October is my favorite month in the Twin Cities. Every year since I returned from China I have declared my intention to not travel out of the state during this month. Thanks to the “rona” this is the first year that I’ve actually been able to follow through on that intention. It seemed that the […]
What A Difference Two Weeks Can Make
Just over two weeks ago, we had a doozy of a blizzard here in the Twin Cities that dumped almost 18 inches of snow on top of what had yet to melt from the previous 4 months of snow. Here’s what the snowbank (which I had lovingly dubbed “Mount Gracewood”) in the cul-de-sac by my […]
Saving Big Red
The day after Christmas I was in the Dinkytown area of Minneapolis, near the University of Minnesota to meet some friends for lunch at one of my favorite burger joints, Annie’s Parlour (best fries in town, by the way). As I was driving along 14th Ave looking for a place to park, a driver exited […]
Regional Rivalries
We have a joke here in Minnesota: “What’s the best thing to come out of Iowa?” “Interstate 35.” Apologies to my Iowan friends, but I’m sure that you just turn the joke around anyway. An interesting feature of life in the United States is the rivalries that exist between various regions and states. Some rivalries […]
Who Can Turn the World on With Her Smile?
The great actress and comedienne Mary Tyler Moore died on Wednesday. She got her start on television playing Laura on The Dick Van Dyke Show, and later starred in her own show, simply named, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. When my family moved to the Twin Cities in 1973 from Pakistan, the show was already a […]
How are the Roads?
For centuries (maybe millennia), a common way for people in China to greet each other has been to ask a simple question: “have you eaten yet?” When I lived in China’s northeast region (“dongbei”), it seemed that every chance meeting or new conversation began with “leng bu leng?” Are you cold? We are now in […]
