Morning News Roundup: Texts, Nudity, and Subway Art

Ever been criticized for checking on your loved ones during an emergency? That's exactly what happened to Minnesota meteorologist Nick Jansen, who faced public backlash for texting his wife about their six-month-old baby's safety during severe weather coverage. The absurdity of prioritizing "professionalism" over family safety sparks a compelling conversation about our societal values and expectations.

The bizarre news continues with an encounter in Slovakia that defies explanation – a naked man wearing only a balaclava and carrying an explicit prop startled tourists near a historic castle. Rather than fleeing, the tourists engaged with him and even requested photographs, raising questions about how social media culture might be changing our responses to potentially threatening situations.

We also explore the fascinating world of art valuation through the story of a New York artist making thousands by simply writing messages on old subway maps. Is this genuine artistic expression or a commentary on how easily we assign value to simplicity? The discussion challenges conventional definitions of art and creativity in today's market.

The episode wraps up with a critique of Starbucks' decision to close many grab-and-go locations in favor of traditional cafés to restore "human connection." But is this what customers actually want? A practical suggestion emerges: dedicated drive-thru lanes for mobile orders would better serve efficiency-minded customers while maintaining the personal touch for those who seek it.

Before signing off, we pose a thought-provoking question: What folklore or legend would you want circulated about you after you're gone? It's a fascinating prompt that invites listeners to consider their legacy and how they wish to be remembered in stories long after they've departed. Share your answers and join the conversation!

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:29 Morning News Introduction
• 0:43 Minnesota Meteorologist Texting Controversy
• 2:56 Naked Man Startles European Tourists
• 7:01 Trump's 2028 Nomination Comments
• 7:43 NYC Artist's Subway Map Artwork
• 10:25 Starbucks Closing Grab-and-Go Locations
• 12:58 Question of the Day

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Hello, good morning, happy Wednesday. Here we go with some stories from the New York Post. The first one up is Minnesota meteorologist Nick Jansen blasted for texting his wife during severe weather report. Alright, let's see what this has to say about this guy. I read briefly over it this morning and it's not that big of a deal. I am on his side. And it's not that big of a deal, I am on his side.

Speaker 1: 0:44

So a Minnesota meteorologist is being dragged by viewers over his unprofessional behavior when he texted his wife live on air during severe weather coverage. Now, from what I've read of this so far, he wasn't even reporting on the weather at the time. Somebody else was talking, talking about a power outage. One of the news anchors was talking. You know how sometimes the news anchors will butt in or not interrupt, but kind of also talk during a weather event, talking about what is closed, what power outages happen, you know anything like that. And this is what was happening. The news anchor was talking. So off to the side the weather man was making sure his wife and baby were okay and taking shelter.

Speaker 1: 1:24

Kttc news chief meteorologist nick jansen was three hours into his reporting on storms walloping the rochester, minnesota region on july 28th, when he was caught using his phone to make sure his family, including his six-month-old child, found shelter. I received an email telling me how unprofessional I was during my coverage. The quote that really struck me that he has to call his wife to make sure she takes the baby to safety. Maybe some people think it's noble or cute. I don't. This is what one of the emailers wrote in about. That's what they said. Jansen wrote on his Facebook with now viral video of the 10-second clip. I don't know how he has maintained his cool through all this.

Speaker 1: 2:14

The caught-on-camera moment happened when Jansen was in the studio standing in front of the radar screen waiting for news director Zach Fuller to wrap up a power outage update. So he wasn't even talking it's not like he was doing the weather report and said hold on, I got to check on my wife and baby. No, he, oh these people. I don't even know what's wrong with people nowadays. F you, whoever the emailer person was, just get over yourself. All right, this next one. I don't know what's wrong with people nowadays. F you, whoever the emailer person was, just get over yourself. All right, this next one. I don't know what to think about this. My first reaction was OMG. But then I read more into the story and then I started thinking maybe this was a setup. I don't know. It's really weird. Here we go, naked man wearing only balaclava, which I didn't know what that was until I saw the picture. Yes, there's a picture, but it's a ski mask over his head and carrying a sex toy on stick, terrifies European terrorists. Well, they don't terrify him enough because they don't run off. They take a picture of him. They ask him if they can take a picture of him. So they weren't that terrified, okay, which makes me think it's a setup. Maybe this is one of these people's husbands or something, and they thought it would be cute to hey, let's stage this. You know everything is staged nowadays for clicks and whatever, but this is from the New York post.

Speaker 1: 3:37

A naked man wearing nothing but a balaclava, ski mask and plastic clogs and carrying a sex toy on a stick has been startling tourists while wandering around a historic castle in Slovakia. The unidentified intruder posed for a picture carrying his bizarre prop. On Monday, near this castle, a popular hiking destination in the country, the Slovak outlet TV JOJ reported he reportedly apologized to the two female hikers who spotted him, claiming that he thought no visitors would be around on a Monday and let them take his picture. The outlet said okay, well, number one, I don't care if it's Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday. Stop walking around naked out in public. I think that used to be against the law. Now this isn't. We're talking about a foreign country over here, we're not talking about America. But you know, he had a balaclavla, whatever, a ski mask, a stick and a D-I-L-D-O stuck to the stick. We were scared of him, but he told us he was sorry, that he didn't want to scare us. So he asked us for directions because he thought that since it was Monday, he wouldn't meet anyone. Why did he need directions? See, this is all BS. One of the tourists said. And they have a picture of him. Of course, everything's blurred out.

Speaker 1: 5:08

The male exhibitionist turned and seemed to be leaving, before he suddenly began following the women. Then now I would be. I mean, come on, I'm not going to ask and stop the man to take a picture of him. If I see this, I'm running in the opposite direction of wherever he is. When I turned around, he turned and started following us. I was terribly scared inside.

