How Minnesota Went From Tom Sawyer to Huck Finn

by | Jan 22, 2022 | News

I wrote an August 1973 cover story for Time magazine that praised Minnesota as “the state that works.” The cover photograph showed Gov. Wendell Anderson, dressed in a plaid flannel shirt, grinning and holding up a northern pike that he had just caught in one of...

AT&T and the Netflix Streaming Crack-Up

by | Jan 21, 2022 | News

Still liking AT&T’s plan to spin off its giant Warner Media acquisition especially in view of Netflix’s big selloff Friday? The press was over the moon about the pending dismemberment when it was announced eight months ago. It involved big dollars and a big...

Google’s ‘Inclusive Language’ Police – WSJ

by | Jan 21, 2022 | News

The physicist Richard Feynman once told a story about his father taking him out in the woods to observe nature. Feynman saw a bird and asked what it was called. His father said the name was irrelevant—it was only important to see how a bird behaved if you wanted to...

Eternity and the Grateful Dead

by | Jan 21, 2022 | News

The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, May 8, 1979. Photo: Anonymous/Associated Press One morning under an ominous sky, my friend Michael texted me a video of the Grateful Dead performing “Looks Like Rain.” He was right as, well, rain. Shortly afterward, the heavens opened...

The Supreme Court’s McGirt Cleanup

by | Jan 21, 2022 | News

The U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. Photo: SHANNON STAPLETON/REUTERS The Supreme Court made a mess in Oklahoma two years ago, but the good news is the Justices might now be moving to help clean it up. On Friday they agreed to hear an appeal that could...