November 2018 Posts

Duluth Harbor Basin, 1925

Nov 15, 2018 5 Comments

This photo from the National Archive was taken on an airplane from the McCook Field aviation experimentation station in Dayton, Ohio, which was flying in the region for a photographic mapping expedition of the Canadian border in October and November of 1925.

The caption on the photo reads:

Duluth Harbor Basin, the main business section and portions of Lake Superior, showing the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” the Aerial Bridge connecting Duluth proper with a long neck of land known as Minnesota Point, which really makes the Duluth Superior Harbor.


History, Photos , ,

Postcards from Turk’s Clearview Court

Nov 14, 2018 1 Comment

The undated postcard above shows an aerial view of Turk’s Clearview Court at 8015 Congdon Boulevard in Lakewood Township, just outside Duluth’s northeastern border.

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History, Photos , , ,

Jerry, Photographer

Nov 13, 2018 No Comments

Duluth photographer Kip Praslowicz examines the strange case of “Jerry the Photographer,” who takes green drugs and watches his gear and art melt away


Videos

“Cincinnati Dancing Pig”

Nov 12, 2018 No Comments

The song “Cincinnati Dancing Pig” was released by everybody and their brother in 1950, and in this post several versions are gathered. The words were written by Al Lewis and the music by Guy Wood. The internet purports the first recording was by Dick Jurgens and His Orchestra in May 1950, but the first release was by Red Foley in August 1950.

The Duluth-related lyric:

From Duluth to Birmingham
He’s the pork chop Dapper Dan,
He’s the keenest ham what am,
Cincinnati dancing pig

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History, Music

First Snow 2018

Nov 11, 2018 1 Comment

 
I just moved to Duluth this past summer and have been busy getting to know the area and exploring all Duluth has to offer. I spent the past eight years on the beaches of North Carolina and have been anxiously awaiting the snow to fall! My son and I have been flying and racing drones as a hobby for a number of years, and I’ve transitioned into a professional videographer. Hope you enjoy the video we shot over the weekend!


Videos

War is Over!

Nov 11, 2018 No Comments


History ,

PDD Quiz: Northland Bakeries

Nov 11, 2018 3 Comments

This edition of the PDD quiz celebrates the season of gluttony with a look at local bakeries. Indulge your sweet tooth and check it out!

The next PDD quiz, on this month’s local headlines, will be published on Nov. 25. Please email question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Nov. 21.

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Restaurants ,

North Country Trail in Wisconsin: Nemadji River Valley

Nov 10, 2018 1 Comment

If you’ve ever hiked Minnesota’s Superior Hiking Trail to the Wisconsin border you know the trail ends there, but doesn’t really end there. Despite a sign on a tree that reads “Southern Terminus of SHT” and a separate post sticking out of the ground that reads “Not a trail,” there is clearly a trail there leading into Wisconsin. But it doesn’t go far.

The rest of the text on the terminus sign explains: “Spur trail from here to be built by North Country Trail to a parking lot in WI. Trail now dead-ends ahead.”

I explained all that 17 months ago in a Saturday Essay titled: “North Country Trail: Wood Tick Flats,” which was the first report on my quest to hike the North Country Trail across Wisconsin. That summer I covered exactly zero miles on the trail, which is not a great start to a 200-mile journey. If you read that first North Country Trail essay from June 2017 you know I didn’t hike on the trail that day because the grass was long and loaded with ticks. So I waited and saved the hike for a day with more favorable conditions … 17 months later.

What I lack in ambition I make up for with tenacity, right? My motto is: “Never quit. Take a nap and try again later when you feel more up to it.”

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Outdoors , , ,

If you’re a grandma in Duluth …

Nov 09, 2018 No Comments

We missed it in 2015, but here’s a belated clip of Lance Armstrong on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast dropping a reference to Duluth.


Sports, Videos ,

Selective Focus: Richard C. Johnson

Nov 09, 2018 No Comments

This week, photographer Richard C. Johnson tells how he looks for and catalogs special locations to come back to with his camera, how and why he has switched between ways of making images, and the advantages of Flickr over Instagram.

RCJ: I have lived and worked as an artist in Duluth for more than 35 years. My education and training as an artist was in both printmaking and photography. I have always thought of myself as first and foremost a photographer, even through those times I was not actively photographing. In the latter half of the 1980s, I found myself without access to a viable darkroom, and was living in a house that had no suitable place to build one. I spent a few years working with collage, mixed media, and assemblages, with varying degrees of success. In 1992 I purchased a Mac computer along with a flatbed scanner. For the next 8 years I worked exclusively within the realm of digital montage. When I did photograph, it was to make images to be part of a montage, not as singular works in themselves. By the turn of the century, 2000-’01, I felt a bit burned out with this work, spending too much time in front of a computer, and living too much in my head. I felt that what I needed was to return to photography, and reconnect with the world.

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Art, Photos ,

Ingeborg von Agassiz – “I’ll Do it When I Feel Like It”

Nov 08, 2018 No Comments

An ode to procrastination by Duluth’s Ingeborg von Agassiz.


Music, Videos

Goldie’s Too

Nov 08, 2018 No Comments

Plastic shopping bag from a former Holiday Center store.


History ,

Mystery Photo #77: Passenger Boat arriving in Duluth

Nov 07, 2018 6 Comments

Date unknown. Photographer unknown. Name of vessel unknown.

Ready? Set? Go!


History, Photos , ,

Duluth 2018 General Election Results

Nov 06, 2018 4 Comments

With 4.113 of 4,113 precincts reporting statewide, below are the results for races relevant to Duluth.

FEDERAL OFFICES

United States Senator
Amy Klobuchar – 1,566,015 | 60.30%
Jim Newberger – 940,454 | 36.21%
Dennis Schuller – 66,264 | 2.55%
Paula M. Overby – 23,150 | 0.89%
Write in – 994 | 0.04%

United States Senator (special election to fill two-year term)
Tina Smith – 1,370,375 | 52.97%
Karin Housley – 1,095,777 | 42.35%
Sarah Wellington – 95,634 | 3.7%
Jerry Trooien – 24,369 | 0.94%
Write in – 1,165 | 0.05%

United States Representative, Minnesota District 8
Pete Stauber – 159,388 | 50.71%
Joe Radinovich – 141,972 | 45.17%
Ray “Skip” Sandman – 12,768 | 4.06%
Write in – 178 | 0.06%
 

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News and Current Affairs, Politics

Flight of the Northern Goshawk

Nov 06, 2018 No Comments

Sparky Stensaas captured a few Northern Goshawks in flight at Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth in October.


Videos , ,