A best-of collection of essays by a columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Regional advertising.

This book is a collection of characters and places that stand proud and robust over thirty-six years of newspapering in Minnesota. Some of the people you read about here are well-known and others are not. They share, however, a knack for accomplishment. Whether it was building a community, running a restaurant, caring for the sick, making ice, writing poetry, selling groceries, baking bread, tending a bridge, winning at poker, or merely trying to stay alive, all the people here knew or know something important, something of value.