Tag Archives: hbo the wire

Wasting Time

It’s Monday and, while I try not to make this blog all about me and my personal life, I feel like crap today.

I made this amazing batch of French-style vanilla ice cream yesterday and ate some with a cookie and immediately felt WEIRD. Totally wired and kind of nauseous. The ice cream did not have a similar effect on Keith. Now the ice cream is lurking in my freezer and I’m scared to eat it lest I burst into flames or shake uncontrollably. This morning I woke up convinced that I had developed diabetes.

I never said I was a rational person.

Because a rational person would probably not embark on a 3-hour hike at Afton State Park in the hot sun after eating suspect ice cream and come home completely exhausted, watch two episodes of Louie and pass out.

Anyway, yesterday when we were driving through Hastings I saw Omar Avenue and got excited. Omar Little! My favorite character from The Wire.

A well-timed “Omar comin’!” still makes me laugh.

So the excitement ramped up when I saw that the next street was Odell Avenue (named after, I’m sure, Odell Watkins, a minor character from The Wire but memorable).

Because I am trying to find any excuse to do nothing today, I checked Google Maps to see what other streets around that area are called. It revealed that this was not a subdivision named after all the characters from the show – it is only those two streets. There was no McNulty Court or Rawls Road. Bummer.

But then I started looking throughout Minnesota to see how we pay tribute to one of the best shows on TV, ever. And here are my results:

Moreland Circle in West St. Paul is named after Det. William “Bunk” Moreland, played by Wendell Pierce.

Daniels Street in Long Lake commemorates Lt. Cedric Daniels, played by Lance Reddick

Perlman Street in St. Paul, right off of West 7th Street, is for the lovely, ginger-haired Assistant State’s Attorney Rhonda Perlman, played by Deirdre Lovejoy.

We’ve dedicated the entire city of Carver to Sgt. Ellis Carver, played by Seth Gilliam.

The character of Det. Lester Freamon means so much to us that he has two streets: Lester Street in Duluth and Lester Avenue in Hastings (way to go, Hastings, that’s your THIRD street named after a Wire character – keep it going!)

We love our villains, too. We have Avon Avenue in Avon, Minnesota to commemorate Avon Barksdale, played by Wood Harris. And to honor Russell “Stringer” Bell we have no less than three Bell Streets, located in Eden Valley, St. Bonifacius and Belgrade.

The great Clay Davis is commemorated with Davis Street in Mankato.

Finally, my very favorite, to honor the homeless junkie, Bubbles, played by Andre Royo, we have Bubbles Lake in the Superior National Forest near Stony River, MN. I like to think that Bubbles, after a stay at one of Minnesota’s many rehab centers, might camp on the shore of this very lake, thinking things over and finding himself at a new beginning.

I searched in vain for anything named after McNulty in our state. The same goes for Rawls, Gregg and Hauk.