LOS ANGELES (AP) — Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries “Roots,” has died. He was 87.
Gossett’s first cousin Neal L. Gossett told The Associated Press that the actor died Thursday night in Santa Monica, California. No cause of death was revealed.
Gossett’s cousin remembered a man who walked with Nelson Mandela and who also was a great joke teller, a relative who faced and fought racism with dignity and humor.
“Never mind the awards, never mind the glitz and glamor, the Rolls-Royces and the big houses in Malibu. It’s about the humanity of the people that he stood for,” his cousin said.
Louis Gossett always thought of his early career as a reverse Cinderella story, with success finding him from an early age and propelling him forward, toward his Academy Award for “An Officer and a Gentleman.”
He earned his first acting credit in his Brooklyn high school’s production of “You Can’t Take It with You” while he was sidelined from the basketball team with an injury.
“I was hooked — and so was my audience,” he wrote in his 2010 memoir “An Actor and a Gentleman.”
His English teacher urged him to go into Manhattan to try out for “Take a Giant Step.” He got the part and made his Broadway debut in 1953 at age 16.
“I knew too little to be nervous,” Gossett wrote. “In retrospect, I should have been scared to death as I walked onto that stage, but I wasn’t.”
Gossett attended New York University on a basketball and drama scholarship. He was soon acting and singing on TV shows hosted by David Susskind, Ed Sullivan, Red Buttons, Merv Griffin, Jack Paar and Steve Allen.
Gossett became friendly with James Dean and studied acting with Marilyn Monroe, Martin Landau and Steve McQueen at an offshoot of the Actors Studio taught by Frank Silvera.
In 1959, Gossett received critical acclaim for his role in the Broadway production of “A Raisin in the Sun” along with Sidney Poitier,Ruby Dee and Diana Sands.
He went on to become a star on Broadway, replacing Billy Daniels in “Golden Boy” with Sammy Davis Jr. in 1964.
Gossett went to Hollywood for the first time in 1961 to make the film version of “A Raisin in the Sun.” He had bitter memories of that trip, staying in a cockroach-infested motel that was one of the few places to allow Black people.
In 1968, he returned to Hollywood for a major role in “Companions in Nightmare,” NBC’s first made-for-TV movie that starred Melvyn Douglas, Anne Baxter and Patrick O’Neal.
This time, Gossett was booked into the Beverly Hills Hotel and Universal Studios had rented him a convertible. Driving back to the hotel after picking up the car, he was stopped by a Los Angeles County sheriff’s officer who ordered him to turn down the radio and put up the car’s roof before letting him go.
Within minutes, he was stopped by eight sheriff’s officers, who had him lean against the car and made him open the trunk while they called the car rental agency before letting him go.
“Though I understood that I had no choice but to put up with this abuse, it was a terrible way to be treated, a humiliating way to feel,” Gossett wrote in his memoir. “I realized this was happening because I was Black and had been showing off with a fancy car — which, in their view, I had no right to be driving.”
After dinner at the hotel, he went for a walk and was stopped a block away by a police officer, who told him he broke a law prohibiting walking around residential Beverly Hills after 9 p.m. Two other officers arrived and Gossett said he was chained to a tree and handcuffed for three hours. He was eventually freed when the original police car returned.
“Now I had come face-to-face with racism, and it was an ugly sight,” he wrote. “But it was not going to destroy me.”
In the late 1990s, Gossett said he was pulled over by police on the Pacific Coast Highway while driving his restored 1986 Rolls Royce Corniche II. The officer told him he looked like someone they were searching for, but the officer recognized Gossett and left.
He founded the Eracism Foundation to help create a world where racism doesn’t exist.
Gossett made a series of guest appearances on such shows as “Bonanza,” “The Rockford Files,” “The Mod Squad,” “McCloud” and a memorable turn with Richard Pryor on “The Partridge Family.”
In August 1969, Gossett had been partying with members of the Mamas and the Papas when they were invited to actor Sharon Tate’s house. He headed home first to shower and change clothes. As he was getting ready to leave, he caught a news flash on TV about Tate’s murder. She and others were killed by Charles Manson’s associates that night.
“There had to be a reason for my escaping this bullet,” he wrote.
Louis Cameron Gossett was born on May 27, 1936, in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, New York, to Louis Sr., a porter, and Hellen, a nurse. He later added Jr. to his name to honor his father.
Gossett broke through on the small screen as Fiddler in the groundbreaking 1977 miniseries “Roots,” which depicted the atrocities of slavery on TV. The sprawling cast included Ben Vereen, LeVar Burton and John Amos.
Gossett became the third Black Oscar nominee in the supporting actor category in 1983. He won for his performance as the intimidating Marine drill instructor in “An Officer and a Gentleman” opposite Richard Gere and Debra Winger. He also won a Golden Globe for the same role.
“More than anything, it was a huge affirmation of my position as a Black actor,” he wrote in his memoir.
“The Oscar gave me the ability of being able to choose good parts in movies like ‘Enemy Mine,’ ‘Sadat’ and ‘Iron Eagle,’” Gossett said in Dave Karger’s 2024 book “50 Oscar Nights.”
