• Sunday, May 17, is Syttende Mai, Norway’s Independence Day.
• Kids from one school bus stop are biking to school together for Bike Walk to Work Week.
• Minneapolis City Councilmember Ralph Remington on the black experience in America.
• Charles Hallman of the Spokesman-Recorder, who (along with Stephen Litel from DT/SW Journal) provides the best Lynx coverage in town) previews the Lynx going into the team’s 10th season and the WNBA’s 12th season. Home opener is Sunday at 5:00 against the Detroit Shock and will be broadcast on FSN North. FanFest will be happening out on 6th Street from 2-4pm.
• Vandals damage governors’ portraits in the Capitol. Harold LeVander, Elmer Anderson, and Jesse Ventura. Colonel Mustard, in the rotunda, with a marker.
• Mary LaHammer previews her Almanac interview with Jesse Ventura. Dude’s all over the place pimping his new book.
• Sornie: “When I attend the Minnesota State Fair, I love to wander through the ‘varied industry building’ or as I refer to it as ‘people peddling crap that doesn’t deserve shelf-space at the As Seen on TV store at the Mall of America building’.” It doesn’t even matter what the rest of the post is about.
• St Paul Issues Forum is doing happy hour tonight. O’Gara’s. 5-7pm. SPIF is also looking for candidates for their executive committee. Deets at happy hour.
• My favorite Rake blog is Just Passing Through. Guest blogging by all sorts of interesting folks.

I was at the Twins/Red Sox game last night. I’d also been watching the series on TV. And I’ve been to a few other games this season already.

The most conspicuous and confusing thing about all of it? All the Red Sox fans.

I went to school in Boston and came into my full interest in/appreciation of baseball while watching the 2004 ALCS/World Series (I’d liked it before, but this got me hooked), so the fact that I wore my Boston cap and my Twins jersey to the game last night was excusable. For me. (Plus I wanted to be a smartass, and I think I succeeded rather well.)

But, watching the series on TV, it sounded like the crowd was split 50/50 in who they were rooting for. I didn’t think too much of it, until I was at the game last night and fully half of the people I saw with team paraphernalia were sporting Sox gear.

And it’s wasn’t just this series that has been bringing out the Minnesota chapter of Red Sox Nation. Every game I go to, the team hat I see most often, after Twins caps and any other Minnesota sports team, is for Boston.

Is this something you’ve noticed? I can’t imagine that it’s simply because they won it all last year. Or even remnants from the 2004 happiness. But, I can’t think of any other explanation, so maybe it is.

WCCO’s Chris Shaffer:

He did say “sacks”… right?

(via Tim and Fleshbot)

The latest numbers on the Twins stadium:

Cost: $544.4 million (including site acquisition and infrastructure)
Public financing: $392 million from a 0.15 percent sales tax in Hennepin County
Private financing: $152.4 million from the Twins

Those are ballpark figures (*ba DUM bum*). I also read $522/$387/130 + about $5/year for naming rights. Looks like the more recent the estimates, the higher all figures are.

The latest numbers on the MOA expansion:

Cost: $1.9-2.1 billion
Public financing: $371 million from a TBD sales/food/lodging tax in Bloomington
Private financing: $1.5-1.8 billion

Again, costing varies depending on the date of the article. Here’s what you get in Phase II of the MOA. Phase I puports to bring $1.8 billion/yr to the city of Bloomington. Slightly off topic, I wonder how this will affect the Waterpark of America.

Part of the hang up here is the financing of the parking ramp to the tune of $186-$204 million. The parking ramp funding will certainly have implications for whatever large projects follow it (like a Vikings Stadium).

But… just look at the disparity in public vs private financing. The only direct comparison of benefit I turned up in my cursory research is that the state expects to collect $10 million/year from ballpark-related sales and player income taxes. The MOA pays $55 million/year in state and local taxes.

Tell me how the relative cost of taxpayer burden is worth what the venture brings to the region (yes, I know it costs me personally about $30/year for the Twins stadium). I’ll add in my argument for the social and cultural benefit of having a common cause that unites us.

Maybe I should wait to see how they go about approving the tax in Bloomington before I come to a conclusion. Maybe the residents will get a choice in the matter.

[Hennepin County/Twins Ballpark Fact Sheet (pdf)]

I had no idea there was such a thing, much less that it’s ongoing, or that members of the same family keep winning.

It may be a fashion no-no, but Brady Arneson wears his mullet with pride.

The 3-year-old Red Wing hockey player recently took first place in the 2008 Minnesota Mullet Contest put on by Hockey Moms Magazine.

Brady’s business in the front, party in the back style is family tradition. His older brother, Blake, won the same award in 2005….

“They had that nice baby hair that we didn’t want to cut off,” [Brady and Blake’s father] Scott said. “But we’re going to cut it off pretty soon and cool him down for the summer.”

I have two things to say.

1. We all like to be good at something, but is this a competition you really take pride in winning?
2. That poor child’s parents did that to him.

