In case anyone needs another nuisance to deal with …
… here’s the annual reminder that the ticks are back.
… here’s the annual reminder that the ticks are back.
In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, this week’s quiz will focus on Irish (and Irish-adjacent) things in the Twin Ports.
The next PDD quiz, which will review this month’s headlines, will be published on March 28. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by March 21.
You can die from running a half-marathon. A quick Google search results in roughly 72 million hits about super-healthy folks dropping dead from the exertion of running. Maybe they weren’t all healthy but many of them were in the best shape of their lives.
Welcome to race week jitters. The race day countdown is at three. My running plan strongly discourages any last-minute attempts at getting just one more training run in. I’ve discarded any last-minute hopes of ditching a few more pounds or somehow improving my time by a few more minutes. The momentum from my eleven-mile run is a distant memory. Instead, I’m full of fear.
Running logic says if you can run eleven miles one weekend, then the next step in training is 13.1 miles. There is absolutely no reason I cannot or will not cross the finish line. Except logic has taken a backseat to fear. All I can picture is getting to mile eleven, only to have my body give out on me. I visualize myself seeing the eleven-mile marker and then collapsing from exhaustion.
Another montage of excellent trail-cam footage from Voyageurs National Park. In this edition a variety of wildlife visit the beach in the September to January timeframe, but wolves are the main beach bums. Two different packs frequent the area — the Shoepack Lake Pack and the Nashata Pack.
The footage is from the Voyageurs Wolf Project, which is focused on understanding the summer ecology of wolves in the park. The beach is about 120 miles north of Duluth.
Increases in commercial and industrial stormwater fees is the cause of the latest “Upset Duluth” shot in our series of Duluth News Tribune photos of people who are perturbed.
Story link: Duluth businesses question stormwater fee hikes
Don’t forget to check out the ever-expanding Upset Duluth Gallery.
Select Instagram photos showing a few of nature’s icy art projects.
This undated postcard from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography shows two Duluth relics. The bronze Leif Erikson statue was placed in 1956 and remains on display at Leif Erikson Park. The 42-foot Leif Erikson Viking Ship Replica was built in Norway in 1926 and sailed to Duluth, arriving on June 23, 1927. It was displayed in Leif Erikson Park until 2013, when it was placed in a warehouse until funds are raised to build a display structure to protect it from weather.
Unforgettable things happen to us. Those pivotal events take on new meaning with the passage of time. Jan Chronister looks closely at those events in her past in her latest collection, Decennia (Truth Serum Press, 2020). The title means “decades.” Chronister splits her life into five of them and examines each in detail.
Mockup example of proposed bronze historical marker series
New plan is to commission pieces on bronze or stone that can survive longer than paper, longer than digital, to really communicate with the future. The alien surveyors of 5000 AD will ask themselves, “WTH was going on in Duluth?” I’ve reached out to a few locals with the right skills; I hope to be able to show a nice series by Fall.
Hands and Heart Together: Daily Meditations for Caregivers
Patricia Hoolihan
Jan. 19
Holy Cow! Press
Available at holycowpress.org
The Old West End
Nick Nerburn
February
Available at niknerburn.bigcartel.com
It Could be Worse: A Girlfriend’s Guide for Runners who Detest Running
Beth Probst
Feb. 1
Available at circletouradventures.com
Prax and the Hazardous Countdown
Matthew Francis
Feb. 17
Available at amazon.com
This contact print of photo negatives comes from Ben Marsen, who many years ago acquired a collection of negatives of scenes from around Duluth. (See Mystery Photo #125 for more info on that.)
Marsen doubts he still has the negatives, so we have to squint a bit and work from the contact strip. Who are these musicians?
In the latest episode of “Do Not Attempt,” Casey Rice takes a ride on a Minnesota Point iceberg.
Duluth’s Cameron Mathews performs a preview of a song from the upcoming Life Parade album.
[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. Twenty years ago he visited two Duluth bars — Mary’s Place and Terry’s Place. Both would later change their names. Mary’s Place became Clubhouse Sports Bar in 2005, then closed in 2014. The building at 132 N. 34th Ave. W. is now home to Stadium Pawn. Terry’s Place became Bergey’s in 2006 and remains in operation. Goodbuzz documented his experiences at Mary’s and Terry’s places for the March 7, 2001 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper.]
“I haven’t had my sled out in a month,” complains the dude across the bar from me. “I worked 60 goddam hours this week.”
I tell him that I also worked 60 hours this week. I don’t mention that drinking is my job.
Then my new friend starts complaining about what a lousy game he just bowled. He seems cheery though. Complaining seems to make him happy; each self-deprecating remark inspiring a grin and a nod in my direction to indicate he knows that my life also sucks. All our lives suck. We’re at Mary’s Place / Stadium Lanes on Wednesday night.
