Dive into this week’s current affairs quiz and see how many of this month’s headlines you remember.
A back-to-school PDD quiz comes your way on Sept. 15. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Sept. 11.
Dive into this week’s current affairs quiz and see how many of this month’s headlines you remember.
A back-to-school PDD quiz comes your way on Sept. 15. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Sept. 11.
A recent push to place a memorial to the Edmund Fitzgerald on Barker’s Island got me thinking about the local oft-forgotten wreck of the Thomas Wilson. My 1995 edition of the book Shipwrecks of Lake Superior (edited by James R. Marshall) calls the Wilson “Duluth’s doorstep shipwreck.” The author of the Wilson chapter is legendary local scuba diver Paul von Goertz, who says on page 75 that “The Thomas Wilson ‘sails the bottom’ less than a mile from the ship canal.” A 308-foot whaleback steamer loaded with ore, the Wilson got T-boned in 1902 and sank within three minutes.
What bothers me about the wreck is that it may hold the remains of seven crew members:
“Of the 20 men that comprised the Wilson’s crew, nine were lost. Only two of the nine bodies were recovered. The remaining seven are entombed to this day in the hull of the Wilson … [the wreck] remains in pretty good shape …. To the best of my knowledge, entry has not been gained into the turret housing the boiler room. A safe guess would be that the men entombed in the wreck might be found in the boiler room, as this was the compartment nearest the actual point of collision. The preservation qualities of ice cold Lake Superior have protected the old wreck well … On one dive, I examined some wooden planking near the stern. The wood was not in the least rotted and even the putty in the seams was intact … One could safely speculate that the cold water would also preserve the remains of the seven sailors entombed in her belly.” (Lake Superior Shipwrecks, pp. 76-77)
Who can save Curtis Kraft Mattson from villains of the highest order? Only Graham Hakala in a classy car. It’s all in the latest music video from Big Into.
I love Henry’s taste in the quirky and just plain odd. All of that is made visible in this WDIO interview with the local poet, who offers to teach us to become Canada Gooses.
Foxes & Fireflies begins to take shape as tables and bookshelves are set up in the space on Tower Avenue in Superior. (Photo via Foxes & Fireflies Facebook page)
A new independent bookstore will soon be part of a business incubation facility in Superior.
Foxes & Fireflies will be Superior’s only bookstore carrying an inventory of new books. The city does not have a chain bookstore and hasn’t had a notable outlet for new books since the locally owned JW Beecroft store closed in 2007.
The Minnesota State Fair runs Aug. 22 to Sept. 2, and local artist Holly Rose has been counting down to the State Fair on her Instagram feed. Check it out and nerd out with me.
You can buy Sweet Martha’s cookies at Aldi and Cub, at least — maybe Super One too, I don’t know. They taste pretty good. And the line is shorter, and my god, I am old.
“Get Still” is the second release from Alan Sparhawk‘s upcoming album White Roses, My God, scheduled for release Sept. 27 on Sub Pop Records. The video was directed by Ingrid Weise.
This undated postcard, published by Zenith Interstate News Company, shows coal docks in the Duluth Harbor. There is no caption on the back identifying the name of the docks, and the image is an illustration that might not exactly depict reality, but it is likely meant to represent the Clarkson Coal & Dock Company.
A gas station on the Fond du Lac Reservation (Photo by Matthew James)
In 2019, the University of Minnesota Duluth became the first in the University of Minnesota system to adopt a land acknowledgment, a formal statement recognizing that UMD “is located on the traditional, ancestral, and contemporary lands of Indigenous people.” The land acknowledgement references the 1854 treaty in which representatives of the Anishinaabe ceded some of their land to settlement (while retaining certain rights on that land) and came to an agreement about which areas would be governed under tribal sovereignty. This Geoguessr challenge briefly examines the significance of the 1854 treaty and includes significant sites from reservations throughout Northern Minnesota.
Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to discover a pillow is being pushed down over your face. Just like in the movies. How would you react?
Well, perhaps you can learn from me. I recently woke up to find myself being smothered, and I survived. How I escaped is less interesting than what went through my head in the first three seconds.
The human brain can perform quickly in these situations. It can sort through dozens of scenarios instantly. This is partly because our thoughts can be morbid at times, leading us to plan ahead for how to respond to things that are very unlikely to happen. We are also influenced by movies, television, books and other forms of storytelling that warn us there really are people who, randomly or premeditatedly, are stabbed, shot, strangled or otherwise rubbed out. If it happened to them, it can happen to you, right?
Being suffocated by someone pushing a pillow into your face should rank pretty low on the list of ways you might think you could be killed, even though it’s something that frequently happens on TV. It just seems so stupid. Why would someone planning a murder choose such a potentially flawed option? And why would anyone acting impulsively choose a pillow as the best available murder weapon? Are there really no blunt objects in the room? Is it really possible in the United States of America to enter a bedroom without passing a gun rack or a kitchen with a vast array of knives? Or is the murderer really limited to seeking out an extra pillow, decorative and fluffy, near the one under the head of the victim?
The fourth video release from Cloud Cult‘s new album Alchemy Creek is for the song “One Human Being.” The video and artwork are by Annabelle Poppa.
Hi Roger,
I love Duluth. It’s amazing. I live downtown with a view of the lake and South Shore, a three-minute bike ride from a twice-daily swim in our grandmotherly lake. I talk to my kids about how we shower in her, cook with her, drink her, swim in her, fish in her, water our tomatoes.
I mean, Duluth Coffee Kitchen is right there. What a blessing.
I love Duluth in all it’s menace and beauty. I see it growing. I see it flourishing. And I see it floundering.
WCCO-TV‘s John Lauritsen examines the rise and fall of Taconite Harbor in Cook County.
The latest video from Duluth band Indecent Proposal was shot on the S.S. William A. Irvin ore boat museum. The featured actors are Kelly Killorin, Stuart Gordon and Danielle Thralow.
