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

Eventful barely begins to describe the year that was 2008. There was, of course, the ongoing fiction that Minnesota was ever a battleground state during the presidential election, and the RNC taking place in Minneapolis, er...Saint Paul. But even stripping away the millions of dollars and the monstrous steaming piles of carefully worded bullscheiss funneled into the state and strewn across the landscape like so many cow pies by the national politicos leaves us with a startling patchwork of transcendence and frustration on the local political scene.

The status quo is almost always a warm, comforting feeling. No matter how often people complain about Minnesota's interminable winters, or Cyndy Brucato's mummy-like visage staring soullessly from KSTP evening newscasts, eternally hungering for the blood of Amy Hockert, they would still be profoundly disturbed these constants were

In Godzilla movies, fallout from a nuclear test or some other significant disaster often awakens the monster, or one of his rivals, wreaking untold destruction upon Japan, like so.

Since taking office in 2003, Tim Pawlenty has done an admirable job of holding to his conservative values and staving off those in the legislature who would pluck that last bastion of political innocence. From saying no to an omnibus higher education bill last May to drawing the line at the appointment of a state poet laureate, our fearless leader has never allowed the fumbling advances of the DFL to arouse his executive passions and cajole him into doing something rash, something he'd regret in the harsh light of the