Sample Works

The Los Angeles Times

Racing Aboard the Great Lakes Schooner Denis Sullivan

At dawn on the dock, a few sailors kiss spouses and dogs goodbye. Then we muster on the quarterdeck: 17 crew (nine volunteers and eight professional sailors) ranging from a 19-year-old South Carolina college student to a 76-year-old Michigan farmer.

I have cruised the South Pacific, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean on the most luxurious ships afloat and have been crew on sailing and racing sailboats for decades in inland lakes, the Great Lakes and the Caribbean. As a volunteer on a tall ship, however, I knew I'd have a rare chance to learn classic skills and be part of a genuine adventure. Read More

 

The Wall Street Journal

Killed Long Ago, These Outlaws Refuse to Die

Spurs jingling, duster billowing and a desperado gleam in his eye, Chip DeMann swings back in the saddle this week for his 32d year of robbery during the 125th anniversary of the Northfield, Minn. bank raid. The James-Younger gang's foiled September 7, 1876 bank robbery took seven minutes, triggered the largest manhunt in US history up to that time and launched an enduring national industry in the enjoyment and study of outlawry. The attempt is celebrated as The Defeat of Jesse James Days, a September afternoon when Jesse James, Cole Younger and their larcenous pals got their comeuppance from a bunch of Minnesota farmers and storekeepers. Read More

 

Minnesota Public Radio Commentary

For some, the Disappearance of a Post Office is Personal

I was born in the 2 cent postcard and nickel letter stamp era, am living in the 29 cent postcard and 44 cent letter era (soon to be 45), and it looks as if I will exit life in a post-post office era.  I am sorry about this: glad to see trees spared for paper, certainly, but otherwise I see this as a loss of a democratizing and, to me, very personal institution. Read More

 

Minnesota Public Radio Commentary

The Fate of Horses: a Lesson in Unintended Consequences

The grave isn't as big as you'd think, given the size of the animal.  The neighbor with his backhoe can scoop it out in 10 or 20 minutes if the ground isn't frozen yet, and that's when I must make the decision: Will this horse make it through the winter? Or is it better to call the veterinarian to bring the little violet box of pentobarbital? Read More

 

The New York Times Travel Essay

The Circus Is Coming; on Wheels

I crave a front row seat at passing spectacles, be it the Carnival dance parade called Ra Ra in the streets of Haiti, the parade-pilgrimage of El Rocio in Andalusia, Spain, where women in ruffled skirts ride in ox carts with men in bolero jackets, or the Halloween parade through Greenwich Village with floats bearing the ice cream moguls Ben and Jerry in cow costumes. Read More

 

Minneapolis Star Tribune Editorial

Can't We Stop This Plague of Errant Apostrophes?

Repeat after me: possession, contraction, possession, contraction.

That's it. That's all. All this little Jackson Pollock-like flicking of random little dabs of ink everywhere has to stop. There are rules and reasons for using the apostrophe, and you contribute to the collective befuddlement and the moronization of the culture if you don't follow them. Read More