Next weekend you can catch one of the best meteor showers of the year. It’s the annual Geminid meteor shower, and if the clouds stay away it should be a good one this year because the moon will be mostly out of the sky.

Meteor showers occur when the Earth runs into a debris trail of dust and small pebbles as it orbits around the sun. For most meteor showers, the debris is left behind by a passing comet, but the Geminids are unusual because the debris trail was left behind by an asteroid dubbed by astronomers as 3200 Phaethon. This asteroid was discovered in 1983 and is thought to have a diameter of around three miles. It has a highly elliptical orbit that swings it by our part of the solar system every year and a half. Each time it passes it refreshes the debris trail. It’s a real cosmic litterbug.

(Mike Lynch)

By the way, 3200 Phaethon is not one of those killer asteroids that’s expected to bash into the Earth someday, at least not for now. Eventually, though, a large asteroid will hit the Earth, maybe in 10 years, 100 years, or several million years from now. Who knows? An asteroid or comet that hit the Earth 65 million years ago wiped the dinosaurs out and cleaned the slate for life forms on Earth.

Enough destruction talk. Getting back to the Geminid meteor shower, it will peak next Saturday night into Sunday, Dec. 13-14, but you’ll also see some Geminids this coming week and a few days after the peak next weekend. The best time to look for the meteors is between midnight to just before morning twilight begins. If you’re lucky enough to already be in the countryside or able to jump into the car to the darker skies, you may see well over 50 meteors an hour and maybe even 100. Even if you’re challenged with suburban light pollution you’ll see enough of them to make losing a little sleep worth it. Some of these meteors are slamming into our atmosphere at over 40 miles a second. These bits of dust and pebbles get incinerated at altitudes anywhere from 40 to 60 miles up. Most of the light you see from meteors though, is not because of combustion but from how they temporarily destabilize or excite the small column of air they’re charging through. That’s why you see meteors as streaks in the heavens, and some of the streaks stay visible for a second or two after they pass, as the column of air they came through stabilizes. Meteor streaks can also be different colors depending on their chemical composition and how fast they’re moving. In general, the reddish-tinged meteors tend to be slower meteors, and faster meteors are more bluish.

A meteor. (Mike Lynch)

This shower is called the Geminid meteor shower because all of the meteors from our vantage on Earth appear to be coming from the general direction of the constellation Gemini the Twins, which starts out the evening in the eastern sky and by morning twilight it’s stretched across to the low western heavens. By no means though should you restrict your viewing to the immediate part of the sky around Gemini because the meteors will be all over the heavens. The best thing to do is to be well layered in clothes, coats and blankets and lay back on a fully reclining lawn chair, rolling your eyes all around the sky and keeping count of how many meteors you see. Meteor shower watching is especially fun with a group of people because the more sets of eyes you have patrolling the sky, the more meteors you’ll see. Dress warm and enjoy the show.

Mike Lynch is an amateur astronomer and retired broadcast meteorologist for WCCO Radio in Minneapolis/St. Paul. He is the author of “Stars: a Month by Month Tour of the Constellations,” published by Adventure Publications and available at bookstores and adventurepublications.net. Mike is available for private star parties. You can contact him at mikewlynch@comcast.net.

Related Articles

Skywatch: Holiday celestial lights

Skywatch: No turkeys, but many other birds in night sky

Skywatch: The Seven Little Sisters will lead you to Planet George this week

Skywatch: Holiday telescope shopping guide

Skywatch: Long starry nights are back

Often, when Sheena Harrison stood on downtown Minneapolis streets with her 1-year-old son Joseph, she counted. The then-homeless mom assigned the value of one to every person who walked past her instead of stopping to give her a dollar.

One hundred fifty-five such dollars meant a hotel room for the night.

She dared not dream for anything more. She was overjoyed when the occasional passerby bought her a bite to eat and something to drink. A downtown neighbor of hers got her pizza and orange juice one day, consoled her, and stayed to pray with her.

