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MSP Home Tour

Just an hour a way from the home tour start. Karlene has everything under control.

Not banning happy hours

Phew!  Jeremy Hanson commented that there is not an effort to ban Happy Hour in Minneapolis.  Folks, it's safe to order the boot full of beer.  I'm surprised that an apparently bogus issue became such a story requiring such damage control.  The Mayor's Communications Director is lurking in some pretty dark hallways to correct this runaway story.  Good for him.  Hopefully he's having the same conversation with Cam Gordon.  Because Cam was much less clear about what was being discussed.

On a side note, I don't think it's a great idea to release 18 year olds out into the world with Manhattan's, but maybe the legislature ought to be studying the impact of allowing 19 and 20 year olds to drink beer.  Undoubtedly DWI's would go up.  But perhaps health related injuries, assaults and deaths from under the table underage drinking might go down.  I'm not for or against right now, but I'd love to hear some arguments.

Liz for Parks

Liz doesn't have much of a website up yet.  But it's there with her contact information.  If I were going to imagine the perfect possible Park Board Commissioner, perfection would be Liz Wielinski.  Liz has an extraordinary command of Park Board finances, and she's a Mom that became involved in parks originally because services were being cut, and she didn't understand why.  

I've been critical of the Park Board because I don't think that budgets have always been spent well, certainly not transparently (though they're getting better, I think) and most importantly, I think there are misspent priorities.  Check out the budget, and there's lots of money being spent on golf courses and ball parks.  Not as much on climbing walls, skate parks or other more contemporary activities.  I've written in the past about Richard Florida and his notion of building a local economy by attracting creative economy stars.  It's not that we don't need ball parks.  But it would sure be nice if the Park system took all of our residents, and all of our activities, into consideration.

We've got nearly a year before we cast ballots in Minneapolis elections so there's plenty of time to remember Liz's name.  Vote Liz for Parks.

Economic Recover from the guy the broke the Bank of England

I don't like to post and go, but in this case I'm in a rush and I thought this article was incredible.

Happy Hour Ban continued...

Referencing yesterday’s post regarding the restriction of drink specials I just couldn’t understand why I was so bothered.  So I started surfing my Hannah Arendt  on the bookshelf, and she got me pointed towards the old Burke and Montesquieu.  Referencing The Spirit of the Laws (my version is in english), Part 3, chapter 6, “May we be left as we are, said a gentleman of a nation closely resembling the one of which we have just given an idea.  Nature repairs everything.  It has given us a vivacity capable of offending and one apt to make us inconsiderate; this same vivacity is corrected by the politeness it brings us, by inspiring us with a taste for the world and above all for commerce with women.  

May we be left as we are.  Our discretion joined to our harmlessness make unsuitable such laws as would curb our sociable humor.”

Okay, so I admit that I’m stretching Montesquieu’s point to match drink specials in a bar.  However, I think the point is made that very smart people have been arguing for the freedom of our indiscretions for 300 years.  I think his point is made, that there is a place for the law, and there’s a place for personal Reason, and they’re not always the same place.  

Not long after Montesquieu was critiquing the French crown Edmund Burke, a famous and learned British Parliamentarian, penned “considering their speculative designs as of infinite value, and the actual arrangement of the state as of no estimation, they are at best indifferent about it.  They see no merit in the good, and no fault in the vicious, management of public affairs;  they rather rejoice in the latter, as more propitious to revolution.”  Burke wrote this in reference to the French Terror and the ideals of the revolution.  He would comment, as Arendt did in late centuries, that there is a danger in people assuming the body politic has paramount authority in determining Right behavior.  

I’m not saying that banning happy hour is totalitarian in nature, but I am suggesting that it’s a bit much.

Happy hour ban in Minneapolis?

Coming before the Minneapolis City Council is a discussion of whether Happy Hours, or more specifically, drink specials, should be banned in an effort to control binge drinking around the University of Minnesota.  This is a preliminary proposal, so I hope people don't flood our City Council with comments that can be construed as counter-productive.  

So, earlier this evening I was enjoying a special on champaign.  Under such an ordinance, this would be impossible.  No champaign deals for those of us who somehow managed to survive college.  It did make me think about just what my obligations to civil society are when political society usurps my obligation to be responsible.  What can we expect of people if we simply legislate behavior?  I spent some time with Aurelius, Cicero, The Federalists and Hume looking for answers.  I couldn't spend long, but did come away convinced that at some point, we have to have an expectation that parents will teach their children about over-consumption.  If we legislate such expectations, what do we leave for the parents?  Guess I'm going to have to go back to the books for answers. 

Lefse 2008 The Party

From set-up to the end of the night.  Here's hoping everyone had a good time. 

     

  

       

      

    

Lefse 6 sixth night

Okay, ever wonder what 25 pounds of meatballs looks like?    It's enough meatball mix that I have to use the 5 gallon bucket.    This is not my own meatball recipe.  I buy a ground meat mix from Ingebretsen's deli in Minneapolis.  It's a lot easier than grinding the meat myself.  What we do is roll the 25 pounds into small meatballs and brown them.  Note Jathan's meticulous work.    As Jathan was browing them Kyle  and I were stacking them in trays like this .  After several hours of rolling and browning meatballs we're left this this in my kitchen.    

In addition to the meatballs we were also prepping other food for the party.  We brought the chocolate fountain up from the basement for the first time in a couple of years.  We haven't used it recently because it's a lot of work to clean, and leaves a big mess, but we thought that it was necessary this year to bring it back out.  Anyway, Jenny the Vegetarian wasn't enthused about rolling meatballs, so we put her to work dicing pound cake for the fountain.     Finally, the entire crew collected for the Aquavit toast to end the evening.

Lefse 8 fifth night

Tonight we roll somelefse.   Peter came over to help prepare some lefse ahead of schedule, and drink some of my wine.  I decided that the first lefse of 2008 was worth drinking some of myChateuaneuf du Pape 2003, and Peter was particularly helpful disposing of a bottle.  The first step is to pull the batter from the refrigerator.    Then we mix it up with some flour until it looks like this.    Taking a golf ball sized piece we roll it out until it looks like this .  Note you can vaguely read the print on the pastry cloth through the batter.  Once it is this thin we use the lefse stick   to transfer it onto the griddle.    A piece of lefse grills quickly, in about a minute, 30 seconds on each side.  Then we transfer it to the pile  here, and put the lefse cozy over the top .  By the end of the night we produced two full batches of lefse, more than enough to get the party started.

Lefse 2008 4th night

Still cooking.  Really.  There's a lot of work, though I enjoy the cooking.  Feels like a hobby.  Tonight was lingonberry night.  I make a sauce that goes over the lefse (see tomorrow night).    Note that the size of the cauldron is big because I make so much.    What you see is a pot that I originally used in college for brewing beer.  Each container has three cups of berries, and then we add other stuff to make it sweet.  Note, I'm not having any fun at all.    In addition to preparing the sauce I was also busy staging  for lefse flipping.  This involves a drop sheet so that I don't end up with flour in the heating vents.  Lastly, because Karlene was busy eating my krumkake, I had to make more.