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Articles by Dave Healy
For Austin Granger, life’s a ball machine roller coaster
Austin Granger last appeared in these pages of the Bugle 20 years ago. Then a sophomore at Central High School, Granger had built a K’NEX roller coaster next to his St. Anthony Park home. At 32 feet, 8 inches, it was then the tallest such structure in the world. Today, Granger is still a K’NEX master.
Lauderdale seen through the eyes of Crystal Wisen
Doing your business in an outhouse. Carrying water in buckets from a well to meet your household’s needs. But for Crystal Wisen it was life in Lauderdale — or what became Lauderdale in 1949. When she and her family moved there in 1936, it was Rose Hill. The move was prompted by inexpensive land, and Crystal’s parents bought a plot and built their own house. Bob Wisen also grew up in Lauderdale, and later he and Crystal married and settled there, after brief stints in Mora and Brainerd.
Nursing homes adapt in aftermath of Covid pandemic
Covid-19 changed things for everyone, but perhaps no segment of society has been more greatly affected by the pandemic than nursing homes. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, long-term care facilities have had nearly 2 million confirmed Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began, with nearly 172,000 deaths attributed to the illness. How has the pandemic affected local long-term care facilities?
Milton Square gets a new bookstore
Despite its once-predicted demise, the printed book is alive and well. And the same is true of independent bookstores, whose numbers have doubled nationally in the last eight years. Riding that wave is a new addition to St. Anthony Park’s Milton Square. Acorn Bookshop will be housed in the former upstairs Micawber’s Books space. The new store, scheduled to open in March, will offer a collection of new and used books across genres.
Poetry slam celebrates SAP Library reopening
Here are our Bugle deadlines for the next three issues. As always, we appreciate when writers and readers submit their articles early. Please note our publication dates represent when the newspapers go out for delivery. Mail distribution of the paper may take up to several business days. Meanwhile, bulk drop-offs of the paper around town are usually completed two to three days after publication. December (Holiday Guide): Deadline, Nov. 1 January 2026: Deadline, Dec.10 February: Deadline, Jan.10
Around the world, virtual choir something to sing about
By Dave Healy Five years ago, when St. Anthony Park resident Damien Riehl wanted to assemble a choir, he wasn’t limited to just local singers. The group he created, Schola Diffusa (tinyurl.com/Schola-Diffusa), initially included six SAP residents along with 15 others. Eventually, he has drawn on voices from around the world, brought together in Riehl’s studio, located on the third floor of his house.
Nursing homes staffed by ‘some of the hardest-working people’
Here are our Bugle deadlines for the next three issues. As always, we appreciate when writers and readers submit their articles early. Please note our publication dates represent when the newspapers go out for delivery. Mail distribution of the paper may take up to several business days. Meanwhile, bulk drop-offs of the paper around town are usually completed two to three days after publication. November: Deadline, Oct. 8 December (Holiday Guide): Deadline, Nov. 1 January 2026: Deadline, Dec.10
A new listserv for politicos:SAP for Democracy
By Dave Healy Sherm Eagles has been moderating the SAPark listserv since its inception in 2001. Occasionally he’s stepped into exchanges he’s felt went on long enough and told participants it was time to move on. Recently, though, Eagles did something he’s never done before: He created an offshoot of SAPark to facilitate a topic he thought deserved its own forum.
An ironic twist for author of braille encyclopedia
By Dave Healy Naomi Cohn is legally blind, unable to read a print book, which is the primary format of “The Braille Encyclopedia” (Rose Metal Press, 2024). “I still care about books as physical objects,” Cohn said, “and it pleases me when I hear about someone passing my book along to another reader.
Loon’s nesting hatches a book
By Dave Healy Some people, when seeing Scott Rykken’s loon pictures, might assume they’ve been Photoshopped. “The first time I heard that, I wasn’t even sure what Photoshop was,” said Scott, a retired high school science teacher and amateur photographer. “I know a little more now, but I’ve never used it.” The photos in question were taken at Lake Miltona in Minnesota’s Douglas County, where St. Anthony Park residents Scott and his wife, Anne, have a cabin.
Lauderdale seen through the eyes of Crystal Wisen
By Dave Healy Doing your business in an outhouse. Carrying water in buckets from a well to meet your household’s needs. Sounds like life on a farm. But for Crystal Wisen it was life in Lauderdale — or what became Lauderdale in 1949. When she and her family moved there in 1936, it was Rose Hill. The move was prompted by inexpensive land, and Crystal’s parents bought a plot and built their own house.
Geothermal Campus
To reach our net-zero targets, we must change the way we manage heat and accelerate the use of more sustainable, low-carbon energy across the UK. Using geothermal systems for heating, cooling, and energy storage could be a key part in this process. However, to enable wider and faster uptake across the UK, it is essential that we de-risk the costs, viability, and sustainability of geothermal projects to provide a more informed decision-making process.
For the Flinks, deep roots in south St. Anthony Park
By Dave Healy They live across the street from Hampden Park, but they remember it as Green Grass Park. They went to a 1973 festival there sponsored by the Green Grass Grocery, a forerunner of today’s Hampden Park Coop. That festival might have been considered a precursor of the St. Anthony Park Arts Festival, although the latter event has never included one feature of the former: a kissing booth. Self-described south-siders, Karen and Steve Flink have lived in St. Anthony Park since 1965.