“He prayed with me a lot,” Harrison said. “That one day he asked me what was wrong because I was really hungry, and the baby was hungry, he was crying and screaming.”

Ben Steine disappeared from Harrison’s life for two months, also clueless about how the woman’s life could be improved in more tangible, permanent ways.

But Steine happened to fall in with Josh Liljenquist, a Minnesota TikToker who films himself helping the needy in Minneapolis and St. Paul, with financial help from his viewers. Such a content creator is sometimes called a “kindness influencer.”

Steine signed on as Liljenquist’s videographer. The two (with Australian influencer Samuel Weidenhofer and his videographer Luka Jackway in tow) went in search of people who were down on their luck. And there, tucked against Whole Foods in downtown Minneapolis, were Sheena and Joseph.

Liljenquist bought them a sandwich and watermelon. Weidenhofer handed Harrison $500.

And “I think it was Sam who told her, ‘We’re going to start a fundraiser for you to get you off the street,’” Liljenquist said.

This is the initial video sequence that would make Harrison internet-famous.

@joshlilj

Blessing a Homeless Mom! (GoFundMe 1N B1O)

♬ original sound – Joshlilj

“We were moved by her strength, her heart and the love she has for her son,” Liljenquist wrote on the GoFundMe page. “No one should have to sleep on the streets — especially not a mom and her one-year-old baby. Together we can change that.”

Harrison explains that she traveled to Chicago to help take care of her father, who had dementia. When he died, her mother kicked her and Joseph out. Since then, her priority was to “be a good mom” by landing an apartment and a job. But finding either during two months on the streets proved impossible.

Surprising success — and stress

Among the GoFundMe campaign’s now-laughably-modest goals: “Rent and utilities (we hope to secure a full year of housing).”

Before they knew it, Liljenquist and Weidenhofer had raised more than $600,000.

“I didn’t think it was going to be this crazy,” Liljenquist said. “I lost sleep. I was so stressed. You know, like I have more than half a million dollars and it’s not even my own money. … I was scared, I was really scared.”

The suddenly panicked Liljenquist did what he already does several times a day: He called his mother. Liljenquist already knew his team would be looking into buying a house — and Julie Liljenquist happens to be a Realtor.

Before long, she scoped out a property in Fairmont, Minn., two hours southwest of the Twin Cities and five blocks from where she lives and where she raised Liljenquist. She sweet-talked the current occupants into vacating early so Harrison could move in. That couple left behind toys for Joseph.

“I didn’t charge Sheena anything to do this,” Julie Liljenquist said. “I wanted a house that had the major things done. I wanted a (geographical) location where she would be safe.”

Related Articles

Broke for the holidays? 10 ideas to turn thrifting into gifting in St. Paul

They met at a St. Paul hospital. After emerging from comas. They’re getting married.

Minnesota teacher reels in viewers with educational, entertaining fishing videos

St. Paul issued 3,253 tickets, 952 tows during recent snow emergency

Eagan’s new Veteran Village opens doors to veterans experiencing homelessness 

The team took other steps, such as hiring an accountant and a financial planner for Harrison. The latter, Justin Grossinger, of Northwestern Mutual in Edina, came recommended by Steine.

“It’s a fact that when people come into large sums of money, sometimes it doesn’t last and then their life’s turned upside down from something so good,” said Grossinger, who, like Julie Liljenquist, sees himself as Harrison’s protector.

“When people come into large sums of money regardless of it being a lottery winner or an inheritance or anything, sometimes the people around them come out of the woodwork,” Grossinger said. “I don’t know how else to say that cleanly, right? But sometimes people that weren’t there for us when we needed them want to be now.”

Big reveal

Josh Liljenquist made a potentially controversial request of Harrison — he asked her not to monitor the GoFundMe page even though the money accumulating there belongs to her. “Just let it be a surprise,” he told her, and she agreed.

Liljenquist and Weidenhofer wanted dramatic “reveal” video, and they got it.

