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If you didn’t grow up in Minnesota, it can be a shock to spend your first winter here. MN90 producer Marisa Helms tells us that in 1849, Minnesota’s first territorial governor, Alexander Ramsey, moved to Saint Paul then promptly left for business in Washington. That winter, Ramsey’s bitterly cold wife, Anna, sent her husband a scathing letter, telling him 22 below zero is not a temperature she can live with. [Read Transcript...]

You finally got that job interview. But first you’ve got to sit down and complete the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), a test of over 300 questions, because the company wants to know how emotionally stable you are before hiring you. MN90 producer Marisa Helms tells us while the MMPI was originally created in 1943 to diagnose psychiatric patients in Minnesota, the test has many other uses outside the doctor’s office, including legal cases and employment. [Read Transcript...]

You hardly ever hear about kids writing in diaries anymore because paper and pencils seem to have been replaced by computers and text messages. As MN90 producer Marisa Helms explains, the technology that makes it easier for our children to communicate may be destroying their legacies. [Read Transcript...]

The cattails you'll find in roadside ditches might not look like anything special. But as MN90 Producer Andi McDaniel discovers, in the 1940s in northern Minnesota, those reed-like plants helped the war effort and represented a good source of income for local residents who would harvest and cash in on their fluff. [Read Transcript...]