Minnesota Monthly
excerpt
Seeing his retrieval toy bag, the nearly pure-white Lab is all
wiggle-dance and yap. Sir Jackson's piercing barks seem to say:
Throw it! Throw it! for the love of God, THROW IT!" And after
perfectly aligning the dog at the shore end of the dock, Mallory
makes the throw. The graceful animal races the length of the
planking and athletically lunges out over the water, finds the toy
with his mouth and finishes with a fantastic splash.
The Dog Whisperer
Minnesota Monthly
FORMER COMPUTER CONSULTANT Connie Mobry-Bathke left a spacious
suburban home in Eden Prairie about a year and a half ago for an
unassuming farm life with her partner in rural Zumbrota. Without even a
wooden sign to guide them, people are finding her there, maladjusted
canines (and the odd cat or donkey) in tow, arriving at the makeshift barns
for insight and tutelage. It seems Mobry-Bathke, a life coach, artist, and
shepherd, has picked up a new title: The Dog Whisperer.
Grand Magazine
excerpt
When the need for the big house and the great school system is
past, more and more baby-boomers are not just tradingin the
minivan for flashier wheels, but parking them in front of
hipper digs. Loft conversions—from warehouses to old factories
and schools—provide wide-open spaces,high ceilings, and
locations that give easy access to a city-living lifestyle.
And it’s not just New York’s SoHo lifestyle any more; conversions
can be found in virtually every city, large orsmall, from the old
LifeSavers factory in Port Chester, New York and The Corset
Factory in Norwalk, Connecticut to a plethora of options, from old
textile mills to an old paper factory, in LosAngeles.
Ed and Kris Eide, both in their early50s, shed their suburban
Minnesota nest in favor of an über-hip urban Minneapolis
warehouse loft. Their Bassett Creek Loft unit features heavy
steel doors on exposed rolling tracks and concrete everything—
walls,ceilings, floors. While much of the space is open, there are
private bedrooms—including one for anticipated grandchildren.
With a super downtown view,there is no doubt: This space has
edge.
Grand Magazine
excerpt
If toy aisle products with names like Yu-Gi-Oh and Bratz have you
longing for the comprehendible, if not simple, days of your
children’s youth, then there is good news. 80’s retro toys are out
of the closet and treating many adult consumers to a walk down
memory lane.
Trademarks like My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake and even
Care Bears are not only nostalgic, but a modern day billion dollar
industry. You may remember Cabbage Patch Kids as the crazed
must-have doll of the early eighties; the modern version has
performed well enough to score a Toy Industry Association’s
prestigious “Toy of the Year” nomination and be included on
many top toy lists.
“Living in a time when everything changes so fast, it is comforting
to see toys from my kids’ youth,” says Jean McCue of Eden
Prairie, Minnesota. “It is sweet to buy playthings that my own boys
enjoyed so much. It has a full-circle quality to it.”
The Minneapolis Star Tribune - feature story
excerpt
With the days of multiple offers and double-digit home
appreciation a fading memory, Thom and Becky Peer knew the
value of their Stillwater house hadn't increased enough for them
to sell, pay a real estate sales commission and still realize a
healthy profit.
That's one of the reasons that just 18 months after buying the
house, they took a shot at saving the sales commission by selling
it themselves.
Minnesota Monthly
excerpt
TELEVISION and all its modish players are very L.A., very New
York, and apparently now, very Bloomington. Here in the middle
of the continent, someone is making waves large enough to be
felt all the way to the coasts of tube pop culture. And she’s not
even leaving her apartment to do it.
Linda Holmes, a 34-year-old attorney, is widely known as “Miss
Alli” to more than a million visitors to www.televisionwithoutpity.
com, a website bubbling with intelligent, fastidious, and downright
snarky television criticism. The site has made TV as participatory
as a Sound of Music sing-along, taking lonesome home viewers
from throwing balled-up socks at the set to reading 10,000-word
show analyses and posting volumes of responses. Keeping all
those voices in tune, or at least on-topic and well mannered, is
Miss Alli, Television Without Pity (TWoP) writer and moderator.
The Rake
excerpt
One of the upsides of not being a serious athlete is that you can
feel a little less guilty about smoking and drinking with impunity.
But you can always count on certain subcultural elements to
contradict even that plain truth. Bike couriers, for example. They
seem to take special pleasure in doing everything, well, extreme.
While a credible courier would never use that word (uncool),
there is no other that adequately describes the lifestyle. A
fifty-mile ride on a single-speed bike without brakes; a twelve of
Pabst; a pack of American Spirits. These are core competencies.
Minnesota Monthly
IT TOOK THREE YEARS to seep in from New York and
L.A., but the hippest trend in hair care has finally arrived in
our most fashionable urban salons. There are no new
products to purchase, and it doesn't require hours of labor
over an unruly head. Today's edict in hair splendor is less:
less washing; much less washing; indeed, nearly no
washing.
Disciples of the trend gradually decrease their shampooing
frequency - from daily to weekly to monthly - until they have
banished lather/rinse/repeat to the dustpin of personal
grooming history. Instead, they "wash" their hair daily with
water and conditioner. "The best way I can explain this is
[you get] the look of day-old hair all the time," says stylist
Carrie Nelson of the Jon Oulman Gallery & Salon, located in
the industrically chic Grain Belt Brewery keg house in
Minneapolis...
Grandparent Times
excerpt
Perhaps the family disagreement started when an uncle
didn’t like where he was seated at a wedding. Or maybe the
friction began as soon as the lawyer finished reading
grandma’s will. It’s even possible no one can recount the
incident that unknotted the family ties.
Sadly, these long running quarrels are becoming more
commonplace. As families spread geographically, rifts are
easier to let fester. If there isn’t the social pressure to make
up due to frequent gatherings, or the intervention of a
family member who is tired of feud’s impact on the greater
clan, then these estrangements can go on seemingly
without end.
Fortunately, there is help and hope.
