For those who don't follow James Lilek's as a blogger or a columnist for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune a bit of background:

• The Strib's circulation has been in freefall for a couple of years (like most papers)

• The Strib actually cancelled Lilek's column (despite it's popularity both at home and online)

• Then they actually considered firing the only columnist they had with any national expose (Lilek's blog "The Bleat is widely read and his books are nationally sold)

      Well in a stunning move the Strib pulled it's head out and made Lilek's the main "content wrangler" for their online presence at buzz.mn (not in Mongolia).

      In Sunday's update ("Updates on Sundays?" (Nice isn't it)) while discussing Judy Garland Days he mentions my tiny little hometown in passing :

"The quote for the day:

Love is the delightful interval between meeting a beautiful girl and discovering that she looks like a haddock – John Barrymore

Eh. Spoken like a bored, dissipated debauchee. Judy Garland never looked like a haddock. She’ll always be the Minnesota kid singing “Over the Rainbow” before the twister hit, an inspiration to everyone in the rural counties who can’t wait to ditch the dead dull burg for the big city - where they’ll realize, of course, that there’s no place like Sleepy Eye. Or Northfield. Or Motley or Glyndon or Pipestone" (emphasis mine -GW)

For some reason it is nice to see it in print. 

     In any case you may want to take a look at Buzz.mn and if you do you will probably see some of my content over there as well. I am re-posting some articles that are not dependant on current events as the site is trying to move beyond it's local focus a bit. It stands a good chance as Lilek's has brought over a large number of non-Minnesotans from his blog audience.