What’s It About?

Posted on 13 September 2010 by Erik Hare | 10 Comments

As the rain started to drip, we ducked into the little bar warmed by worn woodwork. It was my first chance in a long time to meet some of the people who write blogs for a living or fun, my work and family schedule being what it is. The mood was set perfectly by the scenery as we had to turn the coldness of unfamiliarity into the warmth of a common sense of purpose. It was good to meet everyone at the blogger gathering last Friday, but it raised a question I hate to answer – what is my blog about?

I thought this was a good time to summarize what I’ve been writing about lately as we all wade into the upcoming elections and some of the fine points get a bit soggy in our pockets.

Continue reading →

Pharisees

Posted on 8 September 2010 by Erik Hare | 14 Comments

Terry Jones is more than the Pastor of a small church in Gainesville, Florida. He is the man who can calmly look into the camera and explain why he intends to publicly burn a copy of the Koran in what he says is “… Not a message of hate. Our message is a message of warning to the radical element of Islam”. The constant attention of this incident and his bizarre inability to understand his own actions has made Jones into much more than just a Pastor. He has become a media darling, the center of attention – and it has given him the ignoble status of Pharisee.

Continue reading →

Defined by Labor

Posted on 6 September 2010 by Erik Hare | 8 Comments

Today is Labor Day in the USofA and Canada. You may be off at the State Fair or taking one last long summer day up at the cabin on the lake. I understand that very few people will read this in the middle of the last day of summer routine.

But that’s fine with me. What I have to say might be better on the Tuesday after Labor Day.

Continue reading →

State Fair

Posted on 1 September 2010 by Erik Hare | 4 Comments

Nothing says Minnesota better than the State Fair. For those of you who are not from Our Fair State, this is the 10 12 day celebration of all things fried and on a stick, punctuated by tremendous traffic jams. Minnesotans would read that summary of what this is about and be appalled, of course, because it’s much more than that to the people who rely on this summer’s end tradition to mark the passing of their lives. But for those of us who have “Not From Here” stamped on our foreheads, The Fair and the intense focus on it this week will always seem a bit strange. In a state where the local dialect uses the word “different” as an insult, I’d like to simply say that the experience seems to me to be a bit … unusual.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Continue reading →

A Saint Paul Moment

Posted on 27 August 2010 by Erik Hare | 5 Comments

I came home from a meeting with a client and there they were. A whole team of guys with buzzing and growling equipment filling Irvine Park with motion and clouds of dirt. It wasn’t an unusual scene, since the Parks Department does their share to mow regularly – but these guys were different. It was some private company out trimming and mowing and generally making our li’l park look better than it has in a long time.

What makes this a Saint Paul Moment wasn’t clear until I asked one of them what happened. Did the city contract out the maintenance? No. “The owner of our company’s son is getting married here this weekend, and he wanted it to look nice.” So he just set his crew loose on our public park and made it look great.

That is a Saint Paul Moment. You just do it.

Continue reading →