Welcome again to The Flyover, your every day noon digest of what native media retailers and Twitter-ers are gabbing about.
KG’s Coming Home?
We love the whole lot about Kevin Garnett—his 14 seasons with the Timberwolves, his scary competitiveness, his shock appearing chops. We do not love the very fact he has distanced himself from the Wolves organization since retiring in 2016, largely on account of his mistrust of workforce proprietor Glen Taylor. Speaking with the Athletic in 2020 forward of his Hall of Fame induction, Garnett teed off on Taylor. “I’ll all the time have a particular place for the town of Minneapolis and the state of Minnesota in my coronary heart,” he instructed Shams Charania. “But I don’t do business with snakes. I don’t do business with snake mu’fuckas. I strive to not do business with overtly snakes or people who find themselves snake-like.”
As Taylor’s sale of the Wolves to Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez inches nearer to finalization, a report emerged Monday that Garnett is perhaps welcomed again to Minny. “Assuming the transaction is finalized,” writes ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, “there’s a likelihood Garnett will take a task with the organization, sources instructed ESPN.” Garnett, 47, has been rooting arduous this season for the Wolves, calling the workforce “a pressure” and naming rising famous person Anthony Edwards within the MVP dialog.
The ultimate snake mu’fucka transfer? That’d be shifting the Wolves away from Minnesota, although in 2021 A-Rod issued the iron-clad assurance of “we’ve got no plans to maneuver.” (Plans, famously, change, and the stay-in-Minnesota provisions Taylor reportedly labored into the sale contract are apparently troublesome to legally implement.) But let’s not dwell in that miserable/hypothetical realm! When Taylor’s ass is lastly out the door, the primary order of business will probably be retiring No. 21, one thing KG has refused to take part with below the present regime.
UnitedHealth, Other MN Companies Resume Bankrolling Election Deniers
Would it shock you to be taught that, regardless of fixed advert copy claims on the contrary, big companies do not consider in something? Stribbers Briana Bierschbach and Kavita Kumar unearthed further proof of that with a Saturday story on the about-face a number of Minnesota mega-corps quietly made after vowing to pause or forgo monetary help to members of Congress who denied President Joe Biden’s 2020 election win. Among ’em: foreclosure-happy U.S. Bancorp, cartoonishly anti-union Target Corp., and “evil” agribusiness big Cargill. But by far the worst offender is Minnetonka-based insurance coverage vulture UnitedHealth Group, whose 88 donations to 42 election-denying candidates have totaled at the very least $272,000. A UnitedHealth PR rep issued a wormy assertion about “engag[ing] within the coverage course of,” a far cry from the chest-puffed defenders of democracy language many of those firms trumpeted post-January 6. In equity, processed-food-peddling General Mills, doctor-grooming Medtronic, and metro-poisoning 3M stayed true to their pledges, the Strib stories.
Who Wears Cold Shorts?
Minnesota boys, and so they accomplish that all winter lengthy. That’s in response to an interesting model/tradition deep-dive from Atlantic staffer Ashley Fetters, an obvious ex-local who authored “The Boys Who Wear Shorts All Winter.” Ya know, this archetype:
“Educators at a center faculty and highschool in Minnesota confirmed to me that they’ll rely on having two or three of him yearly, arriving in school after braving the morning windchill with naked calves,” writes Fetters, who spoke with mother and father, lecturers, Mayo Clinic medical doctors, baby psychologists, and a former “B.W.W.S.A.W.” to raised perceive the motivation behind going pantless throughout winter. One principle? Middle faculty boys “have such a want to not seem to be a child” and in any other case seem powerful, in response to therapist Phyllis Fagell. We suggest studying all the story, together with the less-deep reasoning from the ex-B.W.W.S.A.W. who will get quoted, however we’ll piggyback off Fagell and depart it right here:
Let’s Conclude with a Comic Strip
Until this morning I used to be unfamiliar with XKCD, the favored and long-running webcomic by Pennsylvanian Randall Munroe. But our personal Em Cassel, herself a Pennsylvanian, was delighted to share right this moment’s version, which, as you may see, is regionally angled up the wazoo. We agree, faceless comedian character: All issues ought to be about Minnesota.
