Paul Lundgren
The Ones That Got Away
This little snake managed to make the swim across Bent Trout Lake in Barnum without getting snatched into our boat. Roger had one lunge at it before it found refuge in the weeds.
A conversation that occurred about two hours later, when we saw a circle of small waves nearby on an otherwise calm lake:
Roger: What the hell is that over there?
Paul: Holy crap. Is that a whole school of fish?
Roger: I’ve never seen anything like it. Something’s going on over there.
Paul: Troll over! That’s gotta be fish or beaver or something.
Voice from the shore: Those aren’t fish! Those are scuba divers!
Paul: OK. Well, I guess we’re idiots then.
Roger: Yep. Pretty much.
References to Duluth in Popular Literature
Mark Twain’s Following the Equator
“A few ships rode at anchor in it — one of them a sailing vessel flying the American flag; and they said she came from Duluth! There’s a journey! Duluth is several thousand miles from the sea, and yet she is entitled to the proud name of Mistress of the Commercial Marine of the United States of America. There is only one free, independent, unsubsidized American ship sailing the foreign seas, and Duluth owns it. All by itself that ship is the American fleet. … For what Duluth has done, in building, equipping, and maintaining at her sole expense the American Foreign Commercial Fleet … we owe her a debt of gratitude which our hearts shall confess with quickened beats whenever her name is named henceforth. … Health and prosperity to Thee, O Duluth, American Queen of the Alien Seas!”
Ernest Hemingway’s The Torrents of Spring
“The foreman was a short, iron-jawed man. He had once made a trip as far as Duluth. Duluth was far across the blue waters of the lake in the hills of Minnesota. A wonderful thing had happened to him there.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
“A few days later he took him to Duluth and bought him a blue coat, six pair of white duck trousers, and a yachting cap.”
Dalton Trumbo’s letter to Guy Endore
“I’ve seen their faces in a miners’ union hall in Duluth on a night when the wind off the lake blew the snow so killingly and so deep that cars couldn’t be used and everybody walked to the meeting.”
Willa Cather’s The Song of the Lark
“I must go now. I had to give my lesson hour this morning to a Duluth woman who has come on to coach, and I must go and play ‘On Mighty Pens’ for her. Please tell Mr. Harsanyi that I think oratorio is a great chance for bluffers.”
Where in Duluth?
A special holiday edition of PDD’s photo geographical identification competition sensation thing or something.
As usual with “Where in Duluth?” there is no prize for being the first to identify the location of this photo, other than bragging rights.
Looner playing TPB Sept. 11
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZTU9iGdEwU
Now would someone kindly explain to me what a tamagotchee is? Not knowing is making me want to wang chung all over Sussudio.
Looner
Thirsty Pagan Brewing
Friday, Sept. 11 | 9 p.m.
Bumper Pool
When was the last time you played bumper pool? For me, I think it was in my grandmother’s basement in about 1984. I’m totally in the mood for a game right now. I must get the bumper pool itch every 25 years.
Nature Identification Quiz
Is that a hawk, a turkey vulture or a twig?
(Shot today in Duluth, along the western hillside.)
Remembering Laura MacArthur
A commenter to the post about the house being torn down for construction of the new Laura MacArthur Elementary asked the question, “Who is Laura MacArthur anyway?”
Laura MacArthur was an elementary and junior high school teacher and principal in West Duluth for over four decades.
Born in England, she came to the United States with her family at around the age of 10. She attended high school in Wooster, Ohio, and graduated from the College of Wooster.
She came to Duluth in the spring of 1896, where she was assigned to teach Latin, algebra and civics to ninth graders at Longfellow School.
Rules for Teachers, 1905 and 1872
During my recent visit to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Walnut Grove, I had a good laugh reading two lists of rules on the walls of the little schoolhouse.
Fastest Vote in the West
Most precincts, like mine in West Duluth, have only two races on the ballot this year. At least we get to vote for two candidates in each.
Click here for a list of candidates that includes all the district races.
Job opportunity: Become the leader of Duluth’s music scene bureaucracy
The Homegrown Music Festival is looking for a director to follow in the footsteps of Paul Connolly, who has stepped down from the position.
Homegrown is Duluth’s yearly celebration of local music, featuring eight days of concerts with performances by well over 100 bands.
