Secrets of the City

As we get closer to winter (ugh) we’re getting a little depressed that it’s still dark when we arrive to work in the morning. At least for a little while longer, we’ll get out of work before the sun sets. Check out Fox 9′s Minnesota sunset slide show and submit a picture of your own! Don’t forget to set your clocks back for Daylight Savings Time this weekend—2 a.m. on Sunday is the official time to change back an hour. Luckily this means we get an extra hour of sleep! If you’re an iPhone user, be sure to double check that your clock changed at all . . . remember all those problems in the past?

According to MPR, yesterday’s record heat finally did away with the last remains of Winter ’10-’11 that languished on the Sears parking lot since the first big dump we got back in, oh, what, November?

Ladies and gentlemen, we have an exciting announcement: Secrets of the City and I are in the process of taking up residence at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine and, as a part of the move, MNSpeak will be transitioning to its own domain — and to tumblr — under the management of the fine fellows at Ciceron.

Through the rest of this week, as the Secrets brand integrates more and more with MSP Magazine, you’ll see some changes on this site, which will stay at this web address. Mpls.St.Paul Magazine editors will contribute news to Secrets of the City from their specific areas of expertise, including food and dining, arts and entertainment and local lifestyle. Later this summer mspmag.com will be re-launching with new daily content, including city news from Secrets of the City.

Also starting this week, MNSpeak will be moving under the watchful eyes of old-timer MNSpeaker, Andrew Eklund (aeklund) and Karl Pearson-Cater (bigboxcar) at Ciceron, a digital strategy and social advocacy firm in the Twin Cities.  Ciceron will be leading the charge for what the future holds for MNSpeak, re-imagining local content and conversation in the age of Facebook and Twitter.

I’d also like to extend a big hug to Kate Iverson who has for 3+ years kept daily Secrets readers up to speed the coolest events in town.  Kate will be ending her run on Secrets and continue her work as Creative Director of Permanent Art & Design Group, a full-service agency based in Minneapolis, and editor of l’etoile Magazine.

The new MNSpeak site is up in an early beta, but it’s ready for comments, user submissions, and re-blogging.

HuffPo: T-Paw has Plans, including Google testing applied to government services. You’d think he was running for President or something. (MinnPost gets into the details.)

City Pages:  “Are so!” “Am not!” (And the Poynter Institute offers up some advice: “How to write about Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann without invoking a ‘catfight’.”)

PiPress: Totino’s to close: Historic family-owned restaurant meets perfect storm.