Tuesday, Sept 20 – St Paul SPOT picks

12:00 Noon:  COMMON GOOD BOOKS presents a lunch time talk and book signing with a James Beard Award winner, Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of the famous Zingerman Delicatessen (Ann Arbor, Michigan). Weinzweig talks about sustainable business and shares stories from his two most recent books, Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading and Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon.

Food will be served

Zingerman’s Guide to Good Leading: Part 1, A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Building a Great Business is Ari Weinzweig’s most recent book, the first in a series that will outline Zingerman’s unique approach to business.  Opened in Ann Arbor in 1982 by Ari and his partner Paul Saginaw with a small, 25-seat delicatessen, today the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses includes 8 different businesses (all in the Ann Arbor area) with 500 employees and about $40,000,000 in sales. 

Ari will speak about the 12 Natural Laws of Business, and his thoughts on why operating in violation of them has created an energy crisis in the American workplace. His approaches are applicable whether you are running a law office, a library, a restaurant, a record label, a software firm, or an organic farm – they are the behind-the-scenes “secret” stuff that goes into making a very special, sustainable business of any kind.

On a less serious note but equally important, in his previous book, Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon: Stories of Pork Bellies, Hush Puppies, Rock’ n’ Roll Music and Bacon Fat Mayonnaise, Ari takes the reader on a personal tour of the long and curious history of America’s favorite meat, and goes right to the smokehouse door of his favorite bacon curers in the U.S. The book also includes over 42 recipes so you can put your newfound bacon expertise to use in the kitchen right away!  

Get a guided tour of the Iron Maidens exhibit at St. Catherine’s Catherine G. Murphy gallery. 7:30 – lecture in the Visual Arts Building lecture hall then tour in the gallery conducted by Dilys Jackson. 

Celebrate the end of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell at the CAMP Bar tonight with a Beer Bust.  Half of the $10 cover charge goes to ‘Serving our Troops’. 

Readings by Writer’s Poetry night – Double up on your literary events. This evening’s poetry readings, held at the University Club on Summit Avenue at 7:30, feature writers Georgia Ray, Lon Otto, Billie Young and Tim Nolan.