He said his statue was in storage.
“I’m going to donate it to a library so I don’t have to keep an eye on it,” he said in the book. “I need to be free of it.”
Gossett appeared in such TV movies as “The Story of Satchel Paige,” “Backstairs at the White House, “The Josephine Baker Story,” for which he won another Golden Globe, and “Roots Revisited.”
But he said winning an Oscar didn’t change the fact that all his roles were supporting ones.
He played an obstinate patriarch in the 2023 remake of “The Color Purple.”
Gossett struggled with alcohol and cocaine addiction for years after his Oscar win. He went to rehab, where he was diagnosed with toxic mold syndrome, which he attributed to his house in Malibu.
In 2010, Gossett announced he had prostate cancer, which he said was caught in the early stages. In 2020, he was hospitalized with COVID-19.
He also is survived by sons Satie, a producer-director from his second marriage, and Sharron, a chef whom he adopted after seeing the 7-year-old in a TV segment on children in desperate situations. His first cousin is actor Robert Gossett.
Gossett’s first marriage to Hattie Glascoe was annulled. His second, to Christina Mangosing, ended in divorce in 1975 as did his third to actor Cyndi James-Reese in 1992.
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Associated Press journalists Mark Kennedy in New York and Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed reporting.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation that is closely tracked by the Federal Reserve slipped last month in a sign that price pressures continue to ease.
The government reported Friday that prices rose 0.3% from January to February, decelerating from a 0.4% increase the previous month in a potentially encouraging trend for President Joe Biden’s re-election bid. Compared with 12 months earlier, though, prices rose 2.5% in February, up slightly from a 2.4% year-over-year gain in January.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, last month’s “core” prices suggested lower inflation pressures. These prices rose 0.3% from January to February, down from 0.5% the previous month. And core prices rose just 2.8% from 12 months earlier — the lowest such figure in nearly three years — down from 2.9% in January. Economists consider core prices to be a better gauge of the likely path of future inflation.
Friday’s report showed that a sizable jump in energy prices — up 2.3% — boosted the overall prices of goods by 0.5% in February. By contrast, inflation in services — a vast range of items ranging from hotel rooms and restaurant meals to healthcare and concert tickets — slowed to a 0.3% increase, from a 0.6% rise in January.
The figures also revealed that consumers, whose purchases drive most of the nation’s economic growth, surged 0.8% last month, up from a 0.2% gain in January. Some of that increase, though, reflected higher gasoline prices.
Annual inflation, as measured by the Fed’s preferred gauge, tumbled in 2023 after having peaked at 7.1% in mid-2022. Supply chain bottlenecks eased, reducing the costs of materials, and an influx of job seekers made it easier for employers to keep a lid on wage growth, one of the drivers of inflation.
Still, inflation remains stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% annual target, and opinion surveys have revealed public discontent that high prices are squeezing America’s households despite a sharp pickup in average wages.
The acceleration of inflation began in the spring of 2021 as the economy roared back from the pandemic recession, overwhelming factories, ports and freight yards with orders. In March 2022, the Fed began raising its benchmark interest rate to try to slow borrowing and spending and cool inflation, eventually boosting its rate 11 times to a 23-year high. Those sharply higher rates worked as expected in helping tame inflation.
The jump in borrowing costs for companies and households was also expected, though, to cause widespread layoffs and tip the economy into a recession. That didn’t happen. The economy has grown at a healthy annual rate of 2% or more for six straight quarters. Job growth has been solid. And the unemployment rate has remained below 4% for 25 straight months, the longest such streak since the 1960s.
The combination of easing inflation and sturdy growth and hiring has raised expectations that the Fed will achieve a difficult “soft landing″ — taming inflation without causing a recession. If inflation continues to ease, the Fed will likely begin cutting its key rate in the coming months. Rate cuts would, over time, lead to lower costs for home and auto loans, credit card borrowing and business loans. They might also aid Biden’s re-election prospects.
Michael Pearce, economist at Oxford Economics, said that even a 0.3% January-to-February uptick in consumer prices was probably still too hot for the Fed’s inflation fighters. The central bank has signaled that it expects to cut rates three times this year, and Wall Street investors have been eagerly awaiting the move. Pearce wrote that a June rate cut now looks more likely than the May cut that he and his Oxford colleagues had previously expected.
The Fed tends to favor the inflation gauge that the government issued Friday — the personal consumption expenditures price index — over the better-known consumer price index. The PCE index tries to account for changes in how people shop when inflation jumps. It can capture, for example, when consumers switch from pricier national brands to cheaper store brands.
In general, the PCE index tends to show a lower inflation level than CPI. In part, that’s because rents, which have been high, carry double the weight in the CPI that they do in the PCE.
Friday’s government report showed that Americans’ incomes rose 0.3% in February, down sharply from a 1% gain in January, which had been boosted by once-a-year cost-of-living increases in Social Security and other government benefits.
Our community of diorama artists were at it again this year, creating with Peeps as has been our Easter tradition since 2004.
Yep, 20 years now.
