The Alley Newspaper

These articles originally appeared in “The Alley,” the newspaper for the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis.

A Penguin Walks Through the Door…

A few years ago I came across a list of questions employers could ask potential employees to test their creativity and their ability to adjust quickly to unexpected circumstances. My favorite question was “A penguin walks through the door wearing a sombrero. What’s the first thing it says?” I actually used this during a few […]

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You May Know More Than You Know

I’ve learned a few things in the last year about fundraising, like You can never say thank-you enough and Tell donors what you are doing with their money, because it isn’t your money that you are spending.” I’ve also learned that I need to ask Peace House Community’s donors a lot of questions, like How

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Do Whatever You Want

When people find out that I worked with the homeless, they sometimes ask me if they should give money to panhandlers. I used to give the standard social work answer: “If you give them money, it could be used for drugs or alcohol. It’s better to give them a snack, or to donate money to

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What World Do You Live In?

I’m often struck by how wildly different people’s experiences (and, as a result, their worldviews) can be, even when they seem to have a lot in common. For instance, most of my friends avoid coffee after 4:00 p.m. because it ramps up their adrenaline and keeps them awake, but I often joke that, at Peace

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The Greatest Sacrifice

Never having been in the armed forces, I don’t have personal experience with the idea of leaving no one behind on the battlefield, even if rescuing them requires great personal risk. I understand it in concept, but I’ve never had to live it out. Only recently did I realize that I get to see others

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Standing Still

I spent last week visiting my parents in Jasper, a small town in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. It was the first time since my 11 year old twins were born that I have been away from them for more than two days consecutively. It was also the first time in over 20 years that I

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What Time for Forgiveness?

As you probably know, a Japanese Olympic official was fired on the eve of the opening ceremonies because of comments he made in a comedy routine about 20 years earlier. The comments were determined by his superiors to be racist, and so he was relieved of his duties. (I haven’t heard the comments so I

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Life vs. People

I recently started reading Ghost Rider, Neil Peart’s account of a 55,000 mile road trip he did by motorcycle to help him deal with personal tragedy. His 19 year old daughter died in a car accident, and ten months later his partner of 22 years died of cancer (although he claimed the real cause was

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Pleased to Almost Meet You

I stole the title for this column from Colin Hay, the lead singer from Men Without Hats. His song Pleased to Almost Meet You is a tongue in cheek commentary on how people these days tend to talk a lot about getting together without ever actually meeting. The song opens with the lines: I’m pleased

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