The 12th annual Homegrown will be held May 2 to 9, 2010.
The festival director is responsible for the overall management of Homegrown. (more…)
How I Spent My Summer Vacation in Minnesota with Daniel Johnston, Laura Ingalls Wilder, my great-great-grandparents and a bunch of short-fiction writers
There comes a time in every Minnesota man’s summer when he climbs into a rusty conversion van with the love of his life and sets out across the state in search of everything and nothing in particular.
Once the dog and the cooler of beer are secure in back, it’s off we go.
From the Rock Poster Archive | 1999
Ten year’s ago, the hottest chainsaw-weilding band in the country played at Stargate in Superior. For some reason I held on to the poster, even though I did not attend. I did see Jackyl open for Damn Yankees at the DECC in 1992, however.
Did anyone see the Soup Town show? Anyone? Anyone?
Fall allergy season begins!
It started for me today. Anyone else?
My favorite remedies are sleeping 12 hours a day and eating every second that I’m awake. Snorting cromolyn sodium also helps.
1935 Wheaties box featuring Frank “Butch” Larson
Duluth native Frank “Butch” Larson appeared on Wheaties cereal boxes in 1935. Finding one of those boxes after 74 years might be a challenge. (more…)
You better shutup all that screamin’
Three kids are playing or doing whatever in their backyard. I can’t see them, I can only hear them because they’re all yelling at each other.
Suddenly, the voice of what is likely the father drowns them all out with, “You better shutup all that screamin’!”
I’m not questioning this parenting method at all; I’m just telling the story as a fan of irony.
(Additional irony is that this follows the “Peaceful Waves” post. Serenity now!)
It’s hard to watch a house come down
This house at 738 N. Central Ave. in West Duluth was ripped down yesterday to make way for the new Laura MacArthur Elementary School. I think the new school will be great, and I have no particular reason to be sentimental about this house or any of the others on the block, but there’s something that punches me in the gut when I watch a house get smashed to bits. (more…)
Historic Day at Denfeld
Ten new members were inducted into Denfeld High School’s Hunter Hall of Fame on Saturday. At the end of the ceremony, descendants of Robert E. Denfeld and Walter Hunting were brought to the stage. Although the phrase “Denfeld Hunters” has been around since the 1930s, the Denfeld and Hunting families had never met before. (Photo by Butch Williams)
Sgt. Hamil’s behind-the-back strikeout pitch
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3suTQo_kM
August 3, 2009 | Wheeler Fields, Duluth MN
“Most luckiest” indeed, as Sarge has thrown at least one behind-the-back pitch every game this season without success, knowing eventually he’d land one. The batter seems frozen in disbelief, not even considering taking a swing.
End of Stagecoaches in Duluth
On August 1, 1870, the St. Paul and Lake Superior Stagecoaches ceremoniously quit service with the opening of the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad. On this day, the first train arrived in Duluth from St. Paul, a roughly 150-mile trip that took 16 hours.
–Susan Marks, Historic Photos of Minnesota
Turner Publishing Company, 2009
Yeah! Demolition Derby! Yeah!
Thank you, Head of the Lakes Fair.
I think the announcer said a guy named Matt from Superior was the winner. Really, in a smash-up derby, everyone wins.
Not that this is a newsflash or anything, but holy living Christ God Almighty does Ticketmaster suck big, wet ones or what? I mean, REALLY? Are they EFFing serious?!?
Tickets to Daniel Johnston at First Avenue are $14 each. So, two tickets would be $28, right? That seems reasonable to me.
What? Oh, there’s a service charge. Well, I suppose that’s not a big deal. How much more could it be, really?
What? Over 60 percent more? All right, in that case I guess I’ll just throw my keyboard through my monitor and change my plans for Aug. 13.
Advance tickets/ages 18+ with valid ID — US $14.00 x 2
Total Building Facility Charge(s) — US $1.00 x 2
Total Convenience Charge(s) — US $4.95 x 2
Additional Taxes — US $0.74
Order Processing Charge(s) — US $4.57
Standard Mail — No Charge
TOTAL CHARGES US $45.21
Last Look at Three West Duluth Structures
Anticipating the demolition of the Duluth Motel and Star Enterprises in West Duluth, I took a few photos two weeks ago. Both buildings are rubble now.