Best of News Cut 5x8

1) FAIR GASTRO TOUR (posted Friday, Aug. 24)

The foodie site, Heavy Table, has taken a bullet for the rest of us, sampled this year's offerings at the Minnesota State Fair, and issued its annual review this morning.

The classic walleye roll takes top honors:

This Northwoods twist on a lobster roll won plaudits across the board. The finely chopped smoked walleye salad was a perfect balance of fish, lettuce, and mayo, each element presented with a freshness and sense of proportion that was doubly pleasing when considered with the thick, buttery brioche toast underneath. Flavors of dill, garlic, and caraway added interest and depth to this light, more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts blue ribbon winner of a State Fair dish.

Fresh fruit on a stick takes the "mostly stupid" category.

A very simple request: don't fry the fruit again, please. We could not taste the fruit because of the fried batter, and that largely defeated the purpose of eating it. Not bad, but not really sensible either.

Related: Bill Roehl at Lazy Lightning looks at the new food at the Fair.

2) TIMEWASTERS: ABBEY ROAD (posted Thursday, Aug. 23)

If this isn't the most famous crosswalk in the world, what is? It's Abbey Road, made popular, of course, by the Beatles. The Current's Andrea Swensson came across this live webcam yesterday and passes it along. It's like waiting for an accident to happen, as tourists stand in the middle of the street to take a picture. It may help you get through the day. You're welcome. It's what we do.

3) HOW TO CLOSE THE ACHIEVEMENT GAP (posted Wednesday, Aug. 22)

Every time test scores are released in Minnesota, officials note the relatively unchanging "achievement gap," and say "we've got to do better." We rarely do better and the cycle has been repeated for years. But it's clear if we really wanted to better educate motivated low-income, minority students, we could. It's not a mystery as this segment on PBS NewsHour proves.

Maybe the way to look at the challenge is the way teacher Drego Little approaches it:

"When I look at one of my Latinas, for example, I treat her as though she is going to be my I would say grandchild's pediatrician, or when I look at one of our black American boys, I try and educate him as though he were going to be my city council person.

I try to treat them as though they are going to be consequential people, and we work back from there. And I find that if you treat them like they actually have a future, they tend to have one."

4) WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH YOUR SALARY?(posted Tuesday, Aug. 21)

Employees who earn less money than they feel they're worth are more likely to share salary information with friends, family and co-workers, Marketplace reports. Those on the higher end of the pay scale are more likely to keep quiet about it.

5) DISPATCHES FROM THE MUSIC MAN (posted Monday, Aug. 20)

Let the record show that Fred Child has the best job at American Public Media.

Fred has been out broadcasting from the Aspen Music Festival, where he sent along this proof that some of us were comparative failures at age 9. Yeah. She's 9.