In the Twin Cities, it’s Brasa. Without question. You can buy a pint of green sauce, a huge pile of slow-roasted pork, black beans and yellow rice, some perfectly vinegared cole-slaw, and some fab corn bread. (And if you’re my husband, green plantains.)

My deeply lovely neighbor has this syndrome. I will do any favor that he needs - and will occasionally just bring him baked goods - because he is one of the kindest, most generous souls I know.

So years ago, one of my friends who has a history of pushing EVERY crappy fantasy and sci-fi book my way claiming it’s the BEST BOOK EVAR, suggested Game of Thrones. I was like, “Yeah, whatever.”

There are SO many reasons to not support a Joe Biden candidacy, that I can’t believe this might be the thing that derails him.

Um, I clicked on that link and literally said, “oh hell, no,” and closed the tab upon seeing the picture. Then I reopened it and forced myself to read it. Then I found the song mentioned within and oh holy mother of god it is utter, utter crap.

My late mother’s actual engagement ring is the gold miniature set with a real ruby that was a miniature of my Dad’s college ring (apparently, “sweetheart” rings were a thing back in the day, especially at men-only schools). It’s on her charm bracelet. And he got her a modest diamond solitaire ring when he was…

Know how Marvel released all those character posters for Avengers: Endgame yesterday?

Oh man, one of the biggest arguments my Mom and I had during my wedding planning was that she really wanted to get a fondant-covered cake. My ‘rents paid for the wedding (their choice, we would have happily gone to Vegas and found the tackiest chapel imaginable), and I was pretty willing to go along with my Mom’s…

I think they’re handles.

My husband and I did a “Two Together” railcard, and I pre-booked reserved seats for our trips. I recognized quickly that that had been the appropriate thing to do. Sitting may have been tight, but it was nice to actually have the seat.

While I had serious beef with Southwestern Rail - they always seemed to be heavily delayed out of Waterloo which caused major delays down the line and their communication was crap - I was otherwise mostly pleased with the other rail lines we took in the UK. Leg room could have been a bit better, but we didn’t have to…

I had a roommate who transferred in for the spring semester of my junior year. My former roommate had to drop out and move home because her Mom got really sick, and there was no way the Office of Residence Life was going to let my very nice upper-classmen dorm room remain half empty.(These were the dorms that they…

One of my greatest irritations when driving is when I’m behind someone in the left lane trying to pass a truck, and as soon as THEY get ahead of the cab, they slow down.  See, it’s all cool because they passed the truck, so screw all the people behind them they’re now putting in danger.

My husband and I each took a roller-bag plus tote you could slide over the handles on our nearly month-long trip around the UK this past fall. But I also got one of these style bag-bungees, and securely strapped my very battered mid-weight suede coat on top of the tote bag while we were rolling. My husband couldn’t…

I live in Minneapolis-St. Paul, and when people arrived for the Super Bowl here last year, we were in a proper deep-freeze. A lot of people ended up having to buy much heavier coats while they were here, and a local non-profit smelled an opportunity. They set up donation boxes where people could drop these coats that…

We went on a month-long trip to the UK this past fall, and each brought a week’s worth of clothes. We then researched ahead of time and found “Service Laundrettes” in select destinations that would do our laundry for us same-day, as long as we dropped it off by no later than 8 or 9 am.

Depending on the city, it ranged…

The next time you want to write a piece like this, you do know you don’t have to go to Iowa, right? Just pick up the Thruway, continue west at Albany, and take a northern turn onto 81 in Syracuse.

This should have so many more stars. It’s not as if, upon gaining the Presidency, any candidate can abolish the Electoral College. It is built into the Constitution and requires an amendment to change.  Those are tough in the current political landscape.

I have friends and family who own restaurants. So I take very quick pictures with no flash, and then the subsequent IG posts are location tagged to the restaurant. I also make sure to tag the restaurant, and when I can, also the chef and FOH staff in the caption. And then I discuss how much I enjoyed the meal or a…