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

Dwight Wilmerding, the protagonist of Benjamin Kunkel's 2005 novel Indecision, is acutely aware that other people have trod in his existential shoes. An ambivalent part-time tech support worker, he feels "like a scrap of sociology blown into its designated corner of the world. But knowing the clichés are clichés doesn't help you to escape them. You still have to go on experiencing your experience as if no one else has ever done it."

We're rounding the home stretch of the seemingly endless holiday season! After January 1st it's back to business as usual, carrying in tow millions of New Year's resolutions that were simply made to be broken. While we have complete faith in you and your ability to kick the junk food/cigarettes/crazy boyfriend to the curb, we still think any and all vices ought to be indulged to their fullest extent on New Year's Eve! Why not? 2009 will wipe your sinful slate clean, so we say, LIVE IT UP!

SPECIAL EVENT
Soundbar Christmas Party

Wednesday was the last session of my class at the U (Liberal Studies 5100: The Future of News) , so instead of meeting in the classroom, I invited my students to be my guests for dinner at Pagoda in Dinkytown. I had remembered that Pagoda had some special banquet menus for groups of eight or more, but when I stopped by to check them out, I discovered that they were all written only in Chinese.

Okay, before I tell you about the new Tiger Sushi in Lyn-Lake (the original is in the Mall of America)   I'll admit that I have a Bad Attitude about sushi in general.

When my friend Rich insisted that I had to go try his friend Leo's restaurant, Shish, on Grand Ave. in Saint Paul, I said sure, why not, but I should have known what would happen next.

I am WAY behind on shopping. I know I've been writing out gift guides for y'all, but that doesn't mean that I'm surrounded with foodies in my real life. I have to buy Bionicles and Restoration Hardware tchotchkes like the rest of you.

A couple of books have arrived in the mail recently -and set me to thinking about the role of critics - Zagat's America's Top Restaurants 2008, and Food & Philosophy: Eat, Think and Be Merry, edited by Fritz Alhoff and Dave Monroe (Blackwell Publishing).