Sometimes it feels like I need to put a note on my computer than says “Do not become Andy Rooney.” The fact that I can even identify the cantankerous late CBS “60 Minutes” correspondent is already a problem. Rooney’s prime occurred when I was just a child … a child who would make his parents switch from America’s Funniest Home Videos to the last five minutes of “60 Minutes” just to watch Rooney rant about belts or new fangled sinks.
Indeed, any effort to avoid Rooneyism failed long ago, when my supple, plasticine brain could have been imprinted with information that could have gotten me laid instead.
So it is not particularly surprising that I might write a column lamenting a visible cultural shift that briefly inconvenienced me. I could promise not to do it again, but lying grows more tiresome with the years.
I went to go see the corpse flower bloom at the Como Park conservatory in St. Paul. It was cool, but my hopes of spending time with the plant were dashed by crowds who wanted selfies. Truthfully, I wanted a picture with the plant, too, but also to smell the impossible smell, to deeply imprint a memory of this rare Sumatran tuber.
It got me thinking about how we experience nature, art and life itself through the lens of our smartphone cameras.
Read “Stop and smell the corpse flower” on StarTribune.com and in the Monday, July 7, 2025 edition of the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Aaron J. Brown is a columnist and member of the editorial board for the Minnesota Star Tribune. His new book about Hibbing Mayor Victor Power and his momentous fight against the world’s largest corporation will be out soon.
