Noon, a band from Munich, Germany, has a song called “Duluth.” Anyone who can translate the lyrics from Italian to English or explain the existence or meaning of this song in any way is encouraged to do so in the comments to this post.
In promotion of his recently released book, Hillsider, Duluth Mayor Don Ness has repeatedly shared his story of “a gift not given.” It’s from pages 155-156, under the title “Clooney & Zellweger.” The abridged version of the story goes like this:
George Clooney and Renee Zellweger made a trip to Duluth in 2008 to promote the movie Leatherheads, the plot of which is loosely based on the Duluth Eskimos football team. Ness was in his first month as mayor, and obviously wanted to impress the celebrities and do Duluth proud in front of the national media. He assigned his staff to put together an appropriate welcome gift for Clooney and Zellweger. The process of hunting down an old leatherhead helmet for an impressive plaque turned daunting, however, and on the morning of the visit the mayor discovered the gift ended up being a rather pathetic-looking miniature leatherhead resting on a small wooden pedestal. Ness made the executive decision to present the customary mayoral proclamation instead. He concludes his story with the punchline: “Over the years I’ve reconsidered a lot of choices. This isn’t one of ’em.”
Ness told the story last night at the DECC, which reminded me that after he told the story a few weeks ago at the Red Herring Lounge I asked him what happened to the silly little leatherhead-on-a-stick. He said he had no idea. It’s not in his office, and he hasn’t really asked around about it.
Did it land in the trash? Is it on a city employee’s mantle? Inquiring minds want to know.
I have a mystery on my hands. About a year ago while driving over West Ninth Street, just before the intersection of North Eighth Avenue and East Orange Street, something caught my eye — what appeared to be an old car in the woods. After a couple passes, I could see that it was indeed an old car. Curious, once home I started some research. On the newly updated Google maps this past spring, I could see the car in question. Checking the DNR Historical Airphotos, I found that up to 1961 there are what appears to be two buildings, houses or perhaps a house and some other type of building on that very corner. Sometime between 1961 and 1972 they were torn down, as they no longer appear on the 1972 imagery.
Having spent several hours at R.T. Quinlan’s Saloon on Sunday, I was reminded of the framed poster that used to hang outside the toilet stall in the men’s room, next to the urinal. I thought there was a good chance an image of it might be available on the Internet somewhere, but my searches for “classic bathtubs, breasts” yielded only distractions.
Across from the M&H gas station at Point of Rocks Park, there is a gap in the rocks, a ravine, for which in the past appeared to have many buildings around it. Was this the location of Duluth’s Little Italy? It seems like it may have been. The big question, however, is what is with the ravine there? It seems to be man made, and almost as if they were attempting to continue Superior Street, as it lines up near perfectly. The buildings slowly disappear over the decades, until they all seem to be gone by 1989. Was this ravine an attempt to continue Superior Street, or was there some other reason for it? It’s been fascinating me for some time. (I’ve included links to historical aerial photos of the area).
