October 15, 1999 - In a little over one-year, Minnesota's Ann Bancroft and a Norwegian will attempt to become the first female team to cross Antarctica. Bancroft, a 43-year old former schoolteacher, is the first woman to both poles, she led the aborted All Women's Expedition to Antarctica in 1993, and she's fairly well-known to our listeners. But we haven't yet met her partner in the endeavor, Liv Arneson. Arneson is a 45-year old Norwegian schoolteacher who in 1994 skied alone and unsupported to Antarctica. She wrote a book about that trip that has just recently been translated into English. It's called Good Girls Don't Ski to the South Pole. Arneson says the Bancroft Arneson Expedition will be their toughest challenge.
October 21, 1999 - MPR’s Bob Potter talks with architect Hugh Hardy, who designed Orchestra Hall. Hardy discusses the issue of acoustics and capacity. He says the new building might not have been built if the Lycium Theatre had been a little bigger.
October 29, 1999 - Commentator Nanci Olesen got a couple of insights about the people who live near her. Olesen shares a Halloween memory, titled “Pumpkin.” It involves a third trimester and a very unique costume.
October 29, 1999 - The pro-stadium tax Yes! St. Paul campaign committee has released a television ad in support of Mayor Norm Coleman's plan for a new Minnesota Twins ballpark. But you won't see it unless the campaign mails a video tape directly to your home. Rather than blanket the metropolitan airwaves with its message, the organization is running a targeted campaign designed to reach undecided St. Paul voters.
November 1, 1999 - MPR’s Euan Kerr interviews Minneapolis author Alexs Pate about his book “The Multicultiboho.” The book opens with an police officer entering a South Minneapolis apartment to find a dead body and a live African-American writer, named Ichabod Word.
November 2, 1999 - St. Paul is just one of four cities where voters are being asked to approve new sports facilities. Neil deMause is a critic of publicly funded stadiums and the author of the book "Field of Schemes." He's paying careful attention to stadium proposals across the country.
November 2, 1999 - Minneapolis -based Interact Theater, an nationally acclaimed company of performers with disabilities, may have to close its doors. The transportation company that's been bringing many of the cast and crew to the theater each day has pulled out, saying Interact can't pay enough. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Stucky reports, Interact calls attention to what some call a larger transportation crisis for the disabled.
November 2, 1999 - Its getting harder and harder to find a quiet spot away from the screeches and crashes of modern life. Small town Minnesota is no exception. In Battle Lake, Minnesota, in the heart of Lake country, some city offcials thought they'd found a creative solution, but have since drawn national attention, and sparked a debate over whether listening to certain popular music is a pleasure or punishment.
November 3, 1999 - Voters in St. Paul have rejected an attempt to eliminate about half the city's billboards. 53-percent of voters said no to a measure that would have removed billboards from city streets and prohibited new signs. The billboard industry says the result shows people don't want to get rid of a legal form of advertising, but billboard opponents say they're not giving up.
November 3, 1999 - Now that St. Paul voters have rejected a stadium tax to lure the Minnesota Twins to the Capitol city, attention in the stadium debate is shifting back to Minneapolis . Community leaders there say the time has come for them to find a solution that will satisfy the Twins' and the Vikings' needs. But they also say a firm proposal may not come forward until the 2001 legislative session.