Sometimes, when I am out walking, I like to visit this old coal chute in Uptown...

Sometimes, when I am out walking, I like to visit this old coal chute in Uptown Minneapolis. I like to rest my hand on the raised letters: MAJESTIC. It’s a little like rubbing a lamp. I don’t expect (or necessarily want) a genie to pop out and grant me three wishes. But there is some magic thrumming in that word, those letters. They conjure a cold winter morning and a boy standing in the basement shoveling coal into the furnace. He stops his work and turns, looks up and out the window, catche...