everything from their 8′ x 10′ wood and metal shack The store was a fixture in the old Rondo neighborhood (a neighborhood essentially gutted by the highway’s construction) and a fixture at that corner for decades. Tiger Jack and Nurceal died several years ago and the original shack was donated to the Minnesota Historical Society, but their son, Lucky, has continued to run various enterprises from the tiny plot of land and has been a bit of a conservative gadfly in the community.

Driving by there these days I usually get a smile from the signs Lucky has posted in recent years, asking people to accept Christ, offering lessons to women for conceal and carry permits and volunteering the site (no bigger than my backyard) as a location for Christian Revivals.  Lucky was there on Wednesday night working on his campaign for the St. Paul School Board but decided to step out: “I think my mom and dad and God told me to get out of there for a while,” Rosenbloom said.

While he was gone, a panel truck lost control and crashed through the wall of the store.

On Wednesday, Rosenbloom had been at the store’s other building for several hours signing copies of his book, “Liberal Racism and the Black Conservative,” and waving a sign encouraging people to elect him to the St. Paul school board. He had gone inside the store briefly and was starting to pack up.

 

That’s when he decided to take a short break and headed to a nearby gas station for juice and lemon cake. He was on his way back when the crash occurred. He thought at first that someone had been shot near the store, but police officers filled him in on what had happened.

 

“One police officer kept coming over and saying, ‘Lucky, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,’ ” Rosenbloom said.

 

Rosenbloom does not yet have an estimate of damage. He’s also not sure if he will rebuild, but if he does, he might build a small museum to honor the Rondo community and his parents.

 

“They trusted me with that corner,” he said.

Fortunately, no one was hurt in the accident and I hope Lucky continues to make his presence — and thoughts — known on that corner for some time to come.

Don’t miss this war

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by the Night Writer

I wanted to take a minute to tell you about a great mystery series our whole family has been enjoying: Foyle’s War.

Foyle's War

It’s a British series set in the southeast of England beginning in the early days of World War II. Michael Kitchen stars as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle who would much rather be doing something to aid the war effort but is pretty much stuck in Hastings.  For a quiet area (except for the occasional air raid), Foyle finds himself investigating quite a few murders. A quiet, resolute man he methodically rolls up clues and killers against the backdrop of war-time intrigue and paranoia. Similarly the series quietly grows on you as the main characters subtly reveal, bit by bit, a little more of their own histories and motivations.

Kitchen is absolutely fantastic in understated performances that demonstrate he probably has the most expressive wrinkles and folds in his face of any actor I’ve seen — though you get a hint that there’s great passion being kept under tight control. Complementary players include the awesomely named Honeysuckle Weeks as Foyle’s preternaturally perky driver, Samantha (Sam) Stewart and his wounded investigator, Sgt. Paul Milner (Anthony Howell), plus first class performances by a host of single-episode (so far) actors.

While the mysteries and performances are engrossing, the thing that really sets this show apart is the painstaking attention to detail in dress, settings and the human undercurrents of xenophobic patriots, Nazi sympathizers and government officials with their own agendas and an ever-shifting series of moral and dramatic issues. Each episode is about an hour and a half and there were only four episodes in each of the five years of the show. We ‘re halfway through the second year right now and can hardly wait to get each new disc from Netflix.

Check this out if you like superbly crafted dramas with unforgettable characters.

Why did George Bush hate old, immobile people?

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 by the Night Writer

I came across this story from the New Orleans Times-Picayune as part of my day job. It cites a study in the May issue of Risk Assessment by two Dutch researchers from Delft Univesity and two researchers from LSU (emphasis mine):

Four years later, researchers still count New Orleans’ Katrina dead, parsing them into categories, puzzling over exactly how each of the more than 1,400 victims perished — and what might be done to protect them the next time a big one rolls in off the Gulf.

 

Their findings, though incomplete, jibe with common sense. The dead were overwhelmingly old. Most lived near the levee breaches in the 9th Ward and Lakeview. About two-thirds either drowned or died from illness or injury brought on by being trapped in houses surrounded by water.

 

The rest died from maladies or injuries suffered in or exacerbated by an arduous evacuation — or an inability to evacuate quickly enough, including many who died in local hospitals that lost power and other life-sustaining services. Neither race nor gender made anyone more likely to die, only a failure to evacuate and a location near a levee breach.

 

…

The study of Katrina deaths provides a grim reminder of the hazards of staying for a dangerous storm. The authors concentrated on 1,100 victims in New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish. They found that nearly 85 percent were older than 51, 60 percent older than 65 and almost half were older than 75, the report said.

