The Minnesota Independent

the new yorker - Latest Stories

‘Lizard People’ make The New Yorker

By Paul Demko | 07.13.09 | 11:45 am

franken-hedThis week’s issue of The New Yorker features a long profile of Al Franken by John Colapinto. For those who closely observed the eight month post-election battle between Franken and…

Blago’s oratory overtakes Obama’s as a voice for our times

By Chris Steller | 12.11.08 | 12:18 pm

Not only has Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich stolen the political moment from Barack Obama, he’s taken a crowbar to the president-elect’s mantle as wordsmith-in-chief and orator for our times. Once Blago’s cussed, illegal schemes got taken down by the FBI and disseminated by the Justice Department, the nation took notice of a new literary lion rumbling from its midsection. Blagojevich’s words have also inspired Americans to take up their pens to compose a new musical (or fragment thereof) and a flattering Daily Beast quiz that compares lines from “The Sopranos,” a show that won six Emmys for the best writing on a television, to lines from the FBI affadavit.