www.startribune.com/variety
TODAY’S QUOTE
E
VARIETY
“A change in the weather is sufficient to re-create
the world and ourselves.”
Marcel Proust
MONDAY
February 16, 2004
★
Star Tribune file photos
No matter what the season or the temperature, Minnesotans love to talk about the weather.
WINTER WARMTH
WEATHER
WRAP
THE NEWS: Temperature records that have held
for decades melted across Minnesota on Tuesday. In St. James, the high was 59, breaking a
record of 45 set in 1963. In Albert Lea, it reached
57, shattering a 102-year-old record of 45. The
unseasonably high temperatures also broke
decades-old records in several towns, including
Austin (55), Maple Lake (54), International Falls
and Duluth (both 46).
PAUL’S TAKE: Tuesday’s amazing 52-degree high
in the Twin Cities (breaking a record of 45 set in
1949) is typical for April 13, and the earliest 50degree reading in a calendar year ever recorded.
And, since 1891, we have had only six winters
with this little snowfall as of Jan. 8.
AUGUST 24
THE NEWS: The official Twin Cities temperature
reached 97 degrees Sunday, the hottest day of
the summer and only one degree short of tying the
hottest Aug. 24 on record, the National Weather
Service in Chanhassen said.
Three cities —
St. Paul (98),
South St. Paul
(99) and
Lakeville (99) —
reported temperatures that
tied or exceeded
the 98 degrees
recorded on
Aug. 24, 1948,
meteorologist
Bill Harrison
said. The allCourtney Burket of Lakeville
time August high headed for home after a long,
was 103, set on hot day at the fair Aug. 24.
Aug. 15, 1936,
he said.
THE NEWS: A tornado that witnesses described
as three-quarters of a mile wide and “black as oil”
roared through Buffalo Lake in south-central Minnesota on Tuesday evening, causing major damage to the town of about 700. The slow-moving
tornado tore into the post office, blew the roof off
a liquor store and heavily damaged a Lutheran
church downtown. At least five people were injured, but no fatalities were reported.
PAUL’S TAKE: We went from the quietest severe
weather season in six years to a major tornado
outbreak, literally overnight. Yesterday, conditions
were ripe for long-lasting, rotating thunderstorms.
Updrafts were strong enough to support the formation of large hail and even confirmed tornadoes.
More inside on E3
MONTHLY DATA FOR 2003
High
temp.
PAUL’S TAKE: Oh, I can just imagine the chorus
of fine whines, groans and whimpers coming from
overheated people strolling the Minnesota State
Fair later today. It will not be pretty. If you want to
avoid the heat and humidity, consider waiting until
midweek, when a Canadian cool front will treat us
to some free air conditioning.
100°
JUNE 24
Heat, cold and even a broken
thermometer made the headlines.
Our Weather Page meteorologist,
Paul Douglas, took a folksy look
at the sweltering and shivering
as it happened.
HEAT HEIGHTS
By Steve Woodward
and Garielle Glaser
(Portland) Oregonian
TWISTER TEARS
THROUGH TOWN
2003
JANUARY 7
Low
Avg. Diff. from
temp. temp. normal Precip.
Diff. from
normal Snow*
Jan.
54
-12
15.3
+2.2
0.22
-0.82
Feb.
46
-14
15.7
-4.4
0.54
-0.25 10.7
Mar.
72
-10
31.3
-0.8
1.44
-0.42 13.2
April
89
21
48.3
+1.7
2.40
+0.09
1
May
82
41
57.7
-1.6
6.14
+2.90
—
June
89
49
68.1
-0.3
4.66
+0.32
—
July
92
56
73.7
+0.6
2.06
-1.98
—
Aug.
97
53
75.3
+4.7
1.12
-2.93
—
Sept.
92
35
62.5
+1.5
2.20
-0.49
—
Oct.
85
28
51.0
+2.4
0.62
-1.49
0.6
Nov.
59
9
32.1
-0.3
0.71
-1.23
1.4
Dec.
43
-4
25.0
+6.4
0.62
-0.38
3
5.1
John Valdez shows a photo of the June 24 tornado
in Buffalo Lake.
200
03 highest
0
Daily hhigh an
and low
temperatures
eeratures for 20
003
0
97° on Auuugust 24
2003
3 warmest
avera
average
age high
Auguust averag
ge: 75
5.3°
80°
Averrage high
andd llow
temp
peratures
60°
T
Temperatur
Temperatures
r (in degrees)
Actual
55 1°
55.1
54 8°°
54.8
37.6 °
35.3°
Lowest: -1
14° on Feb. 7
1
Average low
Hiighest:
g
97°° on Auuugust
g 24
2
P
Al Sicherman
A recent mailing from
Publishers Clearing House
takes Uncle Al back 33
years, to when he saved a
dollar. (Look, you’ll be old
some day too.) Turn to E2.
