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Has the LOTI Pencil Jumped the Shark?
This past Saturday, the owners of the Lake of the Isles Pencil hosted its fifth-annual celebration in their front yard. There was much fanfare, including pun-loaded speeches, DJ tunes, a marching band performance, and an ice cream cart. Thousands showed up to gleefully watch the 20-foot-tall, Curtis Ingvoldstad-designed wooden pencil sculpture get “sharpened.”
Racket contributor Abraham Teuber, however, did not have a good time at what he calls an “excruciating circlequirk.” He’s formulated why in a thoughtful (and thorough!) Substack takedown.
“I wouldn’t go to all this trouble if they just carved their mutilated tree into a pencil and called it a day,” he writes. “What I can’t stand is the brash insistence on some profound meaning to their whimsical burning of cash. I think this spectacle is emblematic of our city’s particularly white and liberal cultural shortcomings, our inauthentic affect, our obsession with our own relevance.”
Teuber argues that the event is not about art, political statements, or community. Ultimately, it’s just a cutesy sculpture on the lawn of a $3 million mansion.
"I felt like it was important to call out the charade when artists in our city are struggling to get the attention their work deserves,” he tells Racket. “For a long time I've been frustrated with how the general apathy created by algorithmic culture has seemingly dumbed down Minneapolis's audiences. The Lake of the Isles Pencil felt like the perfect way to bridge these ideas.”
Mighty Ducks Crypto Founder Fights for Spencer Pratt
And to make this news even more cursed, we’re going to reference a story from Entertainment Weekly, your top source for political news. Earlier this week, former reality TV heel/crystal-selling guru/GOPer Spencer Pratt came in third in the non-partisan primary for the 2026 L.A. mayoral race. But Minneapolis-raised, Mighty Ducks-starring Brock Pierce, whose sartorial choices range from Crocodile Dundee to soon-to-be evicted pimp, ain’t buying it. He's offering a $1 million reward for anyone who has "credible, verifiable evidence of election fraud" via his "Cure the Vote" initiative—because if something doesn’t go the way you want it it’s obviously rigged, right?
Unlike Mike Lindell and his disastrous “Prove Mike Wrong Challenge,” venture capitalist billionaire Pierce can afford it. His post-Ducks VC projects include teaming up with Steve Bannon to start a company selling video-game assets for real cash and persuading Jeffrey Epstein to invest in cryptocurrency. (Why yes, Pierce shows up in the Epstein files; he thanked the notorious sex criminal via email for a “great time with the girls.”) Brock also ran for president in 2020 under a technology-first platform. Naturally, Akon (singer of “Smack That”) acted as his campaign manager.
Please Put Har Mar Mall Out of Its Misery
The 63-year-old Roseville mall, owned by Houston firm Fidelis Realty Partners, has a capacity for 58 storefronts. It’s currently only renting out 23 spots, most of which aren’t accessible from inside the mall.
Now it looks like Har Mar's days may be numbered, according to marketing materials and site plans unearthed by Nick Halter at Axios Twin Cities. “A marketing brochure from mall manager and leasing agency JLL calls for ‘a full scrape and rebuild of the existing shopping center’ with tenants able to move in in 2028,” he writes.
A site plan shows a rebuild that would include housing and places for restaurants. The Cub Foods would be the only current tenant to survive. Still, Halter notes that Fidelis hasn’t submitted any plans to the city yet. So, for now at least, Burlington and the K&G Fashion Superstore will live to see another day.
Wanna Buy a Lustron Steel Home?
Pre-fab constructions made entirely from porcelainized steel, Lustron homes were designed to meet the housing demands of World World II vets with G.I. Bill money to burn, though the concept never really took off. But there are still about 25 Lustrons remaining in Minnesota, including this two-bedroom, one-bath beaut. Located at 5055 Nicollet Ave. in Tangletown, it hit the market Monday for $439K—quite a markup from its original $8,500-ish asking price circa 1949.
These unique houses were designed by Swedish-born, Edina-residing entrepreneur Carl Strandlund, whose rise to fame and tragic fall Racket explored here. The freshly listed Minneapolis model includes plenty of its original metallic charm plus a few updated perks, including the bathroom, flooring, and gas fireplace.
