VARIETYwww.startribune.com/variety

TODAY’S QUOTE“A change in the weather is sufficient to re-create

the world and ourselves.”

Marcel Proust

Dear Abby . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E3

Movie listings . . . . . . . . . . .E9

Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . .E6-E7

Crosswords . . . . . . . . . . . . .E9

Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .E8

MONDAYFebruary 16, 2004

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INSIDE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 X R W B G Y

DecemberNovemberOctoberSeptemberAugustJulyApril May JuneMarchFebruaryJanuary-20°

0°

20°

40°

60°

80°

100°

DecemberNovemberOctoberSeptemberAugustJulyApril May JuneMarchFebruaryJanuary0

5

10

15

20

25

30

5.1(13.7)(13.7)

0.22(1.04 )

10.710 7(8.2)

0.54(0.79)

13.2(10.5)(10 5)

1.0(3.10)(3 10) 0

(0.1)0(0)

0(0)

0(0)

0(0)

00

9.49 4(10)

16.116 1(10.1)

1.44(1.86)

2.40(2.31)

6.146 14(3.24)

4.66(4.34)

2.06(4.04)

1.12(4.05)( ) 2.20 0.62

(2.11)20.71(1.94)

0.62(1.00)

20033 warmest3averaage highaaverage highAuguust averagu 5.3e: 75gg °

2003 coldest

JanuaaryaJan araveraaga e: 15.3gg °

2003 lowest2003 lowest

tempeeraturee°°

03 highest2000

97° ugust 24 on Auu

Averrage highrand low d l

tempperaturesp

2003snowfallsnowfall SSnowfallo a

1971-2000

2003*precipitation PPPPrecipitationi i i

aaverageav11971-20001971-20001

How toHow tor shisscharchartt

ounts measuredSnowfall am dm d

tionweather stat

9.8 in.9.8 in.(7.9)

*Note:*Note:

6.10 in.(3.53)(3.53)

TemperaturesTemperaturT r (in degrees) Actual55.155 1° 54.854 8°°

AAverage low A 37.6 ° 35.3°iHHighest:H g 997°° 2ugust 24 on Auug Lowest: 14-11 °° on Feb. 7

PPP (in inches)TTotal for the yearToTotal for the year 22.69 22 69 28.3228 32

SSSSnowfallnowfall nches measured at Chanhassen office)(in in t Chanhassen ofn at ff(i i h d t Ch h ffi )TTotal for the yearTo 30.0 55.9

DDD Heating degrees ling degreesCooolActual Actual NormalNormal tualActActual NormalNormal7,686 7,876 79 88 682

Source: National Weather Service Ray Grumney/Star Tribune

Daily high and lowhigh anhDaily high and lowtemperatures for 20eratures 003e 0

WEATHERWRAP

Jan. 54 -12 15.3 +2.2 0.22 -0.82 5.1

Feb. 46 -14 15.7 -4.4 0.54 -0.25 10.7

Mar. 72 -10 31.3 -0.8 1.44 -0.42 13.2

April 89 21 48.3 +1.7 2.40 +0.09 1

May 82 41 57.7 -1.6 6.14 +2.90 —

June 89 49 68.1 -0.3 4.66 +0.32 —

July 92 56 73.7 +0.6 2.06 -1.98 —

Aug. 97 53 75.3 +4.7 1.12 -2.93 —

Sept. 92 35 62.5 +1.5 2.20 -0.49 —

Oct. 85 28 51.0 +2.4 0.62 -1.49 0.6

Nov. 59 9 32.1 -0.3 0.71 -1.23 1.4

Dec. 43 -4 25.0 +6.4 0.62 -0.38 3

Hightemp.

Lowtemp.

Avg.temp.

Diff. fromnormal Precip. Snow*

Diff. fromnormal

MONTHLY DATA FOR 2003

2003

Heat, cold and even a broken thermometer made the headlines.Our Weather Page meteorologist,Paul Douglas, took a folksy look at the sweltering and shivering

as it happened.

Modernmen are crying in publicBy Steve Woodwardand Garielle Glaser (Portland) Oregonian

Contrary to Tom Hanks’line in “A League of TheirOwn,” there is crying inbaseball. And politics. Andthe news media. And pro-fessional basketball.

After the Portland TrailBlazers lost recently for theninth time in 10 games,coach Maurice Cheeksbroke down in tears twice.Guard Derek Andersonsaid he shed a few tearshimself.

In the new millennium,men aren’t afraid to showtheir tear-stained cheeks.

“I don’t believe thatmen’s constitutions havechanged,” says Beth Ka-plan Westbrook, a psychol-ogist in Portland, Ore. “ButI do believe that socialroles have evolved betweenmen and women, and menare more comfortable withself-expression.”

