Old Woman #1: “Do you have waffles?”
Counter Clerk: “No. We’re a Chinese restaurant.”
Old Woman #1: (loudly to friend, apparently hard of hearing) “They don’t have waffles.”
Old Woman #2: “Ask them if they have pancakes.”
Old Woman #1: “Do you have pancakes?”
Counter Clerk: “No. We only have Chinese food.”
Old Woman #1: (loudly) “No. They only have Chinese food.”
Old Woman #2: “Ask them if they have Chinese pancakes.”

It was always a joke that the only places you could move after living in Duluth were: Back to the cities, Bozeman MT, Colorado Springs CO, Seattle WA, or Portland OR. Add Los Angeles CA, Las Vegas NV, and Tempe AZ and that was 2008.

I spent the holiday getting my tires/tie rods/alignment replaced/done. If that doesn’t say holiday, I don’t know what does. It was hours upon hours at the service center, me without my laptop and not much to do.

Guy comes in with a combat wounded plate. Service shop is finishing up his transaction and employee says, “Thanks for your service, were you in Nam?”

Turns out he was. Turns out the customer service guy was as well. They talk about locations/dates and it turns out that it is highly possible the guy selling tires once upon a time flew the customer in a helicopter someplace over the jungle in Vietnam. Wow, they can’t make this up. Pair of them tell a few stories, shake hands. Thank each other for their service.

A 20-something woman waiting in line behind the Vietnam vet is waiting less than patiently. Vet leaves. Woman says something like, “What’s all the fuss?”

Just another day at the auto repair shop.

So, I’m walking down East Third Street, minding my own business, and a middle-aged man with a goofy smile on his face asks me: “Are you talkin’ it off or walkin’ it off?”

Is that some kind of expression? What could it possibly mean? Did I hear him right?

I’ve found that it’s best in these situations to just say something quickly and politely while continuing to walk, so I just said, “Walking it off,” and kept going.

But now that interaction is bugging me. The only implication I can think of is that maybe I’m supposed to be walking off a hangover, which I guess sort of makes sense. But how would somebody talk off a hangover? And since I wasn’t talking, shouldn’t it have been obvious I was walking it off?

After initially deciding to take a year off, Trent and Brita Edgerton, the amazing local couple that has produced MITP since 2006, sent me an email today telling me that the event is BACK on with a new sponsor, the Greater Downtown Council. Information about sponsorship opportunities and a TENTATIVE schedule is here.

That’s all I know.

Apparently a car ran into the Kozy Bar. I am not making this up. I did not get the whole story.

(more…)

Stone Temple Pilots karaoke @ the Roundup Bar, bitches.

At Monday’s race relations rally, my friend, local videographer, solar power activist and occasional political candidate Jay Cole of Youth Video Quest captured video of the remarkable and very emotional exchange between UMD students and Chancellor Martin.