Stretching

Stretching the Truth Just Became Easier (and Cheaper)
By PETER WAYNER

WHEN Carlo Baldassi came home from vacation and looked at a picture he took of his girlfriend on the Charles Bridge in Prague, he was torn. She looked beautiful, but the proportions of the picture were all wrong. It seemed tight and constrained, and it would not fill his widescreen monitor.

An artist is never satisfied. More

Politics Is Different.

In North Dakota Forget Money. Politics Is Different.
By MONICA DAVEY

BISMARCK, N.D. — Consider the tactic one local Democratic Party leader in this state resorted to last summer to raise money. He chained hot pink plywood elephants, 2-and-a-half feet tall and 2-and-a-half feet wide, to trees in the yards of known Democrats, then offered to remove the Republican beasts in exchange for $25 donations.

“People loved it mostly, though I guess one or two didn’t see the humor,” the leader, C. T. Marhula, the party’s chairman for a district in Grand Forks, said, noting that he and his colleagues have also tried pig roasts, garage sales and auctions to raise political funds around here. Mr. Marhula said, “You do what you have to.”

In North Dakota, it seems, you may have to do a lot. More

Fondly Fahrenheit

My WeatherBug reports it's 0.9 degrees at Washburn High School here in beautiful South Mpls. It will gradually warm to a toast 10 degrees today, and may, if the fates are kind, remain above zero during the night. Natives will be running around in shirtsleeves on Friday, when a high of 25 is forecast. By Monday, rumor has it, it will warm almost to freezing! Were it May, it would be time to bring out the Maypoles...