Michael Botnick, asociology professor at theUniversity of British Co-lumbia in Vancouver whospecializes in gender,agrees.

“Men have alwayscried,” he says. “However,they have done so in pri-vate, and the only differ-ence now is that it’s morepublic. That doesn’t meanthat male emotions havechanged. But the display ofthem has.”

That’s a big changefrom 1972, when presiden-tial candidate EdmundMuskie saw his front-runner status evaporateafter allegedly sheddingtears about a newspaperpublisher’s attacks on himand his wife.

Today, crying atappropriate times is seenas a sign of compassionand humanity in a man.

Consider the Bush fami-ly. According to reporters,President George W. Bushteared up at a Thanksgiv-ing dinner with U.S. troopsin Iraq. His brother, FloridaGov. Jeb Bush, fought backtears as he thanked sup-porters after his daughterwas arrested on charges oftrying to obtain a con-trolled drug with a fraudu-lent prescription.

No matter what the season or the temperature, Minnesotans love to talk about the weather.

THE NEWS: Temperature records that have heldfor decades melted across Minnesota on Tues-day. In St. James, the high was 59, breaking arecord of 45 set in 1963. In Albert Lea, it reached57, shattering a 102-year-old record of 45. Theunseasonably high temperatures also brokedecades-old records in several towns, includingAustin (55), Maple Lake (54), International Fallsand Duluth (both 46).

PAUL’S TAKE: Tuesday’s amazing 52-degree highin the Twin Cities (breaking a record of 45 set in1949) is typical for April 13, and the earliest 50-degree reading in a calendar year ever recorded.And, since 1891, we have had only six winterswith this little snowfall as of Jan. 8.

WINTER WARMTHJANUARY 7

THE NEWS: A tornado that witnesses describedas three-quarters of a mile wide and “black as oil”roared through Buffalo Lake in south-central Min-nesota on Tuesday evening, causing major dam-age to the town of about 700. The slow-movingtornado tore into the post office, blew the roof offa liquor store and heavily damaged a Lutheranchurch downtown. At least five people were in-jured, but no fatalities were reported.

PAUL’S TAKE: We went from the quietest severeweather season in six years to a major tornadooutbreak, literally overnight. Yesterday, conditionswere ripe for long-lasting, rotating thunderstorms.Updrafts were strong enough to support the for-mation of large hail and even confirmed torna-does.

TWISTER TEARSTHROUGH TOWNJUNE 24

THE NEWS: The official Twin Cities temperaturereached 97 degrees Sunday, the hottest day ofthe summer and only one degree short of tying thehottest Aug. 24 on record, the National WeatherService in Chan-hassen said.Three cities —St. Paul (98),South St. Paul(99) andLakeville (99) —reported tem-peratures thattied or exceededthe 98 degreesrecorded onAug. 24, 1948,meteorologistBill Harrisonsaid. The all-time August highwas 103, set onAug. 15, 1936,he said.

PAUL’S TAKE: Oh, I can just imagine the chorusof fine whines, groans and whimpers coming fromoverheated people strolling the Minnesota StateFair later today. It will not be pretty. If you want toavoid the heat and humidity, consider waiting untilmidweek, when a Canadian cool front will treat usto some free air conditioning.

HEAT HEIGHTSAUGUST 24

Courtney Burket of Lakevilleheaded for home after a long,hot day at the fair Aug. 24.

John Valdez shows a photo of the June 24 tornadoin Buffalo Lake.

More inside on E3

Star Tribune file photos

Al SichermanA recent mailing fromPublishers Clearing Housetakes Uncle Al back 33years, to when he saved adollar. (Look, you’ll be oldsome day too.) Turn to E2.

TOMORROWLiving a better lifeDr. Edward Creagan, a Mayo Clinic cancer doctor,practices what he preaches.He passes along tips for living a better life in his new book, “How Not to Be My Patient.”

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16 • 2004 STAR TRIBUNE • E3★★

She’s looking for a manready to settle down

Dear Abby: I am 23 andsingle. I am always hearingabout women suffering frommidlife crises, but have youever heard of a mid-20s one?My single friends and I allseem to have the same prob-lem. We are out of college andbeyond our days of “flings.”So why is it that while we areready to settle down andmeet someone, the men ourage act like they are still incollege? Is there anywhere Ican meet someone matureand my age? Should I go tochurch to find someone, likemy mom says? Look to oldermen? Or am I doomed ’til I’mover 30?

Rory in Cambridge, Mass.

Abby says: In the 1950s,“success” for girls was de-fined as marrying early andhaving children. Since then,however, more women havejobs and careers, and it is notunusual for men and womento get graduate degrees be-fore thinking about marriage.Couple that with the fact thatan adolescent mentalityseems to have stretched be-yond the teens into the mid-

to-late 20s, and it’s not sur-prising that many young mendo not feel ready to commit.