Happy anniversary, Peeple!
“Thank you, Pioneer Press, for offering kids (and adults) a fun and creative way to celebrate the holidays and springtime,” wrote Katherine Englund of Rosemount.
You are welcome!
This year, some of the artists of the 91 dioramas reflected on our lack of winter — except for that weekend in February when the Peeps version of Jessie Diggins went skiing. There was Barbie, modeling a dress created from Peeps; there was a Peeps coronation for His Majesty, King Peep (Charles); Peeps playing peepleball (pickleball) and Peeps at the beach or on vacation; Peeps running a doughnut shop and much more.
Thanks to all of our Peeps who make our contest an annual tradition; it means a lot to us. You can download a participation certificate at the bottom of this article.
Happy Easter!
First place: “Lake Supeepior!”
Sometimes it pays to miss a deadline.
For Stephanie Ratanas King, it is paying (via a $100 gift card) for her diorama of a “Lake Supeepior” camping spot.
“I actually made this last year to enter,” Ratanas King wrote in her submission. “I have always wanted to do this and I got way way into it and making miniature, not-quite-to-Peep scale things. They don’t have arms anyway so I’m sure they have their methods of picking up slightly-too-large-for-them items. Anyway, I got so deep into it last year that I actually MISSED the deadline, so I have been storing this in my basement for the last year for it to show its glory finally.
“Yet still, submitting it at the last minute this year.”
(She made it, though, emailing us her entry before the cutoff.)
The judges love this entry for its Minnesota themes of camping, parks and our great lake.
Ratanas King walked us through her process:
“Lake Supeepior is modeled after one of the cart-in campsites at Temperance River State Park, right on the north shore of Lake Superior,” she wrote. “It’s one of my favorite places, to camp, right on the edge of the lake.”
In the diorama, the Peeps are enjoying their time at the North Shore, just like the person who created this world for them:
Stephanie Ratanas King of St. Paul recreates one of her favorite place to camp, at Temperance River State Park, in “Lake Supeepior!” First place, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Stephanie Ratanas King)
Stephanie Ratanas King of St. Paul recreates one of her favorite place to camp, at Temperance River State Park, in “Lake Supeepior!” First place, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Stephanie Ratanas King)
“My family and I love camping so I included us as Peeps and all the things we like to do: reading, looking for rocks, making SPAMwiches for breakfast!” she wrote. “My Peep son here is into maps so he’s studying the state park map. We also have two dogs, Spooky and Skelly, and they love camping too so they are here as the little bird Peeps. I’m not usually one for the chick Peep form but it works for being Peep pets.
“I replicated our Kodiak canvas tent, and my trusty Coleman water jug. Lake Supeepior water is made with resin and there are a lot of rocks and sand in this diorama so it’s very heavy.”
As judges, we appreciate all the detail work that went into creating this diorama, work that was also fun, fun that illustrates the best of life here in Minnesota.
“I had so much fun making this!” Ratanas King wrote. “I hope it brings people joy!”
You know what else brings joy? Camping! Just do it, people.
Second place: “Just Peep-ing Over”
One of our judges described this contender as “true cinematography.” Even though it’s not a movie — but maybe it should be!
Katherine Rose of St. Paul did manage this diorama like a director, down to the photo’s fuzzy viewpoint, the same view you would get by looking through the peephole of your door to see two Peeps waiting to celebrate Easter with you.
We love how these Peeps are bringing offerings that are classic Midwestern fare:
“Had to include the Midwest deviled eggs (nothing too spicy) too and an (Easter) basket of buns that the peeps are bringing over for dinner,” Rose wrote in her entry.
Her attention to detail is impressive. In her entry, Rose walked us through her process.
Katherine Rose of St. Paul shows how she captured the visual effect of looking through a door’s peephole for her diorama, “Just Peep-ing Over.” Second place, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Katherine Rose)
In this diorama by Katherine Rose of St. Paul, we are looking through a door’s peephole to see two Peeps who are “Just Peep-ing Over” for Easter, with buns and deviled eggs to share. Second place, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Katherine Rose)
“I knew I wanted to make a ‘peep hole’ pun, so I envisioned what a hallway in a Peeps apartment might look like,” she wrote. “The materials I used were a mishmash of ‘art scraps’ including paper, paint, beads, buttons, and clay. I had a great time gathering some of the supplies from the Art Scraps store in St. Paul. It’s the perfect store for any little project.
“With a tiny light from a miniature set, I strung together some beads and buttons to create a sconce light for the hallway that actually lit up.
“To achieve the peep hole effect without relying on a filter, I had a friend stand in a hallway, took photos of them through the peephole and then tried to replicate the perspective. Hope it’s convincing! ”
It is!
“The photo was a bit difficult to get, I had to blur the background a bit to really feature the Peeps but I think you can still read the decoration puns,” Rose wrote.
(Those details include an Easter-themed wreath on a neighbor’s door across the hall that proclaims, “Hoppy Easter.”)
“The fun part is that to fully appreciate the scene, you have to close one eye and peer through the little hole, just like you would with a real peephole,” Rose wrote.