Nursing homes adapt in aftermath of Covid pandemic Original
By Dave Healy Covid-19 changed things for everyone, but perhaps no segment of society has been more greatly affected by the pandemic than nursing homes. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, long-term care facilities have had nearly 2 million confirmed Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began, with nearly 172,000 deaths attributed to the illness. How has the pandemic affected local long-term care facilities?
Poetry winners for 2024
Editor’s note: What follows are this year’s winning poems, as selected by our anonymous judge (now revealed as Laura Adrian). We took what she dished up: bowls of Malt-O-Meal and Cream of Wheat peanut butter and honey in homemade buns glasses of mixed milk — half powdered, half whole. We took the shirts that came off her Singer: Minnesota Fabrics married to Simplicity. We took the words she read each night: Eeyore and Piglet and Owl Thidwick and Horton and Yertle.
Listserv a connector for St. Anthony Park
By Dave Healy The pandemic has affected behavior in sometimes surprising ways. One activity that’s increased noticeably is people going through household articles and deciding to unload some of them. What to do with the stuff? If you’re a subscriber to SAPark, you can post a message with the subject “Curb Alert,” followed by a description of the things people will find in front of your house, apartment building or in the alley by your garage.
Dealing with da feet!
By Dave Healy “I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.” That statement, or a variation, has been variously attributed to Shakespeare, Gandhi and Helen Keller, among others. The sentiment—there’s always someone worse off than you—is inarguable. Whether that also means no one has the right to complain about anything seems less certain. I have feet, but I want to complain about them. For one thing, they’re ugly.
Mary Hayes assuming new volunteer role
By Dave Healy Mary Hayes has worn several hats during her 20 years working for St. Anthony Park Area Seniors. This month she’ll start wearing a new one: volunteer. As the retired volunteer coordinator, recruiting herself was the easiest job she’s ever had. Hayes started at SAPAS back in the day when the organization was called the St. Anthony Park Block Nurse Program.
SAP Area Seniors tailored exercise programs
By Dave Healy Exercise. We know that it’s good for us, know that we rarely get enough by going about our daily activities, know that exercising our bodies means exercising our wills by finding the time and mustering the motivation to do it regularly. Physical well-being is tied to mental health. When our bodies feel good, when they do what we want them to do, we feel better emotionally, more alert and confident.
New office will be doggone close to work for this vet!
Building and site will feature solar panels, water diversion system By Dave Healy According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more Americans are working from home than ever before—some 8 million people in 2017, which doesn’t include those who are self-employed. Telecommuting is an option for some so-called knowledge workers, but it’s not feasible for a lot of people—veterinarians, for example. But if you can’t work from home, the next best thing is being able to walk to work.
For The Little Wine Shoppe, a little move
By Dave Healy The Little Wine Shoppe, a fixture in St. Anthony Park’s Milton Square for 17 years, has moved into expanded quarters. But local connoisseurs of the grape are relieved that it didn’t go far — just a little over a block, to the southeast corner of Como and Doswell avenues. The Little Wine Shoppe opened in 2005 under owners Jeff and Christina Huff.
Queue up for self-service at Speedy Market
By Dave Healy Commentary We call them lines. Brits call them queues. They’re what we stand in while waiting. For most of us, lines are a necessary evil, part of the price we pay for living in cities. It’s become easier to avoid lines in some areas of life. There aren’t any at amazon.com or at a host of other sites where one can shop and transact business of every kind. But even denizens of cyberspace still sometimes find themselves in line.
Caretakers face challenges
By Dave Healy Parents take care of children, so they can be considered caregivers. However, we usually distinguish between parenting and caregiving, reserving the latter term for the care that an adult gives to another adult who is unable to care for her- or himself. The two roles have much in common, but there are notable differences. For parents, the dynamic looks like this: Yesterday she couldn’t do that; today she can.
Former Bugle editor pens tribute to his mother
By Dave Healy Before she was Millie Healy, she was Mildred Jucht, a South Dakota German farm girl. Although she left the farm, in many respects Millie remained a farm girl. She baked her own bread and rolls. She sewed her own and her children’s clothes. She wore a hat to church. She accepted the weather and life’s other vicissitudes with equanimity. She re-used things. She mended. She made do.
Consider an all-purpose resolution for 2023
By Dave Healy Commentary We know that the calendar — its weeks and months — is a contrivance. Although the earth completes a revolution of the sun every 365.25 days, the start of a “new year” could be assigned to any particular date. Nonetheless, we’ve settled on Jan. 1 as inaugurating another annum. January is named for the two-faced Roman god Janus, who presides over transitions and beginnings. Like Janus, we look both fore and aft, reflecting on the year past and anticipating the one ahead.
SAP Area Seniors adapts to COVID challenges
By Dave Healy During the pandemic, people have been doing a lot of pivoting, finding new ways to carry on activities. Like many nonprofits, St. Anthony Park Area Seniors has also pivoted during the past year. According to Board Chairwoman Marge Avoles, SAPAS moved in-person exercise classes and a care givers support group online. They added activities to their e-newsletter, website and Facebook page that people can do at home. SAPAS also started several new services and activities.
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