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NewsCut

MPR News Reflections and observations on the news

Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture

When the online mob doesn’t want facts

Bob CollinsBob Collins February 5, 2018, 2:02 PM Feb 5, 2018
31

Knowing what social media can do to a person’s career in short order, however, it was a little scary watching what happened to WCCO meteorologist Mike Augustyniak, who lives downtown and looked out the window at the reality below, and dared to tell people. Read more →

Arts & Culture

‘As Godas my witness,’ the chickens of Ridgeland, Wis., will fly

Bob CollinsBob Collins February 2, 2018, 10:22 AM Feb 2, 2018
7

Sorry, animal lovers, but the Pioneer Days in Ridgeland, Wis. — just south of Barron — is going on as scheduled, and that includes the greased pig contest and the chicken-throwing competition.

The Dunn County Sheriff’s Office reports on Facebook that it’s been getting plenty of calls protesting the events. Read more →

Arts & Culture · Weather

A snow artist at Target Field

Bob CollinsBob Collins February 2, 2018, 6:57 AM Feb 2, 2018
2

There’s little that adds more chill to the wind than images of baseball stadiums in winter. As long as we’re going to have winter, though, we might as well make something of it. Check out this video with snow artist Simon Beck at Target Field. Read more →

Arts & Culture

Two years after covered-up Prince tribute, Barn Bluff graffiti issue still roils Red Wing

Bob CollinsBob Collins February 1, 2018, 9:11 AM Feb 1, 2018
12

Graffiti on Barn Bluff’s rock face is a tradition and sometimes it can be touching, as when someone painted Prince’s symbol on the bluff not long after he was found dead. The city painted over it, and another Prince tribute was painted over that.
Read more →

Arts & Culture · Weather

Cold enough for you? Yeah, us too.

Bob CollinsBob Collins February 1, 2018, 8:09 AM Feb 1, 2018
35

Hi there, visitors. Welcome to our state. Before you unpack, please understand that one of the reasons why the locals — who love the cold, they say — are talking about how terribly cold it is today is so that you’ll think highly of our ability to ignore the cold and pretend we love it so much we dread the coming summer. Just humor us; it’s a thing.
Read more →

Arts & Culture

Speak no ill of Robbinsdale, employee learns

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 30, 2018, 10:24 AM Jan 30, 2018
20

Tony Langfellow was going to work at a Robbinsdale parks warming house, but then city officials saw his YouTube video. Read more →

Arts & Culture

Your Crock-Pot won’t kill you

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 25, 2018, 8:51 AM Jan 25, 2018
32

Admit it, fans of the NBC series, “This is Us.” You spent part of Wednesday wondering if your Crock-Pot is a death trap. We know now that a faulty switch on a Crock-Pot is what killed Jack, the heroic father. Next week’s episode will contain all the details as he rescues his family, as the Read more →

Arts & Culture

On the death of Tinky Winky and the headlines of our lives

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 25, 2018, 8:36 AM Jan 25, 2018
6

A hazard of making a living in popular culture that when you go, your life’s achievement is Tinky Winky. Even your name is excluded from the headline.

His name was Simon Shelton Barnes. He was a dancer.
Read more →

Arts & Culture

Likely ‘Girl from the North Country’ dies

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 23, 2018, 11:02 AM Jan 23, 2018
3

She was once a true love of Bob Dylan’s, or so the song goes. Echo Star Casey, rumored to be the Hibbing native Dylan wrote about, has died in California, the Duluth News Tribune says. She was in her late ’70s. Like Dylan, she was different from her classmates, the paper says. Helstrom and Dylan Read more →

Arts & Culture

Sex, race and body shaming: Lizzo pictures trigger a storm

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 22, 2018, 9:32 AM Jan 22, 2018
19

A recent Star Tribune essay criticizing local hip-hop favorite Lizzo for nudity in her Instagram feed has ignited a backlash in the Twin Cities music scene, and caused a stir inside the newspaper. Read more →

Arts & Culture · Education

Parents, smartphones rescue middle-school musical

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 19, 2018, 2:24 PM Jan 19, 2018
2

It’s a rare day anymore when parents get a little credit for their behavior at the extracurricular events of their kids. So give it up for the parents of the kids at Miles River Middle School in Hamilton, Mass., where a power outage threatened to curtail the winter musical performance of ‘James and the Giant Peach.’ Read more →

Arts & Culture

La Crosse considers what to do with Hiawatha statue

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 18, 2018, 8:34 AM Jan 18, 2018
21

For a time in the ’60s, La Crosse, Wisconsin’s Hiawatha statue was the largest in the country, until one was built in Michigan. It nearly was torn down a few years ago when it fell into disrepair, but enough money was raised to keep it upright. Read more →

Arts & Culture

A passing of one of radio’s last geniuses

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 16, 2018, 2:30 PM Jan 16, 2018
1

‘Joe Frank is what radio in its wildest dreams wishes it could be,’ Harry Shearer said of Joe Frank, who died yesterday at age 79, leaving behind a few inspired people who remain in the business. Read more →

Arts & Culture

In Washington County, it takes a lot to kill polka

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 16, 2018, 7:01 AM Jan 16, 2018
1

The Pioneer Press’ Mary Divine writes that Laura Miron Mendele, who grew up going to the Withrow Ballroom in Washington County, has purchased the ballroom that closed late last year, and plans to reopen it for the polka dance in March.
Read more →

Arts & Culture

Will we ever ‘get’ Tonya Harding?

Bob CollinsBob Collins January 12, 2018, 10:54 AM Jan 12, 2018
30

Thanks to the movie ‘I, Tonya’, Tonya Harding, the former Olympic figure skater has become a sympathetic figure. Hollywood can create any reality.
Read more →

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