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Twin Cities appreciating unseasonable December warmth
We didn’t quite hit a record, but with a high of 49 degrees on Dec. 8, a lot of folks got outside to enjoy the weather.
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Jamie Lang plays disc golf every December, no matter the weather.
But playing disc golf in nearly fifty-degree temperatures, on Dec. 8, like he did on Friday?
“I have to second-guess and check the calendar,” Lang said during an afternoon round at Brookview Golf Course. “What day is it?”
The high of 49 on Friday didn’t break a Twin Cities record, but the unseasonably high temperatures brought a lot of folks outside, as they savored every last minute of warm weather before winter.
That included Travis Bernardy, who also played disc golf at Brookview on Friday with a group of three others.
“I kind of forget it’s December, honestly,” he said. “We all ski and snowboard, so [disc golf] is a little bit of a different sport for us, but we’re making the most of it.”
The warm temperatures have posed a challenge for cross-country ski courses across the Twin Cities. So far Theodore Wirth Park has been one of only three locations in the area to offer cross-country ski trails, given the lack of snow so far this year.
Claire Wilson, the executive director of the Loppet Foundation, said their group has been making snow since Thanksgiving. That’s kept high school and youth ski groups going, for the time being.
“We’re working literally around the clock to provide a winter experience for folks,” Wilson said. “It’s a joy fest, but it’s like 800 people on a mile of snow!”
No matter what winter brings in terms of snowfall this year, Wilson said her organization will be prepared for the Loppet’s main events in February — including the 2024 Loppet Cup from Feb. 17 to Feb. 19.
“Once we’ve made the snow, we can keep the snow. I often get asked, ‘will you have snow for the World Cup in February?'” Wilson said. “Yes, we will have snow for the World Cup. I can promise you that.”
By February, a 49-degree day like Friday will feel like summer.
But until the doldrums of winter set in, people like Jamie Lang are going to enjoy their disc golf.
“Just trying to get the most out of these warm days in December,” Lang said. “We’ll take the cold for the next couple of months and then spring is here again.”
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The crash happened when a Suburban pulling a trailer failed to stop at a stop sign, Minnesota State Patrol said.
WAUKENABO, Minn. — Two people from Minnetonka died in a crash Friday in Aitkin County while others, including children, were hurt.
According to Minnesota State Patrol, it happened at the intersection of Highway 169 and Grove Street/County Road 3 in Waukenabo Township at approximately 5:15 p.m.
A Suburban pulling a trailer was driving east on County Road 3 but did not stop at the stop sign at Highway 169, authorities said. The vehicle was struck by a northbound GMC Yukon. Two other vehicles were struck in the crash, but the people in those two cars were not injured.
In the Suburban, the driver sustained life-threatening injuries, according to State Patrol. Elizabeth Jane Baldwin, 61, of Minnetonka, and Marlo Dean Baldwin, 92, of Minnetonka, both died. Officials said the driver of the vehicle, a 61-year-old from Minnetonka, has life-threatening injuries.
There were six people in the Yukon when the crash occurred. The 44-year-old driver, as well as passengers ages 18, 14, and 11, sustained what officials described as life-threatening injuries. The other two passengers have non-life-threatening injuries.
Alcohol is not believed to be a factor in the crash, but officials said Elizabeth Jane Baldwin had not been wearing a seatbelt.
Among those at the start line this year will be Alex Vigil.
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Pixar’s second installment of the movie features characters we’ve already met — Joy, Sadness and Anger — and gives them a new roommate named Anxiety.
MINNEAPOLIS — Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” universe plays out inside the mind of the movie’s adolescent protagonist, Riley.
She plays a kid from Minnesota whose family uproots her life by moving to San Francisco. But did you know that what plays out in Riley’s mind actually comes from the mind of a real-life Minnesotan?
“You are one of us!” said Breaking the News anchor Jana Shortal.
“Yes, I am!” said Burnsville native and the movie’s creator and director, Kelsey Mann.
Mann was chosen for the role by ANOTHER Minnesotan — Pete Docter, the man behind the original movie, “Inside Out.”
“I don’t know if Pete asked me to do this movie because I was from Minnesota and he was from Minnesota … I just think it worked out that way,” Mann said.
How two guys from the south metro made a pair of Pixar movies that would change the game is a hell of a story that began with Docter in 2015.
“He [Docter] was just trying to tell a fun story — an emotional, fun story — and didn’t realize how much it would help give kids a vocabulary to talk about things they were feeling because they are feeling those emotions, but they’re really hard to talk about,” Mann said.
Some parents, counselors and teachers might even tell you it did more good for kids than just entertain them. It unlocked their emotions and begged for what Mann set out to create at the beginning of 2020.
“That part was fun, particularly fun,” he said. “I think the daunting part was following up a film that everyone really loved.”
But Mann knew what he wanted to do with the movie’s follow-up, “Inside Out 2.”
“Diving into Riley’s adolescence … that was just fun,” he said.
This time around, Riley is 13, hitting puberty and facing all of what, and who, comes with it. The franchise’s second installment features characters we’ve already met — Joy, Sadness and Anger — and gives them a new roommate named Anxiety.
“I think that’s what’s fun about the ‘Inside Out’ world: You can take something we all know and give it a face,” Mann said. “We can give anxiety a name and a face.”
The film follows Riley’s emotions fighting it out for control of her life. Joy wants Riley to stay young and hold on only to joy, while anxiety is hell-bent on taking over Riley over at the age of 13 because as a lot of us know, that’s when anxiety often moves in.
“I always pitched it as a takeover movie, like an emotional takeover,” Mann said. “Anxiety can kind of feel like that; it can take over and kind of shove your other emotions to the side and repress them.”
For a kids’ movie, it’s hard to watch this animation play out, even when an adult has the keys to decide.
“I’m making a movie about anxiety and I still have to remind myself to have my anxiety take a seat,” Mann said.
All of our individual anxieties have a place in this world.
“The whole movie honestly is about acceptance. Both acceptance of anxiety being there and also of your own flaws,” said Mann.
Even for our kids, we have to remember that this is life.
Anxiety will come for them; it does for us all.
The “Inside Out” world just shows them it’s so.
