Kevin D. Hendricks's Blog

I’m wrapping up the annual fall member drive for West St. Paul Reader. Tomorrow is the last day. Whew.

These things are always a ton of work. You oscillate between letdown that no one is signing up and sheer joy when a few people join. There’s also a manic feeling that you have to keep pushing it—you never know what’s going to break through, and you’re afraid of holding something back. It’s wild.

So why do I do it? Well, it works. Once you start doing it, there’s an addiction factor. W...

Got tired of shivering tonight and turned the heat on. A few days of highs in the upper 40s and no sun really does you in.

2025: October 21 (inside temp: 62)2024: November 2 (inside temp: 56)2023: October 28 (inside temp: 57)2022: October 14 (inside temp: 59)2021: October 22 (inside temp: 63)2020: October 16 (inside temp: 61)2019: October 5 (inside temp: 52)2018: October 1 (inside temp: 61)2017: October 12 (inside temp: 64)2016: October 14 (inside temp...

It’s banned book week and my wife is in the midst of a campaign to buy period products for the local food shelf. So it struck me as a good time to read Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume.

This book was published 55 years ago, before I was born, and it’s been banned for its frank discussion of menstruation (“menstroo-ation,” which ironically is how I pronounce it in my head to make sure I spell it right) and religion. Thankfully, it’s not one of the top books banned these days,...

I just came across the story of Roosevelt Elementary School being cleared for demolition. Apparently there’s been an ongoing legal fight for the past few years between the West Bloomfield School District and residents over tearing down the school. The Court of Appeals just OKed demolition.

I don’t have anything to add to that debate. But I did attend Roosevelt for two years and the news triggered a wave of memories.

Let’s stroll down memory lane…

I attended Roosevelt in fourth and ...

Back in 2020, I wrote Better Politics Please, an idealistic little book that dreamed of a functional, more friendly political climate. Roughly six months after it came out, January 6th happened and it all felt hopelessly naive. A presidential election cycle later it feels like we’re stuck in the same place. But every now and then the naive hope of that book shines through.

Today it comes from Republican Representative Michael Flood from Nebraska. You’ve probably seen headlines about him being...

Last week I read my 100th book of the year. It happened to be The Sirens’ Call by Christopher Hayes (deep dive into how our devices suck our attention away from everything good in the world).

One hundred books? Yeah, I read a lot.

For context, I’m not on the same furious pace I set last year and I’m even behind 2023. But yeah, it’s still a lot.

Trends in 2025 reading so far…

Romance: I somehow stumbled into the romance genre lately, and it’s taking off. Last year I added the cat...

My grandmother passed away last week, two weeks shy of her 94th birthday and 100 days after her husband died. This marks the last of my grandparents to die, so it feels like the end of a generation.

Family Remembrance

Here’s the piece I read at the funeral:

I did this a few months back for my Grandpa, and I told funny stories. I don’t have any funny stories today. Not because Grandma wasn’t funny or didn’t enjoy a good laugh—she did. I can picture her face crinkled up in laughter as she...

Earlier this week we attended game four of the PWHL finals and watched the Minnesota Frost win it all. It’s been a fun season, watching the highs and lows and see this team come together to win.

Every game in this finals series went to overtime, creating a tense, sudden death atmosphere. The game went to triple overtime for game three, which was so long it felt unreal.

Even in game four, when Liz Schepers batted one in and the crowd erupted, I still wasn’t sure. I was having flashbacks to ...

“One of my New Years resolutions is to make the content I wish to see in the world.” –Amanda Litman

I love this quote. Creating the content I want to see in the world is the heart behind a lot of the work I do. It’s why I’ve done book projects, why I started West St. Paul Reader, why I make postcards and stickers for West St. Paul Reader, and it’s why I started my latest venture Frozen Friday.

I’m thinking about yet another venture thanks to that idea.

The challenge of all these thin...

Last week the MinnPost, a local independent news site, ran a story about the West St. Paul Reader. I met with writer Lev Gringauz for over an hour, and he put together a detailed account of the Reader.

I’m grateful and flattered for the attention.

Here’s my favorite line: “The other suburbs near us are jealous,” said Matthew Schempp, one of our supporters.

The story includes some details of how we started, including how someone asked me months before I started and I said it was a te...