The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

The people in this photo were impressed by The Rake's depth and breadth of subject matter. Some of them are Twin Citians on vacation; two spend their time now between Tucson and Puerto Vallarta (the Rake began publishing after they left Minnesota, and they have enjoyed their copies so much they are passing them on to other folks, including Canadians); one is a California dress designer who created gowns worn at the Oscars this year and last; one is a painter who spent eight years sailing around the world, and authored a book about her adventures. There's a former school teacher who recently played to sell-out crowds in the musical Those Sassy Sixties, at the Santa Barbara Theater in Puerto Vallarta, a nurse practitioner, a yoga teacher from San Diego, a psychotherapist/wood carver, and a former advertising agency owner who is writing his first detective novel. Can you tell who's who??

The photo was taken on the veranda of a condo overlooking the Bay of Banderas. Whales have been spotted from this spot, and pelicans sail by in stately groups to spend their evenings at Los Arcos, the rock arches near Mismaloya Beach south of Puerto Vallarta. Most of the people in the photo had not seen The Rake before, and all clamored to keep at least one copy. Favorite article: Jeannine Ouellette's feature about imagination in the November 2007 Rake. The request from the former Minnesotans: Keep them Rakes comin' our way!

I was glad to hand over the copies of The Rake, as I find I am loathe to put them in recycling; I want to keep them all! If The Rake publishes for many more years, as I hope it will, I could become one of those people who can only walk in small paths through their residences, as The Rakes will be piled up to the ceilings.

Thanks for the consistently excellent publication. It's one of the few I read from cover to cover.