International Tongue Twister Day is as good an occasion as any to revisit some of the most memorable examples of tongue-tied political remarks. Two of them, by the way, involve Minnesotans.

MinnPost’s Book Club Club gets a lot of e-mails. Here's our first roundup.

Educators, travel writer and chef, business writer, business owner. What do they have in common? Writing.

In the past, the way to sell books was a publisher-managed publicity tour. Today's industrious authors are taking a new approach: visiting book clubs.

It’s not quite up there with some of the cosmic controversies of our time — nature vs. nurture? And Betty or Veronica? — but it’s an appropriate seasonal debate, particularly with all the new attention to the 70th anniversary of the classic film “The Wizard of Oz.”

It’s a dreary day. You need a laugh. Check this out.

Reasons for leaving a book club are often circumstantial — a new job, an expanding family, a move to another city. Once in a while, however, dumping your book group is personal.

Writers struggle with vulnerability. How much of their lives should be on the page? How do they stay present and immediate with their writing, and live a normal, functional life?

Saturday night/Sunday morning, Prince, now 51 years old but preternaturally forever young, tore it up over three hours like a cutting-edge artist who now seems content to operate as the best retro-funk band leader on the planet.

There’s nothing like a well-crafted film scene where the central couple meets for the first time to set a movie’s tone, whether it’s a sophisticated thriller, a sexy film noir or a good-old-fashioned romantic comedy. Here are some examples.

This week, the librarians at Young Adult Library Services Association (a division of the American Library Association) and the superstars and divas at World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) join forces to celebrate Teen Read Week 2009 with the WrestleMania Reading Challenge.  

If you’ve been waiting to buy tickets for “Ruined” -- hoping your book club would win 10 vouchers in today’s Book Club Club drawing -- stop hoping and call the Mixed Blood box office. Unless you belong to Bookwomen.

Although there are plenty of complaints about misogynistic lyrics in music today, many of the songs that baby boomers grew up with are just as bad in denigrating women. Some of the biggest musical acts are among the worst offenders.

Come Nov. 2, the lone noise from the Uptown Bar will be that of the wrecking ball (relocation rumors continue to swirl), but for one night anyway, this is the way it was.

Here are some malady melodies to help you pass the time while you’re waiting in line for that flu shot.

TORONTO — Tonight the pair engage in a dialogue at the Walker. "A Serious Man," the Coens' 14th feature, opens at the Uptown soon — and the other 13 are in the Walker's Coen retrospective, "Raising Cain," which runs through Oct. 17.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Former Vice President Walter Mondale last night offered pointed advice to President Obama as he attempts to prod Congress on health care and a plethora of politically difficult legislation: Push harder. And Mondale acknowledged that he agreed with former President Jimmy Carter, who recently said that racism was behind some of the criticism of Obama.

NEW YORK — In Minneapolis, Osmo Vänskä gets bigger applause just walking onstage than most conductors do when leaving it. Now, after concerts with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, he's getting kudos in New York.

Wy Spano, usually seen in public places neatly dressed in a gray suit, is looking shabby these days. Known for launching political initiatives (the Politics in Minnesota newsletter in 1980, and the Master of Advocacy and Political Leadership program at the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2004), he's playing the role of a homeless man in a Fringe Festival play this week.

Picture it now. Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Lt. Gov. Carol Molnau and Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller and Rep. Phyllis Kahn spinning and twirling and singing to a golden-oldies collection put together by Sen. Don Betzold, a bespectacled DFLer from Fridley.

Mick Spence, a local entertainment and copyright attorney, took in every second of the trial of a Brainerd woman who downloaded and shared songs on Kazaa. Spence assesses the jury's decision to award the music industry $1.92 million in damages.

HIBBING — Dozens of people rallied in Hibbing on Tuesday, protesting Hibbing Community College's decision to not replace its theater-department director, who is leaving for the Twin Cities. Last season featured 10 plays, which drew audiences from all over the Iron Range and beyond.

Penumbra Theatre Company, the largest African-American theater in the country, is struggling because of the recession, cutting its general operating budget by 24 percent and postponing some shows.

The Minnesota Historical Society is opening a huge, semi-permanent exhibit Saturday at the History Center in St. Paul. "What we've tried to do is look at the entire life of this generation, from birth to legacy," said Project Director Randal Dietrich.

The huge Upper Mississippi Forest Project and a tripled Arts Board appropriation are part of the legislation that lays out how $481 million in new sales-tax revenue will be spent over the 2010-2011 biennium.

The Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment approved last fall calls for 19.75 percent of the income from a state sales-tax increase to be spent on "arts, arts education and arts access and to preserve our history and cultural heritage." But potential recipients are jockeying for the "cultural heritage" money.

Boris Eifman, the world-renowned Russian choreographer whose "Eugene Onegin" opens Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg's latest U.S. tour tonight at Northrop Auditorium, talks about his work, his interpretations and plans.

Anyone who follows the Twin Cities arts community is well aware of all the pay cuts announced in recent months by nonprofit organizations ranging from the Loft Literary Center to behemoths like the Guthrie Theater and the Minnesota Orchestra. The latest is the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.

The theater will gain national attention with its two-month tribute to Tony Kushner, regarded by some as the pre-eminent American playwright of our times. The events include the premiere of his new play, other stage performances — plus a plethora of seminars, classes and workshops and two "Extreme Kushner Weekends" that involve marathon theater packages.

Filmmakers Dawn Mikkelson and Melissa Koch have put four years of unpaid labor into "The Red Tail," a stirring new documentary named for the distinctive part of a Northwest Airlines plane. I talked with Mikkelson and Koch about the movie and its making.

The pastor of Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Dassell, Minn., explains how Scheffer's 1851"Christus Consolator" turned up in a storeroom and what led the congregation to give the valued work to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

Initial reports of Natasha Richardson's tragic skiing accident, which led to her death yesterday, were perplexing: How can someone tumble down a beginner's ski slope, appear fine, and yet within hours be fighting for her life in a hospital's ICU? It's not as unusual as you might think.

Minnetonka High School graduate Dmitry Chaplin, a dancer known for being a top-10 finalist and a choreographer of the reality show "So You Think You Can Dance," will partner, starting tonight, with Holly Madison (who is replacing Jewel) in "Dancing With the Stars."

Matt Desmond of Minneapolis has created or revived more than 50 fonts. He's one of only a few "font cowboys" who make their living designing specialized fonts.

Ever wonder what day-to-day life is like in Bosnia after its ethnic war or in today's secretive Iran? Or, if protests over the Highway 55 reroute in Minneapolis made any kind of lasting impact? You'll find answers in the films in the 16th annual Women with Vision festival, opening today at the Walker Art Center.