Tuesday September 15, 2009 No primary election in Minneapolis this year. For the first time, local elections will use what's often called the Australian Ballot. If no candidate gets a clear majority of votes, votes for the lowest-ranked candidate will be transferred to the voters' second choices. If there's still not a clear majority, etc.

In theory, Minneapolis local elections are nonpartisan. (Just as in theory, Chicago has a "weak mayor" system of government.) But political parties make endorsements.

Other complications: Some of the elections will be for independent boards. And in Minnesota, the Democratic Party doesn't quite exist. We have the DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor, though there's not much trace of the pre-merger Farmer-Labor Party.)

Meanwhile, in St. Paul's nonpartisan mayoral primary, the DFLer got the most votes and the Republican came in second. They will face off in the general election. The Republican is an Asian-American woman, which may thin out the perception of the GOP as a club for white males.

***To the food shelf at Minnehaha United Methodist.

"Trader Joe's Multigrain Pilaf A new twist on a classic American dish...." When did pilaf become classic American food?

When I was born, pizza hadn't become Americanized. What foods now considered foreign will be seen as American in a few decades?