Harrison was led blindfolded to the front of the house. Instructed to remove the blindfold and turn around, her mouth became an “O” as the realization hit. Entering the front door, she saw photos by Jackway on all the walls.

@joshlilj

“It’s the greatest family I got!” @Samuel Weidenhofer

♬ original sound – Joshlilj

“It was when she looked at a poster on the wall of her holding up her son that she burst into tears,” Jackway recalled.

“The picture says, ‘Welcome home,’” Harrison said. “I broke down crying. I didn’t know what to say. I’ve never had people who are strangers come into my life and change it in a weekend and a half.”

Julie Liljenquist had stocked the house with furniture from her home, including a favorite couch of her son’s.

Sheena Harrison cooks Thanksgiving dinner in her new Fairmont, Minn., home. (Courtesy of Luka Jackway)

Harrison settled in — though sometimes waking with a start in the middle of the night, wondering where she was.

Harrison was thrilled to be able to host the Liljenquist family, Weidenhofer, the two videographers and others for Thanksgiving.

She went to church. “Everyone there was so loving and so welcoming,” she said.

Harrison discovered that she and Josh Liljenquist share a birthday, Dec. 29.

“So now Josh is a permanent brother,” she said. “So he is just a permanent baby brother.”

She added, “I think I am happier about gaining a family than I am about the money.”

Related Articles

Eagan’s new Veteran Village opens doors to veterans experiencing homelessness 

Crayon therapy: St. Paul minister creates, donates coloring books for women in shelters

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota meets with Silver Sneakers protesters

Saintly City Snow Angels — connecting St. Paul shovelers with snowy sidewalks — needs more angels

Treasury Department investigating claims MN fraud funded terrorists

An internal memo written by the Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine regulator offers a concerning glimpse into the future of vaccine regulation in the US — and could have profound implications for both access to and the development of vaccines.

Vinay Prasad’s memo, which was leaked to the news media, makes alarming claims about the COVID-19 vaccine — including the assertion, made without any supporting evidence, that it has caused the death of “at least 10 children.” It also suggests that the FDA will make significant changes to the way vaccines are regulated.

The memo comes at a time of great turmoil at the agency, which intensified this week with the news of yet another leader’s potential exit, and amid increasingly aggressive efforts by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to both undermine confidence in and limit access to vaccines.

Prasad made the extraordinary claim about the safety of COVID vaccines in the email to his staff at the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). He said an internal investigation found the children died due to myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation. Yet he provided no data or research to support the claim — an irresponsible and dangerous approach to regulatory oversight.

It is also wildly out of step with the agency’s typically careful process of reviewing safety data. Proving that a vaccine caused a death is a complex endeavor that requires significant evidence, explains Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who previously served on the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee.

In this case, Offit says, regulators would need a raft of information, including an autopsy report that confirms a child had indeed died of myocarditis and not some other cause; documentation showing that the child wasn’t infected with COVID, which can also cause myocarditis; and evidence that they were not infected with one of the many other viruses that can cause fatal inflammation of the heart. If all the evidence pointed to the vaccine being the cause, the FDA’s next step would be to figure out exactly how the harm occurred.

Yet Prasad dropped the bombshell claims without providing proof that such a careful process had taken place. “He’s just raising this horrible specter that if you vaccinate your child, they may die,” Offit says. And he’s doing so, “knowing that the virus is still circulating, knowing that the virus is still causing hospitalizations and ICU admissions and deaths” in children.

Prasad also discussed a new framework for regulating vaccines, one that remains vague, but suggests companies could be asked to conduct much more onerous and expensive studies to prove the safety and efficacy of their vaccines. The goal, he said, is to “direct vaccine regulation towards evidence-based medicine.”

However, getting a new vaccine on the market already requires a rigorous, evidence-based process. When the FDA approved the first RSV vaccine in 2023, it marked the culmination of nearly 50 years of research to understand and develop a vaccine against the virus. To prove the vaccine worked, it was tested in multiple studies, including precisely the kind of large, gold-standard, placebo-controlled trial that Prasad routinely advocates for — in this case, one that enrolled 25,000 older adults.

