Bob CollinsCan we reunite after the election, Moorhead’s cost of Home Makeover, Alice’s message, cruising Lake of the Woods, the day in science.
It’s Monday and that’s Monday Morning Rouser time. Bow your heads and play:
1) PULLING TOGETHER
James Fallows wrote an interesting piece about Jon Stewart yesterday that compared him to Mark Twain. He says it started with this clip, which I’d never seen before. It was the first Daily Show after 9/11.
Watch the entire thing. I can’t tell you why I think it’s important to go back and relive the first few days after 9/11. I just have this nagging voice that says over the next 24 -36 hours, it will be.
After the election is over, and some of your pols have won and some have not, what’s your plan for pulling together?
Postscript: Stewart’s Saturday rally focused attention on the media. Follow-up articles pit media watchdogs Jeff Jarvis against David Carr.
2) ALICE
Producers of a documentary on the oldest Holocaust survivor this month turned to social networking to try to raise funds for their film. They’ve released the trailer:
Here’s the Facebook page for Alice Herz Sommer. As the campaigns wind down, she brings an appropriate message: “Hatred brings hatred.”
(H/T: Steve North)
3) “MOVE THAT BUDGET!”
What happens when Extreme Makeover Home Edition comes to town? It costs the city a small fortune, the Fargo Forum reports. The ABC series builds homes in a week for deserving individuals, but when it built a home in Moorhead recently, the city got nicked for part of the tab.
Police officers, firefighters and street department workers put in 551 overtime hours associated with the production and were paid $17,464 in overtime wages by the city.
Moorhead also provided the project with about 550 yards of sand worth $1,650 and about 150 yards of black dirt valued at $1,500.
4) CRUISING THE NORTHLAND
The spouses of two MPR colleagues tried their luck in the Lake of the Woods International Sailing Association Regatta. One of them happens to write for the New York Times. There are no secrets of lost dignity when you hang out with someone who writes for the New York Times.
By the time we reached the mouth of Pine Portage Bay, near the north shore, and headed into the main lake, the racing boats were almost out of sight. Bobbing there in the water, I experienced the helpless, hapless feeling one has when he leaves for a hectic day of work before sunrise, knowing full well that he won’t return home until his family is long asleep. We raised the genoa — a headsail for light winds that hangs in front of the mast. And it drooped there, flaccid.
5) THE DAY IN SCIENCE
Extroverts are hurt more by lack of sleep than introverts, new research from the U.S. Army says.
More science: Alcohol is more lethal than heroin or cocaine.
Bonus: NPR’s “first listen” series has just posted Bruce Springsteen’s “The Promise.”
The Promise, subtitled The Lost Sessions: Darkness on the Edge of Town, is not the usual odds-and-ends reissue package. In 1975, after Born to Run made him a megastar, Bruce Springsteen found himself in a lawsuit with his then-manager, which blocked the singer from making a follow-up for nearly two years until the suit was settled. While lawyers bickered, Springsteen toured and wrote prolifically. And the album that began taking shape in the months after Born to Run ultimately became — some 70+ songs later — a very different album: 1978’s fierce Darkness on the Edge of Town. As Springsteen himself reflected, “It’s a reckoning with the adult world … with a life of limitations and compromises.”
This week: Jordan Burnham comes to Duluth to speak on a topic he knows something about: trying to kill himself, even though he had everything to live for.
He’ll present his story tomorrow at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth.
TODAY’S QUESTION
Each Monday leading up to Election Day, we’ve asked a question related to the race for Minnesota governor. Today’s Question: What are the three best reasons to support your candidate?
WHAT WE’RE DOING
Midmorning (9-11 a.m.) – First hour: The Pew Research Center just came out with its final pre-election voter poll. Political strategists discuss the poll’s accuracy, and whether or not this year reflects a sea change in American public opinion.
Second hour: What midterm elections can mean for a president.
Midday (11 a.m. – 1 p.m.) – First hour: Washington University political scientist Steven Smith on the key elections around the country.
Second hour: Rebroadcast of yesterday’s gubernatorial debate.
Talk of the Nation (1-3 p.m.) – First hour: TBA
Second hour: TBA
All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) – The fight over landmark environmental legislation. On the ballot in California, proposition 23 would suspend the state’s global warming law. Support is funded largely by a couple of Texas oil companies.