Third place: “Peril on Peep Mountain”
Do you ever stop and realize that you haven’t done anything creative in awhile?
That’s kind of what happened to Matt Peick of Eagan.
Matt Peick, an engineer from Eagan, went all out for his Peeps diorma, including building a frame for a paper blue sky. (Courtesy of Matt Peick)
Matt Peick of Eagan created “Peril on Peep Mountain” with the help of his teenagers and the patience of his wife. Third place, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Matt Peick)
“While sitting in a local café back in mid-February I was taking an inventory of the home improvement and various engineering projects I had on my to-do list, and it occurred to me that not one of these projects contained any redeeming artistic expression,” Peick wrote in his entry. “Fate intervened as I glanced at the pages of the Pioneer Press that an earlier patron had left behind and saw an ad for the Peeps Diorama Contest. ‘Well,’ I thought, ‘there it is then, I had better act quickly before I change my mind.’”
We’re so glad he did.
He started by creating a mountain out of Rice Krispies. Along the way, he pulled his family into the project: His 18-year-old son, Wyatt, helped shape Peick’s storyline (the Grinch saves a Peep dangling off the mountain) while his 20-year-old daughter, Madeline, shaped the Grinch out of modeling chocolate. Most impressively, his wife, Stephanie Peick, agreed to keep the thermostat at 60 degrees to prevent a second avalanche of melting Rice Krispies on Peep Mountain.
It was chilly but … fun! And creative. Exactly what they needed.
“The project got away from us a bit and took on a life of its own for a week,” Peick wrote.
The family fun ended when Peick took the diorama outside and got on a ladder with it. Together, the artist and his art made a run for the summit — the roof — where Peick thought the sky would make a better backdrop for a photo than the paper version he had set up indoors.
You know what happened next, right?
“As I watched Peep Mountain crash back to earth in slow motion from my perch on the ladder, I decided that all the pictures gathered in the kitchen studio were pretty great after all,” Peick wrote.
(Please don’t climb onto roofs with dioramas, Peeple!)
We really enjoyed Peick’s delightful essay on the making of his diorama — as well as Wyatt’s Seuss-like poem — and we think you will, too. Peeple can read it and check out more photos of the mountain making. We hope the saga will inspire you to create something just for fun like this Peep did.
Peep-ager category (ages 13 to 17): “Peep Crocheting”
“Peep Crocheting” by Abby Mewis, 13, of Glenwood City, Wis. Winner of the Peep-ager category of the 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Peder Mewis)
We loved Abby Mewis’ work so much that we were inspired to create a teen category after seeing it. Thanks to Abby’s diorama, future teens can feel inspired to pull out the Peeps and compete with their peers.
This is not the first year that Abby has entered; last year, we were also impressed with her diorama, “Peeps Royal Ballet School.” Actually, we are impressed with all the dioramas that the Mewis family enters!
“As tradition, here is Abby’s 2024 Peep submission,” Abby’s father, Peder Mewis, wrote in an email for this year’s submission. “Abby (13) hails from Glenwood City, Wisconsin. Title: ‘Peep Crocheting.’ Context: Abby is a self-taught crochet enthusiast and was inspired to incorporate her skills into this year’s diorama contest.”
What did we like? Well, the room the bunny is crocheting in has got such a classic feel to it, reminiscent of the room in “Goodnight Moon” — we are sure we will use it as stock Peeps art for years to come. The crocheting is also a nice touch, especially as it represents the trending hobby of handiwork such as crocheting and knitting among today’s teens (our future subscribers!).
Bonus: We also liked the beachy feel of the Mewis’ family entry, “Peep Beach!,” featuring a trip to North Captiva island, “where shelling is extra special!” See the work of the family (Peder, Anna, Abby and Michael) in our online slideshow.
Little Peeple category (ages 7 to 12): “Peeps Skiing at Hip-Hop Hill”
Callan Englund, age 10, of Rosemount, used a recent snowfall to create this diorama, “Peeps Skiing at Hip-Hop Hill.” It is the 2024 Little Peeple winner in the 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Katherine Englund)
As our diorama deadline approached, 10-year-old Callan Englund of Rosemount was still considering what materials to use.
Then, Mother Nature intervened.
It was time for Callan’s Peeps to go skiing!
“His masterpiece came to full fruition hours before the deadline,” wrote Callan’s mother, Katherine Englund. “Finally a scene to help you remember one of Minnesota’s favorite winter pastimes! This delightful image is one that all Minnesotans can identify with, from the huddled chicks waiting to get into the chalet to the adventurous bunnies cruising the hills.”
Bonus: Props also to Callan’s siblings: Garrett, age 6, created a diorama in which Team Yellow faces off with Team Pink in a basketball game while Asher, age 8, details a hockey game between Team Rabbit and Team Chick. See both dioramas in our online slideshow.
Chick category (6 and under): “Kiss Kiss Fish” and “Solar Eclipse” (tie)
We have two winning dioramas in this category, Peeps: “Solar Eclipse” by Gloria Foley, 6, of Mounds View and “Kiss Kiss Fish” by Cecelia Gutzmann, 4, and June Gutzmann, 5, of Bloomington.
