Born Fargo ND, 1958. Grew up in a turquoise rambler with boomerang-patterned Formica. (Hence, more or less, this site.) Lived in Minneapolis since 1976, with a four-year tour of duty in Washington DC. I retired from a 28-year stint as a columnist for the Star-Tribune in 2025. Author of many books, including The Gallery of Regrettable Food. I wanted to be an architect. I am blessed with a talented daughter.

Some ancient pictures of Norman Rockwell-style post-war childhood can be viewed here.

I worked in journalism, but I wasn'tnot a journalist - that title is best reserved for people who do the hard work of calling up sources, checking leads, and other forms of diligent labor. I make things up, really. Or, if I do a feature story, I just show up somewhere and describe an event. Previously I was a columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, City Pages, and the Minnesota Daily, and a talk radio host on KSTP AM-1500 in the 80s and the 90s.

Fascinating pictures of a really important career can be found here. Well, they're pictures, so that much is true.

I had great parents. Marvelous parents. And, it seemed, quite ordinary ones. All the other kids had moms at home and dads with jobs. It took me a long time to realize how lucky I really was.

Mom's Farm Life photos

Dad: The Man Who Wore the Star

The last days home. (Untouched since written in 1997.

Grandma's Camera: what Agnes saw through her Brownie in the 20s.