One of these days on NewsCut we’re going to have to have an NCAA-Tournament-style competition of summertime festivals. When we do, remind me to include Pequot Lakes’ Bean Hole Days, which wrapped up yesterday, according to the Brainerd Dispatch. There’s something oddly comforting about a town that will turn out in the middle of the Read more →
Crude rules the rails right now. Oil deliveries are trumping food right now, so forget Amtrak passengers. Read more →
It was a big day this week for potheads in Washington state when the first legalized sales of marijuana took place. In Spokane, Mike Boyer camped out to be the first in line. But Mike provides a great lesson. Even if you’re buying legal pot, ix-nay on the ameras-cay. He’s been fired from his security Read more →
Do newsroom bosses give the audience enough credit for understanding social media? NPR has put the question in the spotlight after an education reporter tweeted on an NPR account that while she tries to provide diverse voices, only the white voices call her back. That’s a typical social media grenade and one of NPR’s news Read more →
Over a few dozen years watching the pilots for the mosquito control districts, I’ve concluded you have to be just a little bit of a daredevil to drop the mosquito bombs, at least watching them from afar. MPR’s Tim Post today has a different perspective on these people. Clearly, there’s not a lot of room Read more →
Do you suppose this picture is going to sweep across meme-land today? President Obama met with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and other Texas officials on the brewing immigration calamity there in which hundreds of young people are crossing the border, overwhelming the state. No doubt, the picture isn’t about the issue — photographers weren’t allowed Read more →
The Minneapolis Police Department is looking for some help to find the likely illiterate who did this: Someone torched the Little Library on Minnehaha Avenue on Sunday, according to a post on the MPD Facebook page. It takes a lot of hate to burn a book.
My mother, now 92 years old, spends many of her days reading the letters sent her during World War II — love letters, I presume, since they’d only been married a few months when he headed to Europe. They are bundled and tied with ribbons, and when she finishes reading them, she starts at the Read more →
As of this afternoon, Zack Danger Brown, the man who started a Kickstarter campaign to raise money by promising to make potato salad, owes $21,000. That’s the conclusion of the Tax Foundation. In its blog post today, the group considers the over $70,000 people have thrown at Brown so far: We will cap the amount Read more →
Noisey, the digital music channel, has made a stop in Minneapolis for the third installment (after Seattle and Denver) of its Made in America series. And although we did spend five minutes contemplating loitering outside Paisley Park like a stalker, there’s so much more to the area than “purfiying yourself in the waters of Lake Read more →
We have noted in this space for many years the silly tendency of TV reporter to want to stand in water to tell the story of a flood (a tendency, it’s worth noting, that seemed sparse in the recent floods in Minnesota). A Phoenix reporter took it to a new level with the recent haboob.
There’s nothing wrong with the world that a little more romping in mud can’t cure. Read more →
What comes to your mind when you read this description of articles of clothing, now banned at a Minneapolis bar? – Flat-billed hats – Large chains – Sleeveless under shirts – Long white T-shirts – Athletic apparel – Sports jerseys without collars – Excessively baggy clothing “You might as well say, ‘No black folks allowed,’” Read more →
Soccer is called “the beautiful game,” because “the game that rips your heart out, stomps on your gut, and leaves your country humiliated in the eyes of the sports world” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. Read more →
Let the word go forth, airline pilots: Captain Gerhard Brandner has raised the bar. His Frontier Airlines flight to Denver was diverted because of thunderstorms the other night and as he sat on the ground in Cheyenne, he decided to order some pizza for himself. He also ordered 49 more pizzas for all his passengers. Read more →
Bob Collins
Paul Tosto