Today's the last day for Rider Bennett, the storied Minneapolis law firm that's been around for 47 years. The firm decided to cut its losses a few months back, and lawyers have been jumping ship ever since. A few still haven't found a new home. Who? If you're so inclined, you can find out here.
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CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS
Diablo Cody meets John Malkovich and David Duchovny, plus an update on her magically growing breasts at Pussy Ranch.
Read Peter S. Scholtes' review and view Tony Nelson's photos of Maria Isa's CD-release party in our gallery section.
Steve Monaco offers a tongue-in-cheek Guess the Actor quiz at Couch Pundit.
Music fans who missed Seattle's Sasquatch music festival can check out reviews and pix of the Beastie Boys, the Hold Steady, Greyhound, Arcade Fire, and more here.
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THESE DAYS
The Secret Service has begun training agents to fill 103 full-time slots to be part of George W. Bush's retirement detail.
Inmates in South Australia prisons will be barred from obtaining medication for erectile dysfunction under a state government crackdown.
Manitoba First Nations are seeking compensation from Manitoba Telecom Services for every cellphone signal that passes through First Nations land, saying the airspace should be considered a resource like land and water.
MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY
Nate Hessburg is an actor living in Minneapolis blogging about roller coasters, PS3 gaming, and movies at Rantings of my Normal Life.
[Minnesota-based blog directory]
TIME WASTERS
Rolling Stone's 25 Greatest Songs Off Bad Albums
How to Make an Origami Vagina
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
"I recognize there are a handful there, or some, who just say, 'Get out, you know, it's just not worth it. Let's just leave.' I strongly disagree with that attitude. Most Americans do as well."
— Pres. George W. Bush, at a Rose Garden news conference last Thursday. In a CBS/New York Times poll released the following day, 63 percent of Americans supported a troop withdrawal timetable of sometime next year.
Stephen Dick is a young man with a simple dream: A sunny day in July, a mud pit the size of a football field, and 288 people romping around in it up to their knees.
Dick is the man behind the first-annual Muddy Sunday volleyball tournament, to be held at Corcoran Lions Park in Hamel. Preparing for the dirty event has more or less consumed his non-working life.
A business analyst for Target ("I work with sheets"), Dick spends his spare time begging his way onto volleyball league e-mail lists, maintaining a sleek Web page for the event, and, for exercise, sticking tournament flyers on windshields near volleyball courts around the Cities. So far, he has already signed up 12 of a hoped-for 48 teams.
Future plans?
Dick, 24, plans to put the Twin Cities on the mud volleyball map. "Forty-eight teams is not a bad start," he says, but it is just that: a start. "We're going to make it one of the biggest tournaments in America. We're thinking very big."
CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS
Rob Nelson talks to filmmaker Michael Moore about his new documentary Sicko at Culture To Go.
This week's DVD reviews include Hannibal Rising, Shanghai Express: Special Collector's Edition, and Heavy Petting.
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THESE DAYS
Research from a British university suggests a common preservative found in soft drinks has the ability to switch off vital parts of DNA.
In 2004, the median income for a man in his 30s was $35,010, 12% less than that of men in their 30s in 1974, adjusted for inflation, according to a Pew Charitable Trusts study.
MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY
Fans of former Strib columnist James Lileks can still enjoy his humorous prose at the Daily Bleat.
[Minnesota-based blog directory]
TIME WASTERS
From McSweeney's: My Nonprofit R&B Group's Set List by B. Davin Stengel
The Muppets re-enact the battle of Helm's Deep from LOTR: The Two Towers in a Canadian comic book store window display [via Neatorama]
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
"He liked to smell them."
— Waukesha police Lt. William H. Graham, on a Kenosha man arrested for stealing more than 1,500 pairs of girls' shoes from all three Waukesha high schools and one middle school [via Obscure Store]
When a memo circulated around City Hall last week indicating that the Minneapolis Police Department is on pace to be $5.6 million over budget for 2007, most hand-wringing was over the fact that the MPD will delay adding 20 recruits to the payroll until 2008 as a stopgap measure. But a more salient point was missed: How did the department run afoul of budget guidelines in the first place?
