Rep. Kelleher Wows Bloomington DFLers

In a week when Republican Sarah Palin appeared in revealing shorts on the front cover of Newsweek and her almost son in law Levi Johnston was naked on TV, Bloomington progressive eyes were on Rep. Margaret Anderson Kelleher who has the credentials to be Minnesota’s next governor.
Kelleher, the DFL Speaker of the House, addressed the Bloomington Progressives Tuesday night at Davannis.
First and foremost is education with a much needed overhaul of the K through 12 formula and a new “Minnesota Miracle Plan” to be implemented over six to eight years, Kelleher said. Minnesotans are living under Gov. Pawlenty’s bad decisions that have limited access to higher education and early education for every child in the state, she added.
She expects that her Republican opponents for governor will be versions of AWOL Gov. Pawlenty in “different suits”. Pawlenty walked away from Minnesotans and “what he did was wrong”, commandeering the budget process from the Legislature, Kelleher said. She will be a friend of the court for people hurt by Pawlenty’s unallotment actions and if elected governor she plans to limit unallotment powers.
“People are concerned about his posturing and travel” as he pursues the presidency, she concluded. Kelleher has a bachelor’s degree in political science from Mankato State University and an advanced degree in public affairs from Harvard University. She will hit the ground running when she is elected governor.

New Phase for Media Reform

Media reform has moved into a new phase with internet networks serving communities but more general news coverage is needed, Macalester University Journalism Professor Mike Griffin said Saturday at the Twin Cities Media Alliance forum on the new media landscape.
The event was held in the downtown Minneapolis Library.
The alliance is attempting to break through the corporate media monopoly, although cable TV access, community radio and minority newspapers have provided alternatives for many years, he added.
Griffin said there was little information from the general media on last week’s school board elections, according to a study by university students. Money needs to be found to sustain organizations that provide community communications and that is a key issue in media reform, he added.
Other speakers said the U.S. is way behind Japan and Korea in providing cheaper access to high speed internet so that everyone can participate in a two-way dialogue about events and issues affecting their neighborhoods. People need to get more involved in local government issues and social studies need to be expanded in public schools.
The huge generation gap for internet use with young people more likely to be constant users of the new social media is taken for granted, although that assumption was negated by a 79-year-old graphic artist at the forum. She is an early adapter of the computer starting in the 80s and she says she is on the internet from early morning until late night. She claims that yoga exercises helps relieve neck pain associated with computer use.
A major focus of the event was building community and making money from the new media. Check the Twin Cities Daily Planet web site to see if there is any coverage on those issues.

Have You Seen “A Serious Man” movie?

I had some dejavu moments in the Coen Brothers “Serious Man” movie filmed in Bloomington when the poor shlub Larry meets with three rabbis to explain the source of his despair. One rabbi tells him that God is in the parking lot, of course. In other words, cheer up.
The Larry character, based on the Coens real life father, has tsooris (grief) including a pending divorce, an upcoming bar mitzvah for his annoying pot-smoking son and a messy situation involving tenure and a crazy student at his university teaching job.
It’s not clear how devoutly Jewish Larry might be but he seeks comfort and solace from the rabbis which is a real bad idea. I received a blank stare from a local rabbi in the early 80s when I told him about my predicament. I had been fired from two jobs in two years and was going through a stressful divorce while trying to maintain a relationship with my son who was studying for his bar mitzvah. More than that I never mentioned the unpaid charge accounts occurred in the marriage and the temple dues that I would never be able to pay unless I discovered oil in my grim little basement apartment near the railroad tracks. A year later that same rabbi was divorced and relocated out of the country which may explain where his mind was when we met.
I knew tsooris and I feel for Larry who suffers silently while paying for the funeral of his wife’s boy friend and adjusting the rooftop antenna so his crazy son can see “F Troop”. Desperation marked life in 60s in St. Louis Park as portrayed in this movie, which was filmed near where I live in Bloomington. For a few weeks in the summer of 2008 my neighborhood was transformed into a movie location with huge trucks partially blocking France Avenue. The Coens filmed across the street from me at Normandale Comminty College. For the uninformed, the Normandale faculty offices could pass for those at the University of Minnesota and east Bloomington resembled St. Louis Park in the 60s.
This is a movie that gets under your skin and prompts discussion. The prologue is a bit confusing so maybe we need to get comments on what that means.

Spirit Lake's Fireside Lodge in '48 Recalled

Mom, who is 95 years young, remembers summers at Spirit Lake Idaho and Fireside Lodge in 1948.
Fireside Lodge was probably at Settllemeyers resort on Spirit Lake and was basically a beer hall in 1948. I have fond memories of that time, going with my cousins to the beer hall on the resort and playing music on the jukebox. Later my Aunt Dora (shown in downtown Spirit Lake) and family stayed at nearby Conklin's resort which had a convenience "grocery" store where we shopped. We could walk between the two resorts and there was a burnt out cabin along the path which was quite spooky for little kids.
The July 4 hydroplane races were a huge event at the Lake and we watched. This attracted a lot of out of town beer drinkers as I recall. I stepped on a broken beer bottle in the lake and had to be taken to town where the doctor stitched me up and gave me a tetanus shot. Still have the scar on my foot.
We would go to the downtown movie theater (Auntie Dora standing in front of theater) where they showed "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein" which Mom wouldn't let us see. The theater was quite primitive with folding chairs instead of theater seats. But that was before TV in post war times. There was a cafe in t own and no doubt a grocery store.
Spirit Lake is a short distance from Twin Lakes where we went by school bus for swimming lessons. Twin Lakes was more swimmer friendly with sandy beaches and a very gradual drop off.

