Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily midday digest of what local media outlets and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
T-Wolves Talk Twin Cities
Kevin Garnett knew George Floyd. "If anybody who was a ballplayer was out in the city, you knew the dude," the Basketball Hall of Famer said in Andscape's deep-dive into race and sports in Minnesota. "He was always consistent. Always fun-loving, always full of joy, always wanted to talk hoop, always was heavy-handed, and always was funny as shit. Always good with the God." At first, the star-studded piece serves as a history of the Timberwolves franchise, but later shifts to players—from Richard Coffey to Jaden McDaniels and everywhere in-between—sharing their thoughts on living and working in the Twin Cities. Karl-Anthony Towns thinks we're a top 10 U.S. city in the summer; Rudy Gobert's chef admires our organic produce; several players noticed the booming East African community. Players sound off positively on the food, entertainment, and, with guarded language, even the cold. (Stephon Marbury, on the other hand, remains very critical of the winters and the city he demanded to be traded from.) We even hear from Akeem Akway, barber to the superstar athletes.
Writer Marc J. Spears takes the reader in heavier directions, like Marbury's account of being racially profiled by MPD. "I got stopped just because he had a nice car. I was like, ‘Why did you pull me over?’" he said. "They would recognize me and say, ‘Oh, Stephon, you can go.’ What was the reason?" Several players weigh in on the heartbreak of Floyd's murder, with KG stating: "The city needs a real repair. Not a Band-Aid. Not a renovation. It needs a whole repair.” Through a hoops lens, Spears reveals insights and revelations about Minneapolis, making the story a must-read for locals. We even get to hear Garnett assess our mutual buddy Glen Taylor. "It was evident that Glen and them didn’t want to win," the legendary shit-talker said of the legendarily shitty team owner. You can read the whole feature here.
Locally Connected Gig Poster Fetches Record $447K
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper never made it to Moorhead's Armory on February 3, 1959. The early rock 'n' roll stars died, along with pilot Roger Peterson, when their plane crashed in Clear Lake, Iowa, a tragedy that would become known as "The Day the Music Died." Earlier today, Heritage Auctions revealed that a poster advertising that night's show became the world's most expensive concert flier ever sold; it went at auction for $447,000. That smashed the previous record of $275,000, which was set this past April for a poster teasing the Beatles at New York City's Shea Stadium in 1966, according to Heritage. Grim trivia: 15-year-old Fargo native Bobby Vee, then on the verge of becoming a teen star, subbed in for the Moorhead show that night, leading a band of fellow kids called the Shadows.
Bloodless Taco Battle Rages on in Minnesota
Forget about cola wars, burger wars, and chip wars. The Twin Cities is the battleground for one of the best wars out there: the fast-food taco wars. We’re talking about Taco Bell versus Taco John, baby! Last June, Taco Bell blessed Brooklyn Park with a Taco Bell Defy, offering a futuristic, humanity-free drive-thru experience where the food comes to your car via tubes a la Brazil or an ‘80s bank drive-thru. Meanwhile, a few months ago Taco John’s opened a test kitchen/corporate office space at the West End in St. Louis Park. There, according to this article in the Star Tribune, Taco John’s is “reimagining tacos and how to make them.” Bold claim! They are using the test kitchen to create new equipment to aid in the mass production tacos, which will then be further tested by the “live mas” masses at two company-run stores in Burnsville and Eagan. Sounds like noble work for machines. For more Taco Bell content, check out this article where I tried every vegetarian Taco Bell item on the menu for the first time.
"Eat the Troops"
Happy Veterans Day. To honor the troops, Racket restrained from stealing any/all valor for the entire week. Cub Foods—whose prices we investigated this past summer—is tipping its hat to those who served via 11% discounts with proof of military ID. Nice. The Stillwater-based local grocery king is also selling… GUMMY MILITARY HEROES, to the delight of local Redditors. Think gummy worms (still with us?), but molded into edible red, white, and blue figurines resembling the fighting men and women thrust to the frontlines of our proud military-industrial complex. You consume them for fun; they taste like freedom and corn syrup. “Eat the troops,” reads one comment. “As a veteran, I support this,” responded another. Anyway, parking meters are free today.
