Ken Rhodes

SOMEbody on here got me listening to Rainbow’s “Stargazer” a while back and this has sent me back in time some

Jamelle Bouie has got to hold the record for the disparity between me enjoying his posts and hating the posts of his repliers

I’ll go if I can get there. I buy that Alex and Geddy really miss playing, I absolutely trust them to vet drummers, and I think Anika is an inspired choice. These are going to be great shows

I need some local historical perspective, as I’ve only lived in Saint Paul 6 years.

My view on North Stars nostalgia is that the name and logo are unarguably great, but as a franchise they sucked and then they left. So the nostalgia is for a name and maybe a logo, but not really a team, right?

YouTube video by Steve Conrad Bagpipe swing with Gunhild Carling in Central Park NY

Hi. It's Monday.

Jazz swing song played on bagpipes.

youtu.be/8RbVuDuCYMY?...

Tigers never had a chance

That combination of results, all we ask for

I’ll change a bike tire and smile the whole time, but when I have to change tires back to get the fenders to fit back on I omit the smiling part

Marathon Day is our block’s Chili Cook-Off Day, the social event of the season. We know from bitter experience our friends abjure the following in their chili:

1. Spiciness
2. Authenticity
3. Beef, generally

We are cooking to “win” the cook-off by not having any leftovers; no other measure matters

Never saw the word until your post

That jacket you made really turned out great

All-time photo

sleepbaseball.com The Northwoods Baseball Radio NetworkIs On The Air.

www.sleepbaseball.com

These are completely made-up baseball games, presented in very measured tones. I’ve never made it through the lineups before falling asleep

Of course there’s the seminal “Love Gun” written by Paul Stanley performed by Kiss. Or is that too high-brow?

I feel like any passerby moving a tennis ball that was in play needs to get it roughly back to where it went out

I have two of these “tennis ball mouthers” and what I do is kick the ball as near as I can to the place where the ball rolled out of the enclosure, and keep walking. There can be no tennis player-dogwalker solidarity

A sesame-seed-covered donut on a napkin has a bite out of it already. It’s buddy, a small bottle of chocolate milk, sits alongside

Portlanders have opinions about donuts like Saint Paulites have opinions about ice cream. My favorite place in war-torn Portland Oregon is Sesame Donuts

Been a while since I’ve had a root canal, but the smell of clove oil during the procedure was a major feature. They use, or used, clove oil for antiseptic purposes

I’m now worried that everything changes and things I knew for sure aren’t true anymore….

You loving the smell of cloves now?

I’ll have to try it!

A hand-painted sidewalk sign for Güero #1 Tortas, featuring a plastic basket with what looks to me like a carnitas torta cut in half

Where do folks go for tortas in the Cities? In Portland Güero #1 Tortas on NE 28th is tough to beat

A toy horse is cabled to a horse ring set in the curb on NW 23rd in Portland, OR. There are horse rings all over town, and from time to time folks whimsically cable toy horses to them

Always love seeing a horse tied up to a sidewalk ring

Minneapolis - St. Paul feed is almost my entire BlueSky experience

A view through a chain link fence of goats in an empty lot. They’re there for a couple weeks to clear overgrown weeds and brush. They’ve done a great job so far

Goats clearing a weedy lot in war-torn Portland Oregon

Remotes smell like the people they see handle them, pretty irresistible

A garden pathway in Portland OR celebrating cartoonist John Callahan with a winding display of selected cartoons from his career

Callahan cartoon: A crude drawing of a man fallen outside a snack bar over a banana peel, with his snacks spilled on the ground before him. His thought balloon says “What kind of a god would allow a thing like this to happen?”

Callahan cartoon: A crude drawing of a haughty dog at a security desk confronted by a guard in front of a door marked “private.” The guard dog’s word balloon says “I’m sure you’re probably who you say you are, but regulations require me to sniff your butt”

At the John Callahan Garden near NW 21st and Johnson. I’d not seen it before. Quite a few of his cartoons to enjoy along a winding path. Nice memorial for Callahan, a NW Portland institution

A photo of a chicken katsu sandwich with slaw on milk bread, with a dish of brown curry gravy for dipping

Tanaka Katsu Sandwiches is a good spot in war-ravaged Portland Oregon

The teardown represents progress, the estate fought (? Still fighting?) amongst themselves for decades

Of course I also miss Heavy Number Taco Company, another business gone 40 years

The fenced-off, torn-down “building” at NW 23rd and Marshall. It’s a field of rubble and concrete slab now

In Portland, missing Quality Pie