The Gary New Duluth Community Center and Recreation Area is offering outdoor movies on Friday nights during the summer.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
It was nearly impossible to notice, but there was a glimpse of Duluth in the series finale of the NBC sitcom Superstore. The episode, titled “All Sales Final,” aired March 25. It concludes with a scene of the character Amy Sosa putting her children to bed. For just a few seconds, a piece of Great Lakes Aquarium art by Daymark Designs, a Duluth-based graphic arts company, is shown in the background.
Among the news 50 years ago today, as reported in the June 14, 1971 issue of the Duluth Herald:
My brother Allen Richardson and I were “Yes Men” for a day. This is how the amazing project went down.
Put your knowledge of notable Duluth-area animals to the test with this week’s quiz.
The next PDD quiz will cover current events; it will be published on June 27. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by June 23.
The MV Sophia F. Janus was built, launched, and christened in 1977. It was among the first of 13 “thousand-footers” to sail the inland seas: 1013 feet long, 113 feet wide, 566 feet hull depth, containing 1,300 tons of oil for its four-story engine. It could carry more than 90,000 tons of cargo, with a crew of 23 souls. The ship was an innovative mixed-use tanker-bulk hauler, with three chemical tank holds and two bulk holds. It had a 250-foot discharge boom for the self-unloading of bulk cargo at a rate of 6,000 tons per hour. The vessel holds numerous cargo records. In the superstitious lore of the sailors, however, because a dock worker was crushed during launch, the Janus was considered cursed. Even the infinite dilution of the Great Lakes could not dissolve the stain of blood.
Communication was lost with the Janus in a storm in 1982, and it appeared to have sunk without a trace after leaving Duluth. No flotsam, oil slick, or fuel spill was discovered in the area of her last known location, which was the middle of Lake Superior.
Diane Keinanen started creating glass window hangings 20 years ago after attending a community education class on stained glass. The medium then became a “lasting love” for her. In addition to glass art, Keinanen explores woodworking and has worked as a registered nurse for 28 years. Over the course of the pandemic, Keinanen has created live streams while creating her stained glass art. These live streams have included stories about her life and her experience as a transgender woman. More pictures of her work can be found on her Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Tops in the local news 50 years ago was the potential for increased grain shipments through the Twin Ports resulting from President Richard Nixon lifting restrictions on trade with Communist countries. The June 11, 1971 Duluth Herald reported the president’s action ended a 21-year-old embargo on selling most consumer goods to Red China.
Students from Lincoln, Woodland, Washington and Morgan Park schools in Duluth participated in the “Wacky Olympics” at Ordean Field in 1978. Mary Ellen Miller of KBJR-TV has the story.
So far it looks like those snappy little vaccines work and the number of events around town is climbing. The PDD Calendar continues to be the faraway leader in listing Duluth-area happenings — from beer gardens and sailboat races to book launches and ball games. Each month we reach out with one beggarly blog post to remind everyone that human beings and not machines are at work editing and publishing calendar events. So if you appreciate it, drop a few bucks in the PayPal account.
Among the news items in the June 10, 1971 edition of the Duluth Herald:
An improvised soap opera about Duluth, featuring actors from around the world connected by Zoom, premiered May 23 on YouTube. Episodes can be viewed on the World Improv Network’s YouTube channel.
At the top of the news fifty years ago was a growing mining industry in the west potentially feeding Duluth-Superior harbor traffic. The June 9, 1971 Duluth Herald reported “at least one, and possibly two, new bulk commodities” mined in Wyoming, Montana and North Dakota “appear likely to be hauled to Duluth by rail to be loaded on board lake and ocean-going vessels.”
Charlie Parr performed in the parking lot outside Wussow’s Concert Cafe during Pete Fest Tuesday night, playing his unique brand of Dumpster blues. The festival continues through Saturday.
The latest video from the Voyageurs Wolf Project shows the array of wildlife that visited a small creek in Voyageurs National Park over the course of a few weeks in May. Critters passing though include a bear, wolf, fisher, marten, owl, porcupine and more.
