Worries over y2k computer glitches. Hanging chads. Presidential recounts. Images of smoking skyscrapers. Talk of fatwas, revenge, conspiracy, and “the end of irony.” Easy airport security. Rod Grams’s career as a U.S. Senator. Jesse the Body as governor.
Aquavit, Goodfellows, Morton’s, Auriga, Café Brenda, Bellanotte. The Bayport Cookery in Stillwater. Wagner’s Drive-In in St. Louis Park. Odyssey at the Mall of America. Menus with Chilean sea bass. Water shipped from Fiji. Water made from glaciers. Nalgene bottles. Low-carb diets. David Fhima’s restaurant empire. Jean-Georges (was he ever really here?). Prosciutto on everything. Smoking anywhere.
Drinks at Gallivan’s. Drinks at Figlio.
Gunplay outside South Beach. Fondue at the Times. Concerts at Myth.Bloody marys at the Uptown Bar & Grill. The Nankin’s Wondrous Punch.
Proposals for riverfront condo developments. Proposals for any condo developments. Subprime lending. Jumbo mortgages. Hopes for biotech at the University of Minnesota. Hopes for nanotech in Rushford. Hopes for a state fueled by corn and wind, and new jobs on the Iron Range. Hopes for Block E—a decade in the making!
Sharon Sayles-Belton, Jackie Cherryholmes, and company. Honeywell, Northern States Power, Northwest Airlines, and Simon Delivers. Carl Pohlad. Ken Dayton. Shopping at Dayton’s. Shopping at Marshall Field’s. Shopping at Nate’s Clothing. One-direction traffic on Hennepin and First avenues. Josie Wert. Tom Petters’s empire—and Denny Hecker’s, too. The smell of the St. Paul Stockyards. The clank of trucks rolling off the assembly at the Ford plant in Highland Park.
The old 1961 Minneapolis library, most of its volumes and treasures stored below ground. Paul Gruchow, Jon Hassler, Carol Bly, Bill Holm—literary giants, now in earth. Par Ridder at the Pioneer Press. Par Ridder at the Star Tribune. Orr Books in Uptown. The Rake. Eiji Oue (hardly missed), the Hungry Mind Review (hardly read), the Minnesota Museum of Art (hardly visited). The relevance of the Minnesota Film and TV Board. The old Guthrie Theater, designed by Ralph Rapson. Shortly thereafter, Rapson himself.
Harold Stassen, Orville Freeman, and Allan Spear. Paul Wellstone’s bravado and Sheila Wellstone’s compassion. Annoying calls from telemarketers. Naysaying over the viability of light rail (though squabbles over transportation funding endure). Legislative sessions that finish on time. Collegiality, altruism, and across-the-aisle bridge-building—all casualties of partisanship. Oh, and smug Carol Molnau’s political ambitions? Crushed by a fallen bridge.
And Mike Tice and Daunte Culpepper and Kevin McHale. Good riddance, you say? What about Kirby Puckett? And what about the Twins at the Metrodome? (Okay, agreed: Even nostalgia has its limits.) But observe a moment of silence to remember Vikings lineman Korey Stringer, struck down by heatstroke on the practice field. Take a minute to lament the lost legacy of famed cyclist and Wayzata resident Greg LeMond—his record as the only American to win the Tour de France, and he won it three years in a row!—bested by a Texan. As for Brett Favre—well, at this rate, his career may continue into Y3K….
Joel Hoekstra, Editor
jhoekstra@mnmo.com
