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By Journal readers
Call for spring poetry
“Oh to be in England, now that spring is there!” gushed Robert Browning. Actually he said, “Oh to be in England/now that April’s there...” I’m sure he would have said the same about Minnesota had he been a Twins fan.
This is good, since our Spring Poetry Project issue will appear in April, which, as you, I and Browning know, is National Poetry Month.
The deadline for submissions is March 15 — the Ides. Please send your best work to me at wilhide@skypoints.com. If you know people who write poetry, please spread the word. You can find out more at wilhide.com/site.
Doug Wilhide
Southwest Journal,
contributing poetry editor
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Props for parks coverage
Thank you for your article about the Park Board’s 6-3 vote to initiate a search for a new superintendent. Hopefully, this time the search will result in a superintendent that truly understands that one of his responsibilities is to protect our parks and parkland and not allow event centers, hydro-power plants, stadiums and multiple concession stands to be built on them.
We are stuck with DeLaSalle, but had it not been for an alert citizenry and coverage by your publication, our parks might also have been stuck with event centers at Parade and Lake Calhoun, a power plant at Mill Ruins Park and a second concession building on the shoreline of Lake Harriet.
Thank you for keeping a keen eye on Park Board business.
Arlene Fried
Co-founder of Park Watch
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Support Southwest’s small businesses
Drove past the Shoppe Local store at 50th & Bryant the other day. Saw the mounds of snow and tight parallel parking spots and thought, “Eh, I’ll walk over and check it out when the weather gets nicer.”
I thought it could wait for me. How self-serving.
A fire ripped through the businesses at 50th & Bryant and took out Shoppe Local and its neighboring stores and restaurants.
Homegrown stores and restaurants. Whether it’s a freak blaze or the smoldering economy that does them in, homegrown businesses might not be there when we’re ready.
Recently, the Star Tribune featured an article about the 3/50 Project created by Minnesota-based retail consultant, Cinda Baxter. Baxter asks each of us to fuel our local economy by redirecting some of our spending back into independent businesses. Every month, we should spend $50 at three locally owned stores, she suggested.
If we want stores to remain, or rebuild in a community, we gotta shop there. Snow drifts, tight parking and all.
Julie Fulton
Tangletown
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Letters to the editor
By Southwest Journal readers
Praise for the ‘A Lake Harriet Legend’As a regular member of the Lake Harriet early morning walkers community, I want to thank Nick Halter for the wonderful article he wrote about “A Lake Harriet Legend.” Having been a walker since August 1985, I have seen many changes in the “community,” but the warm camaraderie among the walkers has never changed. Many years ago one of the dog walkers had a birthday party for her 12 year-old dog at the bandshell — a real social event. Then one year a regular walker, Don Olson, who knew everybody, had a heart attack while on vacation in Maui, Hawaii. The word got around and he was sent many cards. One walker even called him in Honolulu at the hospital. Don
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Gearing up for another school year
By Bernadeia Johnson
We are busy preparing to welcome students in grades 1–12 back to school on Aug. 30 and welcome our new kindergarten students on Sept. 1. Families often ask me what they can do to help their children do their very best. Families play a critical role in their child’s academic progress. You can help your child prepare to learn each day. Help your child get ready in the morning so he or she arrives on time and ready to learn. Ask your child what he or she learns in school each day. Set aside time each night to help your child with his or her homework. Visit the open house at your child’s school before the first day. Your child will come to school confident and eager to succeed. We are working hard to make
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A vacation state of mind
By Terre Thomas
I envisioned one or two long luxurious and/or adventure packed weeks of vacation for this summer. Since I’m no longer to busy with the storefront Fairy Godmother, and my online store can be run virtually (figuratively and literally) from anywhere, I planned to go to South Dakota, spending a week mining for rose quartz and enjoying the Black Hills with my high school daughter and her best friend, then later in the summer heading up to Cross Lake with the whole family to play cards and splash-paddleball and luxuriate with a book in a lawn chair firmly planted out in the sandy edge of the lake with lapping waves splashing my feet. But conflicting work schedules, tight family finances with an unexpected $3,000 transmission repair bill for our minivan, and a
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Crickets in the night
By Jim Walsh
The crickets were loud over the lakes neighborhoods of South Minneapolis Saturday night-Sunday morning, knowing as they do that their lives are short, three months to be exact, so as the summer goes on, those desperate little crickets beat their legs faster and faster, raging against the dying cricket light, which is the sound we hear when we hear that heated whistling chorus that whirls everywhere after dark these hot August nights. The sound of death, in other words, but also of a life spent singing all the way to the grave. The sun came up over 46th and Grand at 6 a.m. Sunday morning. Paul Douglas assured nothing but blue skies all day, the universe was cooperating; people were nervous and excited. Kings owners Molly and Sam ate breakfast with their kids and boyfriends in
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