And while new technologies like mRNA are speeding up vaccine development, the drugs must still undergo similarly massive studies to prove they are safe and effective. For example, last spring, Moderna published data suggesting its experimental mRNA flu vaccine is as good as or perhaps better than shots based on conventional technology. The two studies together enrolled more than 14,000 adults. Last month, Pfizer presented similarly promising data from its own mRNA-based flu shot trial, which recruited nearly 18,500 volunteers.

Prasad’s memo, meanwhile, also suggests changes are afoot for routine shots, including the seasonal flu vaccine. “We will revise the annual flu vaccine framework, which is an evidence-based catastrophe of low-quality evidence, poor surrogate assays, and uncertain vaccine effectiveness measured in case-control studies with poor methods,” he wrote.

Prasad didn’t explain what that revision would entail. But that single sentence could have profound implications. Public health officials have already struggled to convince Americans that the flu shot — an imperfect vaccine, but one that can prevent the worst outcomes of the virus — is worthwhile. Such inflammatory language about the shot (offered, again, without explanation or evidence) from the FDA’s top vaccine regulator is hardly likely to improve consumers’ confidence in its value.

Meanwhile, any regulatory changes that make it harder for people to access the vaccine could have dangerous consequences. Last year’s flu season was a reminder of the virus’ potential to cause severe illness: the CDC estimated it hospitalized 1.1 million Americans and killed 280 children.

The lack of specifics in the memo makes it difficult to assess the full impact on public health. Prasad has made accusations without identifying the data he believes is lacking, without outlining a better process, and without offering a timeline for when any of these changes might be implemented.

In the immediate term, though, the ambiguity is harmful to the environment for vaccine development. As Bloomberg News noted, shares of multiple COVID vaccine developers dipped on news of the memo and the anticipated scrutiny on their products.

It could also hold back investment in future vaccines. Drug developers depend on certainty from regulators about what is needed to approve new products. Instead, they are facing an agency in turmoil, increasingly driven by Prasad’s shifting notion of “gold-standard” science. All of this comes amid vocal skepticism and misinformation about vaccines coming from the highest reaches of US health agencies. Innovation will suffer for it — and so will public health.

Lisa Jarvis is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering biotech, health care and the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was executive editor of Chemical & Engineering News.

Related Articles

John T. Shaw: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox makes a plea for American architects, not arsonists

Adrian Wooldridge: The West is facing five fearsome new giants

Andreas Kluth: The duty to disobey unlawful orders was America’s idea

Thomas Friedman: The ‘useful idiots’ from America whom Putin is playing like a flute

Bret Stephens: Ukraine is still worth fighting for

During the years she dealt with a stalker, former 89.3 The Current DJ Mary Lucia stopped talking about her dogs on the air. A man she now calls “S— Bag” used Lucia’s love of pets as a way to attempt to worm his way into her life, totally against her will. The famously outgoing media personality clammed up, on air and off, thanks to a terrifying stranger.

In her new memoir “What Doesn’t Kill Me Makes Me Weirder and Harder to Relate To,” Lucia opens the floodgates and tells all, revealing often jaw-dropping and intimate details about her career, her addictions and her life in general.

(Courtesy of the University of Minnesota Press)

Lucia began her time in radio at the much-loved but short-lived alt rock station REV 105 and spent 17 years serving as essentially the face of The Current. She dramatically left that job in 2022 and is now the program adviser at the University of Minnesota’s Radio K, where she hosts her own show from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Mondays.

In her book, Lucia shares the horrifying tale of not only what it’s like to have a stalker, but the struggles she faced from friends, co-workers and even her own mother who sought to downplay her dire situation. She weaves in other tales, both funny and sad, from her life and proves, time and again, why she is one of the highest-profile DJs in the Twin Cities.

