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New PDD Feature: Rating Posts
As some of you have already figured out, we added a tool on PDD in which readers can rate how useful or enjoyable they find particular posts.
[UPDATE: Ratings were taken down 15 days after this post went up, so don’t look for them and feel stupid.]
See that row of stars at the bottom of this (and every other) post? That’s where the rating happens. All you have to do is click on the appropriate star to gauge your appreciation. The meaning behind the stars is basically this:
1 star – Lame
2 stars – Somewhat appreciated, but still kind of lame
3 stars – Above average
4 stars – Mint
5 stars – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
A NOTE ABOUT RATING THIS PARTICULAR POST: Rather than rating the quality of this post, please rate the whole idea of having ratings at all, as that will be useful to know. And feel free to comment about it as well.
Share the Love Super1
Why is it that only the West Duluth Super1 bakery has the recipe for Peanut Butter Kisses? I recently moved to the East side and neither the Kenwood or Superior St. Super1’s have these delicious calorie grenades. I had to make the drive last night to satisfy the cravings of my significant other…
Homegrown Lost and Found
LOST
I dropped my camera at the Main Club last night and didn’t realize the memory card popped out until today. Anybody find it?
FOUND
Someone lost a Nikon lens cover at the Main Club last night. It’s available at the bar.
Party Bus FAIL
To the organizers of Homegrown,
On the surface of it, having a “Highway 61 night” theme to Wednesday’s homegrown festivities seemed like a good idea. But it would have been a much better idea had there been adequate transportation up that namesake road to the Lakeview Castle, the main venue of the later evening, as was advertised. Frustratingly, there was not.
The night started well enough at the Twins Bar, with a stellar (as always) performance by the Rez. The “first” bus left on its journey to the Castle at 9 PM as scheduled. I wasn’t on it, but I imagine it was fairly sparsely ridden, as the bar was still pretty empty and the first act was still playing at that point.
Though none of the Homegrown volunteers working the Twins seemed to know anything specific about the bus times, the Homegrown Guide gave the impression that the bus would go up, turn around and come back, making multiple trips throughout the evening. But it turns out we were falsely led.
I talked to several people, who all were under the impression that the next bus would come be at 10. Between 9 and 10, the Twins went from sparse to quite full. Several people arrived specifically to catch the 10 PM bus up the shore, maybe to have a drink first. At least a couple dozen people were waiting for the bus around 10, but it didn’t show up and didn’t show up. Finally, we received word from a volunteer that the bus was parked at the Castle and wouldn’t be leaving there until 11 for another run.
What should have been a completely fun night became tainted with frustration. Had the bus done its job as advertised, we all could have gotten up there in time to see Old Knifey (a travesty to be missed) and stayed long enough to make the 25-minute trip worthwhile. But as it stood, you had a couple dozen people out waiting in the rain instead of at least being informed of the situation in a timely manner so they could go back inside, relax and enjoy the music at Twins. It also became a potentially dangerous situation when people who had already had a few drinks got fed up with waiting and decided to drive themselves up the shore instead of taking the bus. And once those unlucky enough to stick it out for the bus got on and got up the shore, they only had an hour or so of musical talent to enjoy at the Castle.
9 PM is a fine time to start running a bus if it’s your FIRST bus. But it’s too early to be the ONLY reasonable bus. Advertising a back-and-forth shuttle and then not having one just isn’t cool. Better to have no bus than half a bus and leave people stuck.
Growler Review
It’s no secret that Fitger’s Brewhouse beers are outstanding, but what happens when you mix a bunch of them together?
Having recently had 11 different Brewhouse beers available at an event, I was faced at the end of the night with many growlers that had less than an inch of beer left. So a consolidation into one growler seemed like the best idea.
The answer to the question at hand is this: If Wildfire Lager is one of the beers involved in the mix, the mix will taste like Wildfire Lager.
Chem-Trails over Duluth. Show the kids!
Here we have a small jet crossing back and forth over the central hillside/downtown area. The trails behind this jet are not to be mistaken as “Con-trails”!
Con-trails in warm weather will dissipate immediately if they are even visible at all. Who knows, maybe it is just white flour to excite the chattering class … bring out the weirdos, know what I mean. Perhaps entertainment or to mess up our eyes as we repeatedly look toward the sun. Do you suppose they are disabling our pineal glands, disrupting our inherent clairvoyant abilities? Will I wake up tomorrow with an arm growing out of my ass? I hope not, but in a strange way, I do. View an essay.
It’s 1773.

