Minnesota Now

Heavy snow in Northwest Minnesota has made for a difficult start to spring, and significant floods could be on the way, especially as temperatures soar into the 70s and 80s by midweek.

We heard from a farmer who can't get into his fields and a rancher who's worried about muddy fields and calves.

Minneapolis still in conflict with a northside property owner months after a flood displaced over twenty families. Listen to hear how the flood is testing the city's renter protection ordinance.

We took a look at a unique northern Minnesota town with lots of stories to tell through the eyes of two local podcasters.

Local author Curtis Sittenfield sat down to talk about her newest novel.

Plus, for National Poetry Month, we asked poets about what’s inspiring them.

A 2020 Minneapolis city ordinance is being put to the test after flooding at a large Northside apartment building, the Bell Lofts. The ordinance was intended to protect the health and safety of renters. But months after the flood, the city is still locked in disagreements with the building owner. Kyle Stokes is a reporter for MinnPost and he's been following the case. He joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk about how the ordinance has changed the city’s relationship with property owners.

Bestselling Minneapolis writer Curtis Sittenfeld's new novel “Romantic Comedy” is just that. A couple falls in love, then fall out, then … well, you will have to read it for yourself.

However “Romantic Comedy” is about much, much, more.

Here’s a partial list: women, men, dating, aging, social media, the media in general, TV, communication, non-communication and of course, the pandemic.

It's funny, but moving too. It's the story of Sally, a veteran writer on a familiar-sounding weekend late-night comedy show.

“I wonder if maybe that show was ‘Saturday Night Live’? Which, which is it lightly inspired ‘Romantic Comedy.,’” Sittenfeld admitted during a recent visit to the MPR News studios.

She was born two months before SNL's 1975 debut.

“So it's been a feature of my entire life,” she said.

She watched as a kid, then drifted away as life got busy with her career and family. She moved from St. Louis to Minneapolis in 2018.

When COVID-19 hit, she says watching old SNL episodes became her family's pandemic hobby before morphing into an obsession.

And she noticed something: how, over the years, several male cast members had ended up dating and then marrying female guest hosts.

But never the other way around.

She mused someone should write a screenplay turning the situation on its head. She thought it should be about a TV show where a writer creates a skit about a “sort of plain female writer and a smoking hot male celebrity, and then, you know, a guest who should come on the show, and she should maybe have chemistry or sparks with him.” Sittenfeld said.

“And then a few months passed and I thought, ‘Oh, wait, maybe someone should write not a screenplay, but a novel and the someone should be me,’” she laughed. “So, and then I did.”

She had been struggling with another novel, but “Romantic Comedy” flowed really easily. It turns out all that SNL watching was actually vital research.

The first chapter describes her protagonist Sally opening her phone early one morning. It's blowing up with news about her office mate and fellow writer Danny.

She thinks he's a dweeb although she loves him like a brother. He's splashed across the gossip pages, linked romantically to a film star who recently hosted their show. This enrages Sally.

“But I also knew as I lay in bed glaring at the screen of my phone. Danny and Annabel's debut as a couple had occurred the night before in the form of making out at the club where Annabel's 24th Birthday had been held, that I would write about my fury, just as I always did, I turned my feelings into comedy. And that was how I cure myself.”

So Sally writes the sketch about the woman writer and the hot male host.

That same week Noah, a handsome sensitive singer-songwriter, turns up to guest host the show.

Not only does he want to do the skit, he also seems interested in her.

What could possibly go wrong? Well, everything of course. This is a romantic comedy.

But it is also a Curtis Sittenfeld book where she dives deep into the human condition. During the part where they fall out, she tells their story through emails they exchange during the pandemic. It poses, she says, a romantic puzzle as they try to work out what the other person is actually saying.

“If the entire section is in email, the reader is in the same position as the characters, where all the information that the characters have, the reader also has. So the reader can also be evaluating like, ‘I think that comment was kind of flirtatious,’ or like, ‘I think he said that and she didn't pick up on it,’ or ‘I think she was putting a feeler out there,’” Sittenfeld said. “Is this platonic buddies who are like bored during the shutdown? Or is this some potentially romantic connection?”

