I thought these scams went away years ago but I guess not.

I answer the phone a lot for the small company I work for, and in the past couple of months we have gotten about three different phone calls asking about refilling our copier supplies. We like to do business locally, and I know our supplier personally so I knew these people weren’t legit. But I thought I’d share it with all of you so you don’t get taken by this scam.

When they called our office they tried to talk to me like they knew me, then said, “Can we get the model number of your printer we misplaced it?” I then asked, “May I ask who’s calling?” and one caller actually said, “I’m your worst nightmare, B!&$h” Then hung up. While entertaining, still somewhat scary.

I don’t want to see our area children suffer from a lack of knowledge today with no school and am hoping parents or day care workers send them outside for cold weather experiments and share them on PDD. But be careful.

Ever since I read a blog post on 3rd Ward I have had the idea of starting this type of center in the area I live in now. The Duluth News Tribune had an article the other day about the trials of selling the shutdown schools and I thought the shuttered Morgan Park school would be an awesome location. I thought that a music studio could be added to the music wing of the schools also. If all the wood-working equipment and the kiln were still there it would be an added bonus.

I think it would be a cool add to the Duluth community. Probably a pipe dream though!

I used to think comedian Brian Posehn (center) would be the perfect actor to play the role of local musician/tattoo artist Matt Osterlund (left), but now I’m seeing a resemblance to local musician/restaurant propagandist Brad Nelson (right).

While my data collection process might be flawed (data gained mostly by conformation bias) there sure seems to be a recent uptick in Duluth pipe smokers.

I am talking about the briar pipe, burley and latakia type of pipe smoker not the glass and green type. While pipes are a distant third to cigs and cigars, I have run into 6-8 pipe smokers just in the past two months and many more over the past year. Usually 35-45 types, all who appear to have penises.

While this might be borderline PDD topic material I am interested if anyone else noticed or is paying attention. Duluth in general has been a pretty bare place for pipe tobacco since the shop on First Avenue West shut down. Buttes in West Duluth is the only shop that sorta has real pipe tobacco that I know of. Maybe add it to your business plan to make a buck or two.

Any smokers the way of the briar out there in PDD land?

I’m looking to borrow a Grinch costume for my junior high choir concert in December. A fellow teacher told me that she saw two different marching bands with a costumed Grinch at the Christmas City of the North Parade on Friday. Of course, I wasn’t there, but does anyone remember which two marching bands might have had a green, Grouchy Santa monster marching with them? I hear one of the bands was in blue uniforms with an S on their chests.

If no one went to the parade, does anyone know of a wacky uncle or a costume shop that might have this particular costume? The concert is coming up fast!

This bird is living in the Home Dept Store in Duluth. Or it was a few days ago anyway.

At first I just caught it out of the corner of my eye, thinking it was a figment of my imagination, then I discovered it was real. Then, and this is the best part, a lovely clerk in a bright orange smock caught me and my daughter looking for the bird and she started to tell us its remarkable story.