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

Okay, so I am sitting in the Fireroast Mountain Cafe, 3800 37th Ave. S. blogging while Carol is standing in line in the freezing cold five blocks away at the Riverview Theater, waiting for the doors to open so we can watch the inaugurationon the big screen. Turns out they have Obama blend as one of their featured coffees. Can you guess? It's half Hawaiian and half Kenyan. Light and smooth. And then my friend Lisa, who owns the place with her husband Dave, mentions that they also have a special stew to honor the occasion - a vegan African peanut stew - $4 a cup, $5 for a generous bowl.

The first few times I attended the Minnesota State Fair as a kid I found it disappointing. It seemed a little run-down, old-fashioned, and the rides were more rickety (and scary) than all the shiny new stuff at Valleyfair. Plus, I have never liked crowds. Somehow, though, that changed when I became a teenager. Maybe it was just more fun to go with friends than family, but I think the real key was a major discovery: ironic enjoyment.

The McCain campaign has taken Obama to task for supposedly saying Sarah Palin will do what she's told. I can't say whether anyone really said that Palin will do what she's told, but the evidence of her appearance with Charlie Gibson on ABC certainly suggests she SAYS what she's told.

When Gibson asked her if she would back Israel if Israel were to attack Iran's nuclear facilities she said, "I don’t think that we should second-guess the measures that Israel has to take to defend themselves."

Bad design is all around us, but there's no bad design like bad election year design. Let's take a moment here to catalog some notable atrocities from recent election cycles, and then hang our heads in bipartisan shame. Offender number one is Bush/Cheney's militantly mindless logo from 2004; you can almost hear the designer making phlegmatic war movie sound effects to himself as he drafted it.

^{photo from Pander Watch}

(read aloud)

Obama!

Obama, mama!

Obama mama, blackjack!

Obama mama blackjack, jackpot! Smoke a lot?

Brain rot?

Minnesota

pep rally, rock show! Let's go! Cash flow!

Are we here? Do we know? Where to go? Say so!

Minnesota slam dunk. In the trunk. No junk.

Put it in the mix, punk!

Hoosier daddy