Here’s more about each diorama:
“Solar Eclipse”
Gloria Foley, 6, of Mounds View, used the upcoming solar eclipse as a theme for her diorama. It is one of the winners of this year’s Chick category (for children six and under) in the 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest.
One of our judges is a former Girl Scout and, as such, appreciates the initiative shown by this Girl Scout Daisy when it comes to not only creating a diorama related to the coming solar eclipse, but educating others as well.
“Gloria of Mounds View will turn seven on the day of the solar eclipse and this upcoming event has become her passion as shown in the diorama she made for her Girl Scout Daisy troop,” wrote Gloria’s mother, Wendee Foley.
It all started with a troop activity.
“Gloria’s Girl Scout Daisy troop decided to build Peep dioramas from Girl Scout cookie boxes to spark curiosity and creativity while utilizing art scraps and upcycled items,” Foley wrote. “When she heard about the Peeps project from her leaders, she immediately wanted to include the upcoming solar eclipse in her theme. What else would peeps do after Easter?! Well, they’ll be “peeping” at the sun during the total eclipse, obviously! You see, Gloria’s birthday is April 1st, and her birthday wish is to see the total solar eclipse on April 8th, 2024.
“While Minnesota will experience a partial solar eclipse, Gloria will tell you that if you travel just a few states over, you, my friend, can actually see a real total solar eclipse on April 8th! So after several exciting trips to the library, an educational star watch class with (retired) WCCO Radio meteorologist Mike Lynch (our Skywatch columnist!) and lots of searching for facts about the total eclipse online, she has become quite the expert on this celestial event.
“She is educating her entire first-grade class on the 2024 total solar eclipse just days before she goes to see it herself — with her protective eyewear ready, just like her Peeps! She wanted to make sure all the Peep bunnies had solar-safe glasses — so no Peep eyes were injured in the production of this diorama.
“And if you look closely, the bunny Peeps in her recycled cookie box wait patiently in their chairs as the temperature drops, the sky darkens, all shadows cast have a crescent shape and then the moon slowly covers the sun, an awe-inspiring moment of nature for all Peeps in the path of totality!”
“Kiss-Kiss Fish”
Cecelia Gutzmann, 4, left, and June Gutzmann, 5, of Bloomington, created an underwater scene for their diorama that is based on Deborah Diesen’s book, “The Pout-Pout Fish.” It tied as the “Chick” category winner (for children six and under) in the 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Amy Gutzmann.)
OK, we’ll admit it, this cute photo of these two Peeps artists — 4-year-old Cecelia Gutzmann and 5-year-old June Gutzmann — standing by their diorama influenced the judges. We also like their coloring work. And the theme is based on a children’s picture book, which is nice. Finally, we appreciate that they incorporated nature that is meaningful to them into their diorama.
In an email, their mother, Amy Gutzmann, told us more about this diorama:
‘Black Citizenship in the Age of Jim Crow’ opens at Minnesota History Center
“Based on the story ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’ by Deborah Diesen, my girls created an ocean scene when the fish transforms into a Kiss-Kiss Fish: ‘I’m a kiss-kiss fish with a kiss-kiss face for spreading cheery-cherries all over the place!’”
The sisters used a variety of mediums as they worked.
“They enjoyed coloring different sea creatures with Tempera paint sticks and crushing graham crackers for the sand,” Gutzmann wrote. “Seashells were collected from Bush Lake Beach.”
Bonus: Check out our online slideshow to see the diorama of a Gophers vs. Vikings football game that their 7-year-old brother, Gil, created with the neighbor kids.
“They were all pretty excited to use the glue gun,” Gutzmann wrote.
Honorable mentions
Marlis Schmidt of St. Paul made Barbie a dress out of Peeps in “Pretty in Peep: Barbie in the Spotlight.” Honorable mention, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Marlis Schmidt)
“No-Snow Snow Globe ” by Cynthia Kleist of Shoreview, honorable mention in the 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Cynthia Kleist)
This diorama, “Peep Wave” by the Schomburg family and friends, addresses how this winter in the Twin Cities was the warmest on record. Honorable mention, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Photo courtesy of Aaron Schomburg)
Jill Schaefer of Minnetonka offers up her commentary on the 2024 presidential election through “Peep Groundhog Day.” Honorable mention, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Jill Schaefer)
“Roadside Distraction,” a diorama by Teresa Lai of St. Paul, is a wink at that omnipresent billboard by Kris Lindahl of Kris Lindahl Real Estate. Honorable mention, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest.(Courtesy of Teresa Lai)
A group of neighborhood friends from St. Paul — Bridget McGreevy, Deborah Saul, Waverly Booth, Kelli Cox, Shona Docter and Jolene Olson — created “HRH King Charles Peep of Wales.” Honorable mention, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy photo)
A Peep gets sunburned during a “Peepnic”at the Beach by Martha Sohn of St. Paul. (Courtesy of Martha Sohn.)
As usual, there were many standouts. Here are some that the judges liked.
