Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily 1 p.m.(ish) digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
(Edina) Hornets! (Edina) Hornets! Drama! Drama!
Art: If you want to put it on something, you gotta pay the artist. That's the lesson Edina Public Schools is learning with a recent legal skirmish over their hornet logo. Michael Otto designed the piece, which features a vampire-like hornet making direct eye contact with you, as part of a contest in 1981. Over 40 years later, it’s still all over Edina schools, including their basketball court floors, school band instruments, and, most importantly, on merchandise that can be purchased by fans. When Otto contacted the schools asking for sales numbers, EPS refused to give him that info, so he sent them a cease and desist. Ultimately, lawyers failed to renegotiate their contract, and the schools are opting to redesign the logo. "I got to design my high school's logo—why would I ever charge a dime?" Otto, who now works as a community chaplain and a professional Santa, told the Star Tribune last summer. "I want the legacy of it standing the test of time; I want it to be the logo forever."
Surf's Up, Lake Superior
MPR dispatched reporter Dan Kraker to the near-freezing waters of Lake Superior to gab with maniac surfers earlier this week. Located just north of Duluth, the surf spot known as Stoney Point attracts surfers from across the county, Kraker reports. “You become encrusted with this ice layer in just a matter of an hour or less,” says 63-year-old surfer Erik Wilkie. “And feeling like you're pushed to a survival level that you haven't been to before.” Freshwater, a full-length documentary about the North Shore surf scene, will premiere next month at Duluth's at the NorShor Theater. In the meantime, enjoy this sick clip captured by Kraker.
Hard to fathom this is on #LakeSuperior. This was on the other side of Stoney Point from my pic yesterday. 15 foot swells. Thanks to Ian Planchon of 515 Productions for sharing this. He's got a documentary coming out next month all about the big lake. https://t.co/PCaB3K3XjT pic.twitter.com/DPBZUkqubk
— Dan Kraker (@dan_kraker) January 6, 2022
We Did It: MN Sets Record COVID-19 Positivity Rate
Minnesota’s seven-day rolling Covid positivity rate has reached a record 15.6%, according to numbers released Friday by the state health department. That’s quite bad! Anything over 5%, as we learned almost two goddamn years ago, is considered alarming. Our previous record-high positivity rate was recorded on April 29, 2020, and the new benchmark is due in large part to the surging omicron variant. Minnesota has around 1,000 total ICU beds, the Star Tribune reports, and all but 20 are currently filled. "It's going to be a challenging three weeks or so," Gov. Tim Walz said Thursday. How will leaders from both political parties meet that challenge? Gotta think they'll stick to the "doing virtually nothing" approach that has defined the U.S. Covid response. Friday’s report included 33 new coronavirus deaths and new 7,833 infections, putting the state at 10,766 and 1,064,065, respectively, since the beginning of the endless pandemic.
Watch This Minnesota Fox Giggle Its Lil Butt Off
How about a palate cleanser after that last blurb? It’s Friday: Let’s all enjoy the following viral video from Lakeville animal sanctuary Save a Fox. In it, we see owner Mikayla Raines getting big-time giggles outta Dixie, a red fox that was rescued from the fur industry. The clip, which the U.K. Daily Mail was all over late last month, is currently rocketing up the charts on the r/Awwducational subreddit. TGIF; hope your weekend brings Dixie-levels of fun and laughter.
Red foxes are known to make a number of interaction calls. Submissive foxes will make ululating siren-like shrieks, aggressive encounters between foxes are met with ratchet-like sounds called gekkering, and tamed foxes will elicit laughter-like sounds when communicating with their human handlers. from Awwducational
