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WCCO-TV meteorologist Molly Rosenblatt was blowing up a guy's cellphone recently while he shopped at SR Harris Fabric in Brooklyn Park.
There was apparently less to this than originally thought by my source Sid Harris, founder of the family-owned fabric outlets now owned by his son Scott Harris. Sid was helping a customer named Michael, who was examining leather hides.
"His phone kept ringing!" said Sid. So he asked Michael, " 'WHO KEEPS CALLING YOU?' He said, 'My friend.' Then I kept asking him who she was and he said she did the weather." OK, I know Sid pretty well, so I assume he kept peppering Michael with questions and finally Michael referred to Rosenblatt as "my girlfriend, who's a meteorologist at WCCO-TV," as Sid told me.
Then irrepressible Sid got on Michael's phone and called Rosenblatt. To those who don't know Sid, this might seem unbelievable. Trust me.
When I later asked Rosenblatt for confirmation, she gave me a noncommital, sing-songy, "Maybe."
"I wouldn't say he's my boyfriend, but we are seeing each other," she said. "We both are into taxidermy, animal skins."
It doesn't seem fair to bore readers with the rest of the story. When I checked back Wednesday, she said, "LOL, I'm not even seeing him at all anymore."
That means Rosenblatt, who had purple hair when she was a WCCO intern in 2003, is back on the market!
That should generate some calls. There have already been calls. The December hire was slow to post her bio until news director Mike Caputa insisted, she said, saying, "People keep calling and asking about you — and in a good way."
Probably because she is not an ugly person and as a native of Rochester, the favorite kind of person of many in this state, a Minnesotan. She's also a good reporter, which is something I said to an e-mailer who complained that Rosenblatt wasn't just doing the weather, but reporting.
"I've only been in one market where I haven't reported. Every [other] job I've had has always been meteorologist/reporter. My last job in Orlando, I did weather and traffic. I think it's the best of both worlds to get out," she said.
This I will share. Sid asked me to tell Molly that he and his wife, Arlene, prefer Rosenblatt to wear her hair pulled back. Rosenblatt said she gets that a lot; the only time she wears her hair like that is when she works late followed by early shifts at the station.
Twitter tiff trips Tafoya
The mystery of Michele Tafoya's disappearance from my Twitter feed may have been solved.
Swimswam.com reports that the versatile NFL sideline reporter, who's in Rio covering the Olympics, "has shut down her Twitter account after a heated debate with television personality [and comedian] Franchesca Ramsey."
Tafoya, a WCCO alum, is witty and accustomed to the last word, but it is never a good idea to get into it with a comedian. And this one has a platform as a reporter on Larry Wilmore's "The Nightly Show" on Comedy Central. "Nightly" is airing its final episode Thursday, inexplicably getting canceled before the election. (I LOVED THAT SHOW, a unique voice on TV. Deep sigh.)
The Tafoya-Ramsey "conflict appears to have been launched in the aftermath of [the July] killing of 3 police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and specifically with regard to so-called 'white allies' during Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s movement for racial equality in the 1950s," Swimswam said. "Tafoya tweeted out a photo of Dr. King marching alongside white protesters, and after receiving a response from Ramsey, the conversations spiraled beyond the initial picture with Tafoya accusing Ramsey of being angry and Ramsey accusing Tafoya of being condescending." You can read the report in full here: tinyurl.com/hsnolga.
When I tweeted if it was safe for Tafoya to return to Twitter, Ramsey said, "I don't know who that person is." Jogging her memory with the story link and tweeting about her winning the Twitter debate, Ramsey replied, "There's no winning. I disagreed with her & she deleted her account over it. Nothing I said to her was worth deleting [the account]."
I totally agree.
Tafoya has not responded to my tweet on what I believe is her new account.
C.J. can be reached at cj@startribune.com and seen on Fox 9's "Jason Show" and "Buzz." E-mailers, please state a subject; "Hello" does not count. Attachments are not opened.