Barbie
While we did not receive any “Oppenheimer” dioramas, we did get a few “Barbie” ones, including this couture confection by Marlis Schmidt of St. Paul.
We asked Schmidt about the making of “Pretty in Peep: Barbie in the Spotlight.”
“I had never bought or eaten a Peeps in my life; for some reason they had eluded me until I moved to Minnesota from Texas,” she replied. ” I didn’t even know they were made of marshmallows. This whimsical Peeps obsession during the Easter season seems to be more of a Midwestern thing — and this year mine.”
Barbie was a natural theme for 2024 after the 2023 movie.
“The Barbie movie rekindled my love for Barbie and it has long been an art muse for me,” Schmidt writes. “I covered one in seeds for the Minnesota State Fair one year. But I really wanted to see if I could make clothes out of Peeps, which wasn’t easy … it was challenging to figure out how to connect these spongy Peeps and keep them all together and in place while working.
At times, Schmidt said, she wished she had “real” seamstress skills. It was only after her masterpiece was complete did she learn the secret of many a Peep artist:
A glue gun!
Next year.
Our missing winter
This diorama, “Peep Wave” by the Schomburg family and friends, addresses how this winter in the Twin Cities was the warmest on record. Honorable mention, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Photo courtesy of Aaron Schomburg)
We recently reported that it was our warmest meteorological winter on record in the Twin Cities. This local weather history was addressed in several dioramas, including “No-Snow Snow Globe” by Cynthia Kleist of Shoreview and “Peep Wave” by the Schomburg family and friends.
The Little Peeple also tackled this topic. One of our favorites showed Peeps looking at the melted ice sculptures in “2024 ‘Winter’ Carnival” by Susannah Jahnke,10, and Arthur Jahnke, 8, of Roseville. In this diorama, an ice palace has been replaced with a sand version (good idea).
Of course, we had some snow this winter — some of it just in time for Afton native Jessie Diggins’ triumph at Loppet Cup, a World Cup cross-country skiing event race that debuted in February at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis. Our famous athlete crossed the finish line in entries by Patty Kohls of St. Paul and Carol Wiessner of Afton.
We liked Kohls’ entry because you can see all those fall leaves and dead grasses next to a strip of snow, symbolic of our winter that wasn’t. And we appreciate Wiessner’s support of this hometown gal.
“I’ve been entering for a number of years now just for the fun of it and this year at the last minute I changed up what I was originally going to do so I could make a diorama to give Jessie Diggins from Afton a Peep Tribute!” Wiessner wrote. “Our youngest daughter was on the Stillwater Nordic team with her for a year and we’ve been following her amazing Nordic career since. I think what she has done for Nordic skiing (and girls and women athletes in general) has been phenomenal.
“I’m not in this for the ‘big prize money’ (lol). And maybe there are already a few entries re: Jessie, I don’t know? I sure hope she gets a shout out though.”
We are shouting: Go, Jessie!
Entertainment
Entertainment themes ranged from Taylor Swift on stage for “The Eras Tour” and Travis Kelce at the Super Bowl to Prince’s 1991 performance at the Grammys — check them out in our online slideshow.
We were also impressed with recycling efforts showcased in “Peep Busters: Ecto 2.0 Saves the Day” by Michael Mewis, age 10, of Glenwood City, Wis. (brother of Peep-ager winner, Abby Mewis).
“In celebration of the 40th anniversary, Michael’s diorama is to honor the Ghostbusters legendary film franchise,” his father, Peder Mewis, wrote. “Michael used lots of recycled material as well as pipe cleaners, hot glue, air-dry clay and an old plastic truck. He constructed his diorama entirely on his own.”
Estella Shelton’s entry has a subtle message for the judges in the puzzle board. (Courtesy of Ashley Anderson)
Applause also to Estella Shelton, 10, of Inver Grove Heights, for her “Wheel of Fortune” diorama that came with a message for the judges.
“I like watching game shows with my family and trying to shout out the answers, even if I’m wrong!” Estella wrote. “My favorite part was adding hair to my Peeps! I cut some hair off my Barbie and my Nana, it was so funny!! I would like to solve the puzzle … ‘PICK MY PEEPS!!’”
Finally, just like us, Peeps have trouble staying off their devices, even at the beach. In Martha Sohn’s diorama, “The Peeps ‘Peepnic’ at the Beach,” one poor Peep gets sunburned after zoning out with a Corona in one hand and their phone in the other. A cautionary tale!
2024 presidential election
Jill Schaefer of Minnetonka offers up her commentary on the 2024 presidential election through “Peep Groundhog Day.” Honorable mention, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Jill Schaefer)
It’s a U.S. presidential election year, so we did receive a handful of dioramas that provided political commentary on everything from the candidates to hot topics. Jill Schaefer of Minnetonka offered up her perspective on Joe Biden and Donald Trump through the vantage point of “Peep Groundhog Day.”
“Sigh, we are all seeing two shadows this spring … maybe time to retreat to our dens for 6 months with groundhog Peep?” she wrote in her entry.
