Pick of the week: Minnesota has a robust storytelling community — we just don't realize how big it is, because the members typically tend to operate out of the public spotlight. Table Salt Productions is trying to change that. The Twin Cities cooperative, created in 2009, now has more than 170 members. It's holding its fourth annual storytelling show Thursday through Saturday at Bryant-Lake Bowl. The title and topic of the show is Favorite — favorite ice cream, favorite place to visit, favorite whatever — and features many of the area's favorite storytellers, among them Table Salt founders Jim Robinson and Rachael Brogan Flanery, Tod Petersen (of "A Christmas Carole Petersen"), Katy McEwen (Brave New Workshop) and Brandon Boat (Theater of Public Policy). Shows are at 7 p.m. each night at 810 W. Lake St. Tickets are $15, $12 in advance or with a Fringe Festival button and are available from the theater (bryantlakebowl.com) or the production company (tablesaltproductions.com).
A mother's love: With Mother's Day around the corner, the website mothersdaycentral.com conducted a survey to determine the best TV sitcom mom. The winner was Marion Cunningham — aka "Mrs. C" — from "Happy Days," a role played by Albert Lea native Marion Ross. While we'd like to think the honor had something to do with her exuding an air of warm-and-fuzzy Minnesota Nice, we have to admit that it's hard to tell what the voters' standards were, because Morticia Addams from "The Addams Family" was deemed to be a better mother than Shirley Partridge of "The Partridge Family."
Day by day: We apologize in advance because now this song is going to be stuck in your head for the rest of the day, but Sunday is national "Chicken Dance" day. It was written by Swiss accordionist Werner Thomas as a drinking song for Oktoberfest, which makes sense seeing as how being tipsy typically improves how you perform the dance.
Recommended reading: What did Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Goya have in common? None of them had computer-driven robots to make art for them. See what they were missing in Wednesday's Variety.
JEFF STRICKLER • jeff.strickler@startribune.com
