Vol. 22, #05 – 7/22/15


Firecracker Follow-up

Last issue we took editorial liberties with our Firecracker of the Year Committee’s annual missive. They placed two very worthy individuals into the Firecracker Hall of Fame and—given the length of the issue—we saved these for the special attention they deserve. From the Committee:

In 2014 and now in 2015 your Committee found two very special candidates for our Firecracker Hall of Fame. Both, sadly, are posthumous, but richly deserving of the honor.

  • 2014 saw the passing of two great contributors to this community. State Chamber of Commerce leader David Olson, just a few weeks after the death of his father Glenn. David’s accomplishments were well chronicled by the media. Because your readership skews to such young demographics we wanted to recognize the elder Olson whose contributions, in part because of his humble personality, have flown under the radar screen. Glenn Olson embodied civic activism in its most altruistic meaning. He became active in politics with the legendary GOP mafia that controlled Minneapolis south of Lake Street for decades. Many remember Popham, Flakne, Schwartzkopf and their crew. Glenn was elected to the Minneapolis City Council representing the Eleventh Ward. He was a voice of moderation concentrating on […]

By |2016-10-21T00:42:40-05:00July 22nd, 2015|Categories: Newsletter|2 Comments

Vol. 22, #04 – 7/01/15


The Canadian fires had cast a veritable June gloom over our Union Plaza digs. Even the office mercury vapors had a gray haze about them. The door opened and everything brightened up. “Dobry den…Hello? Good day?” The bright brown eyes and big smiles were all too familiar: Oksana and Marianna, the ambassadors of good will who come each summer from Ukraine to spread cheer while selling flowers and vegetables for Untiedt’s at area farmers markets. “Oh, the Firecracker Committee. They were very mad at you. We delivered last year’s award to Young Quinlan; office was empty,” said Marianna with a bit of a scolding tone to her voice. Oksana, ever the peacemaker, quickly added: “But then they became VERY worried. Online, like its editors, seemed to vanish.” It was none other than Farmers Market cohort Danny Tollefson who picked up the scent and contacted the Committee when Online resumed publishing and your editors launched their spiffy new website.

So we set the well-worn Red Owl grocery bag on the conference table, carefully removed the Arco coffee can, popped the lid, and unwrapped the missive from the Firecracker of the Year Committee; taking care, of course, to preserve the section of […]

By |2016-10-21T00:42:40-05:00July 1st, 2015|Categories: Newsletter|3 Comments
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