Behind the Story

This week marked the 50th anniversary of the first play staged at the Guthrie Theater. On May 7, 1963, Sir Tyrone Guthrie’s bold new experiment opened its production of Hamlet, directed by the Guthrie at their brand new theater adjacent to the Walker Art Center. Whether you love Minnesota’s largest theater or hate it—or, like me, have intensely mixed feelings about it—there’s no denying the impact that the institution has had on the Twin Cities' cultural life.

Any time I write a story about a school, I look for test scores, which are available to the public on the Minnesota Department of Education website. I know that scores can’t give the whole picture, but they can be useful from a reporting perspective. MDE’s site allows you to compare different schools—to see how a particular school compares to others in the same district or the state. The website also allows you to look at how particular groups of students—such as high-poverty students, English learners (EL), or those from a particular race or ethnicity—are faring.

I now have a little paper bag in my kitchen, filled with banana peels and coffee grounds, with a few apple cores thrown in. There are also some chicken bones and egg shells, but as I write this, I look up “should you put meat in your compost?” on Google and I realize that you’re not supposed to compost meat, so I guess I’m going to have to start over.

I have a long-held belief that the Portlandia mayor is secretly based on R.T. Rybak. Okay, I know, I know, it’s probably more likely that Portlandia’s mayor is based on Sam Adams, who was mayor of Portland when the IFC show—a satire of contemporary hipster culture—first aired in 2011, and who made a cameo on the show. Still, you have to admit that Portlandia’s mayor has a bit of a Rybak-esque quality, or vice versa.