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The latest Strib has a new story with tips for winter bike commuters. Check theirs out, and revisit our slideshow of local cold-weather bicyclists, which includes 22 photos to go along with some hopefully helpful suggestions.

Jonathan Kaminsky is a push-over. Me? Not so much. I am extremely picky about what I will and will not be guilted into recommending. While researching Thanksgiving Day volunteering options for A-List, I stumbled across an organization, People Serving People, that has an unexpected need for volunteers for their Wednesday November 21st Thanksgiving Toss, which they are throwing (pun intended) from 5:45 to 7:45. Perhaps it was that People Serving People is the largest provider of emergency shelter for families with children in the Twin Cities. Perhaps it was that a toss seems like a festive way to spend the day before Thanksgiving. Or perhaps it was that Vikings offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie will be the celebrity guest at the toss. Regardless, it seemed like a blotter-worthy call for volunteers. And don’t worry, other than the one they serve up for dinner, no actual turkeys will be harmed at this event. Step up; call 612.277.0256

A video provided to City Pages courtesy of Loring Park resident Paula Hare captures the prelude to Friday's tussle between local law enforcement agencies and cycling advocacy group Critical Mass.

The footage shows an MPD officer—presumably high-ranking—approaching his underlings with candid orders.

"Drive down Nicolet, herd the assholes down this way. Any blocking of traffic, any blocking of anything, arrest them."

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Pepper spray, wailing police sirens, and the rumbling of overhead helicopters permeated the air earlier tonight in Loring Park as dozens of police officers descended on a group of bicyclists.

At around 7 p.m., police cars were trailing the large assembly of cyclists along La Salle Avenue. The group was taking part in Critical Mass--a monthly ride undertook by bike-enthusiasts the world over to "assert cyclists' right to the road"--when things turned ugly.

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Northfield ponders sacking cul-de-sacs

Usually when the New York Times wastes ink on little old us, it has to do with mentioning Eagan as the headquarters of Northwest Airlines.

But yesterday's Sunday Times has an interesting story on its national real estate page. It looks at the larger issue of subdivision development, and how two Minnesota towns are differing on what to do with that dread suburban development hallmark, the cul-de-sac. (The reporter, Carla Baranauckas, has lived in Minnesota.)

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On our collective discomfort with JonBenet Ramsey

From a January 1997 column by City Pages Editor Steve Perry:

Much has already been written about the sexualization of JonBenet Ramsey and all the other girls in the thousands of little-miss pageants across the country. We would do well not to ignore its obverse, which is the fetishizing of children's innocence--particularly that of girl children--as a means of sustaining the culture's perverse faith in its own unspoiled nature. The cult of innocence is the root of our claim to be a child-loving society, and one of the most salient measures of our child-loathing. The promise of JonBenet on the runway, playing grown-up fantasy object, is the promise of all things desirable, had without responsibility or consequence at the expense of a child: a promise not of her innocence but the onlooker's. This is obscene. But it's hardly more obscene than a quarter of the nation's children living in poverty, or the willful addition of a few million more by the Clinton/Gingrich welfare overhaul, all so that an increasingly well-off minority can enjoy the good life, without responsibility or consequence, at the expense of other people's children.

Perry's gritty, visceral column has haunted many of us in the intervening decade, and I daresay the capture yesterday of Ramsey's alleged killer only makes it seem all the more prescient.

As part of the research for a story I'm working on, I recently called Tom Doty, one of the managers at Minneapolis Animal Control, and asked him how many pit bulls live in Minneapolis. Doty said he wasn't sure but he'd run the numbers. Today he sent me a spreadsheet with all registered dogs in Minneapolis, broken down by primary breed. Most of this information is not particularly relevant to my research. But since Doty billed me $25 for his numbers crunching service, I figured I might as well post the data and engage in a little amateur sociology.More >>

The Metropolitan Council wants to know that sort of stuff. It helps planners plan for the future. So in late 2005, the council sent a survey to 3,600 residents in the seven county metro area, 1,182 of whom bothered to fill out the form.

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For those unacquainted the peculiarities of the modern American evangelical movement, the fissures within the brotherhood can be both appalling and, in a perverse way, damn comical. Case in point: the recent musings of Kevin T. Bauder, president of the Plymouth-based Central Baptist Theological Seminary.

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