Where does it stop?!

Photo courtesy of Cody Buckalew/Republican Eagle.

You may have already heard about the media kerfuffle,Land of 10,000 Dead Car Batteries , regarding The Minnesota Wild and the Colorado Avalanche, but tonight’s Mn Wild playoff game is shaping up to be a penalty-fest heart breaker.

At the time of this post the Wild are down 5 - 1 with 14 minutes remaining.

As a hockey fan, that attends a bunch of Wild games during the year, something extra has been bothering me while our home team plays the Avs in Colorado; I fear their arena music is better.

Pantera’s Cowboys from Hell, Metallica’s Master of Puppets, and a crowd that continues singing once the game play has resumed? Really?

It’s unsettling. 

Do you think the time has arrived for Minnesota to update it’s musical playlist for sporting events? 

I’m listening to the press conference the Lynx held with Candace Wiggins (Stanford) and Nicky Anosike (Tennessee) on Thursday, the day after the WNBA draft. They were our 1st and 2nd round picks respectively, and we picked up Charde Houston (UConn) in the 3rd round.

Let me just say this: Reporters ask some dumb questions sometimes. C’mon Twin Cities sports press corps! Come up with something unique. Or do your homework before you come to the press conference.

The LFO offered season ticket holders a chance to attend the press conference. I couldn’t go, but I would have loved to. That’s a really cool thing for them to do. I have mixed feelings about the overall fan experience at the Target Center, but they’re pretty good about the STH benefits.

Speaking of the press, my favorite Lynx coverage comes from Stephen Litel from Downtown Journal. Turns out he’s now doing WNBA coverage for SLAM Online, too. I’m-a have to make my way down to the press table and introduce myself.

After the Lynx pulled off the draft-day trade for Lindsey Harding last year, I was pretty stoked going into the season. But I didn’t know anything else about our other draft picks so I didn’t really have any expectations around them. And while last year’s 10-24 record doesn’t look great on paper, there were some exciting things on the floor and the record doesn’t at all reflect the improvement over the previous year’s 10-24 record.

But this year. I’m not expecting a championship or anything. Hell, I may even be expecting a lot with a playoff berth. (I’m big on managing your expectations.) I’ll settle for .500 this season. But the addition of Candice and Nicky and Charde and (hallelujah!) a post coach for an assistant (that’s former WNBA player Jen Gillom) is really just so exciting. I watched the Final Four, so at least I’ve seen all three of our picks play once or twice.

I hear the Draft Day party at NBA City was packed. That’s great to see. I know this team and this league doesn’t have the widespread appeal that others do. I suppose it’s like any passion; you want everyone to be as excited about it as you are.

The home opener is a little over a month away, against Detroit. Eeeeee!

Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Lynx.

The folks at Stick and Ball Guy turned up a possibility that Land O’ Lakes got the naming rights, generating further interest and leading to a statement from the Twins that they’re nowhere close to finalizing a naming rights deal.

In the event that Land O’ Lakes does win out, Jason DeRusha suggests calling it the Butter Tub. Personally, I’m partial to “field” over “park” and I’m still pulling for General Mills to win the naming rights. Wheaties Field would be sweet.

(photo from the queen of subtle)

• MN Daily on Minneapolis and St Paul PD’s citizen academies. “Business, civic and religious leaders have priority when it comes to selecting class participants, but all people are open to apply.”
• Free tasting tonight at Common Roots. Fair-trade coffee and wine paired with local cheese and desserts from their bakery. 5:30-7:30.
• 10,000 Takes - The Pioneer Press Redesign: Your Thoughts? “If you’re younger than 30 you may skip the rest of this post and return to perusing TwinCities.com or StarTribune.com.” “It looks like something that a high school newspaper in Arkansas would use.”
• Uptown Mpls Blog - Photos of the new Victoria’s Secret in Uptown. I don’t know how I feel about all that neon pink.
• Mill City Museum - “Pat Siebenaler, Production Manger of Franklin Street Bakery will present 30-minute artisan bread baking demonstrations and tasting. Learn tips and tricks of the trade, including the ins and outs of commercial bread production.” Saturday (3/22) at 1pm, 2pm, and 3pm. $10 for adults, discounts for students and seniors.
• In Gopher sports news, men’s hockey forward suffers skull fracture in playoff game, women’s basketball makes the NCAA tournament (if they win in the first round, they will not get past UConn in the second round).
• Minnov8 - Newly launched site focusing on technology innovation in the State of Minnesota.
• Least Dangerous Game status update Wanna sponsor LDG?
• MN Daily - “So you want to build a music and arts community? First, contact your system administrator.” (via east-lake)
• DNR’s calendar of maple syrup events. (via doodledee)
• Wellness Center coming to MSP this fall. “The 5,000-square-foot center will offer spa and beauty services, such as hair cuts and manicures. It also will feature a walk-in health clinic and a full-service pharmacy.” I think it’s pitiful that people spend enough time in the airport to use some of these services.