Bob Collins1) If I had to do it all over again, I’d bring a book to my kids’ athletic league games. I wasn’t exactly that parent, but I was close. I also umped a game in which the over-the-top coach of the other team in Woodbury spent 10 percent of his time berating his kids and 90% of his time berating me. Today, there’s the story of Jeff Shand, 50, a commissioner of the Burnsville youth basketball league who was punched by a parent following an in-house tournament game Saturday afternoon, the PiPress says. Apparently, he was unhappy with the timekeeping.
Well, then.
If you’ve got kids in athletic programs, you know those people. Or maybe, it’s you. C’mon. Share.
2) Tyler Shipman has died. Last fall, a group of car enthusiasts from across the country gathered in Frazee to help him restore his 1986 Fiero to mint condition before he lost his battle with cancer. They did. Now, he has. He was 18.
3) The building of Fallingwater. A new animated movie abut Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece has been released:
Fallingwater from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.
(h/t: Open Culture)
4) Since the housing market crash, two-thirds of registered mortgage brokers have lost their jobs. NPR profiles two of them, one who once made $400,000 a year. Now, he runs a fruit stand.
Love that working world ! Related: Former WCCO anchor Jeanette Trompeter considers how long it takes to lose the “balance” we regain by taking a step back from the working world. “About 10 minutes,” she finds, which is about how long it takes to get it back.
5) When it comes to drinking, kids copy their parents, new research says. In the UK, half of kids who say they’ve had a drink, got it from their parents.
Bonus: I’ve always wondered whether anyone says “no” when they’re proposed to on sports stadiums’ scoreboards. Apparently so:
Update 10:57 a.m. – Mary from St. Paul writes:
Your “bonus” in your “five at eight” today (2/16) about the blueshirt bride at the hockey game … a quick google of “blueshirt bride” turned up several sites saying it was a publicity stunt. I’m not sure what to think since the sites saying “hoax” are local to the east coast and not familiar to me. Thought you might want to follow it up …
TODAY’S QUESTION
Gov. Tim Pawlenty released his proposed state budget on Monday. He had warned in his State of the State speech last week that his plan would contain dramatic and painful cuts. How would the budget plan announced yesterday affect you?
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) – First hour: Midmorning discusses how effective the governor’s supplemental budget will be at tackling the state’s $1.2 billion budget shortfall through the middle of next year. Guest: Rep. Marty Seifert (R-Marshall), former minority leader in the Minnesota House of Representatives; Margaret Anderson Kelliher, speaker of the Minnesota House.
Second hour: Willa Cather’s “My Antonia” captured the beauty of the prairie and the hardscrabble existence of European immigrants on the Nebraska plains. Midmorning speaks with the author of a new stage adaptation of the novel and a Cather scholar about why the story still resonates.
Midday (11 a.m. – 1 p.m.) – First hour: A discussion about Minnesota’s health and human services budget. Guest: Rep. Tom Huntley, chair of the House Health Care and Human Services Finance Division. A Pawlenty administration official has been invited.
Second hour: Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Garry Wills, speaking about his new book “The Modern Presidency and the National Security State.”
Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) – First hour: When the Supreme Court threw out the ban on corporate spending for candidates, both advocates and critics described the decision as momentous, but with different consequences for the political process. In this hour: A guide to the new era of campaign finance.
Second hour: The high stakes in the Marja offensive. Plus, author William Langewiesche on snipers in Afghanistan.
All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) – One of the ideas Republicans have suggested to reform health care is to allow people to buy insurance across state lines. Gov. Tim Pawlenty echoed it in his State of the State speech last week. Why can’t you buy health insurance from a company in another state, and if you were able to, would it lower the cost of premiums? The president says he’s already included this notion in his plan, if so, why are Republicans still pushing for it? MPR’s Elizabeth Stawicki takes a look.
For every Avatar, there are countless great films that never find an audience. And there’s a film critic who wants you to know about some of them. Leonard Maltin talks about his list of the 151 best movies you’ve never seen.