You may have to expandyour horizons a bit in the agedepartment if you want tosettle down now. Considersomeone in his late 20s. Thengo where like-minded peoplegather: graduate school, spe-cial-interest clubs, volunteerorganizations, square- orline-dancing, church or a po-litical-action group.Remember that it’s importantto take the time to really getto know someone before yougive your heart — or anythingelse.

Dear Abby is written by AbigailVan Buren, also known as JeannePhillips, and was founded by hermother, Pauline Phillips. WriteDear Abby at http://www.DearAb-by.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los An-geles, CA 90069.

Dear Abby

ADVICE

Smithsonian Folkways recordlabel sounds like history By Eric R. DantonHartford Courant

n album that moved10,000 units wouldprompt massive blood-A

lettings at Epic or Columbia.At Smithsonian Folkways

Recordings, that’s a top seller.Consider some of the label’s

recent releases: “Abayudaya:Music From the Jewish Peopleof Uganda,” “Havana & Matan-zas, Cuba, ca. 1975: Bata,Bembe and Palo Songs” and“Cape Breton Fiddle and PianoMusic: The Beaton Family ofMabou” — niche records ifever there were.

Folkways isn’t concernedwith landing its artists onMTV’s “Total Request Live,”despite employing the samepublicity company that repre-sents Bruce Springsteen andNorah Jones. The non-profitadjunct to the SmithsonianInstitution is on a different mis-sion: identifying and preserv-ing musical traditions and ex-ploring how they have evolved.

“Sometimes we’re interest-ed in the very roots of some-thing and how it started, andsometimes we’re interested inthe leaves at the very end of thebranches,” says Richard Bur-gess, director of marketing forSmithsonian Folkways.

The label has plenty of bothin its archives, with 3,500 al-bums and more than 33,000songs — including early re-cordings of American iconssuch as Woody Guthrie, PeteSeeger and Leadbelly. Twomore recent albums were nom-inated for Grammys, in the tra-ditional world music albumcategory: “Capoeira Angola 2 —Brincando Na Roda” by Grupode Capoeira Angola Pelourinhoand “Jibaro Hasta El Hueso:Mountain Music of PuertoRico” by Ecos de Borinquen.

Don’t scour the Billboardcharts for such releases,though. One of SmithsonianFolkways’ best-selling albums,“The Silk Road: A Musical Car-avan,” peaked at about 20,000copies, and Burgess says the la-bel doesn’t hesitate to releasetitles that won’t sell more thana few hundred copies if cura-

tors think the music is impor-tant. That’s a valuable role for arecord company to play, saysSusan Forbes Hansen, whohosts folk-focused radio showsin Storrs, Conn., and Amherst,Mass.

“I think the label’s most im-portant role is in preserving thekinds of music that will other-wise disappear — that is notlikely to find a label-home any-where else,” Hansen says.“Since they’re not a profitmak-ing organization . . . they don’thave to worry about the bot-tom line when they release anold recording, or even a newone, that will have a limited lis-tenership.”

Best-selling frogsNot all the tracks are music.

Smithsonian Folkways also hasrecordings of the human voicesans larynx and a little compi-lation called “Sounds of NorthAmerican Frogs,” which Bur-gess says is one of the label’sbest-selling albums.

“We never delete anything,and when Smithsonian origi-nally acquired Folkways Re-cordings from Moses Asch,part of the deal was that wewould never delete anything,”Burgess says.

Asch founded Folkways in1948 and ran the label until hisdeath in 1986. He releasedmore than 2,100 music, spo-ken-word and documentaryrecordings — a collection theSmithsonian Institution hasaugmented since acquiringFolkways in 1987.

Burgess says there is a“huge network” of peoplescouting for traditional musicscenes and unique styles todocument and preserve, andthe director and assistant di-rector of the label have doctor-al degrees in ethnomusicology,which is the study of music indifferent historical and culturalcontexts. Those elements givecurators loads of material tosort through, most of it far out-side the musical mainstream.

“I don’t think there is any-thing too obscure or too weird.In fact, obscure and weirdaren’t criteria on which we

judge. If anything, they mightbe positives,” Burgess says.“Usually we’re looking for linesand connections and roots ofmusic and weird offshoots, likethe ‘Abayudaya,’ the musicfrom the Jewish people ofUganda. That’s a really inter-esting blend of cultures, in thatyou have the Jewish liturgicalblending with the African tra-ditional music.”