Any One Remember Dutch Oven in Boise, Idaho?

It’s probably not a business plan that will work for all restaurants, but Ken Shopin featured in the documentary “I Like Killing Flies” has been successful telling customers with bad attitudes to “f*** off.” Probably won’t catch on at Applebees, but quite amusing which brings to mind a strange eatery in fly-over land.

Who remembers the DUTCH OVEN in Boise, Idaho in the 60s. Businessmen from far and wide lunched there. One item on the menu -- hamburgers -- but the best in the world. Thick and juicy. And when the harried order ran out of ground beef he closed the door.

You needed to show up early if you wanted to lunch at the Dutch Oven. Another eatery in Idaho known for its burgers was a cafe in downtown Caldwell in the 60s near the Top Theater. Anyone out there remember the famous Caldwell hamburgers or did I dream it?

For more on eccentric New Yorkers see “The Cruise” about poet tour guide Speed Levitch who remains an enigma but an interesting one. Both these films were recommended by Doug Larson.

Oh Canada: Niagra Falls Plus Health Care

Richard Halliburton wrote about Niagara Falls in his book about the seven wonders of the world. I got that book for my bar mitzvah and now 56 years later I am up close and personal with Niagara. Here I was with the Prime Timers convention last Saturday. Other trip highlights were the gothic castle Casa Loma. Equally fascinating was the photos of Alex Trebeck and Lorne Michaels at the CBC broacast museum when they were much younger. Several current CBC series look interesting but unfortunately not available on Netflix, like “Little Mosque on the Prairie”.
Neil Diamond when he was in his 20s was revisited by a young performer at the convention and this was exciting. I also enjoyed touring the many ethnic neighborhoods in cosmopolitan Toronto.
Under 65, Canadians have $2 copay for prescriptions; over 65 no copay. Oh Canada!

Leaving Idaho September 40 years ago

It was 40 years ago this month that I left the beautiful snow capped mountains of Southern Idaho for the flat, flat, flat prairies of Minnesota in my ‘67 Plymouth Satellite loaded with all I owned in the world. That would have included a Magnavox portable radio, Smith Corona typewriter and a rather meager collection of clothing.
As someone remarked this summer: “You are a Minnesotan.” I resemble that remark but I cling to the fiction that I am an Idahoan, born in Spokane, scant minutes from the Idaho border where the men are men and you know the rest. Famous for their libertarian notions, Northern Idaho is a far cry from the more straight laced Mormon dominated Boise where I was a boy reporter for the Idaho Daily Statesman, a Federated Newspaper, for four years, Local option gambling was popular in Northern Idaho.
I had exhausted my possibilities in Boise, having won a national award for my reporting on air and water pollution. I was a member of the Capitol Jaycees, a post frat drinking society, where I produced a slide presentation with audio on pollution that I showed to community groups. (Lon Dunne at KIDO NBC Radio did the audio track). By the time I reached the four year mark I was researching a story on pop culture , interviewing the program director at KFXD Radio, which boasted a Sunday night underground rock extravaganza. I can’t believe that Jim Golden, the assignment editor, gave me time to do this. Nothing came of that story.
I was massively bored by this time and when my friend at the Statesman Ralph Nichols suggested I get a master’s degree I jumped on that, researching universities and getting valuable insight from Gene Byrd, a Marquette University journalism professor who later transferred to the University of Minnesota to initiate a urban affairs emphasis in the School of Journalism. Byrd soon ran into a brick wall and left for the University of Texas. It was clear that the U of M faculty disdained anything as faddish as urban affairs journalism. So that was my first mistake.
It was a gorgeous sunny fall day when I drove into Minneapolis on Highway 12 with AM radio tuned to KUOM where they announced a seminar on the Urban River at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, sponsored by the University. I had a wonderful supportive supervisor, Vern Keel, at the Agricultural Journalism Department where I worked as a graduate assistant. So Vern got the University to pay my way to the Urban River seminar where I floated down the grossly polluted Mississippi with Star columnist Barbara Flanagan and other community do-gooders. It was a super introduction to Minneapolis.
So as Jim Gilligan of the Statesman observed: I had “returned to the womb” at the glorious U of M, a graduate student in journalism taking inter-displinary classes related to urban and regional affairs. I was the right guy for Agricultural Journalism because economist John Hoyt was heading an initiative on regional development, a controversial issue supported by Gov. Harold Lavander, a moderate Republican unlike the strident ideologue Republican who now holds the office. My student days at the University were all I dreamed they would be and after graduation I was hired by the U, based on my great efforts as a graduate student.
Bottom line: It’s better to be a student at the U than faculty where you bump up against petty egos, back-stabbing and other drama. In 1981 I returned to the University staff at KUOM radio for a one-year temporary dreamy job as an assistant producer on a radio documentary series on psychology with Vickie Lofquist. I cherish those memories of KUOM where I used broadcast tools I learned at the University of Washington.