Both my friend and I felt the last few miles of this year’s longest bike ride: a round trip on the Dakota Rail Trail from Wayzata to St. Bonifacius. We earned our lunch of coffee and salted caramel cheesecake, which we enjoyed in St. Bonifacius before burning it off on the ride back.
Category: Living
Bigfoot presages QAnon on campus
Spotted Bigfoot, a fraternity mascot, shuffling through the university. The barriers had been installed for crowd control for tonight’s Turning Point USA anti-anti-fascist rally at Northrop Auditorium.
Unconventional eggplant
Dwight brought these home from the farmers market yesterday: African eggplants, grown by farmers originally from West Africa. While cubing them, skin on, I noticed their internal structure was a little different from a conventional eggplant, but decided to go with my original plan: microwave for six minutes at 60% (as I usually do with eggplant), then saute in a pan before adding them to a slow braise. Dwight gave the final result a thumbs up.
Capital taking a rest
As I rode my bike on a random ride, I turned onto roads I don’t remember ever traveling. At the edge of a rail yard, empty railcars faced off against piles of container trailers and containers. In the distance, the towers of Minneapolis competed with an abandoned grain elevator.
Finding anti-fascism in a Minneapolis park
After giving up on finding a local or national Antifa office, I cycled in search of something tangible about the anti-fascist cause. Flags were at full staff at Sheridan Memorial Park when I paused at this sign commemorating American anti-fascist fighters of World War II. I appreciate how this park honors ordinary, working-class people, like Howard Weller (mask, complete with oxygen tubes) from Northeast Minneapolis, without glorifying war.
Balancing simplicity and acoustics
Measured the reverberation in our main room: double the optimal time for clear conversation. This echo problem clashes with our preference for minimal furniture and hardwood floors. My suggestion of a huge stuffed Gund elephant, like one I once saw at a Hokkaido airport, did not convince Dwight, so we’ll keep searching for more understated solutions to mitigate the echo.
Upriver to Anoka
Cycled upriver with Dwight and a friend visiting from the UK to Anoka, a four-hour trip that included a stop at a fine bakery and another stop to admire an extraordinary Halloween yard display. In Anoka, after beer and snacking on appropriately unhealthy starters, we took the Northstar Line back to Minneapolis. We’ll all sleep well tonight.
The future of work, over beer
At Day Block Brewery, glimpsed into the work world of 2025 while catching up with three lovely people I worked with 15 years ago, who are still working. We laughed heartily about times both past and present.
Conflicting honors
This morning, flags were still at half-staff outside the American Red Cross building near our home, a tribute to the children killed in a recent school shooting. Meanwhile, the president has ordered flags at half-staff at federal buildings for a man who believed that gun deaths are a price we must accept for the Second Amendment. (The light and dark blue flag is the Minnesota state flag.)
Firing up the Weber
Simple Sunday, last gasp of summer, grilled chicken thighs for dinner.