(in inches)
Total for the year
Total
To
20°
22 69
22.69
28 32
28.32
2003 coldest
Snowfall (i(in iinnnches
h measuredd att Chanhassen
Ch h
of
office)
ff
ffi )
Jan ar
Janua
ary
averaage: 15.3°
0°
Total for the year
To
30.0
D
tempeerature
Heating degrees
Actual Normal
7,686 7,876
°
February
March
April
May
25
2003
snowfall
5.1
(13.7)
0.22
(1.04 )
January
1.44
(1.86)
0.54
(0.79)
February
Source: National Weather Service
March
August
September
October
(7.9)
2003
*precipitation
Snowfall
o a
1.0
(3 10)
(3.10)
April
2.40
(2.31)
November
December
6.10 in.
(3.53)
Precipitation
i i i
average
av
1971-2000
1971-2000
1971-2000
weather stattion
*Note:
13.2
(10.5)
(10
5)
10.7
10
7
(8.2)
6 14
6.14
(3.24)
0
(0.1)
May
4.66
(4.34)
2.06
(4.04)
0
(0)
0
(0)
June
July
1.12
(
(4.05)
)
0
(0)
August
2.20
0
(0)
September
0
0.62
(2.11)
2
October
Dr. Edward Creagan, a
Mayo Clinic cancer doctor,
practices what he preaches.
He passes along tips for
living a better life in his
new book, “How Not to Be
My Patient.”
Dear Abby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E3
16 1
16.1
(10.1)
Movie listings . . . . . . . . . . .E9
9.4
9
4
(10)
10
0
July
Snowfall am
mounts measuredd
20
5
June
Living a better life
Coo
olling degrees
Actual
Act
tual Normal
879
682
9.8 in.
How to
r
hiss
chartt
char
30
15
TOMORROW
55.9
2003 lowest
January
Contrary to Tom Hanks’
line in “A League of Their
Own,” there is crying in
baseball. And politics. And
the news media. And professional basketball.
After the Portland Trail
Blazers lost recently for the
ninth time in 10 games,
coach Maurice Cheeks
broke down in tears twice.
Guard Derek Anderson
said he shed a few tears
himself.
In the new millennium,
men aren’t afraid to show
their tear-stained cheeks.
“I don’t believe that
men’s constitutions have
changed,” says Beth Kaplan Westbrook, a psychologist in Portland, Ore. “But
I do believe that social
roles have evolved between
men and women, and men
are more comfortable with
self-expression.”
Michael Botnick, a
sociology professor at the
University of British Columbia in Vancouver who
specializes in gender,
agrees.
“Men have always
cried,” he says. “However,
they have done so in private, and the only difference now is that it’s more
public. That doesn’t mean
that male emotions have
changed. But the display of
them has.”
That’s a big change
from 1972, when presidential candidate Edmund
Muskie saw his frontrunner status evaporate
after allegedly shedding
tears about a newspaper
publisher’s attacks on him
and his wife.
Today, crying at
appropriate times is seen
as a sign of compassion
and humanity in a man.
Consider the Bush family. According to reporters,
President George W. Bush
teared up at a Thanksgiving dinner with U.S. troops
in Iraq. His brother, Florida
Gov. Jeb Bush, fought back
tears as he thanked supporters after his daughter
was arrested on charges of
trying to obtain a controlled drug with a fraudulent prescription.
INSIDE
40°
-20°
Modern
men are
crying
in public
Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . .E6-E7
0.71
(1.94)
November
0.62
(1.00)
December
Crosswords . . . . . . . . . . . . .E9
Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .E8
Ray Grumney/Star Tribune
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 X
R W B G Y
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16 • 2004
★★
COVER STORY
FRIGID FALL
ADVICE
She’s looking for a man
ready to settle down
FEBRUARY FROSTING
OCTOBER 2
THE NEWS: Though many farmers already had harvested their fall
crops, a significant number of apples, pumpkins, squash and raspberries were still on the vine when temperatures dipped into the 20s and
upper teens Thursday morning. It was the second-coldest Oct. 2 on
record in the past century for many parts of Minnesota, and the coldest
since 1974. For other regions, including the metro area, it was the thirdcoldest Oct. 2, when taking into account another frigid Oct. 2 in 1993,
according to the University of Minnesota.
PAUL’S TAKE: According to climatologist Mark Seeley, we have not had
this many days below 60 degrees during this time of year since 1942.
Yes, our premature cold spell is unusual, but think of the silver lining.
