Bob Collins
Memo: If you’re a leader in the fight against cultural appropriation, you might not want to go with blackface on Halloween. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Arts & Culture
Maybe Minnesotans won’t invite you to their home. But they’ll bring you doughnuts. What more can you want? Read more →
The New York Times isn’t that thrilled with the Honeycrisp apple, a fruit that has a thicker skin than some Minnesotans, apparently. Read more →
‘Where is the most dangerous place for free speech in America? It’s not Iran, it’s not North Korea. We’re not going there,’ Grand Forks City Council member Terry Bjerke told a crowd this week. ‘The college campuses and the University of North Dakota are the most dangerous places for free speech.’ Read more →
Gary Knell, the former boss of NPR who abruptly quit in 2013 because of an offer he couldn’t refuse from National Geographic, might have set a new standard for clumsy layoff announcements.
National Geographic is in the process of gutting its staff now that it’s in the clutches of one Rupert Murdoch.
The layoffs are underway today. Read more →
Because what’s the point of having kids if you can’t make them miserable every now and again.
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The new Pew Research survey on religion in American life — the first since 2007– suggests the United States is becoming less religious.
That’s the headline anyway although it may overstate the shift from belief in god.
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Mary Lucia is coming back to The Current after more than six months of trying to put a stalker where he belonged. Read more →
Here’s the immediate payoff to turning back the clocks: We get to see the iconic Pillsbury sign in Minneapolis an hour earlier.
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We don’t always know what we think we know. Read more →
It’s somewhat comforting to know that the book-spine trash talking between libraries didn’t end after the Toronto and Kansas City playoff series.
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On the heels of last week’s book-spine smackdown between public libraries in Toronto and Kansas City over the baseball playoffs, we now turn to the musical portion of baseball’s postseason ‘trash talk.’ Read more →
Today’s ‘let’s blame social media’ item comes from Boston where a theater critic is lambasting an increasing practice in theater: audience laughter where there shouldn’t be any.
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Target Corporation has unveiled an app that will allow people you don’t know, potentially from neighborhoods that aren’t yours, to show up at your door on Halloween because the word got out you’re giving away some decent candy.
What could possibly go wrong? Read more →
South by Southwest, the incredibly popular festival in Austin, Texas, is canceling two panels, even though one of them really needs to be held.
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