 

That compares to pre-Katrina population statistics showing only 25 percent of the two parishes’ residents were older than 50, 12 percent were older than 65 and only 6 percent were older than 75.

 

The Katrina statistics were similar to studies of deaths during a catastrophic 1953 flood that overwhelmed levees in the Netherlands.

 

Gender apparently played little role in the Katrina deaths, with 50.6 of the victims male and 49.3 percent female, compared with the pre-Katrina population of 47.1 percent male and 52.9 percent female.

 

The statistics “do not directly support claims that African-Americans were more likely to become fatalities, ” as some believed in the storm’s aftermath, the study said. A slightly smaller percentage of African-American residents died in comparison to the pre-Katrina population numbers for the neighborhoods in Orleans and St. Bernard parishes that the study examined.

 

Of the 818 fatalities for which race is listed, 55 percent were African-American, compared to 40 percent white, 2 percent Hispanic and 1 percent Asian-Pacific. There were 35 victims in the deaths studied for whom race was unknown.

State Fair fare

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by Tiger Lilly

Ah, the State Fair. Joy on a stick. Dad got a good deal on coupons and tickets (both entry and Midway) at work, so the bus ride was consumed with combing the coupon book for usable deals. Well, technically, Dad and I combed the coupon book. Mom play games on her iTouch. I think an intervention is needed.

First on our agenda was to get breakfast. Knowing that we would be consuming inumerable amounts of calories, I only had an apple for breakfast. The first thing we saw was a taco/burrito stand. That’s probably not the best thing to start the day with. But, lo and behold, we found a coupon for crepes. Mom and I split a triple berry crepe with cream cheese.

Crepes
They weren’t nearly as good as the crepes I make…

We just happened to be next to a gelato stand, and we also just happened to have a $1.50 off coupon for gelato. Convenient, no? However, even with the $1.50 off, it wasn’t worth it.
gelato
I’ve been spoiled by real Italian gelato. This stuff was swill compared to that. Don’t waste the calories on grainy chocolate gelato with rock hard chunks of supposed cookie dough in it.

After eating, we split up. Mom went to the art barns, and Dad and I hit the Midway. Dad had bought 20 tickets, plus a $6 off a sheet of 30 tickets coupon in his deal. My favorite ride, the Zipper (yes, the very same Zipper I wrote about three years ago!), was temporarily unavailable due to repairs, so we decided to do all the other rides first. First, we went on the Viper. It’s a lot like the Scrambler, but instead of going in circles on the ground, it lifts you up in the air and flips around. That was a lot of fun, if a bit short, but I had to hang on to my sunglasses so they wouldn’t fall off.

Next, we hit the Kamikaze. We had been standing in line for the Spider, but then we saw Kamikaze and Dad went into one of his reminscing moments. We ditched Spider and were soon buckled into Kamikaze. That is one of the best rides. It’s like the viking ship ride at Valley Fair that swoops back and forth, gaining momentum until it starts going around in big loops. Suddenly, my food didn’t like me anymore.

Then we found a ride called the Space Racer. It was a big starburst that lifts up and spins in a cross between the Spider and the Viper. I didn’t have anywhere to put my purse, so I was desperately clinging to it on this ride. Alas, a loose quarter fell out as I was going upside down, and I was powerless to change its course. It fell to the grate with a clatter, never to be seen again (by me, at least).

We checked the Zipper, but it was still out of order. So we went next door, to the Crazy Mouse. There is also a Crazy Mouse at Valley Fair, and I think that one is better. This small roller coaster jolts you around non-stop. It feels like you’re crashing in a car crash every time you go around a corner. The cart is bigger than the tracks, so as you’re headed for a turn, it looks like you’re going to fly off the track, until JOLT!!! You’ve turned, and are now going down a hill.

After getting off that… thing, the Zipper was finally back in action. Dad didn’t want to be on the first operation after it was fixed, so we waited until a Hispanic couple got off, looking a smidgen worse for wear, but more-or-less okay. By that time a line had gathered, so we stood for about five minutes, then got into one of the carts caskets. Again, I had nowhere to put my purse  so it was hanging off my arm. When the jolting and swinging started, my purse decided to do a backflip onto my face. I held onto it tighter after that. This time on the Zipper, I kept my eyes open.