Monster mosquitoes are no longer showing up on Doppler radar, and allergy sufferers are breathing easier.
SHOWERS SPLATTER STATE
Star Tribune file photos
Last year, skiers had to wait until February for the first significant
snowfall.
FEBRUARY 3
PAUL’S TAKE: Now that it finally looks like a Norman Rockwell landscape outside, the news is pretty good for snow lovers. Any snow in your
yard now will probably stick around for at least two weeks, possibly longer. No warm fronts are in sight.
TOP TEMP TAKEN TO TASK
SEPTEMBER 11
Dear Abby: I am 23 and
single. I am always hearing
about women suffering from
midlife crises, but have you
ever heard of a mid-20s one?
My single friends and I all
seem to have the same problem. We are out of college and
beyond our days of “flings.”
So why is it that while we are
ready to settle down and
meet someone, the men our
age act like they are still in
college? Is there anywhere I
can meet someone mature
and my age? Should I go to
church to find someone, like
my mom says? Look to older
men? Or am I doomed ’til I’m
over 30?
Dear
Abby
Rory in Cambridge, Mass.
THE NEWS: Fun was the operative word for many across the Twin Cities
Monday after the season’s first significant storm dumped as much as a
foot of snow across parts of Minnesota. Around 11 inches were reported in Montevideo and New London in western Minnesota; Litchfield
in central Minnesota received 10 inches. And 9 inches fell in Princeton,
north of the Twin Cities, as well as in Watertown, west of Minneapolis.
Almost a month’s worth of rain fell in just a few days in early September.
STAR TRIBUNE • E3
Abby says: In the 1950s,
“success” for girls was defined as marrying early and
having children. Since then,
however, more women have
jobs and careers, and it is not
unusual for men and women
to get graduate degrees before thinking about marriage.
Couple that with the fact that
an adolescent mentality
seems to have stretched beyond the teens into the mid-
OCTOBER 8
to-late 20s, and it’s not surprising that many young men
do not feel ready to commit.
You may have to expand
your horizons a bit in the age
department if you want to
settle down now. Consider
someone in his late 20s. Then
go where like-minded people
gather: graduate school, special-interest clubs, volunteer
organizations, square- or
line-dancing, church or a political-action group.
Remember that it’s important
to take the time to really get
to know someone before you
give your heart — or anything
else.
Dear Abby is written by Abigail
Van Buren, also known as Jeanne
Phillips, and was founded by her
mother, Pauline Phillips. Write
Dear Abby at http://www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.
‡3RQWRRQV‡)LVKLQJ%RDWV‡6PDOO6DLOERDWV
&UXLVHUV‡'RFNV‡0DULQH(OHFWURQLFV ‡And more!
THE NEWS: After much of the summer passed without any significant
rainfall, parts of Minnesota received anywhere from a brief shower to a
downright drenching Thursday. Rainfall in the Twin Cities area was expected to total a half-inch to an inch by morning. The rain started early
Wednesday in parts of western Minnesota, gradually moving east by
Thursday morning. Vesta, Minn., about 10 miles southwest of Redwood
Falls, got 4 inches.
THE NEWS: They thought it was hot in International Falls, Minn., but not
that hot. The official temperature was listed at 95 degrees on Tuesday
in the Nation’s Icebox, known nationally for its cold-weather testing. But
the report was too hot to be true. The 95 was announced before the National Weather Service realized that its sensor in International Falls was
broken. Maybe 81 or 82, the Weather Service said. Still, that would be
just a degree shy of the city’s record for Oct. 7 and well above the normal
high of 57. It was all the more striking because last Thursday morning,
the low temperature in International Falls was 18.
PAUL’S TAKE: The rains came too late to do any good for this year’s
crops. In fact, it’s making it difficult for farmers to get out into their fields
to salvage what’s left. Nearly a month’s worth of rain has fallen in the
last few days, anywhere from 2 to 4 inches, and this will help recharge
and replenish soil moisture for next year. It was critical that we got the
rain before the ground froze.
RUSS KNUTH’S TAKE: Minnesota’s weather roller coaster is near the
top of the hill, and it is only a matter of time before we plummet into the
chilly depths of winter. The rest of the workweek will be a reminder of
summer. A weak clipper will keep us a couple of degrees cooler than on
Wednesday, when we tied a record high of 85 degrees.
SEMINARS
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FEBRUARY 19–22, 2003
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Smithsonian Folkways record
label sounds like history
By Eric R. Danton
Hartford Courant
A
n album that moved
10,000 units would
prompt massive bloodlettings at Epic or Columbia.
At Smithsonian Folkways
Recordings, that’s a top seller.
