Duluth You & Me: Fourth of July Fireworks
Duluth’s 2020 fireworks were canceled … twice … so here’s the best we can do. (more…)
PDD Quiz: August 2020 in Review
Another month is nearly over, which means it’s time for the PDD current events quiz!
The next PDD quiz, on train and railroad trivia, will be published on Sept. 13. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by Sept. 10. (more…)
Sharkgate: The Lake Superior Bull Shark Conspiracy
I confess to creating and posting the “Lake Superior Bull Shark Encounter” video which has rocked this community, even though, as is widely known, I have no credibility. This essay offers a full accounting of the affair, which caused a four-day firestorm as the video propagated online, through the media, and into the hallowed halls of academia. I will debunk my own video to demonstrate it is, in fact, a poorly-made fake. In addition, I will carefully document my utter and total lack of credibility. Hopefully this will be enough to assuage an alleged army of enraged Redditors devoted to my destruction, the undead army I accidentally raised when I strapped on a toy shark fin.
My confession begins with my purchase of the toy. On Aug. 8, I posted a picture of myself wearing it on my personal public Facebook page and my public “Lake Superior Aquaman” Instagram account. The text of those posts reads, “It’s unclear where these rumors of sharks in Lake Superior originate. But I will be swimming up and down the beaches until I get to the bottom of it.” It was an open joke, a lark, an entrant to a well-established Duluth tradition of joking about sharks. You see variants on local bumper stickers such as “Shark-Free” on a map of Lake Superior. Keeping Lake Superior shark-free has even become a running joke among the mayoralty. (more…)
Postcard from Central High School in 1910
This postcard of Duluth Central High School is postmarked Aug. 29, 1910 — 110 years ago today.
The message on the back is to Miss Nevada Simpson of Crookston, Minn. (more…)
Selective Focus: Signs
This week, Portia Johnson and Cheryl Reitan provide thoughts and images regarding the often homemade signs around town supporting Black Lives Matter.
PJ CR: In Duluth, many of the signs arrived soon after George Floyd was murdered but new ones crop up from time to time. They appear on residential streets and throughfares. Most of them say, “Black Lives Matter,” but there are other words too, “No peace, no justice,” the chilling, “I Can’t Breathe,” and others.
The message appears, often hand painted and imperfect but always betraying a fierce determination. The signs make people look. They say, “this is important, Black lives matter.”
(more…)
Kresge Girls’ Baseball Team of 1920
From the Aug. 28, 1920 Duluth Herald.
Duluth’s North Star Festival and Golden Jubilee of 1920
The Duluth Public Library’s Vintage Duluth blog has published a feature on Duluth’s North Star Festival and Golden Jubilee, which took place 100 years ago. The events marked Duluth’s 50th year as a city. (more…)
The Brothers Burn Mountain – “I Won’t Wait for a Ride”
The Brothers Burn Mountain are releasing a new album, The Dark Exchange, in early September. It’s a collaboration with Alan Sparhawk of Low and several other musicians, including Rich Mattson and Germaine Gemberling. The video for “I Won’t Wait For A Ride” is directed by Roger D. Feldhans.
R.I.P. Mark Sertich, world’s oldest hockey player
Duluth’s Mark Sertich, the world’s oldest hockey player, was still skating on his 99th birthday in July. He died on Monday from complications of a stroke. (more…)
Postcard from Jay Cooke State Park
This undated postcard from Gallagher’s Studio of Photography shows a waterfall and the famous swinging bridge on the St. Louis River at Jay Cooke State Park. (more…)
Selective Focus: UMD Bathroom Reviews
Students and faculty may not be on UMD’s campus for a few more weeks due to Coronavirus concerns, but you can enjoy a virtual tour thanks to the UMD Bathroom Reviews Instagram account. (more…)
Thomas X featuring Brandon Graves – “I’m Anishinaabe”
From the Red Lake Reservation, about 100 miles northwest of Duluth, comes this musical celebration of Anishinaabe Ojibwe culture.
Thomas Barrett, aka Thomas X, leads a group of Red Lake Boys and Girls Club members who sing and dance along to Barrett’s original song, “I’m Anishinaabe.”
Redhead Mountain Bike Park Overview
Red Head Mountain Bike Park opened this summer on former Iron Range mineland near the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm. (more…)
Patrick Nelson – “The Good Life”
Superior native and University of Minnesota Duluth alum Patrick Nelson has released this cover of Bill LaBounty’s 1988 single “The Good Life.”
Nelson handles the drums, bass, guitars, organ and vocals from Minneapolis. Elliott Blaufuss is on horns, additional keys and guitars from Nashville.
Duluth You & Me: Lake Superior Zoo
Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Lake Superior Zoo
Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.
Time in Duluth still calls me back every year
After spending almost 18 years living in Duluth, it still calls me back every year. I’ve lived a lot of places in my life and no one place is quite the same. Some places just feel more like home than any other; Duluth is the one for me. So many memories, so many still very good friends. Hope to move back someday, but for now I’m experiencing the rest of life. I’m currently living in Denver, Colo., but there just isn’t the same feeling, the same vibe and the same immersion I felt when I lived in Duluth.
Mystery Photo #121: Buggy Boys
A recurring source of confusion in the Mystery Photo series is whether particular images that share the stamp of the Post Card Shop in Minneapolis and the Penny Arcade in Duluth were shot in Minneapolis or Duluth. Here is another such image.
Duluth Eye Candy: An Aerial Voyage
Why we live here.
Discover all-new views of our home in this series of my favorite drone footage shot in 2020.
Smellscape/Hellscape: The Life of the Nose in Urban Close Quarters During a Pandemic
“The concept of smellscapes suggests that, like visual impressions, smells may be spatially ordered or place-related. It is clear, however, that any conceptualization of smellscape must recognize that the perceived smellscape will be non-continuous, fragmentary in space and episodic in time, and limited by the height of our noses from the ground, where smells tend to linger.”
—Douglas Porteous, “Smellscape,”
The Smell Culture Reader, edited by Jim Drobnick
My neighbor’s yard is a source of olfactory joy for a short time each summer, and a source of olfactory misery for most of the rest of the year.
In early summer, when lilacs explode in this Lake Superior latitude, for a few weeks the bush just across the property boundary serves as the star of the local smellscape. I sit on the small patio I built and bathe in the glory of the perfumery. Then, all too soon, the flowers give way to small, hard green seeds, and the smell goes where all smells go, into memory. (more…)
Three Minnesota women who paved way for women suffrage
To mark a century of women voting, Minnesota Public Radio took a look back at the work of three Minnesota women who helped break down barriers and paved the way for women’s suffrage. The trio includes Duluthian Sarah Burger Stearns. (more…)
So Good to Be Home
I miss Duluth!!! After spending 10 years here, my job relocated me to Knoxville, Tenn. This week I was in town for a business trip when a colleague invited me to go wakesurfing on “The Big Lake.” I steeled myself for the inevitable shock of getting into the lake, but I jumped into the real shock of 70-degree water in the bay!
Lake Superior, clear sky, 80 degrees, and a boat full of fantastic friends had me feeling the loss of moving away from Duluth. The end of the evening rolled in and it was time to go home, except I knew I needed that one picture to capture the moment. It was a Perfect Duluth Day! Can’t wait to be back.
Ingeborg von Agassiz – “Slow Motion Lullaby”
Another new music composition and video by Duluth’s Ingeborg von Agassiz.