9/4 Morning Communiqué

CITY PAGES BLOGS

It is with a heavy heart that we bid adieu to Steve Monaco, Couch Pundit, and the Monday Movie Quiz. We'll miss you, Steve.

THESE DAYS

Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and conservationist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed by a stingray while filming off the Great Barrier Reef.

The NFL has effectively banned stadiums from playing Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll Part 2" after the British rocker was convicted of molesting underage girls in Vietnam.

Starting last Friday, the wide-mouthed opening in the lids of McDonald's McFlurry containers will be reduced in size, making them too small for British hedgehogs to fit their heads into anymore. Numerous hedgehogs had died from starvation after their heads would get trapped in the cups.

MINNESOTA BLOG OF THE DAY

Minneapolitan Jenni Ripley blogs on Mexican wrestlers, calf-birthing, and skinnydipping in Lake Minnetonka at Chocolate Mussolini.

[Minnesota-based blog directory]

TIME WASTERS

Scott Wade's Dirty Car Art Gallery

20 Things You Didn't Know About Death

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

"With its offensive colors and overlapping carnival-ride soundtracks, strolling through the midway is like taking a walking tour of one's own headache."

-- Slate intern Ben Crair, describing the Minnesota State Fair midway