Speaker 1: 5:34

One of the tourists said, adding that was when he they what what, adding that that was when they asked him for a picture. Okay, wait what? So you encountered him. He said he was sorry. You started to walk away. Then he started to follow you. Then you turned around and asked for a picture.

Speaker 1: 5:54

What in the hell? I guess no one would have believed that we could meet something like that in the forest, but he allowed us to take a picture of him without any problem. She said it was lucky that there were two of us. I can't imagine what I would have done if I had been alone. Imagine what I would have done if I had been alone. He said this was relaxation for him and that he often walks naked in the woods like this. The tourist said the incident is now being investigated by police in the nearby city of Nitra as a potential public order defense. The incident was reportedly the third encounter that visitors have had with a naked man in the same stretch of woods since 2020. It isn't known if the same individual was involved in all three incidents. Who knows? Wow, that is some crazy stuff. What do you think? Do you think it was staged? I don't know. That's not the question of the day.

Speaker 1: 6:52

We're moving on, because Trump says JD Vance would probably be favored for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination. Well, I guess so, since he's the vice president. Normally that's how it works, but if anything has proven us over the last few years, nothing is done normally anymore. Over the last few years, nothing is done normally anymore. Who knows what could happen. I think he also praised Marco Rubio too.

Speaker 1: 7:19

So you can go. You can go read that if you'd like. I don't want to get into that, that's just. That's a long story. That's out there on my X feed. If you would like to read that, you can do so. The next one up. This is such BS. This next one. I can't even believe people are stupid like this.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Now, not to diminish this guy. He's an artist, but he claims he's an artist. But his artwork? You know what it is? Do you know what his artwork is? In New York City, he takes old subway maps and writes on them in paint. He puts messages on them. All he does is write words on a map, on an old map, and then he and he's making thousands of dollars. This is insane, and calling it art it's not art. I could do that. So everybody, get your old atlases out and start scribbling messages on them and then framing them and selling them. Meet the New York City artist turning Manhattan streets into viral masterpieces. A lot of people know me now. For this artist, new York City is the only canvas big enough.

Speaker 1: 8:20

When Benny Cruz picked up a paintbrush for the first time, he had no idea that his art would catapult him into the highest heights of social media. I always wanted to be a painter until I reached a point where I wasn't going anywhere with my art. Well, it's not art. That's why All you're doing is painting words on a canvas. Anybody can do that. It's not art. Oh, this was tough Then, and there I started painting for myself.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Cruz, also known as your local Benny on his social media, discovered only later in life that his work spoke to millions, many of them New Yorkers. I saw that a lot of people who followed me were from New York and they started buying my art. He said on this popular subway collection pieces that sell for hundreds to thousands of dollars. They have pictures of him doing this. They have pictures of his artwork. I'm telling you it's not art. I don't understand this. So to think I felt I was going nowhere with my work to now is a big difference. I started to get more and more relevant. I felt total darkness before, and New Yorkers brought the light. The Brooklyn artist who divides his time between New York and Sweden hint hint where his family resides experienced a boon to his career after picking up MTA subway maps and experimenting with text work over them. Cruz, who also uses acrylics and markers on sustainable paper, has gained notice for his Manhattan street art in recent months. The pieces spotted on subway cars across the Big Apple soon reached every corner of social media, with many gathering thousands of likes, as well as New Yorkers liking, sharing and posting his work.

Speaker 1: 10:07

So yeah, it's so dumb, it's so dumb, I don't get it All right. One last thing, and then we'll do the question. Well, I don't even want to go over this. Starbucks scraps scores of grab-and-go locations. Here's what that means for mobile ordering. Okay, we will get into this a little bit.

Speaker 1: 10:26

I had no idea there were such things as grab-and-go locations. I wish there was one here in Huntsville, but here's what's happening. Starbucks grab-and-go windows are on their way out. The coffee giant plans to close a good portion of its 80 to 90 locations that only offer mobile order pickups during the 2026 fiscal year as part of its Back to Starbucks initiative. As of now, starbucks hasn't specified which locations will shutter or when. The shift doesn't mean all of them will close. A Starbucks spokesperson clarified when it makes sense, we'll convert some into traditional coffee houses with seating to better serve our customers and communities. Starbucks CEO Brian Nickel announced the news.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Okay, there's a here we go. Okay, here we go. He described the grab-and-go model as overly transactional and lacking the warmth and human connection that defines our brand Honey. Luckily, here in the South we have people that know how to behave and act and interact with people. Okay, but some of these people elsewhere, just because you have a person serving you doesn't mean they're warm and chatty and lovely. Okay, the lack of warmth and human connection. Some of these people don't want don't even, they act like they don't even want to be there. I would much rather prefer a grab-and-go. And here's another. Here's another suggestion for Starbucks Please have a separate drive-thru dedicated for your mobile orders. I do a mobile order all the time and I pick it up through the drive-thru and I know better to do that, but I do it anyway. But, and then we got people waiting in line ordering all kinds of shit, complicated orders, and then that holds up the line. Look, if Chick-fil-A can have multiple lines and McDonald's can have multiple lines, starbucks can have multiple drive-thru lines. Make one dedicated for mobile order pickups. Please, I beg you, that is the smartest thing you can do.

Speaker 1: 12:38

All right, we need, we definitely need to move on to the question of the day now. All right, I thought about this yesterday. It just popped in my head as a question of the day, thinking sometimes my mind goes places that are weird. What kind of folklore or legend would you like to have circulated about you after you are long gone from this earth? That's the question of the day. All right, I don't even know yet what I would want mine to be. It's something I need to think about. Okay, I gotta go. Love y'all Bye.