Ten most-read stories of 2013: From mug shots to bridal prices

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Everybody has a story, and almost everybody has an end-of-year round-up of stories. Here are the ten articles and blog posts from 2013 that got the most readers on the Daily Planet.#10 — A Minnesota Daily article about the University Avenue business of General Nanosystems and its closing in July, blamed on lost profits due to light rail construction and online bargains.#9 — A blog post by Sheldon Gitis about 100 Minnesota cops harvesting a marijuana crop: “The only thing missing was a guest appearance from Barney Fife.”#8 — Jeremy Iggers’ column about great lobster rolls at the Smack Shack.#7 — Jay Gabler’s not-entirely-positive review of Iron Man 3.#6 — Matea Wasend’s round-up of where, when and how Twin Citians could celebrate the Fourth of July.#5 — Peter Rachleff skewering the Guthrie for its “smug and offensive” treatment of race in the production of Clybourne Park.#4 — Stephanie Fox’s explanation of why “Busted Paper” and similar low-life mugshot magazines are legal and continue to flourish. (That also provoked periodic calls to our office by people who thought we are the magazine and wanted their photo taken down.)#3 — Jeremy Iggers’ column about the popular pizza joint, Pig Ate My Pizza.#2 — Jay Gabler’s rumination about Minnesota writers, from The Great Gatsby to the Great Pumpkin. “Dylan and Fitzgerald were both Minnesotans who ran off to the east—and so was I.”AND the #1 most-read story of 2013, which is also our most-read story ever: Tiffany Vang’s Community Voices article on the Hmong 18 Clan Council and Hmong bridal prices. Vang’s article starts wtih the council meeting, but includes powerfull personal reflections:”Since I was 7 years old, my mother has been labeled a divorcee. Continue Reading

St. Paul seventh-grader wins Public Broadcasting System Zeitgeist video contest

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Heneeya Myrick, a seventh-grade student at St. Paul City School, won Public Broadcasting System’s national Zeitgist contest with her story of the world news in 2013. She responded to the PBS call to students around the country to “submit a digital mix of their Zeitgeist using the storytelling tool Meograph to show us what their 2013 looked like.” Myrick’s video appears below. According to Nancy Dana, the executive director of St. Paul City School, Joe Nathan passed the PBS call along to the school:”We didn’t even know about it until Joe passed on the opportunity. Continue Reading

OUR STORIES | Oscar Del Sébastien: A responsibility to share

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Born and raised in Texas, Oscar Del Sébastien came to Minnesota at the age of 15, “as a migrant worker in a migrant family.” After completing high school, he “majored in confusion” at Moorhead State, but graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in art and literature. After a decade in New England, he came home to Minnesota and became a teacher during the day and a musician after school hours.

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OUR STORIES | Lee-Hoon Benson: One foot here and one in Malaysia

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Coming to the Media Skills Fellowship without a lot of experience in social media, Lee-Hoon Benson appreciated the focus on tools. My single accomplishment is to lose my fear of social media,” she wrote in the evaluation. “I think I know which ones I can use in my personal spheres to build community with like-minded people on a range of topics…. One thing I have learned is the proliferation of tools to communicate a message and ways to think about selecting the best tools for specific communication goals. The exposure and guidance to these tools at TCDP gave me more confidence in trying them.”

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OUR STORIES | Leyla Bari: ‘In-betweener’ and ‘first generation person’

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Leyla Bari identifies herself as “a mixture of Palestinian, Bedouin, Russian/Ashkenazi Jewish lineage,” adding that, “If I have to put a name to this identity I would say multi-racial, or multi ethnic, however I believe that this is an oversimplification, and feel like ‘perpetual outsider’ or ‘in-betweener’ is more accurate.” As an “in-betweener,” she said, “The community I identify strongest with is the globally expanding 1st generation community. Definitions of a first generation person vary, but like to define it as person who is the first person in their family to be raised entirely or primarily in another culture.”

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