Everywhere & Anywhere: Passepartout

John's thoughts and commentary

This Place is Too Cold For Hell

 

 

5307203543_cbd5b0accd_o
'Winter Night' (Mucha, 1920)

 

Winter is the dominant season Minnesota. Allow me to prove it:

  • January-February are 'Deep Winter,' a time when you pray for days above 10F. Cars scream when started. Skin splits. Static arcs across a room.
  • March is 'Normal Winter,' a mild season people in semi-tropical places like New Jersey would call 'Winter.'
  • April is Post-Winter, a period of gentle blizzards.
  • May-June are 'Spring.'
  • July is 'Summer.'
  • August-September are known here as 'Autumn.'
  • October is 'Pre-Winter,' a period like Post-Winter when King Boreas shakes a few flakes on our heads.
  • And November-December is 'Winter We Like Because It Is Christmas Time.'

That's SEVEN months of Winter! Most of the year is cold and crappy in Minnesota.

 

What the hell am I doing here?

 

Forecast
Our five-day forecast. This is called "normal." Ugh

 

 

"I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood."

-- Bill Watterson

 

 

 

Sashay To The Foshay

Foshay01

The older Foshay once dominated the Minneapolis skyline. Now it is obscured by newer, taller buildings.

 

Today we went to see the old Foshay Tower in downtown Minneapolis on a crystal-clear September day. We got some museum passes at the Washington County Library (4 free!) and took advantage of the free downtown weekend parking.

The old  Foshay was built in 1929 as an homage to the Washington Monument which is itself modeled after granite obelisks in Luxor, Egypt. I would say the Foshay is 'inspired' by the two other obelisks because it really doesn't look like them. (And one could say the Foshay influenced the 'Doctor Who' costume designers -- the Foshay looks like a giant Dalek.).

The building is a historical monument, so the W Hotel, its latest occupant, took pains to restore the Art Deco ornamentation in the interior and avoided modifying the exterior facade in any way. The elevators are exquisitely detailed in brass artwork. The lobby ceiling has been restored as well. No dancing nymphs from 1929 to be found; the W makes sure you know you are in a trendy hotel with pink neon lighting and blue glass sparkles. Yet the combination of old and new work beautifully. Art Deco is elegance -- the W prudently embraced it with their own, modern elan.

The Foshay was the tallest midwestern building outside of Chicago for many years. It was a point of pride for Minneapolitans decades after it was built, and though it was superceded by the taller IDS tower in the 70's, it still is beloved by its people.

 

Foshay02

The building still bears the name of its creator, Wilbur Foshay. Although he hoped otherwise, few people today know who the egotistical Foshay is.

 

(download)

In the distance you can see downtown St. Paul. The IDS tower and the Wells Fargo Building are much taller than the Foshay. Each corner is labeled for the compass point it faces.

 

There is a very narrow observation deck around the top of the building. I am troubled by heights, so it took me a while to walk around the deck. I kept my back to the wall at all times.

We could see all the way to downtown St. Paul, the Minneapolis lakes and the grassed top of the downtown Target Center.

At each corner (N, E, S, W) there is a free telescope  to see into the horizon. The day was so clear, we had no trouble seeing fifty miles away.

 

Foshay05

 

 

 

Apple Time

Apple03

 

Each September we head out to the country to get fresh apples. A favorite destination is Fischer's St. Croix Farm Orchard in southeast Washinton county, Minnesota. There are many varieties, from old-fashion sauce crabapples to the newer Honey Crisp. They sell them by the peck, half-peck and bushel. We always get the 'utility' grade apples to cook down into applesauce or pies.

The little store offers a variety of things to buy (preserves, honey, melt-in-your-mouth caramels...). There are small farm animals for the kids to see. Fischer's has other fruit for sale depending on season, but we come for the perfect apples.

The air around the place smells of apple juice. I imagine Fischer's is a delight in late May when pink-white apple blossoms perfume the air.

 

(download)

 

“Goodness comes out of people who bask in the sun, as it does out of a sweet apple roasted before the fire” ~ Charles Dudley Warner  

 

Forget Art Galleries, Take Me To A Kitchen Store

(download)

I just go nuts in gadget places and can waste hours in hardware and cooking supply stores. Especially fun are the restaurant supply places with their giant mixers and mongo aluminum cookware. IKEA, Home Goods and Bed, Bath and Beyond can transfix me, too.

But the high-end kitchen stores are above even those wonderful places. With their colorful crockery stacked on steel rollaway carts, they are the art galleries of housewares.

One of my faves is the Chef's Gallery in Stillwater, MN. Yesterday we stopped there on our quest for the perfect kitchen compost pail. I was easily distracted by all the shiny stuff: All-Clad pans, Roseli utensils, Le Creuset pots, Wusthoff knives ... sigh.

I whipped out my iPhone and snapped these photos. An employee asked me to stop -- it's against store policy. Sorry, ma'am, but your store is just too gorgeous to deny me. And so I share with you, dear readers.

Flood pictures, Stillwater, MN

(download)

The Saint Croix flooded its banks this month. The bridge spanning the river from Stillwater, MN, to Houlton, WI, was closed this week but reopened on Friday.

The riverside promenade was entirely submerged. The river is normally 10-15 feet below the bridge. Today it was lapping at the base.