I spied the tea party today in Duluth. Actual tea was put into the harbor, loose and packet form. My question is: What public employee is gonna clean it up without people paying taxes anymore? I’d post a few pics but I’m not finding the upload button. Help?
Get yer Geek On!
Geek Prom is only three days away!
Are you feeling appropriately geeky/nerdy/dorky?
- 56 Geeks – how many flavors of geek are you?
- Dork Yearbook – vintage geeky photos celebrating the truly dorky among us
- The Geek Code – only those who know the secret can see how geeky you truly are
- Geek Monthly – show your mailman just how nerdy you are ($6.00 off with code “2da3”)
- Geek Test – do you even qualify to be a geek?
- Nerd Merit Badges– super nerdy badges to proudly display your geekiness
- Pathetic Geek Stories – real life geek humiliation in comic form
- Think Geek – where to spend all of your geeky dollars
- xkcd – these stick figures know all about math and geeky subculture
A Small Request

Can we all please STOP referring to this place as “Carmody’s”? The name of the bar is Carmody. Singular. Or, alternatively, Carmody Irish Pub.
It does not belong to a person named Carmody. Look at the sign. There is no apostrophe. There is no “S.”
Carmody. Plain and simple.
Anything else sounds, well, kind of stupid.
Comments edited/deleted
Since when, and why, do those posting on PDD have the ability to modify and/or delete comments that are not remotely offensive, inaccurate, etc.?
Yet another loss for the community
The DNT Attic is closed
https://www.areavoices.com/attic/?blog=48032
I don’t know about you all, but this is something that I came to really enjoy. I looked forward to new posts about old things all the time. I learned more about Duluth’s history through this blog than I ever did in school or by talking with the “old timers.”
Andrew was laid off on Friday. Very sad.
Sci Fi Spelling Bee
On April 18 I’m going to be hosting the first ever Sci Fi Spelling Bee at the Geek Prom and I need your help. I’m looking for words, terms, people and place names, and so on that are native to some science fiction franchise for use in the bee.
Please give me the following information for your entry.
Word (eg – phaser, Kashyyyk, frak)
Origin (what franchise) (eg – Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica)
Usage (eg – “Set your phaser to stun!” “Chewbacca went back to Kashyyyk.” “What the frak are you talking about?”)
If possible also give me some Documentation (a web link would be good) supporting your entry.
Also, these words don’t have to be hard. They can be fairly simple or intermediate words. They just have to be sci fi words.
So that we don’t spill the beans on all the words for the contestants, please don’t put them in the comments, but send them to me at scifibee@ironic1.com.
Thanks for your help! This should be fun!
First Hubcap of the Year

I live on 24th Avenue West, which gets a lot of traffic. Every year I find a few of these by the side of the street. Any suggestions on good uses for stray hubcaps?
The ol’ Switcheroo
Perfect Duluth Day moved to a different server today. Let us know if you notice any glitches.
Sorry about all the down time this week. Let’s hope that’s all behind us.
Please be seated. Your server will be with you in about five hours.
Surely some of you noticed PDD was down for several hours today. It was the fifth time we’ve had problems with our server in the past two months, so naturally we’ll be taking our business elsewhere very soon.
We hope you won’t take your blogging elsewhere while these difficulties are sorted out.
Whack Job Yard Art: Can I Get an Extension?
OK, so it’s after 10 p.m., but I thought I had until midnight to enter the Wacko Yard-art Photo Scavenger Hunt. Nonetheless, I’d like to submit these beauties.
These signs are located on Highway 53 near Cotton. I took these photos today, but the guy who makes these signs changes them every now and then. I remember back during the whole French Fries/Freedom Fries debate, he had a sign up that said, “Piss on the Poodles” with a picture of a French flag and, of course, a poodle.
When I was a kid, my family had a cabin near Cotton, and these signs always entertained me. Also, back then he had a sign advertising timber wolf pups for sale, which would always stir elaborate Jack London-esque fantasies in my young mind.
Anyway, I know I’m late. But I still wanted to share these pics. Perhaps I can get an honorable mention.
Tough day in the O.R.?

Loiselle Liquor understands, and is there to fill your needs.
I think it’s actually the word “daily” that I find most alarming.
Vandalism, Art, or Insanity?
Taking advantage of the nice weather today, I went for a walk in Leif Erickson Park, where I found several of these “installations” for lack of a better word. If you can’t quite make it out, these are eggs stuffed into pantyhose and thrown up into a tree.








