Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.
Eye for Talent
When KARE 11 photojournalist Gary Knox first saw Paige Bueckers compete, he knew she special—way back in 2013. In a shot-called tweet for the ages, Knox wrote of the smiling Minnesota middle schooler pictured above, "Remember the name: Paige Bueckers. 6th grade, think Diana Taurasi. Best 6th grade G I've ever seen. St. Louis Park." The post has resurfaced today as Bueckers, now a 22-year-old college hoops superstar, punched UConn's ticket to the Final Four last night with her 28-point, 10-rebound performance in a victory over USC.
Along with Iowa's Caitlin Clark, LSU's Angel Reese, and USC's JuJu Watkins, Bueckers is helping women steal March Madness glory away from the fellas this year; the phenomenon is explored in this ESPN love letter to all four players, and was experienced last night by our own Em Cassel as she struggled to get a seat at A Bar of Their Own, the new Minneapolis sports bar dedicated to women's sports. Provided area bars aren't too packed, you can watch Bueckers's 3-seed Huskies take on Clark's 1-seed Hawkeyes this Friday at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN.
The Perils of Advertorial Content
Media literacy in the U.S. isn't what you'd call "great." In fact, if you're Mashable, you define news discernibility in the age of social media, AI, and hyper-partisanship as an outright crisis. That's what makes this recent pro-Uber advertorial that appeared in newsletters from Axios Twin Cities such a pernicious bummer. It's presented as "A MESSAGE FROM UBER," sure, but how many scrolling readers are going to distinguish it from the editorial content it's sandwiched between? MPR's Gretchen Brown wrote via Twitter, "This is a situation where it's ethically dicey to have an ad in your newsletter formulated as a news headline," while labor activism account A More Perfect Union wrote, "Axios Twin Cities sent out an email blast with an Uber ad that looks like an article saying Minneapolis is kicking Uber out. What Minneapolis actually did was pass a minimum pay law for rideshare drivers."
And to be fair, it's not just Axios dealing in these sort of credibility-dinging corporate partnerships, all of which claim to operate separately from the actual journalists: Insurance giant UnitedHealth buys sponcon in MinnPost; the Koch-owned Pine Bend refinery throws money at public radio; the Strib recently created an entire section, billed under a tiny "COMMERCIAL CONTENT" banner, devoted to sports betting.
But back to the Minneapolis rideshare stuff! The David vs. Goliath fight of VP-funded Silicon Valley overlords vs. grassroots coalitions of drivers remains in stare-down mode. Last Friday local drivers unveiled a cooperatively owned app from New York-based Drivers Cooperative that they claim could help replace Lyft and Uber; on Monday Gov. Tim Walz called that "magical thinking." More and more potential Uber/Lyft replacements are emerging, but Axios Twin Cities (remember them?) warns "activist drivers" that "big challenges" abound.
Remember Target Lady? She's Coming Back.
In the early '10s Saturday Night Live great Kristen Wiig scored a hit character as Target Lady, a nutty cashier whose zeal for savings is only matched by her employer's, Minneapolis-based retail giant Target Corp. Well, Target Lady is back—in ad form! Target will feature Wiig in a new 12-spot campaign timed to its April 7-13 Circle Week blowout, which has something to do with... a loyalty program... or bargains for you, the American consumer... or something. This much is certain: In its press release announcing Wiig's return, the company described both her SNL spinoff character as "iconic" as well as Prince, whose song "Baby I'm a Star" will serve as a "nod to Target’s roots in Minneapolis" in the commercials. (Minnesotan Maria Bamford, one of the greatest comedic talents of her generation, once starred in ads as Crazy Target Lady, something of a riff on Wiig's creation.) In less corporate-goodwill-fanning, er, news: Did you get a load of that viral bozo on TikTok saying SNL has never hired an attractive woman? *Gilly voice* Sorry, the people disagree.
Is Angry Trout the Ultimate MN Dining Experience?
Speaking as an Angry Trout devotee, I'll answer my own question and say, yes, the lakeside Grand Marais spot is as good as it gets. But I'm actually stealing a premise from someone with a lot more credibility, Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl of MSP Mag, so let's hear her argument from Sunday, which begins with the declaration: "The Angry Trout is also one of my favorite restaurants in the world." The veteran Twin Cities dining critic goes on to write...
I can feel so many of you nodding as you read this: Angry Trout, the favorite restaurant of so many people in the Twin Cities. The Grand Marais destination going strong since the Clinton administration. The place where you score a table on the deck, which is separated from the great inland freshwater sea of Lake Superior by nothing but convention, habit, and a thin railing reminding you that no matter what your heart says, you should not scamper over the rocks and into the glimmering, lapping waves, like a lake otter. You can, however, eat Lake Superior fish nearly as fresh as that enjoyed by Grand Marais harbor otters.
Dara gets into loads of Angry Trout history, compelling arguments about its rarefied greatness, and even name-drops an unforgettably named Two Harbors artist whose dishware appears inside. If you, like me, can't get enough Angry Trout, the story is required reading.
