Bob Collins
In a lot of Minnesota — northern Minnesota, primarily — it’s a lot easier to find a gun store than it is to find knowledge, or so the Washington Post characterizes the situation.
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MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Arts & Culture
Every now and again, we need a little reminder about what a diverse and breathlessly beautiful country the United States can be. Even its ugly parts are weirdly enthralling. Today’s reminder comes from photographer Dave Hirschman, who occasionally ferries airplanes for a living. This week, he flew an Aircam, owned by Twin Cities businessman Walt Read more →
Things were hopping at the Dubh Linn Irish Brew Pub in Duluth yesterday when the U.S. beat Ghana in yesterday’s World Cup match. Check the picture. One woman. This video from Lonny Goldsmith at Brit’s Pub in downtown Minneapolis also suggests a testosterone-heavy clientele. More women seemed represented in Kansas City. But mostly guys. Chicago. Read more →
Tomorrow is Flag Day in the United States, honoring the day in 1777 when the flag was adopted. It’s had a good run, despite our best attempts to embarrass it, as documented every year at this time on NewsCut (example). Minnesota Public Radio’s Nikki Tundel has been stashing her most disturbing encounters with the flag Read more →
In a world where big money feeds big ego, the benefactors of the new Ordway Center hall in Saint Paul are refusing the usual ego stroke given to people who drop cash on an organization. Read more →
MPR’s Tim Post reveals how a real man does a date night.
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Just a few weeks after an anonymous person called the cops on a coffee shop that drew chalk drawings on the sidewalk, the city’s preservation society has put the kibosh on the mural project of a St. Paul artist. Read more →
There’s a new park being born in downtown Saint Paul before our eyes. Read more →
At one time, La Crosse was the center of the clown universe. Read more →
Last night, actor Jonah Hill, who was caught on tape a few days ago using a homophobic slur against a photographer, provided a good lesson in how to top an unfurling public relations disaster: Own the disaster. Read more →
What makes for lousy comedy? The vaccine debate, which pits people with scientific evidence against those who ignore it. Read more →
With any luck, this should end the constant anti-suburban potshots from your city-slicker friends. Read more →
People with perfectly normal voices who, for unexplained reasons, talk with a creaky voice — vocal fry, it’s called — are creaking themselves right out of a job, a study says today.
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In Colorado, Slate reports today, the Colorado Symphony, staged a ‘Classically Cannabis’ concert, a bring-your-own pot event. Read more →
The last time Patty Duke was in Duluth, she had a baby.
It was in a movie — You’ll Like My Mother — in 1972 in which a pregnant Francesca, played by Duke, arrives from Los Angeles to meet her late husband’s mother in Duluth. Eventually, someone gets stabbed.
Whatever happened to the baby in the movie?
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