WE HAVE a good guy in the White House, a smart man of judicious temperament and profound ideals, a man with a sweet private life, a man of dignity and good humour, whose enemies, waving their hairy arms and legs, woofing, yelling absurdities, only make him look taller.
Washington, being a company town, feasts on gossip, but I think the Democratic Party, skittish as it is, full of happy blather, somehow has brought forth a champion. This should please anyone who loves this country. Let the others chew on carpets and get what nourishment they can. End of sermonette.
The beautiful part of my week was a visit to the warehouse district north of downtown Minneapolis where, in my boyhood, I used to ride my bike past printing plants and barrelworks, a slaughterhouse, lumberyards and auto salvage yards. I was fascinated by the sight of men at work. Now, a new ballpark has arisen there and, on April 12th, though we are still knee-deep in snow, the Minnesota Twins will open the 2010 campaign against the mighty Red Sox and their nation.
On Monday, I snuck into the park through a door left ajar and attached myself to a group of suits on tour and got to see the whole joint, the steep left-field bleachers, the spruce trees in deep centre, the skyboxes (each with a porch, so the nabobs can get fresh air), the locker room (with batting cage and pitching machine nearby, just like at a carnival), and the spot where the statue of Killebrew will stand.
To me, a sceptic when it comes to public works, this looks to be the Eighth Wonder of the World, a temple on the order of Fenway or the Acropolis, a beautiful little ballpark tucked snugly into streets of old warehouses and the Burlington railyards, with commuter trains running to its front door. It’s a sight that fills me with unmitigated dizzy delight.
We Minnesotans have been watching baseball in a basement for 28 years, under a fabric dome on a plastic field designed for football, and come April, we’ll be sitting in sunlight, or under the stars, with the handsome towers of downtown Minneapolis beyond centre field, and we’ll mill on the great concourse and eyeball the game while ordering a steak sandwich or a Schweigert hot dog. Hallelujah. Wowser.
That this was accomplished through public financing – $392 million of the $544 million total was paid through a sales tax approved by the legislature – is some sort of triumph, and to an old Democrat like me, who believes government can do some good things right and is not a blight on the land, this ballpark is a huge pleasure. I headed south to my favourite medical clinic to make sure I’d live ’til opening day.
Southern Minnesota was fully swathed in snow. I listened to The Beatles' White album on the way down to Rochester, past miles of small farms where people live by stern realities that don't forgive mistakes easily, listening to playful music ( Why Don't We Do It in the Road, etc) from back when I was a bright young thing, before I got ponderous and hoofy.
At the clinic I was tapped and bled and X-rayed and examined and some barnacles were removed by freezing with liquid nitrogen, and that was all good. When you hang out at a medical clinic, you notice people around you sitting in prayerful silence, and you see scenes of marital devotion, a healthy mobile spouse pushing an immobilised one, and the banter of camaraderie of the long married, though one of them is in dire straits. The stern realities of life, for all to see.
And then I was sprung loose. They opened the gate and slapped my haunch and I raced north toward the city, toward April 12th, toward spring, summer and the bright future.
It was during While My Guitar Gently Weepsthat I smelled the skunk. He expressed himself powerfully, richly, for almost a mile. Nothing says spring like a big stink. A Republican skunk protesting big government, and he got in the way of a big vehicle that knocked him out of this world. I wish his species well, but did not stop for the memorial service. – (Tribune Media Services)