November 8, 1999 - A Mainstreet Radio special broadcast from the VA Medical Center in St. Cloud for a pre-Veterans Day show. In this second hour of program, host Rachel Reabe and guests discuss veterans organizations, such as American Legion or VFW posts. The group talk about the impact of these organizations on the community, and their evolution over time.
November 8, 1999 - Since the discovery of British mountaineer George Mallory on the icy north face of Mount Everest in May, the world has learned a bit more about what happened on his fateful climb back in 1924. But still, the biggest question remains unanswered. Did Mallory and his partner Andrew Irvine make it to the summit? If they did, they would have accomplished the feat decades before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Everest climber Eric Simonson organized the team that set out to find Mallory this spring. He's just released a book about the expedition called "Ghosts of Everest." Simonson says the sketchy information he and other climbers have had over the years fueled their imagination and hope that Mallory made it.
November 10, 1999 - MPR’s Katherine Lanpher talks with Minnesota writer Bill Holm and editor Michael Dregni of the book, "Minnesota Days: Our Heritage in Stories, Art and Photos." This Midmorning program includes call-in from listeners.
November 11, 1999 - Legendary radio broadcaster Norman Corwin's radio play On a Note of Triumph, which aired on V-E Day on May 8, 1945.
November 15, 1999 - MPR's special week of programming "The Surveillance Society" begins on Midday, where we hear about the range of private information about people that is available, who can find it, and how. Guests Ari Schwartz, policy analyst at the Center for Democracy & Technology in Washington D.C.; and Don Ray, independent investigative journalist and author of Public Records Primer and Investigators Handbook give insights into the topic.
November 15, 1999 - In an essay on flyfishing, the novelist Thomas McGuane writes, "What is most emphatic in angling is made so by the long silences...the unproductive periods" That essay is called "The Longest Silence". It's also the title of McGuane's new collection of 33 essays, in which he charts a lifetime with a flyrod pursuing trout, salmon and saltwater game fish. Thomas McGuane talked to Minnesota Public Radio's Mike Edgerly about his new book and his life in fishing
November 16, 1999 - MPR’s Shirley Idelson profiles Minnesota's grape growers, who are experiencing a boom. Producers say 1999 season has resulted in a record harvest. While grapes are still a tiny portion of the state's agricultural economy, high prices and a strong market for wine means expansion for this cottage industry.
November 18, 1999 - MPR's "The Surveillance Society" series continues with a call-in program about workplace privacy. Studio guests are labor lawyers Greg Corwin of Corwin & Associates and Richard Ross of Frederickson & Byron.
November 18, 1999 - Walter Kirn lives in Montana where he works as a book critic. But he grew up in Minnesota, and so its not surpring his new novel "Thumbsucker" is set in the St Croix River Valley. Although it's probably not going to please the Minnesota Tourist board. Kirn's satirical view of rural Minnesota in the 1980's is a turbulant world of Miami Vice, Izod shirts and Mormons. In a town gone suburban, 14-year-old Justin, gives up thumbsucking his long-time security blanket, only to replace it with girls, cigarettes, booze and drugs. With adults too self-absored to care, Justin is forced to navigate the bizarre waters of adolesence alone.
November 19, 1999 - A compilation of the special reports from the MPR "The Surveillance Society" series.