Interestingly, this groundhog is a Dr. Pepper-flavored Peep; it was the “closest to brown I could find,” Schaefer wrote.
Has Kris Lindahl seen this?
“Roadside Distraction,” a diorama by Teresa Lai of St. Paul, is a wink at that omnipresent billboard by Kris Lindahl of Kris Lindahl Real Estate. Honorable mention, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy of Teresa Lai)
If you have ever driven around the Twin Cities, you’ve probably spotted Kris Lindahl stretching his arms out on billboards.
Teresa Lai of St. Paul sure has as you can see in her diorama, “Roadside Distraction.”
“My diorama was inspired by the omnipresent muse of the Twin Cities: realtor extraordinaire and marketing guru, Kris Lindahl,” Lai wrote. “As someone who has traveled by a road in the metro area, I am haunted day and night by Mr. Lindahl’s outstretched arms and terrifying smile. I transformed his image into Peep form in the hopes that finally, my mind will be freed from his open-palmed command, my house no longer under the threat of his guaranteed cash offer.
“The most challenging part of this piece was being brave enough to walk into the UPS Store and ask them to print off several copies of my modified Kris Lindahl billboard background.”
At press time, Lai told us she remains haunted.
Time to create — together
We love how families and friends use our annual contest as a tradition to get together and create art. This includes Japs Lee and her kids. While 4-year-old Abby Letcher made a “Sprinkle Pool Party” for her Peeps and 7-year-old Jake Letcher embraced a rural theme with “On the Peeps Farm,” their mom has Peeps celebrating another tradition in “Hmong New Year.”
“We enjoy celebrating our cultural background at the Hmong New Year,” Lee wrote.
The Stillwater family also enjoys the process of our newspaper tradition.
“This is our second year and the kids love it!” Lee wrote.
Someone should send this to King Charles
A group of neighborhood friends from St. Paul — Bridget McGreevy, Deborah Saul, Waverly Booth, Kelli Cox, Shona Docter and Jolene Olson — created “HRH King Charles Peep of Wales.” Honorable mention, 2024 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest. (Courtesy photo)
We love the story behind the creation of “HRH King Charles Peep of Wales.”
(Although Prince William is now the “Peep” of Wales.)
“We are a group of neighborhood friends from St Paul who hang out every week to create art, laugh, and support each other,” Jolene Olson wrote.
“We gathered all of our mothers’ and grandmothers’ old jewelry and fabric to create the costume and fascinators for the grand King Coronation Peep extravaganza,” Olson wrote. “We tore apart our childhood dolls’ outfits to create the clothing for the Queen and King. The King’s mighty cape is made from a vintage doll’s attire. The crowns are articulated from old jewelry. Pieces of jewelry were taken apart and reconstructed for the perfect fascinators and details of attire and crowns. We had a ball doing this!!! Flags were also handmade with love.”
Doughnuts!
Peeps are running a doughnut shop in Kim Spear of St. Paul’s diorama. (Courtesy of Kim Spear)
Photos of past Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest winners and favorites
We love it when our Peeps get into creating the tiniest details for their dioramas, and that was certainly the case for Kim Spear of St. Paul. She sent us photos showing how she baked and “frosted” tiny clay pastries for the doughnut shop her Peeps are running.
“I believe I’ve entered this contest every year except two since it started,” Spears added in her entry. “It’s the highlight of spring!”
Editor’s note: When Matt Peick of Eagan submitted two photos of his Peeps diorama, “Peril on Peep Mountain,” he also included a PDF that explained the story behind its creation.
After reading all 1,180 words, the judges were both impressed by his efforts (especially that he used our contest to fill a creative void in his life) and afraid for him (don’t try and climb a roof for your photo, Peeps!).
The Pioneer Press also extends our thanks to Peick’s wife, Stephanie Peick, for agreeing to keep the house at 60 degrees for the sake of the diorama (our artist was trying to avoid a second Rice Krispie avalanche).
A creative and artistic project such as this is an unlikely match with a family of engineer parents and engineering and computer science students. Timing is everything. While sitting in a local café back in mid-February I was taking an inventory of the home improvement and various engineering projects I had on my to-do list, and it occurred to me that not one of these projects contained any redeeming artistic expression. Fate intervened as I glanced at the pages of the Pioneer Press that an earlier patron had left behind and saw an ad for the Peep Diorama Contest. “Well,” I thought, “there it is then, I had better act quickly before I change my mind.” On the drive home I thought about one of our few other family creative projects (a film about three kids conquering Mt. Crumpit), assigned family tasks in my head (without consent), and bought four family-sized boxes of Rice Krispies, a pound of butter and 10 bags of marshmallows. The plan was to move ahead without any plans, timelines, or sketches. Just start building.
Step 1: Create a mountain mimicking Mt. Crumpit out of a cardboard frame and Rice Krispie Treats.
Matt Peick used cardboard, four family-sized boxes of Rice Krispies cereal, a pound of butter and 10 bags of marshmallow for his diorama version of Dr. Seuss’ Mount Crumpet. (Courtesy of Matt Peick.)
