My memory of Lois Swenson
BY POLLY MANN
The last time I saw her was several weeks ago in my living room with two of her old friends who, years ago, had taught school with her at Robbinsdale. They were trying to convince her to buy a unit and move into the Kenwood Isles Condominium (minimum age 55) where she’d possibly be my hall neighbor. She smiled agreement. Lois Swenson smiled a lot. But to occupy my building, she’d have to sell her house and its contents, much of it derived from her frequent dumpster divings. Shaking her head she said, “I’ll think about it.”
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War with Syria
and Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan and Iran
BY ED FELIEN
About 50 demonstrators gathered in front of the Federal Building in downtown Minneapolis on Tuesday, June 26, to protest the continued escalation of military activity in the Middle East.
They chanted:
WE’VE SEEN THIS ALL BEFORE,
SAME STORY, DIFFERENT WAR!
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Spidey, almost a man
By Ed Felien
 The latest Spiderman is a prequel. It takes place before Tobey Maquire’s character burst on the scene ten years ago.
Andrew Garfield plays Peter Parker, a nerdy high school student who gets bit by a genetically modified spider, develops superhuman powers, causes the male authority figures in his life to suffer tragic consequences, and still has all the major hormonal imbalances of a normal teen-ager.
You don’t have to be much of a Freudian to fully appreciate our Peter killing his father over and over and saving the final embrace of the film for his surrogate mother, Aunt May, played by Sally Field.
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The Powderhorn Art Fair turns 21 this year
BY JANET CONTURSI
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“Autumn Landscape” by Kevin Kluever |
Summer is art fair season in Minnesota and the Powderhorn Art Fair, now in its 21st year, should be on the top of your “to do” list. The Fair will run Aug. 4-5, with booths spread throughout the 66-acre Powderhorn Park, in the heart of the city. Thanks to the work of dedicated staff and volunteers, the Fair will bring the arts and crafts of 184 contributors—local and national—to South Minneapolis.
Neighborhood fairs are a great opportunity to support local artists and bring home a piece of original art—a one-of-a-kind treasure that will never be mass produced! Judging from the list of this year’s entrants, there will be plenty of jewelry, pottery, fiber and glass works, but don’t overlook the award-winning artists who will be showing affordable watercolor, acrylic, oil and pastel paintings.
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The Old Woman’s revenge
BY ED FELIEN
When I was a small child growing up in South Minneapolis, my Uncle John used to take care of me and my brothers while my mom and dad had to go to work. He really wasn’t my uncle. He was more my grandmother’s boyfriend. When my grandmother died, when I was 5, Uncle John stayed around and cooked and took care of us when he didn’t have to go downtown and stoke the boilers under the Alvin Burlesque Theater.
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Making Minneapolis healthier from the inside out
BY RAINA GOLDSTEIN
 Adults in Minneapolis are fat and so are their kids. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), a shocking 24% of Minneapolis adults are obese and 23.1% of public school students in the city are overweight or obese.
Although those rates are below the national average, they still represent a major public health problem and a bleak future of cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
Many people seem frustrated as they struggle to lose weight but don’t have the support they need.
Without proper infrastructure and community support, it can be impossible for the average family to lead a healthy lifestyle.
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The hungry insurgent
BY CHARLEY UNDERWOOD
We Americans waste a lot of food. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, we throw away about half the food we produce, much of it quite usable. It amounts to filling a large football stadium to the brim every single day, something between 160 and 295 billion pounds of food per year. One way to cut this back lies in our neighbor’s backyard: gleaning. Gleaning is the process of harvesting food you didn’t plant.
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Materialism
BY POLLY MANN
Have you noticed how so many little girls are dressed these days? By little I mean from say 3 years old and up. They’re wearing darling little skirts and tutus and gold-colored slippers. And so what’s wrong with that? Well, let’s go back to the beginning. I don’t think that a bunch of mothers decided one day that their daughters’ jeans and T-shirts were too unfeminine.
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Aftermath of Mexican elections: The protests continue
BY JOHNNY HAZARD
 Mexico City, Tuesday, July 3
On the eve of Sunday’s national elections, hundreds of thousands of protesters, mostly students, stayed till midnight in marches in Mexico City and other cities. The polls opened at 8 in the morning with the usual fraud and inefficiency: Some polling places didn´t open till noon, but they closed on time at 6 p.m. and left people waiting in line, unable to vote.
The unofficial results, hailed by most Mexican media and by governments like that of the United States, show Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI, the historic ruling party, six points ahead of his nearest rival, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of a center-left tendency.
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“Is there a Ford in your future?”
BY ED FELIEN
Probably not, if you mean a new Ford Ranger truck built at the Highland Park Ford Plant in St. Paul.
“Is there a Ford in your future?” was the popular advertising slogan of Ford through much of the last half of the 20th century. It is a bitterly ironic slogan now as United Auto Workers union members contemplate their future without Ford. For 86 years workers in St. Paul and South Minneapolis built Fords. It was good work, and they had good reasons to be proud of what they did.
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August 15 is the Feast of the Assumption
BY BARNABY DEVITT
Catholics throughout the world celebrate August 15 as one of six Holy Days of Obligation. They are required to attend Mass under penalty of mortal sin as they celebrate when Mary, the mother of Jesus, was assumed bodily into heaven.
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July
Riverside Community Calendar
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Trees Need an Inch of Water Every Week
Even with recent rain, years of drought have stressed our urban forest. Our yard and boulevard trees still need an inch of water every week throughout the spring, summer and fall. Last fall was the driest on record and last winter yielded the 10th lowest snowfall in more than 100 years. Extended drought conditions can make trees vulnerable to insects and disease and cause permanent damage to young and old trees alike. Young trees three to five years old are especially susceptible. An effective way to water a tree is to turn on a slow stream of water (just so the hose is weeping) for a few hours. Watering in the evening after dinner time is best since it minimizes evaporation, and trees tend to take most of their water during the night. Watering one tree weekly for the warmer months costs only about $3 for the entire season.
For information on tree care and the urban forest call the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board’s Forestry Department at 612-313-7710, e-mail forestry@minneapolisparks.org or visit www.minneapolisparks.org/trees
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
Recovery Efforts in Northeastern Minnesota: Donate to Camp Noah
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota will be assisting with long-term recovery efforts in response to the flood disaster in Duluth and other communities affected by torrential rains in northeastern Minnesota. LSS will make its Camp Noah program available to children. This specialized day-camp is specifically designed to help children recover emotionally from natural disasters. LSS of MN is appealing for donations to assist with flood recovery efforts. Donations can be made online at www.lssmn.-org/disaster or by mailing a contribution to Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, SDS 12-2054, PO Box 86, St. Paul, MN 55486 (Memo: Duluth Disaster Response).
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July 2012 
