Three Easy Pieces; or: We Walked the Line/Each One Teach One/Worst.Tip.Ever.

Mrs. Duf and I went holiday shopping this weekend and you know what? It wasn’t so bad. We secured a covered parking spot (it was snowing so that’s a good thing), we found a gift or two, and we took in a show. In this case, the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk the Line” which I recommend to you as a good film, but not as good at the music video for Johnny Cash’s cover of the Nine Inch Nails song “Hurt.” I recommend “Walk the Line” to you as something to see at your googaplex or for viewing in your home theater.

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Each year around this time, as the weather turns colder, I always wish that someone (perhaps in our state’s driver’s education program, or within our car sales enterprises) would teach newly arrived persons (particularly those who appear to come from Africa (and, within that, appear to come from Somalia and Ethiopia)) how to use the defrost mechanism in their cars. I’m worried that they are going to get hurt.

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When we go to restaurants, if TinyE is a bit “energetic”, we will put three pennies on the table and tell her that she needs to have at least one penny left in order to get a treat at the end (don’t judge me it works!). If we are eating at the Taco House, then she needs at least a penny to buy a treat from the gumball machine. This weekend, we were at Curran’s and told her that she needed at least a penny to go to the puppet show after breakfast. We lined the three pennies on the table, and the waitron came to take our order. We were so happy to see him because we had been sitting there like forever! In fact, we asked if he would bring a few crackers whilst we waited, and he agreed to do so (but many minutes later had to be reminded). Anyway, after he took our order (I had a cheese omelet, Mrs. Duf had steak and eggs (yes, I love her even though she is omnivorous), TinyE had the pancakes. We handed our menus to the waitron and with a quick and disgusted swipe, he took up the three pennies and hastened away. Methinks he did it with very angry thoughts directed toward those who dined there before us. We thought to alert him to the reason three pennies were perfectly spaced on the table, but we decided not to – just to be impish sprites.



We made it to the puppet show (on time too), and it was wonderful (as always). I think most every city has for its citizens (and these things are so subjective, no?) attractions so sublime, that they come to define a piece of what it is we love about the place we call home. For me, Saturday morning puppet shows at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis are just such an attraction – I love them, and my daughter loves them.

I’ve noticed that I’ve been less political. This week I hope to write about the Saddam Hussein trial and what it says about our war against Iraq.

Happy Monday!