The story and the Peeps
With jobs and life to attend to, I set aside the mountain for a week and covered it with a black plastic garbage bag. The intent of the garbage bag was to stop the mountain from drying out. This may seem like a trivial detail; however, the error of this detail would reveal itself shortly.
The vision of three Peeps climbing the mountain with one of them having slipped, dangling from a rope, was forming in my mind. The Grinch, looking down from a perch at three frightened Peeps inperil, would add to the drama! Although not part of the competition, a happy ending seemed in order – something like, “Unbeknownst to the Peep children, the Grinch’s heart had grown three sizes earlier that year. Instead of adding mean spirit to the situation, the Grinch reaches down and saves the youngest Peep child dangling from the rope and welcomes them all to the mountain.” I described this all to my son who has the literary skills of the family; after receiving the blank look and ever-so-slight eye roll that only a teenage son can deliver, I responded that I was glad he was on board and set him to work crafting the story behind the diorama.
Matt Peick used brown modeling chocolate to create lederhosenfor the Peeps of his diorama. (Courtesy of Matt Peick.)
The next order of business was setting my daughter to work sculpting the Grinch with some green and brown modeling chocolate I ordered. She is quite talented at such things and quickly created a perfect Grinch. I used the brown modeling chocolate to create lederhosen for the Peeps. One of the Peeps was to have its head turned and be looking downhill. This required a bit of head repositioning that proved more difficult than first anticipated. Overcoming this challenge, all the characters were completed
within the week and placed in the freezer.
Tragedy strikes
My intent was to apply frosting to the mountain, arrange the characters, and take pictures over the following weekend. So, the next weekend, I moved the mountain back to the table and removed the bag. That’s when I realized there had been an avalanche on Peep Mountain! A slow, drooping, unheard, unseen avalanche!
A partial avalanche of the Rice-Krispie-treat-surface of Matt Peick’s diorama. (Courtesy of Matt Peick.)
The Rice Krispie Treat mass had separated from the cardboard frame and slid down the mountain. It took some cutting and removal and three more full double batches of Rice Krispie Treats, but it could all be fixed.
Concerned that it could happen again, I concluded that some sort of avalanche control was in order. My wife did not fully see the wisdom in, but reluctantly agreed to, my proposed solution: We just needed to keep the house at 60 degrees or so for the next day or two until the project was complete. So, the heat was turned off and the kitchen windows were opened – simple!
One more delay
For his Peeps diorama, Matt Peick built a base for a paper sky. (Courtesy of Matt Peick.)
The lack of a project plan evolved into a situation not quite as artistically freeing as first imagined. When starting to envision the how and where of capturing the final images, the idea of kitchen cupboards and lights in the background did not fit the theme. A sky backdrop was clearly necessary. I incurred another day’s delay obtaining a sheet of paper, painting it blue, and building
a frame that could attach to the kitchen table.
Final touches
Matt Peick, an engineer from Eagan, went all out for his Peeps diorma, including building a frame for a paper blue sky. (Courtesy of Matt Peick)
While frosting the mountain with gray and white frosting, it was helpful to recall the words of Bob Ross, “There are no mistakes, only happy accidents!” After frosting, I added some final touches. Sprinkling the entire mountain with powdered sugar at the end helped cover some of those happy accidents and accentuated the wintery scene. The Peeps needed some white modeling chocolate to help hold them in place. I used a piece of licorice for the rope holding poor Polly Peep. Finally, after spray painting a cloud on the backdrop, the last detail was complete. I took pictures in our properly chilled kitchen photo studio. The pictures, in my opinion, turned out good … but not great. Something was missing. An actual sky background, with no trees or houses – just sky – would be perfect.
The final blow
This is what happened when Matt Peick tried to take his Peeps diorama onto the roof for a photo. (Courtesy of Matt Peick.)
After surveying our property for a spot where only sky could be seen in the background, it became clear that the only spot with such a backdrop would be the roof of our house. The mountain itself was surprisingly heavy and tough to manage on a ladder. I needed one hand under the mountain base for support, another to stop the mountain from tipping, and a third to hold the ladder. It was during that no-hands transition from the ladder to the roof, as everything went top heavy and started slipping backwards, that I had to decide: either the mountain goes, or the mountain and I both go. As I watched Peep Mountain crash back to earth in slow motion from my perch on the ladder, I decided that all the pictures gathered in the kitchen studio were pretty great after all.
“Peril on Peep Mountain”
(Courtesy of Matt Peick.)
Atop Peep Mountain in the crisp morning air,
the green grouch looked down and saw a scene that shouldn’t be there.
There shouldn’t be, there couldn’t be, Peeps this high up, and yet,
there was Polly Peep facing a deadly threat.
She swung from her climbing rope, round and around,
her friends were sure she was bound for the ground.
The poor little thing must be half frozen,
she had clearly forgotten her lederhosen.
Suddenly they spotted the green grouch on his perch,
and each little Peep wished they had never skipped church.
For the Peeps couldn’t have known that just the day before
the green grouches heart had grown three sizes more.
So instead of peril and a terrible fall,
a furry green arm came down and saved them all!
