St. Paul Katie's NFL Picks Updated

No winner last week, so there's a $3,000 pot riding on these picks.

Update: Katie goes five for eight. Two 4-0 teams lost today, Katie got one of those right.

New Orleans - correct
New England - wrong Cinncinnati wins by 7
St. Louis - correct
Miami - wrong - Baltimore wins by 3
Philadelphia - correct
Detroit - loses to Green Bay by 13, uff da
Kansas City - correct
Indianapolis - correct

Just another distinguished Herald alumnus

Local publisher with internationally-acclaimed columnist.

At a recent gathering of Chaska Herald alumni, Stan got reacquainted with Steve Lenius.

When Stan joined the newspaper in 1973, Steve was already working there part-time as a typesetting guru. In high school at the time, he had already mastered the new-fangled refrigerator-sized Compugraphic computer that produced galleys of phototype for the newspaper. 

The computer digested yellow punch tape that had been prepared by typists. Steve earned the nickname "Lenius the Genius" because of his machine skills and also because it was alleged hat he could actually read and translate the dots punched into the ribbons of paper as easily as the machine.

Stan hadn't seen Steve for forty years until the recent celebration of the Herald's 150th birthday. Turns out, Stan isn't the only one who pursued a career in journalism, Steve ended up as an internationally-acclaimed magazine columnist. 

Here's some highlights of his career, taken from his internet bio:
Author and columnist Steve Lenius came out as a gay man in 1974 and became involved in the Twin Cities leather community in 1993.

For fifteen years his Leather Life column has appeared in Lavender, Minnesota’s GLBT magazine. His writings also have appeared in The Leather Journal, Skin Two (a fetish magazine published in London, UK), the 2008 Yearbook of the BDSM Creative Collective (Minneapolis/St. Paul), Leather Tribe Leather Nation (a yearbook published by The Leather Journal), The Petal and the Thorn (newsletter of Black Rose Society, Washington, D.C.), International Leatherman and Roundup (magazines for the GLBT leather and country/western/rodeo communities published by Brush Creek Media), 

The Journal of Bisexuality (published by Haworth Press), The Gayly Oklahoman (a GLBT newspaper based in Oklahoma City), XL (Lavender Magazine’s Adult Xtra) and Gaze Magazine (Minneapolis/St. Paul’s forerunner to Lavender). 

His Leather Life columns have also appeared on Leatherpage.com. He wrote the Introduction to Painfully Obvious: An Irreverent & Unauthorized Manual for Leather/SM by Robert Davolt (published by Daedalus Publishing, Los Angeles). 

His writing was recognized with a President’s Award from Pantheon of Leather in 2003, and he was a co-winner in the category of “Best Leather Commentary on Current Events” in the True Tales Leather Journalism Awards in 2005.

Tempus fugit

Our Alexandria classmate, Bev Roers Korkowski, thought we might be interested in this photo she found in an old high school newspaper, circa 1965. She was right. It's Stan's sister Solveig. . . probably one of the lightest members in her Latin class, seated in the chariot being pulled by a couple of stallions. According to the caption, the three won the race at the annual Latin banquet.

High tech installation at the newspaper office

The aproned gentleman on the left was no doubt the Linotype operator.
A journeyman typesetter held a prestigious position in any
print shop and would always wear a tie at his keyboard.

In 1923 this was the finest in typesetting equipment, an object of pride and achievement. Ownership  guaranteed the local print shop control of everything from business cards and funeral programs, advertising circulars to legal notices in the newspaper. A massive Merganthaler-Linotype was installed on the Second Floor of the newspaper office on Fifth and Lewis in Shakopee in December, 1923. There's a bait shop there now, selling guns and ammo and licenses, but the newspaper is still around, now being published as the Shakopee Valley News.
Stan is its publisher emeritus, so that would make him a successor to the dude with the gold watch chain, standing in the center of the photograph flanked by "office girls." We like to imagine a flask in his coat pocket, along with ad copy for an upcoming dance at the ballroom. This was the Roaring 20s, after all.
This photograph was recently procured and passed on by the Shakopee Heritage committee, but no names were included with the framed gift they presented to the current Valley News editor, who truly intends to get it off his desk and properly hung up on the wall one of these days.

