The cocktail as we know it has been around since the Civil War; the idea of combining spirits and flavors and dilution has existed even longer. And in the last 200 years, everyone from British sailors to American founders to traveling ad salesmen have spent a lot of time coming up with new, delicious ways to get loaded, leaving quite a paper trail in their wake.

If you’ve read my work here, you’ll know how much I love the Manhattan. Along with the Old Fashioned, the Martini and the Daiquiri, I think it’s one of the most essential historical cocktails and one of the crucial uilding-block flavor profiles; of all those essentials, it’s definitely my favorite as well.

For roughly as long as I can remember — even as a kid, when I thought Ron Bacardi was just some guy with bats in his barn — I’ve been fascinated by Tiki culture. Maybe it was too many listens to my mother’s copy of the “South Pacific” soundtrack, maybe it was Nick at Nite reruns of “Hawaii Five-0” … whatever it was, the combination of palm trees and low lights and exotic idols always spoke to me.

Here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, as the holidays have wound down and the temperatures have continued to drop, we’re ready for any possible escape from winter, even for a little while. And for us cocktail fans, there’s only one spirit to turn to when you need to make something that says “summer” even when it’s -15 degrees: rum.

Matt Konrad explores Lester B. Morrison's edges-of-everything world, as captured in Little Brown Mushroom's "House of Coates," written by Brad Zellar and photographer Alec Soth and just released in trade paperback by Coffee House Press. Note: This essay was originally published in 2012, on the publication of Little Brown Mushroom's limited-edition series of the book.

Matt Konrad profiles rosenlof/lucas (ROLU, for short), an art and design studio who've become known for the "superhybridity" of their practice, including landscape design and furniture creations, conceptual art projects and an internationally read blog. MINNESOTA'S BARELY PRECEDENTED, MONTH-LONG HEATWAVE has wreaked havoc on plenty of cherished summer traditions in 2012.

Writer and designer Matt Konrad reviews Paper Darts' first foray into book publishing, John Jodzio's collection GET IN IF YOU WANT TO LIVE, calling its marriage of art, fiction and smart layout a "terrific model of a print project for the electronic age." He's a McKnight/Loft grantee, a multiple-time miniStories winner, and author of two short story collections: GET IN IF YOU WANT TO LIVE (Paper Darts Press, 2011), and IF YOU LIVED HERE YOU'D ALREADY BE HOME (Replacement Press, 2010)

Matt Konrad sits down with former Low bassist -turned-comics impresario Zak Sally to talk comics, indie publishing, and the ins and outs of making a living at art without adding trash to the cultural pile. THE NORTHEAST MINNEAPOLIS BUILDING HOUSING THE studio and office of Zak Sally’s publishing concern, La Mano 21 , is maybe the most fitting possible home for the not-quite-comics, not-quite-prose, not-quite-cult, not-quite-mainstream artist at work.

If you're finishing up your junior year of high school, you've got an exciting, fun and stressful 12 months ahead of you. The next couple of months will provide some much-needed breathing room before that senior craziness ramps up, and that means they're also a good time to take a few moments and get ahead of your college scholarship search.

If you’re a student who plays a sport, you’ve probably imagined a few big moments in your career, like hitting a winning jump shot at the buzzer, serving an ace on match point in front of thousands of fans or making a highlight-reel save of a blazing slap shot. You’ve probably also envisioned the day when you open an envelope from your dream college and learn that your athletic skills have earned you a full-tuition scholarship for four years.

As a parent, you know how stressful and competitive the college search can be. Your son or daughter is almost certainly spending hours a night on homework and activities, keeping their academic performance up and building their college resume. Add in the time they (and you) spend researching schools and seeking out scholarships, and it can seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day.

We all know that a college degree makes a massive difference for students, their families and their futures. Those who graduate from college find steadier, better-paying jobs, and a degree is often the ticket out of poverty for low-income students. We also know that, each year, millions of students start their college education but never finish it—even though they’re aware of the huge benefits they’ll see when they graduate.