Secret Twin Cities: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Secret Twin Cities: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure PDF Author: Julie Jo Severson
Publisher: Reedy Press LLC
ISBN: 1681062607
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
Where can you view a rare handwritten letter by Mozart in the same building where a notorious gangster was once chained to a radiator? Whose remains are stored inside a suitcase on the upper shelf of a local German bar? Where is there a park hidden 120 feet below street level, and why is it the subject of an opera? What’s the story behind the world’s largest Lite-Brite and the city bus stop with giant steel flowers sprouting from it? The answers to these and many more questions about Minneapolis and Saint Paul are found within the pages of Secret Twin Cities. The Twin Cities metropolitan area invites visitors and locals to revel in nature, art, science, history, innovation, and—with this book as your guide—a bit of the unexpected. You’ll play a musical sidewalk railing, stand exactly halfway between the Equator and the North Pole, and explore the spot many Dakota people consider as the center of the earth. Weaved into delightful narratives by local writer Julie Jo Severson, Secret Twin Cities is a treasure chest of offbeat, extraordinary gems and legacies. Whether you’re a local or here for a visit, you’ll broaden your Twin Cities itineraries, bucket lists, and trivia vaults.

Secret Twin Cities: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Secret Twin Cities: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure PDF Author: Julie Jo Severson
Publisher: Reedy Press LLC
ISBN: 1681062607
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 346

Get Book Here

Book Description
Where can you view a rare handwritten letter by Mozart in the same building where a notorious gangster was once chained to a radiator? Whose remains are stored inside a suitcase on the upper shelf of a local German bar? Where is there a park hidden 120 feet below street level, and why is it the subject of an opera? What’s the story behind the world’s largest Lite-Brite and the city bus stop with giant steel flowers sprouting from it? The answers to these and many more questions about Minneapolis and Saint Paul are found within the pages of Secret Twin Cities. The Twin Cities metropolitan area invites visitors and locals to revel in nature, art, science, history, innovation, and—with this book as your guide—a bit of the unexpected. You’ll play a musical sidewalk railing, stand exactly halfway between the Equator and the North Pole, and explore the spot many Dakota people consider as the center of the earth. Weaved into delightful narratives by local writer Julie Jo Severson, Secret Twin Cities is a treasure chest of offbeat, extraordinary gems and legacies. Whether you’re a local or here for a visit, you’ll broaden your Twin Cities itineraries, bucket lists, and trivia vaults.

AIA Guide to the Twin Cities

AIA Guide to the Twin Cities PDF Author: Larry Millett
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society
ISBN: 9780873515405
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 694

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Book Description
Get ready to discover the great architectural mecca that is Minneapolis and St. Paul. The first comprehensive, illustrated handbook of its kind, AIA Guide to the Twin Cities is the ultimate source to the architectural riches of the metropolitan area. Organized by neighborhood and featuring a wealth of sites--from the highest point on the Minneapolis skyline to the modest St. Paul bungalow vibrant with historical and architectural significance--this invaluable reference has it all: -Illuminating entries for more than 3,000 buildings -Behind-the-scenes details of the structures and their architects -Lively information about local history and regional styles -Highlights of important buildings nearly lost in time -Sixty easy-to-read maps that pinpoint the location of every structure -Dozens of planned walking and driving tours -Over 1,000 photos that illustrate significant buildings and features Retired Pioneer Press architecture critic Larry Millett has spent more than two decades researching and exploring the architectural heritage of the Twin Cities. Millett's AIA Guide to the Twin Cities is your ticket to the best tour in town. Sponsored in part by the American Institute of Architects Minnesota. Larry Millett has written extensively about Twin Cities architecture. His books include Lost Twin Cities, Twin Cities Then and Now, and Strange Days, Dangerous Nights (all MHS Press), as well as a series of mystery novels featuring Sherlock Holmes.

Subterranean Twin Cities

Subterranean Twin Cities PDF Author: Greg A. Brick
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 145291432X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
In Subterranean Twin Cities, geologist, historian, and urban speleologist Greg Brick takes us on an adventurous, educational, and-thankfully-sanitary journey beneath the streets and into the myriad tunnels, caves, and industrial spaces that make up the Twin Cities' fascinating and surprisingly vast underground landscape. In this groundbreaking tour, the first of its kind of the Twin Cities, Brick mines the stories that lie below the city surface.

