Minnesotans work to locate loved ones, assess damage after Ian

And the weekly COVID update 

View this email as a web page Sept. 30, 2022 It should be a beautiful weekend perfect for being outside — and getting a glimpse of fall colors. Subscribe to our Minnesota Today podcast to get up-to-date news twice daily. Minnesotans work to locate loved ones, assess damage after Ian Kelly King of Minneapolis kept in phone contact with her 74-year-old father, Doug Campbell, on Wednesday as he waited out the storm in his mobile home in Fort Myers Beach. But as the storm closed in, things took a turn for the worse. COVID update: Recent declines continue as we head into fall Although we have not seen a recent uptick in cases or deaths in Minnesota yet, it's important to remember that around this time in 2021 and 2020 is when we started to see a substantial increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths.   Twin Cities Arab Festival is a "home away from home" for Minnesota Arab community The 16th annual Twin Cities Arab Film Festival is under way in Minneapolis. Filmmakers from Arab, Southwest Asian and North African communities are showcasing years of hard work at the festival, which serves as a space of representation for Minnesota's Arab community. Twin Cities sees strong showing of Asian American theater As the Guthrie Theater celebrates its 60th anniversary, the landmark theater has chosen to open their season with Qui Nguyen's Vietgone. The show is a romantic comedy about two Vietnamese refugees who fall in love at a resettlement camp in 1970s Arkansas. Photos: Library, mural dedicated to former St. Paul School Board Chair Marny Xiong As a community organizer and St. Paul school board member, Marny Xiong worked tirelessly to support schools and students, and create a more equitable education system. She died from COVID-19 in June 2020 while serving as school board chair, but her goals, her name and her smile now live on to inspire students at a St. Paul school where she once attended classes. — Kaila White, MPR News SPONSOR   Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe today! Preference Center ❘ Unsubscribe This email was sent by: Minnesota Public Radio 480 Cedar Street Saint Paul, MN, 55101

October (almost) Foodie Fiction

Take a guess at the missing ingredient! 

October (almost) Foodie Fiction Foodie Fiction This recipe is inspired by a conversation I had recently with author Peter Geye. I asked him about his favorite character from literature and his answer surprised me. So I went in search of a dish from that novel that Peter loves and discovered a classic meal that is essential to the story.   In fact, this dish appears in the opening chapters as our character prepares to set off on an epic journey. He catches the scent of this food in a rundown tavern and tells us that the "warm and savory steam served to belie the apparently cheerless prospect before us." And when it is served, he finds it "surprisingly excellent." In fact, this dish's origins are believed to date back to the 1600s when French and Canadian explorers showed up in North America.   It was served in taverns and it still is! It appears in different colors depending on where you are in the United States. In order to disguise what this dish is I'm going to have to withhold one key ingredient. But let's see if the other ingredients give you some delicious clues. This dish requires salt, bay leaf, corn and potatoes. Cut your bacon into quarter-inch pieces and dice an onion and some celery.  Stir in a cup of heavy cream and two tablespoons of flour. Toss in a bit of black pepper and serve piping hot. So, here's your Foodie Fiction challenge: Can you identify the key missing ingredient? And do you know which novel this food appears in? To guess, tweet me @KerriMPR or subscribe to the Thread newsletter, where the answer will appear next week.  — Kerri Miller | MPR News Sponsor This Week on The Thread Ask a Bookseller: A Spoonful of Frogs All September, Ask a Bookseller has featured recommendations for kids, and we wrap up this series with a picture book to get you ready for October. "A Spoonful of Frogs" was written by Casey Lyall and illustrated by Caldecott Honor artist Vera Brosgol. Angela Whited says she's already read this book at story time at Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul, and the book was a hit with listeners of all ages Boyah J. Farah on how America made him a Black man Boyah J. Farah spent his earliest years in Somalia, surrounded by family and feeling free. War shattered that idyllic state, forcing his mother to walk her children to safety at a refugee camp in Kenya and, eventually, to a new life in suburban Boston. On this week's Big Books and Bold Ideas, Farah joined MPR News host Kerri Miller to share stories about his nomadic journey, why he continues to both adore and be vexed by America, and how his mother's belief in the power of words shaped his life. How independent bookstores help in the fight against book banning and why it matters An Atlanta store is one of hundreds of independent booksellers across the country celebrating the freedom to read as schools, universities and public libraries face attempts to ban or restrict books. In 'Intimacies, Received,' moments of intimacy come tangled with moments of violence Taneum Bambrick's second collection of poems portrays how moments of intimacy can represent moments of violence and how difficult it can be to untangle the two from each other. 'Solito' is a personal story of immigration that sheds light on the universal Javier Zamora's book, as touching as it is sad, and as full of hope and kindness as it is harrowing, is the kind of narrative that manages to bring a huge debate down to a very personal space. 'Luda' isn't a book you read — it's a book you experience "Luda" is a magical, multilayered, intoxicating story about identity, stardom, performance, lust and death that could only have come from the prodigious mind of Grant Morrison. Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe today! Preference Center ❘ Unsubscribe This email was sent by: Minnesota Public Radio 480 Cedar Street Saint Paul, MN, 55101