
The year is 490 B.C. The Persian war machine moves swiftly across Asia Minor, engulfing countries and conquering lands. The Persian commanders begin plans to attack weak, lowly Greece. The peninsular nation is disjointed, unconnected -- even disparaged. Villages dot the landscape but the few cities large enough to house an army are few and far between, and the armies capable of halting the Persian's hunger are even fewer. Nevertheless, the city of Athens sends their army to the Valley of Marathon where they hope to intercept and stall the Persian advance.
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The Federal Government is spending money like a teenage girl at the mall in the 1980's with her daddy's credit card -- the government is continually spending more and more, putting our country in deeper and deeper financial peril. In 2013, the federal government borrowed 19 cents of every dollar it spent. As of October 1st, tomorrow, the federal government is out of money -- mid-October the government will hit its debt ceiling and
be in default...

Ron Gardenhire and the Minnesota Twins have back to back to back seasons of 90+ losses. With that in mind, many thought the second-longest tenured manager in baseball was at risk of being fired come season's end -- however, reports have confirmed the Twins and Gardenhire have
reached a two-year extension.
I'm sure most Twins fans will greet this news with disgust -- I can't say I'm in that boat, though I have been...!--more-->

If there’s a must-see musical of 2013 in the Twin Cities, it’s this one.
The hit musical
Wicked flew into Minneapolis on September 18th and I had the privilege of being in the audience last weekend. The play was nothing short of magical. Not a single actor or actress was off key, not a single line was missed; it was exactly what you’d expect from a Broadway original: perfection.
The play, based on the Gregory Maguire novelÂ
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, is a prequel to the
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I'm not a college football fan at all -- I could not care less about the Gophers football team, even despite attending the University of Minnesota four years. Part of my distaste for the team has to do with how much I dislike college football in general -- the other part comes from how much of a joke the program has been for years.
Oh what's that, the Gophers went to a bowl game last year? Oh that's a huge deal (sarcasm). There are 35 bowl games currently, meaning 70 teams participate. It's not a huge accomplishment to attend and lose the Meineke Car Care...!--more-->

Earlier this summer during a softball game at Walton Park, Jesse Lusk, 32,
passed away after collapsing at the fields. He died far too young, a father of one, soon to be two, and will be missed by all those who knew him. He was a father, a youth football coach, and a good friend to so many. His impact on the community is clear with so many lamenting his early death. To help his daughter and expecting girlfriend Rachel, the community has rallied to raise money in Jesse's honor....

The worst has happened for the Minnesota Vikings -- the team is 0-3 -- and the third loss of the season came at the hands of the lowly Browns, a struggling team minus a premier running back (Trent Richardson) and an offense starting a third string quarterback. Once again, the Vikings played just poorly enough on offense, defense, and special teams to completely fall apart and lose another close game. Â The whole team is bad right now, even the coaching.
The Vikings were consistently bad on Sunday in so many areas that it's hard to find a place to start. But since...!--more-->

It's hard to believe that Google has only been around for 15 years, the world's number one search engine, a tool so many of us now could not live without. Google is even an adjective, a term used all the time to settle heated debates. "He did not win the Academy Award for Best Director in 1997, it was 1998, I'm telling you... I'll Goggle it to prove you wrong. See! Steven Spielberg won Best Director for
Saving Private Ryan in 1998. Boo-ya!" Conversations just like this happen all around the world everyday, yes, even with the Boo-ya to rub it in.
The search engine...!--more-->

Failing bridges is something that is close to many Minnesotan's hearts. Though the I-35W bridge collapse was six years ago, the memory is still fresh for many of us. Hearing about Green Bay shutting down the Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge due to the structure "sagging," I immediately thought of our bridge disaster. Thankfully the Leo Frigo bridge was put out of service before disaster was able to strike. Some Minnesotans despise Green Bay because their home team is the Packers, but even the most avid Vikings fans will admit they wouldn't wish a travesty like a bridge collapse on their worst...