Here are seven takeaways from the book, which she’s promoting with upcoming events in Minneapolis and St. Paul:

She had an unconventional childhood

Lucia writes that she grew up in a household that cherished nothing and had no Christmas traditions. She called her parents by the first name and said her mom threw away Lucia’s birth certificate during a move, which she didn’t learn until she attempted to find it as an adult to get a passport.

There were a pair of photo albums in the house, which Lucia said stopped getting updated around 1969, so there are few shots of her childhood.

“There is so little physical documentation of my growing up, perhaps it’s allowed me to create my own version of history and take some creative license,” she writes.

Lucia remembers a show-and-tell day where students were asked to bring in a treasured item from an older family member. Others brought their grandparents’ Ellis Island entry papers or old photos. Her contribution was a vinyl copy of Mott the Hoople’s album “All the Young Dudes.”

She abused all the substances

Lucia goes into great detail about her history of using drugs, prescription and otherwise, and alcohol. And as she does throughout the book, she recalls the old days with self-deprecating humor.

“My drug buddy and dear friend at the time, who is now a substance abuse counselor, hopped on the sad bastard train with me that summer to consume pills like Keith Moon and Judy Garland’s love child. We had a dealer, we had code language, we had deep conversations, laughs, we threw up in people’s yards,” she writes.

She acknowledged hitting the lowest of lows when she dipped into the meds of a “distant friend” who was dying of cancer.

But after her stalker intensified his pursuit, she quit everything but tobacco.

“It would be safe to assume that for most people a traumatic time in one’s life might also be the moment the self-medicating goes into action. Me? No. I stopped everything cold turkey and I didn’t tell anyone. It sounds almost masochistic as if I wanted to feel the pain more deeply with no interference.”

She has a great Liam Gallagher story

In late 2008, hopped up on Ativan and “whatever booze was handed to me,” she attended an Oasis concert at Target Center. After hearing the band was headed to First Avenue after the show, she hit the nightclub and made her way to the VIP booth where Gallagher was holding court. She drunkenly asked him if he thought his opening act Ryan Adams was a fraud.

Related Articles

AP’s top albums of 2025: Bad Bunny, Rosalía, Hayley Williams, Dijon, Addison Rae and more

Review: Guest conductor brings dynamic vitality to night with Minnesota Orchestra

‘Tennessee Orange’ hitmaker Megan Moroney books Target Center show

Grammy-winning Mexican band Los Tigres Del Norte to headline Grand Casino Arena

Curtiss A moves his longtime John Lennon tribute show to St. Paul

His response: “A frog?”

“Next thing I knew we were smashing faces. I am dying of embarrassment in present time as I recount that.”

In an attempt to make a quick, post-makeout departure, she fell down the venue’s steps. She has no idea how she got home that evening.

“Funnily enough it was the only time I ever had to call in sick to work with a hangover,” she writes.

The next day, she received an email from a photographer friend with the subject: “I have some photos you might like to see.” It wasn’t blackmail or anything, she writes, “just a reality check that you are not invisible at your most boorish.”

One of the pics hangs on her fridge to this day.

She has a great Prince story, too

Lucia devotes the fifth chapter of her book to Prince, opening with: “Am I the only person alive who has adored Prince my entire life but wants him to remain a mystery?”

She goes on to bemoan people’s “quest to get to the bottom of Prince’s accidental overdose … I feel very strongly that there needs to be a deeper level of understanding and mercy regarding addiction.”

Lucia writes that she’s never toured Paisley Park and prefers to keep her memories of the Purple One focused on his music, not on the personal details of his life. Like a lot of people in the Twin Cities, she knows people who worked directly with Prince and said she enjoys hearing their stories, but not retelling them.

“They feel sacred. I even have my own Prince story, which I will never tell.”

She drops some names

After she escorted comedian and actor Michael Ian Black through The Current’s office, he asked: “Is this a rock radio station? All I see is spreadsheets and sadness.” (“Believe me, we got a lot of mileage out of that, muttering under our breath that it should be the new station slogan,” Lucia writes.)

