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Richard Parker

Roseville, MN
Commenter for
5 years 25 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 05/04/12 at 01:31 pm in response to Sister Brigid McDonald calls Vatican's reprimand of U.S. nuns group a 'misuse of power'

Sister Brigid and the commenters above have expressed my views better than I could. I'll only add that the Sisters of St. Joseph gave me my start in life and that I see guidance in Sister Brigid's actions and statements more than those of Mr. Ratzinger or Mr. Nienstedt.

Just two weeks shy of 70 years ago I was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in St. Paul, which was founded in 1853 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet. No doubt some nursing sisters took care of my mom and handled...

Posted on 01/16/12 at 01:45 pm in response to How I got that photo: Ben Garvin and the 'Crashed Ice' aerial

As an expired newspaperman who lived through the embarrassing Krispy Kreme hype some years ago (and wasn't above eating some of the free doughnuts in the newsroom), I've been critical of the hype Red Bull has been getting in the PP news columns. Thanks for addressing that, David and Ben. And I've gotta say that Ben's visual coverage was absolutely superb. His grasp of journalism's new directions is a great asset to the PP, too, along with his adventurous spirit. But about loop-the-loops i...

Posted on 01/12/12 at 02:05 pm in response to Best Buy CEO Dunn takes a ripping ... on his own blog

To reprise part of my letter published in the PP two months ago: Why not tear down the outmoded, 106-year-old, crumbling Capitol and arrange for the (preferably downsized, unicameral) Legislature to meet in the nearby Economy Inn, then build a new Vikings stadium on the old Capitol site. It's handy to bars, restaurants, freeways and light rail! This plan would avoid the $241 million ($200 million a couple months ago) cost of fixing up the Capitol; that money could go toward the stadium....

Posted on 01/10/12 at 12:22 pm in response to Divided youth hockey community has to do better job teaching -- and protecting -- its players

Disclosure up front: I've never been a hockey fan. Lately, indifference has turned to an active dislike of the game. I don't enjoy watching players, especially kids,skate around and deliberately knock each other down. Baseball and basketball players aren't encouraged or allowed to knock each other down, are they? I did enjoy the old joke, the first time I heard it, about the guy who went to see a fight and a hockey game broke out. That brings up the matter of "enforcers" in the "sport" of...

Posted on 01/10/12 at 12:30 pm in response to Divided youth hockey community has to do better job teaching -- and protecting -- its players

(Yup, I'm aware that some online commentators have urged that the cliche "just sayin'" be added to those lists of phrases banned for overuse.)

Posted on 12/10/11 at 05:30 pm in response to Nicollet Mall festivities: Origins of the Holidazzle Parade

I treasure my snapshots of Al Sicherman as the Holidazzle grand marshal in a parade in, I think, the late 1990s. Uncle Al wore a white tuxedo and top hat, with glitter on the tux. Unfortunately, Al used vegetable oil in an effort to keep the glitter stuck on, and even though it was polyunsaturated it permanently stained the tux.

I also remember seeing a Holidazzle parade on State Street in Chicago in 1996, after Dayton's had bought Marshall Field's. State was then a pedestrian-only...

Posted on 12/02/11 at 12:19 pm in response to Politics by gaffe: recalling the 'brainwashing' of George Romney

I'm old enough to remember a fatherly George Romney doing commercials for Rambler automobiles on the "Disneyland" TV show in the latter 1950s. He was president of American Motors, which was formed in the merger of Nash and Hudson a few years earlier. I loved "Disneyland" and later, "Mickey Mouse Club" (read Annette Funicello) and liked Romney until, when I had reached draft age, he appeared to be among the supporters of intervention in Vietnam. Always wondered why he named his son Mitt;...

Posted on 11/28/11 at 03:03 pm in response to Vikings' miseries spread to Leslie Frazier

Maybe some of the injured Twins are well enough now that they could fill the holes in the Vikings roster temporarily.

Posted on 11/28/11 at 04:54 pm in response to Vikings' miseries spread to Leslie Frazier

Foundering and failing -- floundering and flailing...

Posted on 11/16/11 at 02:02 pm in response to WCCO finally breaks silence on 'duck/dog story' controversy

You kids are probably too young to remember, but back in the early 1970s the Minneapolis Tribune ran a column by staff entertainment/food/antismoking writer Will Jones about his trip to China, where he went to a restaurant that served dog. A photo of an adorable, abundantly wrinkled Shar Pei ran with the column. I don't remember whether Will said he had eaten some dog, but boy, did the calls and letters come in! An overwhelming number of readers were outraged. And that happened when the...