Readers Write: Mustaches, skyways, hospital funding, future of the Star Tribune, David Coyne

Opinion editor’s note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here . ••• I read Laura Yuen’s recent column on mustaches with great delight ( “The unironic mustache and other trends I’m hoping will die in 2024,” Jan.

11). In the great, immortal, paraphrased words of P. T.

Barnum, all publicity is good publicity. As the self-appointed president of the Minnesotans 4 Mustaches club, I am one of the fortunate who can grow a full and robust lip broom. And as my grandmother used to say: A person without a mustache is like coffee without sugar — it’ll do the job, but just won’t be as sweet.

Give it a shot — I can assure you on a cold Minnesota day, you won’t be disappointed. Joe Campbell, Minneapolis Kudos to James Lileks for speaking out in support of Minneapolis’s skyways ( “Skyways deserve our civic support,” Jan. 12).

In recent years, lambasting the skyways has become a preoccupation of the so-called “urbanists,” like the authors of the Minneapolis Foundation’s “Downtown Next” report. The foundation’s report represents a misguided effort to revitalize the city’s beleaguered central business district by relocating skyway-level businesses to street-level store fronts along the Nicollet Mall and other downtown streets. As I write this letter, the winds are howling outside my apartment window and the temperatures are plunging below zero.

On a day like this and many others like them during these chilly months, very few of us will be ready for a leisurely stroll down the mall. We need the skyways. They help make life in Minneapolis more tolerable during a winter season that seems to go on forever.

Iric Nathanson, Minneapolis The article in Friday’s issue of the Star Tribune raises the idea of a fund to help pay for a new hospital for the University of Minnesota ( “Decision point looms for a new U hospital” ). Should such a fund be established I would suggest that the first place officials look for contributions would be the professional sports world. Each time that a professional sports team requires a facility upgrade, the state, county and city governments end up providing a large portion of the funding for the upgrade (think of the funding being requested for the Xcel Center this next year).

This results in an increase in value to the pro franchise owners in the millions of dollars. Shouldn’t this be a time to reverse the table and ask the franchises as community-conscious organizations to contribute some of their gain in equity back to the community in funding the university hospital? I would suggest a goal of $500 million from the pro sport franchises, with the Vikings as the cornerstone contributor of $200 million. David Detert, Northfield Change is inevitable, and with new leadership comes the promise of innovation.

I read the new publisher’s vision for the Star Tribune, particularly the introduction of a “Today Desk” and ambitious plans for breaking news ( “Star Tribune has big plans for breaking news, expanded statewide coverage,” Opinion Exchange, Jan. 7). As a subscriber, I have valued the paper’s steady and thoughtful approach to news in a media landscape that often lacks such qualities.

As a tech leader myself, I understand that the publisher’s new direction will likely involve a robust experimentation culture and the use of algorithms for A/B testing. While these strategies aim to capture attention and engagement, does this mean the paper will be slipping toward dopamine-inducing sensationalism rather than thoughtful journalism? I am invested in the success of the Star Tribune and hope that, under the new leadership, Minnesota can indeed become the “strongest local media market in the country” with the paper as its guiding light. However, I am concerned by these new statements that the primary focus may degrade toward content designed for maximum and urgent clicks rather than providing the essential information Minnesota citizens need to stay well-informed.

Attention is the bottleneck of human thought. Here’s to hoping that the Star Tribune, under its new leadership, continues to be a reliable source of news that informs and engages its readers carefully, rather than extracting the last ounces of attention that we have left. Sean Murphy, Minneapolis I raised hogs for 40 years, both inside and out, and there are a lot of fallacies that are perpetrated by those who think it’s simply a matter of more space per animal ( “For state’s hog farms, California ‘law is law,'” Jan.

9, and “Benefits are there for the taking,” Readers Write, Jan. 11). Sows are not healthier being in a group, mainly because of a pecking order that prohibits a newly weaned timid sow from entering said group.

Boss animals can be unbelievably cruel to a timid animal and prevent them from eating and sleeping where it’s warm on a cold winter night. I’ve had to actually lock in newly weaned sows so that they wouldn’t be outside in a cold Minnesota winter night. My groups were 20-25 in size and I couldn’t wean them all at once.

There are nibblers and gulpers. The thin stay thin, the fat stay fat. Neither is conducive to large litters, or even getting bred back for that matter.

The solution to this problem is to have individual feeding stalls with rear gates, allowing the thin sows to be fed more and the fat ones to be fed less. The only solution is to feed them separately so that each gets an appropriate amount. One writer is correct, in that the ultimate goal of animal rights people is to eliminate meat from U.

S. diets, one step at a time. Poultry was first, then hogs.

Now their sights are on beef and dairy. Remember, we have 8 billion people on this planet. Many of them just want to eat, and their preference is meat.

Dean H. Schutte, Kenyon, Minn. Dave Coyne was a fixture in our running group, too ( “David Coyne, running ally, coach and advocate,” Jan.

12). We ran at noon on weekdays from the Downtown YMCA, and we welcomed the new (fast) runner into our group when Dave joined up with us in 1985. On Saturdays we all met for a run at Lake Harriet, and then on to chat more at breakfast.

Now 40 years into this, our Saturday Morning Running Group is multigenerational, with our kids and grandkids joining in. As our group has aged, run-loving Dave adjusted even to enjoying a walk at Lake Harriet. Over the years, we ran as teams at Edmund Fitzgerald Relays, we hiked together on Superior Hiking Trails, we traveled to Iowa for Drake Relays, and we volunteered together for the Twin Cities Marathon.

Dave was always there. Just two weeks ago, Dave was compiling a list of birthdays for our SMRG to help us remember. To our good friend, Dave: Godspeed.

Faye Berger, Golden Valley.