It’s not quite “Rhythm ofthe Saints” meets “Fiddler onthe Roof,” but the CD is likenothing else on the market.Then there’s the Cape Bretonrecord, which showcases fiddleand piano songs rooted in themusic Scottish settlers broughtto the island off Nova Scotia.The album has more of aready-made fan base, given theongoing popularity of tradi-tional Celtic and Gaelic music.

“There’s quite a decent-sized following for this kind ofmusic out there,” Burgess says.“Even though it’s based on thetraditions of Scotland, it’s a liv-ing, vibrant tradition that’smoving away from its originalroots and it has become itsown form of music and it’s veryexciting.”

What’s more exciting isSmithsonian Folkways’ nextinitiative: implementing a digi-tal download service that willfunction like an iTunes reposi-tory for obscurities. CalledSmithsonian Global Soundand officially launching inApril, the service allows usersto download any track fromthe Folkways archives for 99cents per song — frogs,Guthrie, Ugandan Jews, all of itwill be online, and the Smith-sonian is negotiating for accessto similar repositories in otherparts of the world.

“We’re very, very excitedabout the whole online deliv-ery,” Burgess says. “It’ll be agreat source of information forscholars and students, but Ialso think this music is just fas-cinating music for anybodywho’s a little bored with themainstream or wants to get outthere and find out what else isout in the world.”

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FEBRUARY 19–22, 2003

And more!

LIVESHARKENCOUNTER!

THE NEWS: Though many farmers already had harvested their fallcrops, a significant number of apples, pumpkins, squash and raspber-ries were still on the vine when temperatures dipped into the 20s andupper teens Thursday morning. It was the second-coldest Oct. 2 onrecord in the past century for many parts of Minnesota, and the coldestsince 1974. For other regions, including the metro area, it was the third-coldest Oct. 2, when taking into account another frigid Oct. 2 in 1993,according to the University of Minnesota.

PAUL’S TAKE: According to climatologist Mark Seeley, we have not hadthis many days below 60 degrees during this time of year since 1942.Yes, our premature cold spell is unusual, but think of the silver lining.Monster mosquitoes are no longer showing up on Doppler radar, and al-lergy sufferers are breathing easier.

FRIGID FALLOCTOBER 2

THE NEWS: Fun was the operative word for many across the Twin CitiesMonday after the season’s first significant storm dumped as much as afoot of snow across parts of Minnesota. Around 11 inches were re-ported in Montevideo and New London in western Minnesota; Litchfieldin central Minnesota received 10 inches. And 9 inches fell in Princeton,north of the Twin Cities, as well as in Watertown, west of Minneapolis.

PAUL’S TAKE: Now that it finally looks like a Norman Rockwell land-scape outside, the news is pretty good for snow lovers. Any snow in youryard now will probably stick around for at least two weeks, possibly long-er. No warm fronts are in sight.

THE NEWS: After much of the summer passed without any significantrainfall, parts of Minnesota received anywhere from a brief shower to adownright drenching Thursday. Rainfall in the Twin Cities area was ex-pected to total a half-inch to an inch by morning. The rain started earlyWednesday in parts of western Minnesota, gradually moving east byThursday morning. Vesta, Minn., about 10 miles southwest of RedwoodFalls, got 4 inches.

PAUL’S TAKE: The rains came too late to do any good for this year’scrops. In fact, it’s making it difficult for farmers to get out into their fieldsto salvage what’s left. Nearly a month’s worth of rain has fallen in thelast few days, anywhere from 2 to 4 inches, and this will help rechargeand replenish soil moisture for next year. It was critical that we got therain before the ground froze.

THE NEWS: They thought it was hot in International Falls, Minn., but notthat hot. The official temperature was listed at 95 degrees on Tuesdayin the Nation’s Icebox, known nationally for its cold-weather testing. Butthe report was too hot to be true. The 95 was announced before the Na-tional Weather Service realized that its sensor in International Falls wasbroken. Maybe 81 or 82, the Weather Service said. Still, that would bejust a degree shy of the city’s record for Oct. 7 and well above the normalhigh of 57. It was all the more striking because last Thursday morning,the low temperature in International Falls was 18.

RUSS KNUTH’S TAKE: Minnesota’s weather roller coaster is near thetop of the hill, and it is only a matter of time before we plummet into thechilly depths of winter. The rest of the workweek will be a reminder ofsummer. A weak clipper will keep us a couple of degrees cooler than onWednesday, when we tied a record high of 85 degrees.

FEBRUARY FROSTING

FEBRUARY 3SHOWERS SPLATTER STATE

SEPTEMBER 11

TOP TEMP TAKEN TO TASKOCTOBER 8

Almost a month’s worth of rain fell in just a few days in early September.

Last year, skiers had to wait until February for the first significantsnowfall.

Star Tribune file photos

COVER STORY

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