Minnesota Curiosities

Your round-trip ticket to the wildest, wackiest, most outrageous people, places, and things the North Star State has to offer! Visit an art gallery of underground graffiti; an eight-story-tall Iron Man sculpture; and some beautifully designed, no-real-name-for-them architectural oddities. Meet an artistic, creature-creating welder; a fast-thinking curator of a fishing museum; and a cow-figurine-collecting newspaper editor. Discover the fun of constructing a bookcase-turned coffin for who-knows-when; traveling an uphill road that goes downhill; and drinking wiggly-army-worm wine-it'll make your head spin. Whether you're a born-and-raised Minnesotan or a recent transplant, authors Russ Ringsak and Denise Remick will have you laughing out loud as they introduce you to the neighbors you never knew you had and take you to places you never knew existed-right in your own backyard!

Writer and truck driver Russ Ringsak has been with Public Radio International's "A Prairie Home Companion" since 1974. When he's not backstage writing up Garrison Keillor's rundown, he can usually be found behind the wheel of the 48-foot semi-trailer that they use to haul the radio show's equipment from venue to venue. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Denise Remick is a freelance researcher and production artist living in St. Paul.