Finally, we only had six tickets left between us (this was after purchasing the 30 ticket sheet), and since there are no three-ticket rides, we spent them on those game booths. I picked one where you shoot two crossbow bolts, trying to hit the white star in the middle. It was very hard to aim, and not entirely accurate. The first shot I got right on the black line border of the star. Unfortunately, there was a sign that said the bolt must be entirely in the star to win. Right. The second bolt was way up on the left.Dad picked the ever-popular ball toss thingy game (I’ve forgotten the proper name for it, it’s the one where you get six balls, and you toss the up a gentle slope, trying to get them in the scored holes). The amount of points needed to ge the prize was 180. Dad scored 140. Drat that 20-point hole!

We walked back to the sign post that was our meet-up point with RM. Having one ticket left, Dad gave it to a family at random (I think it was random… with Dad, I can never really tell. Sometimes he has some deep theological reason for doing the things he does, as I’m sure you’ve all seen from reading the blog). Mom walked up to us holding a bag.

“What’s in the bag?” Dad asked.  Mom looked at me and said, “Knives.” I leaped upon the bag and began examining our new lovely collection of kitchen knives.

It was about lunch time by this time, so snatching up the coupon for a burger in the Food Building, we headed off, stopping only for a couple bee-infested root beers and a fruit smoothie.

Mmmm, Dad’s got a wild rice cheeseburger (it doesn’t look as if he wants to share, though). It was incredibly delicious.
Wild rice cheeseburger
I was going to get a shredded pork sandwich from Famous Daves, but due to the Dan Patch street being so dang confusing, I decided to just eat little things along the way. Our next MO was to secure some deep-fried cheese curds. They are my favourite.  Mmmm – hot, soft, melty cheese goodness right out of the fryer!

SF09 - curds!

We also had a coupon for Handwriting Analysis. This seems to have become a tradition, so we headed over to the computers and got ourselves analyzed. My three favorite results were:

  • You enjoy current controversial subjects for discussion (Pirates vs Ninjas. That’s what I call a current controversial subject. Ninjas all the way!)
  • You are somewhat eccentric at times. (Only at times? Really?)
  • You are conservative, patient, and constructive. (Paired with another thing that it says farther down on the sheet under what your horoscope personality is: …Aquarians are lovable airheads. This creates a personality that is liberal and progressive. Excuse me? *barf* You just can’t trust these things. Or maybe I’m just a contradiction to myself.)

After analysis, we went to the International Bazaar (my favorite part of the fair). Mom and I waited while Dad got three samples of beer. They were doing some show on the stage, so we watched a Mariachi band do their thing while we waited. Then we looked at all these different imports from around the world. I stopped at a small stand that was mostly clothing and bought a cute black shirt that had a white border with black flowers and a ruffle of the same flowered material going down the front. Mom bought a shawl of some type of white spiderweb type design.

There was also a Chinese stand with katanas that Faith, Ben, and I had visited last year. I picked up another katana for a friend of mine. It’s a very beautiful katana, a deep red color, and a bit shorter than the one I got last year. I hope I can part with it when the time comes…

Leaving the Bazaar, we trekked across the fair to the animal barns, only to discover that the animals go home at four in the afternoon! Oh no! We decided to lift our spirits with some funnel cake. That didn’t help much, as Mom thought the cake wasn’t very good. She compensated by pulling out her iTouch.
Funnel cake

This… is… FUNNEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!! Yes, that’s the new katana in the picture.

You may have noticed that in each picture (except the cheese curd picture), Dad and I have or shades on. We’re trying to keep our identities secret from the Fat Police.

After a long walk and a large amount of calories, we were more than ready to go home. Guess what Mom did on the trip back? That’s right, pulled out her iTouch. I think it was a mistake to get her one of those… Remember kids, if you don’t talk to your parents about iTouches, who will?

Ciao for now.

Stick-to-itiveness

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by the Night Writer

No, I’ve not given up the new book project already (actually some nice progress made last night), but I saw this in today’s Writer’s Almanac posting:

It was on this day in 1901 at the Minnesota State Fair that Teddy Roosevelt (books by this author) gave a speech and uttered his famous phrase, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” He said that it was a West African proverb that he had always liked. He probably picked it up from his wide reading — he often read a book a day, even after he became president, and he wrote a total of 40 books during his lifetime.

I never knew that that famous phrase was introduced right here at our very own great Minnesota Get-Together, though it is obvious that Minnesotans have taken this philosophy to heart: when we go to the Fair we eat all kinds of food, most of which is sold, yes, on a stick.

The Reverend Mother, Tiger Lilly and I are going to the Fair tomorrow, and if I’m speaking softly at all it will be because my mouth is full of cheese curds.