Sittenfeld says ultimately “Romantic Comedy” explores several different kinds of writing: comedy sketches, pop songs, romantic emails.

“The characters actually have this discussion, where they kind of are saying is, is your writing self, you know, like a truer self than your speaking self?” she said. “Or is it maybe a more artificial kind of composed self? Or is it just like a different self? I thought that it was just a way for them to kind of get to see a different side of each other during this shutdown, this sort of isolated vulnerable time.”

Curtis Sittenfeld will launch “Romantic Comedy” Monday at the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis with a conversation with fellow author Julie Schumacher.

Stittenfeld's been delighted with how the local literary community has welcomed her.

“I was one time at a bar at a sort of writers' happy hour. And thought like, I'm in the presence of more writers than I met in 11 years in St. Louis. And like, they are writers in St. Louis. There are writers everywhere. But there are a ton here. And it's people doing all sorts of things,” she said.

And ready to help too. She says writer and performer Dessa gave her plot feedback, as did comedian Bryan Miller. It seems to have worked. Some early readers have asked her if she's ever written for Saturday Night Live.

She describes that as an unintentionally high compliment.

Temperatures are expected to climb next week and that means the snow's going to melt. A hydrologist tells us what to expect from what could be a big flood season.

We'll hear how farmers and scientists are preparing for a potential bird flu outbreak.

The host of a PBS web series about finding joy in all kinds of outdoor activities tells us about his new adventures.

Music fans are gathering to hear their favorite artists' newest songs on vinyl.

And our sports guys give a preview of the Twins' home opener and the latest on the Gophers, Wild, Wolves and Loons.

On Monday, state health officials confirmed Minnesota's first case of avian influenza this year, in a flock of chickens, ducks and geese in Le Sueur County.

Last year, the disease led to the deaths of more than 4 million birds in Minnesota, and 58 million nationwide.

Poultry farmers say they're working hard to avoid an outbreak, but also adjusting to a new normal of living with the virus' presence.

Host Cathy Wurzer got the latest from reporters Dan Gunderson and Kirsti Marohn.

Temperatures will start to warm up this weekend, so no better time to think about playing outside in warmer weather.

This might be the year you try something new in the great outdoors — say, fly fishing, sailing or perhaps pickleball.

Those are all things our next guest tried for the second season of his Twin Cities PBS show.

Host Cathy Wurzer talked with Chance York — a yogi, rapper, outdoor enthusiast and host of “Outside Chance.”

North Dakota Department of Transportation plows are out today, trying to clear parts of I-94 that have been clogged with snow since Tuesday west of Fargo. The Fargo/Moorhead area and parts of northern Minnesota are also digging out after yet another snow and ice storm.

As much as a foot was added to an already hefty snowpack that remains, and it's loaded with moisture. Next week, sandbagging efforts will start in Fargo to prepare for high water on the Red River.

Amanda Lee is a hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Grand Forks. She's on the line to give us a picture of what to expect as the snow melts.

The Minnesota Now sports experts Wally Langfellow and Eric Nelson joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to talk all things Gopher Hockey, the Wild, the Twins, the Timberwolves, and Minnesota United.

Wally is the founder of Minnesota Score magazine and the cohost of "10,000 Takes" sports talk show. Eric is the other host of "10,000 Takes" and is also the Minnesota Vikings reporter for CBS Sports Radio "Eye on Football."

Students across the state are gearing up for standardized tests this month. But in some districts, more and more students are opting out of taking the tests. MPR News Host Cathy Wurzer talked with University of Minnesota Dean of Education and Human Development Michael Rodriguez about what data the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments are meant to collect and why some students are reluctant to participate.

It's the time of year when some students are taking state standardized tests. But many in one suburban district are opting out. We found out why.

We revisit the 1970 Minneapolis teachers’ strike in our Minnesota Now & Then history segment.

College students in Central Minnesota have been digging into the story of discriminatory housing policies in their community. We heard what they uncovered.

Chief meteorologist Paul Huttner will give us the latest on this week's round of rain, snow, and ice.

Master gardener Meg Cowden spoke with MPR News host Cathy Wurzer all things spring gardening.