Today, I’ll be joining the state’s largest newspaper, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, as a blogger. I’ll be posting on the Strib’s “Your Voices” blog once or twice a week with some of my greatest hits from here at MinnesotaBrown and occasional original pieces written for a statewide audience. I’ll have a standing blog page called the… Read More →
Hot mess go time
August 26, 2013 by 3 Comments
Minnesota is not a place where the weather matches the arbitrary progression of the Roman Calendar. That’s why I am about to teach my first day of classes for the Fall Semester on a day where the heat index exceeds an average human’s IQ. Yesterday was the same. I mowed the lawn, which might not… Read More →
MinnesotaBrown on the move
August 23, 2013 by 3 Comments
Flickr Creative Commons license, RBerteig It’s been quiet on the blog the last couple days for two reasons. One, the semester is about to start and I’m prepping classes for Monday. Two, perhaps more relevant to you, we are gearing up for a big change here at the blog this weekend. On Saturday, I’ll be… Read More →
August prompts end-of-summer self-assessment
August 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
In random order, summer projects I’m officially giving up on: Landscaping (next year) Clearing weeds in the lake (next year) Getting a dock (see transmission, below) Staining the deck (fall maybe) Writing a novel (don’t worry, never even started) Summer projects I will complete: Paying for the transmission (Oh ya, dere’s all kinda metal shavings… Read More →
With Reader’s demise, please re-subscribe to MinnesotaBrown.com
June 27, 2013 by 1 Comment
On Monday, July 1, Google will shut down its popular Google Reader service, an RSS reader that allowed you to read multiple blog feeds on one screen. This was the primary way that I and many other internet consumers read our favorite blogs every day. For years I’ve encouraged my readers to do the same… Read More →
#springmapmadness wraps up with 45 states
June 7, 2013 by 1 Comment
This year’s Minnesota spring was a rough one, with record late ice-out on local lakes and a generally cold and snowy April. I got through it by requesting free maps and travel guides from all 50 states, allowing me to imagine warmer places, or at least gather the daily mail with excitement. After two months,… Read More →
#springmapmadness gets me through this endless winter
April 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Last week, weather madness reached its apex in northern Minnesota. A massive winter storm dumped another foot of snow on the Iron Range. The entire month of April felt like February. People were falling apart, myself not only included, but as Exhibit A. In a moment of madness, I personally requested free maps and travel… Read More →
Weather coping with maps and travel guides
April 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It’s snowing. As I sit here this evening we are being told up to nine inches of wet, heavy April snow for the Iron Range by Monday morning. I am depressed. I am not alone. In a move she probably regrets, my wife Christina — knowing my enthisiasm for maps — sent me this Hey… Read More →
Boldly into the future for MinnesotaBrown.com
April 8, 2013 by 2 Comments
In the last year I’ve tried moving away from the day-to-day battles of politics to a wider view of life in northern Minnesota and my creative interests. We still do politics and news here; just done in a way that stands out from other blogs. This summer I am going to redesign the blog. It’s… Read More →
Happy Easter! (Sorry about the yoga pants)
March 31, 2013 by Leave a Comment
It occurs to me that this week I turned in a newspaper column about see-through yoga pants to run on Easter Sunday. Is that a bad thing? If the yoga pants were too much for your delicate sensibilities, try a couple of my Easter classics. The first is a rather funny piece about the creeping… Read More →
