Bob CollinsPosting will be light to non-existent today as this is the annual shopping trip for my wife and I me to the Mall of America, where the actual point is just to look at people.
I was going to just post some videos of penguins so that you didn’t come here for nothing today only to find out there’s nothing here, but let’s do that December thing instead and reveal the top 10 most popular blog posts for NewsCut for 2016.
Penguins, unfortunately, did not make the cut this year.
10) After Trump attack, a defense of fellow Minnesotans
The weekend before the election, Donald Trump flew to Minnesota and delivered a broadside against immigrants reminiscent of an attack he made in Maine earlier in the campaign. Local officials stood for fellow citizens. A few days later, the reason for the visit and the message became more clear.
9) Wait, what? Supreme Court casually guts 4th Amendment
If evidence can be used against you that is the result of an illegal stop by police, what’s to keep police from stopping you illegally? You can be stopped now for doing nothing wrong, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in an astounding piece of writing that should be required reading for anyone who’s ever been tempted to read the Constitution.
8) Adios, Car Talk!
Tom and Ray Magliozzi retired from the show in 2012, and Tom died in November 2014, but NPR and producer WBUR in Boston kept the program alive with reruns, which has led to questions — raised in this space in 2012 — about whether public radio and its audience could successfully birth the kind of programs that catapulted public radio into the mainstream in the ’70s and ’80s. It takes risks to do that and it’s easier taking risks when you don’t have much of an audience, not so much when you’re popular.
7) Cars parked in driveway are public safety hazard, MN court says
There’s little Minnesotans love more than griping about their neighbors, so this August decision really struck a nerve. A Minnesota law requiring collector cars to be “screened” from public view has survived a challenge from a Cleveland Avenue, St. Paul man who buried two of them under tarps.
6) Crying Robin Hood guy is a Minnesota hero
A lot of the online crowd piled on Sean Kehren, who had the misfortune of giving a damn about politics and taking part in civic life. When he was shown crying at the Democratic National Convention, he became a target of the online people, none of whom pulled a woman from a burning wreck in 2016, another fact that separated Kehren from his detractors. Unfortunately, the video of his heroism is no longer available online. A few days later, he had a great conversation with MPR’s Mark Zdechlik, just in case his critics didn’t feel foolish enough. Kehren just missed out on being NewsCut’s person of the year.
5) Just take the last piece, Minnesota
I’ve seen a few people take the last piece of holiday goodies in recent weeks around the World Headquarters of NewsCut. And each time they do, a person seems to mutter, “I’m not from here.” Tracy Mumford looked into this phenomenon in September. Tracy, by the way, is embarking a new series for MPR: trailer parks.’
4) In boycott over U of M suspensions, the issue isn’t football
This is a late entry into this year’s competition, of course, coming as did just last week when the University of Minnesota football team boycotted team activities in support of 10 athletes who were disciplined for taking part in an alleged sexual assault. The post also contributed to the most number of emails I received saying “thanks for writing this.” The fact so many people didn’t want to post that message in the comments section is, itself, illustrative.
3) Maple Grove kids fight back against the racists
The kids of Maple Grove Senior High School did what they could after Election Day to fight back against the racist graffiti that was scrawled on the walls of a bathroom at their school. They lined up to welcome everyone to the school. The principal, Bart Becker, ended his daily announcement with ‘I love you all.’ The idea, thanks to this post, spread to Maine a week later.
2) In attack on KARE reporter, Star Tribune columnist crosses the line
If ever there was a time for everyone to cut everyone else some slack, the days after the discovery of Jacob Wetterling’s body was it. Indeed, in the wake of the recitation in court of the last minutes of Jacob Wetterling, one could almost feel Minnesotans pulling just a bit closer, trying to shield themselves from the indecency and depravity of it all. So you knew it couldn’t last long.
1) Bob Hoover, one of history’s greatest pilots, dead at 94
My takeaway from the (easily) most viewed post of 2016 is the number of people who suggested in the comments section that the story wasn’t true because it wasn’t online anywhere else. Some of you have no faith in NewsCut. No faith at all. Do something about that in 2017.
Thank you for being a NewsCut reader in 2016. Thank you for reading all the way to the bottom of this lengthy post.
Here’s your reward.
