Aug 21, 2026
It is August in Minnesota and that can only mean the happy furor of the Minnesota State Fair. Nearly 2 million visitors are about to sample its wide array of delights, amusements, and diversions. Things to look at, things to gape at, things to learn from; it’s a...
Aug 5, 2026
In the capitol city where I live, on a busy downtown intersection, is a small sign that has been on my mind lately. Above an emblem in a simple curve, are the words “Gave His Life in the Line of Duty.” And below, a name. “Lieutenant Michael J. Cloonan 8/16/1893.” The...
Jul 20, 2026
Are your ancestors trying to speak to you? Are you the reluctant possessor of boxes of photographs, notes, unidentified tintypes, and scraps of paper with your grandmother’s handwriting? Is there a closet? Do you occasionally open the door, sigh, and close it again?...
Mar 18, 2026
Who knows why we fall in love with certain poems? We print them out, pin them up on our doors and walls and mirrors, save the tattered books and chapbooks in which they first appeared to us. Is it the language, the subject, a particular phrase, the mysterious way they...
Feb 12, 2026
I was raised in a time and place, and in a family, that followed strict protocol about home-handling of the American flag. Fly it on Memorial Day, on Flag Day, on the 4th of July, Labor Day. Never let it touch the ground. Never fly it in the rain. Take it in at...
