"A" day

© harrington

Yesterday was an "A" day full of "C"s: cities, coffee and culture and cutting. We started at Nina's a home away from home (that's the literal we, not the editorial nor the regal, my long-suffering wife kept me company and tried to keep me honest much of the day). Having sipped my way through most of a medium cappuccino while my wife was across the street at the "Y," I left her finishing lunch and headed downstairs to Subtext, the neighborhood bookstore. (If I ran the world, every neighborhood would have a bookstore and and a coffee cafe like Nina's.) At Subtext, I bought a two titles on Minnesota's history: Mni Sota Makoce, the Land of the Dakota, and North Country, the Making of Minnesota. Each seems to emphasize a need to rectify and clarify traditional versions of Minnesota's history. Other pieces of Minnesota's history added to my library were: Sigurd F. Olson's Wilderness Days; Laura Erikson and Betsy Bowen's Hawk Ridge; and Revisited, a book of poetic and prose musings about Bob Dylan and his lyrics. All told, much fodder for future postings to My Minnesota has been added to my cultural hayloft. [I'm not sure I like that metaphor, but try to live with it.] From Subtext, we made a brief stop at Mississippi Market for organic and or local provisions, and then proceeded from St. Paul across the Mississippi to Minneapolis. [Sidebar: God knows how, but the Mississippi is showing some open water.] A stop at the Guthrie (see the photo above) and a magic piece of plastic got us tickets to the world premier of "Nice Fish" a play based on the prose poems of Duluth's  Louis Jenkins. Then to Eversharp in the Stinson Avenue industrial district where a knife that has been calling to me for several weeks was reduced to possession as was a new cutting board. Home to unload, let the dogs out, and head to the movie complex where we (this time "we" includes wife, daughter, son, significant other, etc.) watched an hour too long half a book version of The Hobbit. Meanwhile, back at the house, my dawn redwood seedlings seem to be coming along nicely. Stop back soon for future progress, or lack of progress, reports from My Minnesota. Rants and writes served daily.