Weird Minnesota

Weird Minnesota PDF Author: Eric Dregni
Publisher: Weird
ISBN: 9781402788260
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Hail Minnesota for its strange sites, bizarre history, and peculiar folks Come along and climb the Witch's Tower, sit down in a two-story outhouse, and spend a night in the Drunk Tank at the JailHouse Historic Inn. Then go gape at the country's largest collection of underwear. After all that, relax at the Bowling Hall of Fame. This new paperback version of Weird Minnesota is a wild and wacky trip you'll never forget.

Lucky Hans and Other Merz Fairy Tales

Lucky Hans and Other Merz Fairy Tales PDF Author: Kurt Schwitters
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 9780691139678
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
Kurt Schwitters revolutionized the art world in the 1920s with his Dadaist Merz collages, theater performances, and poetry. But at the same time he was also writing extraordinary fairy tales that were turning the genre upside down and inside out. Lucky Hans and Other Merz Fairy Tales is the first collection of these subversive, little-known stories in any language and the first time all but a few of them have appeared in English. Translated and introduced by Jack Zipes, one of the world's leading authorities on fairy tales, this book gathers thirty-two stories written between 1925 and Schwitters's death in 1948--including a complete English-language recreation of The Scarecrow, a children's book illustrated with avant-garde typography that Schwitters created with Kate Steinitz and De Stijl founder Theo van Doesburg. Lucky Hans and Other Merz Fairy Tales also includes brilliant new illustrations that evoke the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Schwitters wrote these darkly humorous, satirical, and surreal tales at a time when traditional German fairy tales were being co-opted by the Nazis. Filled with sharp critiques of German life during the Weimar and early Nazi eras, Schwitters's tales are rich with absurdist events and insist that not everyone--and perhaps not anyone--lives happily ever after. In "Lucky Hans," the starving protagonist tries to catch a rabbit only to have it shed its fur like a coat and run off naked into the forest. In other tales, a sarcastic gypsy stands in for a fairy godmother and an army recruit is arrested for growing to monstrous size. Lucky Hans and Other Merz Fairy Tales is a delightfully strange and surprising book.

That Time of Year

That Time of Year PDF Author: Garrison Keillor
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1951627709
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
With the warmth and humor we've come to know, the creator and host of A Prairie Home Companion shares his own remarkable story. In That Time of Year, Garrison Keillor looks back on his life and recounts how a Brethren boy with writerly ambitions grew up in a small town on the Mississippi in the 1950s and, seeing three good friends die young, turned to comedy and radio. Through a series of unreasonable lucky breaks, he founded A Prairie Home Companion and put himself in line for a good life, including mistakes, regrets, and a few medical adventures. PHC lasted forty-two years, 1,557 shows, and enjoyed the freedom to do as it pleased for three or four million listeners every Saturday at 5 p.m. Central. He got to sing with Emmylou Harris and Renée Fleming and once sang two songs to the U.S. Supreme Court. He played a private eye and a cowboy, gave the news from his hometown, Lake Wobegon, and met Somali cabdrivers who’d learned English from listening to the show. He wrote bestselling novels, won a Grammy and a National Humanities Medal, and made a movie with Robert Altman with an alarming amount of improvisation. He says, “I was unemployable and managed to invent work for myself that I loved all my life, and on top of that I married well. That’s the secret, work and love. And I chose the right ancestors, impoverished Scots and Yorkshire farmers, good workers. I’m heading for eighty, and I still get up to write before dawn every day.”