BReaking Bad

Andrea drew a sample of Stan's blood promptly at 9 a.m. this morning, after his 12-hour overnight fast.
For the past months, there's been nothing but fruit and vegetable smoothies for breakfast, then lots of fish, water, dry popcorn and exercise, so there is a whole lot riding on a good report card when the lab technicians at Ridgeview Clinic complete their measured assessments.
We hope to just say No to Lipitor.
Immediately after the blood extraction, Stan and Kathleen sped off to the best place for breakfast in all of Eden Prairie, the Original Pancake House. It's Virg's favorite place for breakfast, but he had a tee time today so just the two of them ordered their pigs in a blanket smothered in syrup, with eggs, sausage patties, etc., cholesterol be damned.
Then on to Marcia's table at Kell Avenue for a huge piece of Lionel's birthday cake, swathed in whipped cream. Tonight, cocktails, a cigarette, chicken-fried steak with cheesy potatoes and a dish of Rocky Road Ice Cream.
It's so good to be bad.

Happy Birthday Lynn Wilson

Honeymoon in New Zealand.

Hope the newlyweds haven't been shut down today. Course, if our NASA scientist Lynn has been, it's an excuse to make the best of it and have an extra big birthday celebration.
In any case, Happy Birthday, Lynn.
(Lynn is the husband to Stan's niece, Briggs.)
Here's some get acquainted stuff for Lynn that we posted earlier:

Here's something about Lynn:

I was born in Grand Rapids, MN on October 1, 1982 to Amy Helmer and Lynn Wilson Jr. Not only do I share a name with my father, but we also share a birthdate (though there is a 30 year difference). My sister Steff and I are very close. Like Briggs, I have always loved sports, especially baseball, football, and wrestling. For my undergraduate experience, I attended St. John's. Immediately following, I went to the University of Minnesota and completed my PhD in physics in September 2010. I gave my thesis defense, and within three days we were driving to Washington DC to start my job at NASA. I have now been with NASA as a research physicists for 2.5 years. I love my work because I get to discover the mysteries of the universe (just like they do on Star Trek!!!). My favorite experiences with Briggs so far have been our trips to New York City, whitewater rafting (listening to Briggs giggle while I'm freaking out), going hiking completely unprepared for the elements (got out of the car, realized it was way too cold, got back in and drove for an hour to get home), and our road trips to various and sundry places.

Breakfast at Laurie's

French toast bake, bacon and sausage, muffins and fruit chunks

No NFL picks from St. Paul Katie today. You're on your own. So far this afternoon, the Vikings are giving the Brits a good show. New quarterback Matt Cassel looks promising. We can hope.

Instead of Canterbury Park, Stan and Katie enjoyed breakfast at Laurie's today, where there was a beautiful spread and a lot of catching up to do, with Laurie just back from a trip to California where she visited the Getty, among other things, and had a great time.
Birdie is a favorite at Laurie's table as well, er, under the table anyway. Later on, outside she found a baby snapping turtle that provided a bit of excitement.

This tiny snapping turtle was never in any danger.
Birdie has no idea what to do with prey.

What's in your backyard?

Karl and Sue in front of  Haystack Rock

In 1969 our friends, Karl and Sue Tegland, left Minnesota to begin a new life in the Seattle area. They found new friends, established their careers, raised two sons, took vacations . . . but never spent much time enjoying the nearby spectacular Oregon coast. Until now.
Here's a photograph of the couple strolling Cannon Beach, during a recent leisurely six-day adventure on the iconic coastline.
William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark expedition) described it as "...the grandest and most pleasing prospects which my eyes ever surveyed, in front of a boundless Ocean..."
It was time, Karl and Sue. Good for you.

Photo Credit: Lincoln County News

Still our absolutely favorite one. . .

Como Park charmer