Skip to Content
Opinion

Start Your Labor Day Weekend Off Right With This Friday Open Thread

Let's talk about work! Or let's not!

How we put Racket together every day

|Arron Choi via Unsplash

We're taking Labor Day off here at Racket and we hope you've got the opportunity to do the same. But before we all go our separate ways, we wanted to use this week's open thread to talk about (sorry!) work.

So this week's prompt is labor related. What was your first job? Your worst job? Your weirdest? What do you do now?

Since it's only fair that I answer those questions myself, here goes. I was a paper boy as a kid, but my first regular job was at a Roy Rogers, a fast food chain I don't think they have out here. My worst? I left my job as music editor at City Pages in 2001 to edit the review section for the new music mag Blender in New York—and got canned after a month. My weirdest was probably working in a warehouse using a labeling machine to seal bags of potpourri.

And this, of course, is what I do now.

Anyway, feel free to chat about any of this, your Labor Day plans, or anything else that crosses your mind. And see ya next Tuesday.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Racket

Racket Racks Up 8 Trophies at the 2026 Local Journalism Awards

In today's Flyover news roundup? All we're rounding up is Racket's performance at Tuesday's Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists' Page One Awards ceremony.

Where Are All the Protest Songs? On Our Latest Best New Music Playlists.

5 great new local songs, 5 great new songs from everywhere else, and fuckin' Drake.

Two Decades in ‘The Dork Forest’: Jackie Kashian on Pioneering Comedy Podcasts, Working With BFF Maria Bamford, and Coming Home to Acme

'When [Kashian] gets her teeth in a premise, she will take it and chew it until there’s nothing left on that bone. She does not quit.'

Feds Can’t Leave Minnesota Alone

Plus Eyedea in AI form, MPD's blown budget, and more Bob Dylan in today's Flyover news roundup.

Summer Guide 2026: Hiking and Camping

Yurts, tent sites, RV hookups, and more in the Great Outdoors.

June 16, 2026

Yes, of Course We Tried the Kwik Trip Mountain Dew Donuts

'No, they won’t be around forever,' the Kwik Trip team warns.

June 16, 2026
See all posts