Bob CollinsWhy have flood-ravaged communities been forgotten? Also: The ‘gift’ of cancer, the joy of work examined, shiny weather objects, and a new player but old results for the Vikings.
This morning at 9, I’ll be live-blogging the Minnesota gubernatorial debate, being held in the MPR studios with host Kerri MIller of Midmorning. The people who do the Poligraph fact-checking application for MPR will be whispering sweet falsehoods in my ear. And we look forward to an online conversation with you, too. Come back here at around 8:45 for the pregame show.
1) HANGING ON BY THEIR BOOTSTRAPS
Perhaps this is the day a federal employee signs whatever paper he/she needs to sign to send some federal disaster aid to southeast Minnesota. What is it about Zumbro Falls that has residents staying even though people have said the town is basically gone, because of last month’s floods? Audrey Kletscher Helbling, on Minnesota Prairie Roots, talks to one woman whose house is filled with four feet of mud, and she has no place to live with winter coming. Someone should tell FEMA.
In Hammond, meanwhile, a woman says President Obama “should get off his butt.” Find more excellent reporting here.
2) THE GIFT OF CANCER
In a new TED video, Stacy Kramer says her cancer was a gift.
A commenter takes issue with the assertion:
Incredible courage, but she wouldn’t want to change the experience? She wouldn’t want to skip the pain, fear, suffering, cost and other hardships, and instead be healthy and enjoy her life? Think about that. I’m reminded of what Dan Ariely said about pain, how the end of the experience is the part that sticks in one’s mind, and i think this is a clear case, now she’s fine and feels great and that overshadows everything that came before.
3) THE JOY OF WORK
Here’s a conclusion that needs to be nailed down once and for all: Does working keep your mind sharp? A new study says there’s a connection between people who don’t retire and their memory. The study gave people 10 nouns to remember, then asked them 10 minutes later to repeat them. In countries where people work longer, more people remembered the words. But it’s not as cut-and-dried as one might think. The study couldn’t identify what it is about the working world that’s responsible. And it may well be that people who don’t retire already have more cognitive skills than people who do not.
What’s your plan? Retire? Or keep working?
More work: Recently Morning Edition aired the story of an Oregon company with a strong smell. Mountain Rose Herbs is the nation’s second-largest distributor of organic dried herbs. The aroma of hundreds of botanicals permeates just about everything. It inspired the show’s staff to go to Facebook and Twitter to ask listeners about jobs they’ve had, where they brought the smell of work home with them.
4) AND NOW YOUR FORECAST FOR OCTOBER 2011
Weather geek Cathy Wurzer calls our attention to this new tool from the National Weather Service. There are lots of shiny objects for long-range outlooks for several locations in the upper Midwest. From what I can tell, for example, the temperature in St. Cloud next year will likely be lower than the mean from 1971-2000.
5) NEW PLAYER, OLD VIKINGS
Randy Moss must be waking up with a new reality today. He talked himself off a 3-and-1 team and on to a 1-and-3 team. The Vikings lost last night — or was it early this morning?
And Bret Favre had nothing to say about the great sexting scandal of 2010. Catch Randy Moss being Randy Moss in this piece from NPR.
TODAY’S QUESTION
Minneapolis officials will study the garbage of randomly selected homes this week to see how much of it should have been recycled. How careful are you to recycle everything you should?
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) – Both hours: Gubernatorial debate.
Midday (11 a.m. – 1 p.m.) – First hour: TBA
Second hour: First district congressional debate sponsored by Debate Minnesota. Incumbent DFLer Tim Walz, GOP challenger Randy Demmer, and IP challenger Steven Wilson are participating.
Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) – First hour: Following the source of campaign cash.
Second hour: Bassist Victor Wooten talks about the language of music, his new audio-book “The Music Lesson.”
All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) – Tim Pugmire will have a recap of this morning’s gubernatorial debate.
MPR’s Bob Kelleher asks: If the moose population is declining in northern Minnesota, why are they having a moose hunt in October?