Consider some of the label’s
recent releases: “Abayudaya:
Music From the Jewish People
of Uganda,” “Havana & Matanzas, Cuba, ca. 1975: Bata,
Bembe and Palo Songs” and
“Cape Breton Fiddle and Piano
Music: The Beaton Family of
Mabou” — niche records if
ever there were.
Folkways isn’t concerned
with landing its artists on
MTV’s “Total Request Live,”
despite employing the same
publicity company that represents Bruce Springsteen and
Norah Jones. The non-profit
adjunct to the Smithsonian
Institution is on a different mission: identifying and preserving musical traditions and exploring how they have evolved.
“Sometimes we’re interested in the very roots of something and how it started, and
sometimes we’re interested in
the leaves at the very end of the
branches,” says Richard Burgess, director of marketing for
Smithsonian Folkways.
The label has plenty of both
in its archives, with 3,500 albums and more than 33,000
songs — including early recordings of American icons
such as Woody Guthrie, Pete
Seeger and Leadbelly. Two
more recent albums were nominated for Grammys, in the traditional world music album
category: “Capoeira Angola 2 —
Brincando Na Roda” by Grupo
de Capoeira Angola Pelourinho
and “Jibaro Hasta El Hueso:
Mountain Music of Puerto
Rico” by Ecos de Borinquen.
Don’t scour the Billboard
charts for such releases,
though. One of Smithsonian
Folkways’ best-selling albums,
“The Silk Road: A Musical Caravan,” peaked at about 20,000
copies, and Burgess says the label doesn’t hesitate to release
titles that won’t sell more than
a few hundred copies if cura-
tors think the music is important. That’s a valuable role for a
record company to play, says
Susan Forbes Hansen, who
hosts folk-focused radio shows
in Storrs, Conn., and Amherst,
Mass.
“I think the label’s most important role is in preserving the
kinds of music that will otherwise disappear — that is not
likely to find a label-home anywhere else,” Hansen says.
“Since they’re not a profitmaking organization . . . they don’t
have to worry about the bottom line when they release an
old recording, or even a new
one, that will have a limited listenership.”
Best-selling frogs
Not all the tracks are music.
Smithsonian Folkways also has
recordings of the human voice
sans larynx and a little compilation called “Sounds of North
American Frogs,” which Burgess says is one of the label’s
best-selling albums.
“We never delete anything,
and when Smithsonian originally acquired Folkways Recordings from Moses Asch,
part of the deal was that we
would never delete anything,”
Burgess says.
Asch founded Folkways in
1948 and ran the label until his
death in 1986. He released
more than 2,100 music, spoken-word and documentary
recordings — a collection the
Smithsonian Institution has
augmented since acquiring
Folkways in 1987.
Burgess says there is a
“huge network” of people
scouting for traditional music
scenes and unique styles to
document and preserve, and
the director and assistant director of the label have doctoral degrees in ethnomusicology,
which is the study of music in
different historical and cultural
contexts. Those elements give
curators loads of material to
sort through, most of it far outside the musical mainstream.
“I don’t think there is anything too obscure or too weird.
In fact, obscure and weird
aren’t criteria on which we
judge. If anything, they might
be positives,” Burgess says.
“Usually we’re looking for lines
and connections and roots of
music and weird offshoots, like
the ‘Abayudaya,’ the music
from the Jewish people of
Uganda. That’s a really interesting blend of cultures, in that
you have the Jewish liturgical
blending with the African traditional music.”
It’s not quite “Rhythm of
the Saints” meets “Fiddler on
the Roof,” but the CD is like
nothing else on the market.
Then there’s the Cape Breton
record, which showcases fiddle
and piano songs rooted in the
music Scottish settlers brought
to the island off Nova Scotia.
The album has more of a
ready-made fan base, given the
ongoing popularity of traditional Celtic and Gaelic music.
“There’s quite a decentsized following for this kind of
music out there,” Burgess says.
“Even though it’s based on the
traditions of Scotland, it’s a living, vibrant tradition that’s
moving away from its original
roots and it has become its
own form of music and it’s very
exciting.”
What’s more exciting is
Smithsonian Folkways’ next
initiative: implementing a digital download service that will
function like an iTunes repository for obscurities. Called
Smithsonian Global Sound
and officially launching in
April, the service allows users
to download any track from
the Folkways archives for 99
cents per song — frogs,
Guthrie, Ugandan Jews, all of it
will be online, and the Smithsonian is negotiating for access
to similar repositories in other
parts of the world.
“We’re very, very excited
about the whole online delivery,” Burgess says. “It’ll be a
great source of information for
scholars and students, but I
also think this music is just fascinating music for anybody
who’s a little bored with the
mainstream or wants to get out
there and find out what else is
out in the world.”
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