Withering Glance: Our fave escapes in the Twin Cities

Rick Nelson and Claude Peck dispense unasked-for advice about clothing, etiquette, culture, relationships, grooming and more.

CP: Before we start, promise you will not share this with anyone. If we name our secret, feel-good spots (no, not those), we will have to stamp the column "National Security, Eyes Only."

RN: I swear, on all that I hold holy. Right now that's my airline ticket out of this winter wonderland.

CP: Stricken with cabin fever, I will go to the Central Library in downtown Minneapolis, laptop in tow, get a Dunn Bros. with no room, and settle in at one of the third-floor study carrels. For one, I love the Cesar Pelli library. For another, this activity time-machines me to my heady, carefree college days.

RN: If only my alma mater's odious O. Meredith Wilson Library possessed Pelli's generous way with sunlight. Had the restorative refuge that is the Weisman Art Museum existed during my undergraduate years, I probably would have made the dean's list.

CP: Shopping is therapeutic, too. I used to have several favorite places here, such as L'Homme at Dayton's and the shoe shack at now-closed Neiman Marcus.

RN: Don't get me started on downtown's retail past. I still miss the Williams-Sonoma outlet on the second floor of the original Harold. It disappeared, by — what? — 1985? Jeez, I'm old.

RN: When I'm in need of a non-caffeinated mood elevator, I'll slip into the Rand Tower's swellegant lobby — "the most exceptional art deco space in downtown Minneapolis," according to our employer's former architecture critic, the astute Linda Mack — and take a few deep, calming breaths.

CP: I see you coming down the marble spiral staircase there and instantly think Roz Russell in "Auntie Mame."

RN: Thanks, I think.

CP: The Rand's St. Paul counterpart is the Ramsey County courts building. Same architect, very different vibe.

RN: Field trip! I can't enter the Crystal Court without offering silent thanks to the 1960s corporate leaders who had the foresight — and the checkbook — to hire architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee. Where would Minneapolis be without the IDS? Cold Omaha, that's where.

RN: Guilting out over Gringolet, Odegard's, Baxter's and other beloved bookstores is why I'm hedging on buying an e-reader.

CP: Guilt has no place in a feel-good world. Buy it.

E-mail: witheringglance@startribune.com