Secrets of the City

First link for Jason in a while. I think this guy is going to be the next Subway Jerad.

Totally offtopic (OMG!)… but for all those Almanac geeks, the only pairing stranger than the Eskola-Wurzer marriage is Wy Spano’s partnership with Sarah Janacek…

They aren’t a couple are they? Eric is a cool guy, don’t knock a bus rider.

…and to prove it he just talked about General Hospital. It’s no YnR, but adult males who watch soaps and have the balls to talk about it are a-ok in my book.

Adult males who watch soaps are testosterone challenged, imho.

To be clear: I’m not going to be the next Subway Jerad, right?

And thanks for the link: the blog’s been fairly lame for awhile, but then, aren’t most of our blogs fairly lame most of the time?

I have an old reel-style mower that provided a good workout — I used it for about 10 years. Now I use an electric rechargable, which is tough enough to push up any kind of a slope.

Bride of Offtopic: When you see a man talking to himself, swinging his fists wildly in the air and whispering that the U.S. Surgeon General and the Institute of Medicine are “out to get get us,” what do you do?

1) Move to the other side of the street
2) Walk past quickly and avoid eye contact
3) Give this guy a newspaper column!

Kevin: I think it’s decently established that Eric is one of those sensitive types who enjoys playing golf, playing the guitar, and collecting guitars. He resides in Minneapolis with his wife, Cathy Wurzer.

Bob, fortunately I skippeed straight to the end, saw the Ayn Rand reference, and realized I could dimiss the other 95%, too. Not only did the author name the Libertarian Jesus and the Libertarian bible’s greatest gospel, he distilled it down into a “John 3:16″.

Incidentally, did you know that the original Jhn3:16 guy is serving a life sentence on kidnapping charges, after going on a spree of church (stink) bombings in the early 90s?

Escola (who everyone agrees is a fine reporter) can be a bit of a pain to work with sometimes. God help the poor PR Nubie who won’t let him place his old tape recorder under the speaker’s nose at a news conference.

He’s a hard-working guy with some interesting quirks.

Yep, he’s definitely quirky. I propose that the official beginning of spring in Minnesota shall be the first Friday of the year when Eric Eskola doesn’t wear a scarf on Almanac.

Amoung other things….I would like to nominate Sarah Janacek for What Not to Wear.

I just talked to the lawnmower man. He reports he’s got all the lawns he can handle now. He took on one more than planned, so he’s doing his own + 5 other people’s every week. He also was offered a free week stay at a resort up north if he hits his goal of losing 50 pounds; a hardware store offered to make him a “jerad-like” figure… giving him a free lawnmower if he hits his goal.

And he was asked out twice. The power of TV News.

On Eric Eskola – I have always been on the fence – quirkiness vs. good reporting. And I worked in state gov’t for a short while in a position brought him into contact with me twice, and he was a bit aloof, even though coming to me for help/info. But then I stood next to him during the Ray Davies concert at First Avenue a couple of months ago. He left the scarf in the car (or hid it under his jacket) but still in his suit. And sang along. So good in my book!

Craig Westover appears to be yet another example of the odd correlation between autistic kids and batshit-crazy parents.

alamn bob: AND quotes Ayn Rand to boot! Awesome!

Honestly, Bob, while we’re banning secondhand smoke everywhere can we ban secondhand automobile fumes too? I have a feeling they’re much worse for us.

There’s no doubt that the ALA is concerned with every kind of air pollution, but I think that banning auto exhaust might be in a dangerous area of absolutism, and the next step would be to outlaw garbage. Sure, we could all do a little better, but these aren’t exactly elective behaviors, like smoking.

That said, I agree that the Surgeon General’s report was a bit dubious, but I’m still of the mind that the safest level of poison is zero. To dismiss the report as pure politics is to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

… and c’mon people, it’s J-A-R-E-D, just like that jewelry store with equally annoying commercials. Let’s stay with proper name spellings, and FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, stop naming your kids Nevaeh, Hagan, Tristan, Hunter, (Cait/Kate)l(i/y)(n/nn), Charmin, or whatever pathetic by-committee name is popular these days.

I think he’s a great reporter and thought I don’t really know him personally he doesn’t come off as quirky in person as he might on television or radio. We’re all a little quirky, anyway. Hell, I take off my shoes when I eat lunch and brush my teath with one hand behind my back. That’s quirky.

Honestly, Bob, while we’re banning secondhand smoke everywhere can we ban secondhand automobile fumes too? I have a feeling they’re much worse for us.

Oh come now, Tmayhem, you know better. Sure, vehicle exhaust is bad. Vehicle exhaust in an enclosed space is much more hazardous. We’re working on that, as many of you already know.

Same with smoking. You have never heard me advocate making smoking illegal (a complete Prohibition), I’ve been talking about indoors, where people work, eat and drink. We just think a waiter’s or bartender’s health and life is a valuable as a retail or office worker’s health and life.

Don’t you agree?

So please, no talk of “banning cheesburgers,” or changing the subject to cars (Westover tried to be satirical on that topic and ran himself over).

Shoes off during lunch? That is quirky.

That’s a good topic for a post, actually. Name your weirdest quirk.

no, I don’t mind indoor smoking bans, even if I do smoke (and I know I shouldn’t)

but I still think that automobile fumes, even in an outdoor environment, are probably a lot worse for us than occasional secondhand smoke exposure. The people who work in smoky places of course are the ones who suffer most, which is why I don’t mind the indoor smoking bans.

Did anyone hear KFAN spoof call some local GOTV outfit asking for help voting for Francisco? It was great.

My weirdest quirk would be licking the gum wrapper before putting the gum in my mouth. Gets me stared at, but there is extra flavor on that paper that I paid for, so I’m enjoying it!

GABBY! ! !

What’s the deal with Star Tribune reporter Eric Hanson? In his on-line article about the lawnmower guy, he brags about placing a call to the guy before I did.

“Nelson was contacted by the Star Tribune North weekly section on Wednesday. Since then, he said, he has fielded calls from WCCO-TV, his family, strangers, a hardware store that potentially wants to use him in an ad — even some women asking him out. “

I’m sure it’s all thanks to the Strib phone call, not to the news story that aired last night at ten. How weird.

Thunder… stolen.

Is Sarah Janacek really Wy Spano in drag?

Just curious.

DeRusha-

As a newspaperman who’s experienced the epic clash of print and broadcast news personalities, I must say that Hanson tossing that in there is not surprising at all. He’s trying to own you.

It’s funny. I bow before the power of the Strib Metro North section.

It’s not like it was any real investigating by either of us. We read Craigslist. Impressive.

Don’t be afraid to take a stand, man. You’ve got all of MNSpeak behind you.

Hanson’s cool. I sent him a joking e-mail, and they actually updated the on-line story to remove the impression that all the goodness happened because of the Star Tribune North section. Class move.

dude…theres another Jerad DeRusha!? cool! haha