Today in 1954, Regency announced the first transistor radio. It went on sale that November. It cost $49.95 (the equivalent of $361 in year-2005 dollars) and sold something near 150,000 units. [...] Transistor radios did not achieve mass popularity until the early 1960s when prices of some models fell below $20, then below $10 as [...]
Check out this Star Tribune blog’s flashback to an 1896 Minneapolis Journal story about Nicollet Park, home of the Minneapolis Millers baseball team. The article announces a “surprise” in the selection of the park’s location, which was expected to be in the Kenwood area. Instead, the park was built at the intersection of Lake and [...]
Not to be confused with the legendary Gram Parsons project (which, in turn, is not to be confused with the legendary Alan Parsons Project), here is more from Sheep in the Big City:
From the short-lived Cartoon Network series Sheep in the Big City:
On Monday morning, a scant three days after the Twins’ 2006 season fell apart, I shaved off my skeezy playoff beard. Exactly zero people remarked that I was clean-shaven for the first time in two weeks. Including my wife. That should speak volumes about my nagging inability to grow facial hair. Thanks to myplayoffbeard.com for [...]
When the Minnesota Twins 2006 season came to a close, I was riding shotgun in a hybrid vehicle rolling silently down Interstate 94, about an hour outside the Twin Cities. I missed the first 90 minutes of the radio broadcast; the death rattle of this year’s remarkable team would be unbearable. It’s tough to hear [...]
So, the last couple of days have been a little rough. The Twins have dropped the first two games of the playoffs at home. Now the series moves to Oakland for games on Friday and Saturday. A single win puts the A’s over the top. It’s been tough to watch these games. Take Torii Hunter’s [...]
Legendary New York Times reporter R.W. Apple Jr. has died. He was 71. He quite literally did it all as a newspaper reporter. From his Times obituary: “Newspaper people love impossible dreams,” he once told Lear’s magazine. “I suppose we’re reckless sentimentalists. If we didn’t love impossible dreams, we would not still be working in [...]
I am growing a playoff beard. I will not shave until the Twins have run their course in the playoffs. This may not have been a wise decision, as my attempts to grow facial hair in the past failed terribly. At the moment, my patchy stubble makes me look merely filthy rather than rugged or [...]
I would never claim that I knew the Twins would win the division in the final minutes of the season. That would be dishonest. But it was clear that something changed in the third inning of yesterday’s game at the Dome: the two “screamers” in our section decided to pick up and move. The screamers [...]