In one of the station’s recording studios, singer/songwriter Meshell Ndegeocello once rolled joints on a Steinway gifted to MPR by a wealthy donor.

Trent Reznor and Studs Terkel were both great interviews, she writes. Charles Bradley didn’t know the names of the members of his band. Lou Barlow requested vegan sausage and tofu dogs for a morning session. She recoils discussing a live interview with Alt-J, a British band she writes “seemed to me to be only taking up unnecessary space.”

One interview with an obnoxious, unnamed duo from Los Angeles — most likely the long-forgotten group She Wants Revenge — ended abruptly when one of the guys refused to answer a fairly innocuous question and stormed out of the studio.

Lucia also had difficulty playing certain artists. “I will admit that, on rare occasions, I have done the unthinkable and pulled the fader down midsong on a tune that was doing me great bodily harm. I’m sorry, Joanna Newsom. It was nothing business — it’s strictly personal.”

Her famous brother is there for her, in his own way

Lucia has never used her older brother — Replacements leader Paul Westerberg — to further her own career. In a recent interview with Mpls. St. Paul magazine, she said half-jokingly that there are still people out there who don’t know they’re related.

So it’s not too surprising that she refers to Westerberg only as “my older brother Paulie” in the book. She describes him as “a one-of-a-kind thinker, somewhat unreliable and a loose cannon in the best way, and has a knack for knowing when to rally and come out of his rabbit hole for me.”

When she first opened up to him about her stalker, he sat back and listened. When he did speak up, he said: “Do you know what you need? You need a better TV, the one you have is s—.”

Then, after learning Lucia had the stalker’s phone number, he called and left a voicemail. He never told Lucia further details, “It’s not what I said, but how I said it.”

Later, when she needed help cleaning up her backyard trees, she called Westerberg, who showed up with no tools.

“He impulsively began shimmying up the tree like a monkey. His well thought-out idea was to simply hang from the dead branches until they broke off. Immediately my internal Google map was trying to figure out which hospital emergency room was closest.”

She doesn’t know what happened at The Current, either

In April 2022, Lucia surprised both her co-workers and listeners when she announced she was leaving The Current. In the book, she details her many issues with the station’s management, former program director Jim McGuinn in particular, that led to her decision. (She calls McGuinn “Potsy” in the book and writes: “He had managed to convince upper management he was Bono by attending company meetings with a predictable rock T-shirt under a suit coat.” McGuinn did not respond to a request for comment.)

Related Articles

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, actor who performed in ‘Mortal Kombat,’ has died at 75

Curtiss A moves his longtime John Lennon tribute show to St. Paul

Steve Cropper, guitarist and member of Stax Records’ Booker T and the M.G.’s, has died at age 84

Doctor who sold ketamine to ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry gets 2 1/2 years in prison

Meteorologist Wren Clair, KSTP attorneys ask judge to dismiss her lawsuit against TV station

During her memorable final broadcast, she played a series of hand-chosen songs — they’re listed in full in her book — and wrapped up by saying she knew she made a difference and “it doesn’t matter if the company or management doesn’t feel the same way. Thank you for everything, I love you.” She then played the Rolling Stones’ “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll (But I Like It)” and followed it with an uncomfortable stretch of dead air.

Moments later, MPR president Duchesne Drew sent an email to staff announcing that McGuinn, who was Lucia’s boss, was no longer with the company.

Just like her listeners at the time, Lucia writes that she didn’t see that coming, didn’t understand why they let her quit and that she was confused by the timing of it all.

“I can honestly say corporate decisions are not for me to understand.”

Mary Lucia discusses her new book

In conversation with Lizz Winstead: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 9, at the Granada Theater, 3022 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; granadampls.com.
In conversation with Andrea Swensson: 6 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 10, at the Ramsey County Historical Society in Landmark Center, 75 West Fifth St., St. Paul; rchs.com.