Secret Iowa: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Secret Iowa: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure PDF Author: Megan Bannister
Publisher: Reedy Press LLC
ISBN: 1681064898
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Some claim there’s nothing to see in flyover country. But take a closer look and you’ll discover that Iowa is home to more than just cornfields. In fact, across the Hawkeye State you’ll encounter hidden gems and secret spots abound. For instance, do you know where you can find the only remaining Frank Lloyd Wright designed hotel in the world? What about how much the World’s Largest Popcorn Ball weighs? And why did the Los Angeles Lakers pay to build a basketball court in the small town of Carroll? Dive in and discover the state’s offbeat history and quirky places through Secret Iowa: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure. Set course for larger-than-life attractions like Albert the Bull, the World’s Largest Strawberry, and the Grotto of the Redemption. Learn more about Grant Wood’s connection to Iowa by visiting his former home and studio, or travel through time and space to the place where StarTrek’s Captain James T. Kirk will be born in 2233. Even at some of the state’s most well-known places, you’ll discover hidden histories and unique stories that are not often shared. Local author and travel writer Megan Bannister uncovered some of the state’s wackiest attractions to guide your adventure around Iowa. Buckle up, fill up your tank and get ready for an offbeat road trip full of the state’s best kept secrets.

Secret Omaha: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Secret Omaha: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure PDF Author: Ryan Roenfeld
Publisher: Reedy Press LLC
ISBN: 1681063069
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
How did Omaha get its nickname, “The Gateway to the West” and where can you gawk at the footsteps of the first human to walk in space? Just scratch the surface of a city best known for Warren Buffett, college baseball, and a great zoo and find far more than meets the eye. And Secret Omaha: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure is just the book you’ll need to uncover all the stories of Nebraska’s lone metropolis. Omaha rises up out of the low broken bluffs along the west bank of the Missouri River and sprawls west across what was once the prairie grasslands of the Great Plains. The buffalo wallows have been replaced by a more urban mix of grit and gentrification, with tree-lined avenues, boulevards, and varied communities that hold on to their heritage for generations. There’s a giant fork in Little Italy and stories told in stone around what was the world’s largest livestock market. There’s an old blues song by Big Joe Williams about an Omaha intersection that’s now on the National Register, and Irish Nationalists erected a grand monument to the Fenian who invaded Canada twice. Anyone in Omaha can take a gander at Goose Hollow or visit a haven for herons, but now author and Omaha enthusiast Ryan Roenfeld takes you on your own behind-the-scenes tour of the Big O. With his book as your guide, you’ll discover a whole new side to the city that’s inspired him for years.

Secret Upper Peninsula: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure

Secret Upper Peninsula: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure PDF Author: Kath Usitalo
Publisher: Reedy Press LLC
ISBN: 1681062232
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
How did a sparsely populated landmass surrounded by Great Lakes and completely separated from the rest of the state become the Upper Peninsula of Michigan? At the end of each winter what do Yoopers—those hardy souls who call the UP home—measure with a 30-foot tall “thermometer?” And should you put ketchup or gravy on a pasty? You’ll find the answers to these questions and many more in Secret Upper Peninsula: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure. You may know that the UP inspired Longfellow’s “The Song of Hiawatha,” but what about works by Ernest Hemingway and Da Yoopers? Find out where a popular Chicago cartoonist summered in a cottage shaped like a giant pickle barrel, and where a ghost town comes alive once a year for a gathering of the descendants of copper mining families. Discover why believers say the mysterious Paulding Light is the lantern of a railroad man who perished on the tracks, or where to find the world’s longest porch and one of the least-visited National Parks. Local author Kath Usitalo takes you deep into the densely forested peninsula that might seem like one big, isolated secret to an outsider. Delve into this insider’s guide to learn about the fascinating quirks and curiosities of the land of Gitche Gumee.

The Phantom Tollbooth

The Phantom Tollbooth PDF Author: Norton Juster
Publisher: Yearling
ISBN: 0394820371
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
With almost 5 million copies sold 60 years after its original publication, generations of readers have now journeyed with Milo to the Lands Beyond in this beloved classic. Enriched by Jules Feiffer’s splendid illustrations, the wit, wisdom, and wordplay of Norton Juster’s offbeat fantasy are as beguiling as ever. “Comes up bright and new every time I read it . . . it will continue to charm and delight for a very long time yet. And teach us some wisdom, too.” --Phillip Pullman For Milo, everything’s a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he’s got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the Island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason. Somewhere along the way, Milo realizes something astonishing. Life is far from dull. In fact, it’s exciting beyond his wildest dreams!