Lois Henson, a friend of the honored columnist, was heard to say, “Haze would have been thrilled to have her dinky little branch library named after her, but this would have sent her over the moon!”
Sam continues to write:
You always said “voice matters,” and I know yours sure did. It mattered enough to all the people who voted to name the library after you (my mom says the runner-up was a far and distant second), and it sure mattered to our Radical Hag Wednesday group. We were just talking about you last week and how your voice made us want to use ours better.
“And we can’t just be voices of the future,” Elise had said. “We’ve got to be voices of the present.” (Isn’t she awesome?)
“Yeah,” said Abdi. “Especially because there are hardly any sane ones left!”
And guess what—I’m going to see if we can start using one of the library meeting rooms. That’d be cool, wouldn’t it, the Radical Hag Wednesday group getting together in the Haze Evans library?
Sam hears his mother calling him to dinner, and Sam calls back that he’s coming, and then adds a P.S.
Haze, can you believe Lois was on a date with Harlan Dodd?
Acknowledgments
I would like the following people to step up to the podium to receive their gold (24 carat) thank-you medals.
For incredible generosity and support: Scott Eastman, Kris Strobeck, Janice Veech, Jean Borgerding, Kimberly and Killian Hoffer, Susan Lenfestey, Elizabeth Zaillian, Peggy Erickson, Sandy Benitez, Dave and Ruth Wood, and Karen Schwartz.
For their efforts in making this book an international blockbuster: Erik Anderson, Emily Hamilton, Mary Keirstead, Rachel Moeller, Jeff Moen, Maggie Sattler, Shelby Connelly, Heather Skinner, Matt Smiley, Laura Westlund, and everyone at the University of Minnesota Press. And to Kimberly Glyder for your fantastic cover—thanks!
For being good relations whose reunions are never a chore: the Petersons, the Dynnesons, the Strands, the Rasmussens, the Larsons, the Hoekstras, the Steinwands, the Opdahls, the Gabrielsons, the Pietigs, the Raberges, the Klevens, and the Landviks.
For being good eggs and/or artists and/or inspirations: Doug Anderson, Catherine Armstrong, Jill Boogren, Stephen Borer, Michael Bradley, Belinda Cella, Sheila De Chantel, Kate DiCamillo, Judith Guest, Judy Heneghan, Jennifer Hezmall, Kim Hovey, Terry Kalil, Gabe Klem, Brian Motiaytis, Betsy Nolan, Vicci Pederson, Mary Rockcastle, Gail Rosenblum, Kirsten Ryden, Cathy Schlesinger, Julie Schumacher, Barb Shelton, Wendy Smith, Mike Sobota, Sarah Stonich, Faith Sullivan, Sandy Thomas, Mark Thomson, Greg Triggs, Cynthia Uhrich, Anne Ulseth, Pat Francisco Weaver, Greg Winter, and Brenda Young.
For so much: Charles, Har, and Kinga. Oh, yeah—and Pharaoh, Super-Mutt.
Finally, although she’s not here to take her place on the medal stand, I’d like to pay tribute to the memory of my beloved mom, Ollie, whose donuts are still remembered with reverence by all lucky enough to imbibe, and whose paper-thin krumkake cookies were the world’s best, no contest. She might have wondered why I didn’t put more of her recipes in this book, but as I haven’t been able to recreate the above-mentioned delights (or her crescent rolls), I decided to hold them in my memory, where they’re so sweet but calorie- and carb-free. She would have chuckled over the book’s title, even while muttering “uff da.” She had strong opinions (not always loudly expressed because she was, after all, raised Lutheran), and she believed, like Haze Evans, like Paul Wellstone, “We all do better when we all do better.”
Lorna Landvik is the author of twelve novels, including the best-selling Patty Jane’s House of Curl, Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons, Best to Laugh (Minnesota, 2014), and Once in a Blue Moon Lodge (Minnesota, 2017). She has performed stand-up and improvisational comedy around the country and is a public speaker, playwright, and actor, most recently in her one-woman all-improvised show Party in the Rec Room. She lives in Minneapolis.
Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes) Page 30