News and Current Affairs

I am trying to organize a group of follks to go down to City Hall on Friday and take advantage of the Domestic Partnership Registry.  Both same sex and opposite sex couples are encouraged to join us.  If this is of any interest to you please let me know.

Lake Superior Port Cities Inc., publishers of Lake Superior Magazine, will host an Open House on July 16 to celebrate its 30th anniversary. Refreshments will be served during the Open House from 3 to 7 p.m. in the magazine offices at 310 E. Superior St.

There will be drawings for door prizes and those who attend can enter the “Subscription-a-Day” drawings that will continue through August 30. There will also be a Grand Prize drawing, valued at more than $300, awarded on August 31.

The Commemorative Issue of Lake Superior Magazine, which includes a special fold-out poster of a photo by Jay Steinke, will be available at the event and on newsstands shortly afterward.

Those who can’t attend the Open House, but would like to enter the drawings, may drop in any time before the end of August.

Ninety percent of all magazine startups do not survive their first decade, so Lake Superior Magazine plans more than a month’s worth of celebrating . . . that makes it a good time to drop by the office and share the excitement.

For more information, call 888-BIG-LAKE (888-244-5253) or log on to www.lakesuperior.com.

You are invited to an Open House and unveiling of the YWCA Herstory Wall highlighting 116 years of perseverance by area women.

The permanent museum quality display is on exhibit at the new administration offices of the YWCA at the Building for Women, 32 E First St.

Please join our Board and Staff for tours of our new offices as well. Hors d’ oeuvres will be served.

Thursday, July 16, 3:30-6PM

Admission is free.

No shit – I just saw a “Palin for President – 2012” on the digital billboard set up by the Enterprise Rental Shop. That went up fast.

DuluthJournal.com is reporting that Amber Fryklund has stepped down as co-coach of the Duluth Northern Stars high school girl’s hockey team. The team’s other co-coach, Jim Knapp, stepped down in late May. Read more.

Volunteers have prepared over 900 pies for Saturday’s 5th annual Rhubarb Festival.

“We are even selling rhubarb burritos again this year,” Pies and Treats committee co-chair Char Juntunen said in a prepared statement. “We tried the Burritos last year at the last minute and they were a hit!” Read more.

Row, row, row your boat

Over 250 rowers from more than six clubs are expected to compete in the Duluth Rowing Club’s 51st Annual International Rowing Regatta on Saturday, July 11. Read more.

Here’s Chris Raabe with a half-mile lead passing Ironic1’s house. He’s the first Minnesotan since Dick Beardsley to win Grandma’s Marathon! Yowza! It was a hot one out there.

With the impending Grandma’s Marathon, where is the best place to hide?

It’s Grandma’s Marathon week, so runners will be flooding into town for the long, rolling race along the shore of Lake Superior. It’s an iconic setting and an iconic race.

I’ve wondered a few times since moving here, though, if there should be another iconic running race in Duluth, one that celebrates another facet of Duluth like Grandma’s celebrates the lake. My proposal: A run from the shore of Lake Superior to the top of the hill. Call it the “Superior-to-Skyline Run.” Short, simple and steep. Let’s start crowning Duluth’s Kings (and Queens) of the Hill.

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It’s quilters vs. poets in the ultimate face-off in Duluth. This weekend, see the po-po-poetry take on the stitch-stitch-stitchers in what promises to be a fight to the death. Watch as quilting bees are disrupted with spoken word jams with gangs from each side rumbling over the merits of hands-on artistry vs. word assembly. It’s tactile vs. fragile. Quilts against quatrains.

It all starts Thursday when the heavyweights of QuiltCon and PoCon square off. Beatrice Ludden takes on Rainbow Star. Val Struthers takes her needle against Will Strom’s pen.

It all leads to the ultimate showdown Saturday night when the machines take center stage for an inhumane stand-off: Stitcher 2000 vs. Thesaurus Rex. Be there as lines and threads are crossed with any means necessary to come out on top.

It’s all at the DECC, and in the alleys after dark. Take a stitch in rhyme and see this mixed arts extravaganza melee. Limited engagement, only in Duluth.