Several reasons, according to MPD Chief Tim Dolan and city finance officer Pat Born. "The department did run over budget in 2006," notes Born, adding that the police budget accounts for $120 million out of the city's $328-million general fund. "But in the recent past, there's been nothing like this."
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Steve Monaco recalls the James Bond rip-off Hammerhead, starring Ben Casey's Vince Edwards at Couch Pundit. Also, don't forget to take the Monday Movie Quiz!
The City Pages Media Taster lets you actually hear the great music you read about in City Pages—just launch, click, and listen. Simply download the Media Taster and you'll automatically receive a digital mixtape of music on a semi-regular basis (including free MP3s), legal and free of charge. A new taster has been posted today!
THESE DAYS
Scottish scientists have now established scientific proof of what has come to be known as the "beer goggles" effect: the theory that uglier people look more attractive to you after you've had a few drinks.
Twelve footprints found in the bed of an ancient lake in northern Spain have thrown up the first compelling evidence that some land dinosaurs could swim, say researchers.
MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY
Lakeville resident Steve Eck blogs about semi-successful garage sales, enormous fast food receipts, and bedroom furniture that becomes a make-shift closet at Steve Eck's Blog.
[Minnesota-based blog directory]
TIME WASTERS
Willard is a small 1950s bedroom community where, following a run in with some space dust, the dead rose, had to be defeated, and are now domestic servants in the dark comedy Fido.
What happens we you feed a jalapeno to a ferret
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
"You start to lose your memory, your confidence, your invention. So that's pretty much a closed book for me."
— 82-year-old actor Paul Newman, on retiring from acting after 50 years
CITY PAGES BLOGS AND NEWS
Steve Monaco has this week's Monday Movie Quiz posted at Couch Pundit.
Rob Nelson interviews director Abel Ferrara about his new movie Go Go Tales at Culture To Go.
Chris Ward reviews Konami's new dating game, Brooktown High: Senior Year, at citypages.com/gaming.
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THESE DAYS
The U.S. National Institutes of Health, which supports a variety of biomedical studies using animals, will stop breeding government-owned chimpanzees for research.
Sweden's Justice Ombudsman has received a letter from the Prisoners' Council at Sagsjön jail demanding the right to wear bikinis so the inmates can sunbathe.
MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY
BrokenNails, Lapis, Legalese blog on the Bridges project, ward conventions, home foreclosures, and other news that affects St. Paul at BrokenNails.
[Minnesota-based blog directory]
TIME WASTERS
Match the soundbite to the cartoon character who said it
Vote for the Sexiest Vegetarian 2007
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
"Not unlike presenting for a haircut at a salon, women often brought along images to illustrate the desired appearance."
— London gynecologist Sarah Creighton and clinical psychologist Lih Mei Liao, the authors of a recent British medical journal article on the fast-growing trend of cosmetic surgery to the female genitalia
Among the many detractors of modern architecture, the party with the most legitimate beef may be the migrating songbird. Researchers have noted that lit skyscrapers disorient birds at night in roughly the same manner that bus stations waylay runaways: They both have a bad habit of ending up on the sidewalk in morning.
This year, a working group led by Audubon Minnesota kicked off a project to dim office lights at night during the migratory season. At worst, the experiment would be harmless. The voluntary effort promised real estate managers a way to save energy and money—only Joe Soucheray found cause to complain—and tall buildings like the IDS Center, U.S. Bankcorp Center, and Riverplace joined the effort in mid-March.
Joanna Eckles, a St. Paul Audubon member, helped launch the experiment, and has trained a team of a dozen volunteers to collect data each morning. "Data," in this case, means the tiny carcasses of crashed birds and the occasional survivor.
"It's time to pursue other opportunities," Grow cracks sarcastic when reached on his office phone by Blotter. "Many a VP has left our company in pursuit of other opportunities, and now it's moving down the ranks." Grow, one of the few opinion scribes in town who actually infused his writing with a novel concept known as street-level reporting, has applied for one of the 50 buyout packages offered by the Newspaper of the Twin Cities that go into effect June 1. "Nothing is final until then," Grow notes with just a touch of trepidation. "If I wake up on May 31st terrified that I've never had a real job, then maybe I'll stay on."
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