News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Sunday December 21st 2025
A Tale of Two People
By PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL
RETURNING CHAPTER 3
So we”™ve met Angel & Luz again. Angel works double shifts at Abbott to feed the family. Luz is trying to finish her degree at Augsburg. They raise their two children, wrestle with a complicated world, and still carrythe scars and questions of their past. They are happily married, and their marriage has trouble. Tolstoy famously said, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Luz and Angel”™s deep unhappiness is about to take them in two different directions. Will they find the joy hidden in their own darkness?
Angel shook off the dream, made himself some coffee and finally looked at the clock. It was 2:50 pm. He had barely 10 minutes to run to Andersen to pick up Angelito. It was snowy and slushy out, but he couldn”™t find his boots. So he put on his old tennis shoes, and ran. By the time he had run the five blocks there and walked the five blocks back, carrying his son half of the way, his feet were wet, then frozen and starting to turn numb. He tore off his shoes and socks as soon as they got home, and looked for a clean pair.… Read the rest “A Tale of Two People”
A Book of Sorrows
Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial CemeteryÂ
By SUE HUNTER WEIRÂ
180th in a Series
A Book of Sorrows
The title seems fitting for a book of poetry or maybe a novel, but its purpose was as far from those uses as possible. It was a ledger measuring 18” by 12” with a black cloth binding, trimmed with red Moroccan leather. It was the property of the County Morgue and contained the names of the people whose bodies were stored in “Death”™s Lodging House” as one reporter put it, for some brief period of time.
The first entry in this particular book, (although there were undoubtedly records of earlier deaths kept elsewhere,) was made on August 5, 1893, the same day that the new morgue opened for business. John F. Walsh, the city”™s morgue keeper, most likely purchased a new ledger in honor of the occasion. Over the next 22 years almost 4,000 names- only one line allotted for each person- were recorded in the book.
Six of the 26 names entered on the first page in the ledger are men who are buried in Pioneers and Soldiers Cemetery between early August and early November 1893. An article published in the Star Tribune on April 25, 1915, described the ledger as “devoting its pages to suicide, murder, accident and misfortune.”… Read the rest “A Book of Sorrows”
Rounding the Corner
METRO TRANSITÂ
By JOHN CHARLES WILSONÂ
From the perspective of the common customer, the situation with Metro Transit and the coronavirus probably looks like the end of the world. However, from the point of view of someone who follows the inner workings of the system, it is merely asleep, not dead.
There is a service change going into effect 12 September 2020. Unfortunately, the details haven”™t been made public as of the deadline for this month”™s Alley issue. That said, I speculate that we will be moving closer to a restoration of the full pre-COVID-19 schedule. For those of us who are tired of long waits, or of having to go a different way because their usual route is suspended, this will be great news.
Behind the scenes, plans are still being made for the future. At present, there is one piece of major good news and one piece of bad news. The bad news first:
The Blue Line extension to North Minneapolis and the northwestern suburbs has been put on yet another delay because the BNSF Railroad won”™t grant permission for Blue Line tracks to be put on their right of way. Personally, I don”™t find this to be much of a problem as the BNSF route is less than ideal.… Read the rest “Rounding the Corner”
Keep citizen journalism alive!
