The ‘dibs’ society (5×8 – 4/26/13)
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
This will be the last 5x8 for a week or so. I've got banked vacation time I'm required to burn.
Why do we claim ownership of things we don't own?
This picture in the Bradenton Herald perfectly captures a disturbing trend.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
(Photo: Grant Jefferies/Bradenton Herald. Used by permission.)
There are a dozen photos in the essay, all capturing preparations for the De Soto Heritage Festival Grand Parade on Saturday. The images, taken Wednesday, show people marking their turf for the parade.
I had never seen this done before -- and certainly never four days ahead of time -- until a parade in Lakeville
We stake out territory with no real intention to spend the time defending it. Some cities -- Apple Valley, for one -- have ordinances against this sort of thing, others are unwilling or unable to police it. This is the law of the pack.
And it's not just parades. Over the winter, we saw the same thing happen in cities where people would shovel out their cars, and then stake out the spot as theirs, presumably until the snow melted, at which time the spot reverts to first come-first parked.
It may well be that the parade "dibs" is a natural outgrowth of the parking "dibs," a practice that many people believe originated in Chicago.
Class it up, America!
2) WEATHER THROWS A WICKED CURVE
It appears to be spring today and in just a few weeks schools will be out for the summer. It might be a good time to start the spring sports season. Actually, it was time more than a month ago but the snow prevented it and some players might not get the chance of one last game.
"I think it's more disappointing the fact that I'm a senior and I'm not going to be playing college ball anywhere," Apollo High senior infielder Aren Gerads tells the St. Cloud Times. "But I think they're getting all the games squeezed in and stuff. We're going to be playing eventually. It's just taking a while."
Related: Flood-fighting chaos is a thing of the past. (WDAY)
Post mortems in the immediate aftermath of an election are often wrong. Last year's burying of the Republican Party might've been premature, Time suggests today. The U.S. Senate, it says, could swing to Republican control. Of the 35 seats up for election next year, 21 are held by Democrats and several of them are held by retiring Democrats in mostly-Republican states.
But the six retirements may not prove catastrophic for the Democrats, even if they are making already antsy operatives downright nervous. Democrats have so far done a better job of candidate recruitment, which could help avoid damaging primaries. In some states, like Michigan and Iowa, no Republicans have jumped into the race yet. And in Montana, the popular former two-time Gov. Brian Schweitzer is considering running -- arguably a stronger candidate that Baucus.
Dayspring blamed the focus on recruitment on the "second-by-second nature" of Washington reporting. "I can assure you that we will have candidates in all of these states," he says, adding that historically many winning candidates have declared in the year of the election, rather than almost 18 months out.
More politics: The Minnesota gubernatorial campaign is underway. (MPR)
There's a big difference between life in Lewiston, Minnesota and life in Uganda, a Minnesota teenager has found. The Rochester Post Bulletin profiles Alexus Rinn, who spent seven weeks in Africa last summer and returned with the notion of going back again in a few weeks.
She'll feed kids, build homes, and dig wells.
She said she got exhausted from hauling water and rocks, jobs Ugandans were often too busy to do because they were trying to grow enough food to live. She went to bed painfully sore at times. And it hurt to see the faces of the children in the orphanage who needed help, including one girl with an unknown disease who died in her arms.
Despite all that, she was happy to be there. It was so different from how she felt growing up, when she wanted the American dream of success and money. At that time, she had never been out of the Midwest.
Oddly, the culture shock was greatest not when she went to Africa but when she got back. She saw Americans waste food and clean water that would be precious in Uganda. She was angry, and "I had to pray against that a lot," she said.
Rinn, who was Miss Lewiston in 2011, went to Uganda because a friend who had gone a year earlier told her about it.
"I didn't think about it, I said 'I'm going,'" she said. "I have a heart for people from hurting places," she said."I don't like not doing anything when I have been blessed with so much."
You've been working toward a goal much of your adult life. You're a senior in college and it's all about to come together. Then you get a call that your bone marrow -- you'd signed up for a match program but had forgotten you did -- matches someone who needs it.
You'd give it all up, right? Because this week, Cameron Lyle did.
Bonus I: Calculate the value of putting a tree in your yard. (Marketplace)
Bonus II: An assessment of the Vikings' three first-round draft picks. (Daily Norseman)
Bonus III: The carjacking victim in Boston tells his story. (Boston.com)
TODAY'S QUESTION
The White House is seeking more evidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons during the country's ongoing civil war. Today's Question: Should the U.S. intervene in Syria?
WHAT WE'RE DOING
Daily Circuit (9-12 p.m.) - First hour: This week on the Friday Roundtable: panelists will discuss the purpose of higher education.
Second hour: What can communities and citizens do at the grassroots level to encourage and engage in healthy lives?
Third hour: The benefits of positive parenting.
MPR News Presents (12-1 pm): A special program featuring Minnesota writer Patricia Hampl in "The Big Time: F. Scott Fitzgerald." It was commissioned by MPR and performed at the Fitzgerald Theater.
Science Friday (1-2 p.m.) - Millions of years ago, giants roamed the earth. Join Ira Flatow on Science Friday for a look at Utah's paleontological treasures... from massive sauropods to the fierce hunter Utahraptor.
All Things Considered (3-6:30 p.m.) - Eighteen veterans have worked for up to two years on art projects as part of a program designed to help them resolve and heal their trauma and war experiences, and prevent problems that can arise from unresolved trauma - like inhibition, isolation or violence against themselves or their loved ones. They're having a first-ever show of their artwork today. MPR's Jess Mador will report.
Despite lowered flood forecasts, students and volunteers help to create temporary sandbag dikes in several Fargo neighborhoods. MPR's Conrad Wilson is in flood country.
