This Week: blues, boomboxes, baseball, brews and more
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find on this week’s PDD Calendar:
A cheery celebration of the music of misery lands at Bayfront Festival Park for the 27th time: the three-day Bayfront Blues Festival takes place, this weekend.
Also happening: John Cusack hoists his boombox of love, Brandi Carlile hits the Big Top, the National Night Out is city-wide on Tuesday, Spirit Valley Days are afoot in West Duluth on Wednesday through Sunday, there’s a talk about baseball at Karpeles Manuscript Museum to go with their current exhibit and Eastland: A New Musical sets sail at Teatro Zuccone.
Beers and the symphony orchestra meld together at Great Lakes Aquarium, the Two Harbors Kayak Festival is happening up northways, the Superior Downtown Summerfest is taking over Tower Avenue, the St. Louis River Alliance is holding their annual canoe and kayak tour and you don’t have to be an animal to run like one at the Lake Superior Zoo.
Summer of ’65: Trailer at Dredging Project Hit by Bomb
Fifty years ago — Aug. 2, 1965 — the DNT reports of a bomb explosion at a house trailer used by Ryan Construction of Janesville, Wis., on a dredging project at Rice’s Point. No one was injured. (more…)
Summer of ’65: Superior Gambling Raid
Fifty years ago — Aug. 1, 1965 — the DNT reports of a gambling raid in Superior that was “one of the largest mass gambling arrests in Superior that detectives could recall.” Another article, at the mid-right of the page, will raise eyebrows for its racially offensive headline, though such a thing was sadly common at the time. It is a story out of Americus, Ga., by the way, and not Duluth. (more…)
Summer of ’65: Introduction
A while back, Harbor City International School Mathematics Teacher Jenny Ahern passed along to me a bound edition of Duluth News Tribune’s from August of 1965. Somehow the book made its way to the school, and the school didn’t have a practical use for it. Since we are now 50 years removed from the ol’ “Summer of ’65,” I’ll be posting some clips each day for the next month. Prepare for nostalgia.
Lost iPhone in Downtown Duluth
I lost an iPhone on First Street Wednesday evening, July 29, following the Superior Siren / Devil’s Flying Machine show at the Red Herring. It has a gray “encase” case.
If found, please email me at grindcadence at gmail dot com. A $50 reward awaits. Thank you.
Selective Focus: Anniversaries
Kip Praslowicz, “Crowd. 4th of July Parade. Superior, WI”
This was a tough theme, and it’s gratifying to see how each of you broadened it: Richard’s 50th Anniversary of the Wright gas station in Cloquet and the 25th Beargrease, Kip’s shots from the 4th of July, or Kyle celebrating a month of Jane’s being cancer free. I went conventional, with my folks’ belated anniversary honeymoon. We mark time in many ways. (more…)
Where in Duluth?
Hint: There are actual living birds in the photos, they’re just hard to see.
Two Young Fawns in the Backyard Last Night
I just saw these two gems with their mom a week ago, but she is nowhere to be seen now, unfortunately. Possibly hit by a car. These kids seem old enough to fend for themselves, and I hope they do well.
Custom Cheetos Speedboat
Is Custom Cab Co. in Duluth bringing their service to the lake with this tricked out Cheetos boat or is it secretly filled with an infinite amount of Cheetos?
Hooks Dauss of the Duluth White Sox
George August “Hooks” Dauss pitched in the Major Leagues for the Detroit Tigers for 15 seasons following his stint with the Duluth White Sox. There are numerous images of him on the Internet in a Tigers uniform, but Duluth images are seemingly nonexistent. The baseball card above is a bit of a deception, because the “D” on the cap is for “Detroit.” The card is a “Corona Centennial reprint,” although the word “reprint” implies there was an original card like this 100 years ago, which wouldn’t seem to be the case. Anyway, as shown below, the image on the card is of Dauss as a Tiger. (more…)
Mesaba, Missabe or Mesabi? What’s correct?
This is a perfect question for all you PDDers. Is Mesaba spelled Mesaba, Missabe or Mesabi? Was the street named after the area of Northern Minnesota? The two are spelled different. What was the building named after? It has a third spelling. I’ve lived here 25 years and am still trying to figure this out. Help!
Video Archive: Saucetown
Video by Barrett Chase from a rainy evening cruise to Twin Ports Brewing Company (now Thirsty Pagan Brewing) circa 2005.
This Week: trains, plays and automobiles
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find on this week’s PDD Calendar:
The Chamber Golf Classic is teeing off bright and early on Monday morning, the Duluth Huskies are in the final games of their regular season, there’s dancing on the Lakewalk, the Great Lakes Aquarium is celebrating its sweet fifteen, the Kidney Walk is taking place and puppets will talk dirty at the Underground.
Kids can play musical instruments at the Library, it’s a board-game avalanche at Studio 15, the Howling Moon festival goes pop-country (yee-hawoooo!), Movies in the Park is showing the Pixar film Cars, Thomas the Tank Engine is rolling into town, the 29th Brewhouse Triathlon is being held at Island Lake Park and the Scenic Train on the St. Louis River is chugging right along.
Sunflower Drone Flyover
Shot somewhere on a road less traveled in West Central Minnesota.
Postcards from the Arrowhead Bridge
The Arrowhead Bridge connected West Duluth to Superior’s Billing’s Park neighborhood across the St. Louis River for 57 years. Built by the Arrowhead Bridge Co., it opened on March 15, 1927. The company charged a toll to cross the bridge until 1963, when Minnesota and Wisconsin state officials paid $200,000 to make it a toll-free public bridge.
The Arrowhead Bridge was dismantled in 1985 after the opening of the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge.
Lost: Orange Cat in East Hillside
Lost July 21:
Orange/”champagne” Tabby
Female, adult, 10 lbs. (pudgy)
Spayed, micro-chipped
Very timid and skittish around strangers and in unfamiliar places
Sweet, friendly, vocal
She wandered away Tuesday night or Wednesday morning and we haven’t seen her since. It is unlike her to go far from home. She would have been seen near Fourth Street and Eighth Avenue East or in the alley behind.
If seen or found please call 952-807-3882. She is very loved and greatly missed.
Crafted to Last Movie Trailer
Crafted To Last: Minnesota Beer Blossums screens tonight at the Redstar Club in the Fitger’s Brewery Complex.
Selective Focus: Color
Brandon Wagner , “Hawaiian Punch”
Paul wins the horse race from the 30 or so photogs who snapped Kip’s birthday shots last week. And I’ve included a black and white photo, because as Van Gogh asserted, they’re colors too; though pedants would argue that in a subtractive color space, white is the absence of color. I bristle. (more…)
Best Underwater Footage of Duluth’s Atlantean Ruins
Underwater footage of Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum off the Duluth Lakewalk in relatively clear conditions. First I videoed the collapsed column in 9 feet of water, Then because visibility was so good, I swam around the base of the building structure too. That is 16 feet deep according to a depth chart I saw once.
Lost cat in Lakeside
Maddie is lost! She’s a 10-year-old shorthair spayed female cat. Maddie is a dominantly white calico cat with a caramel-colored “mustache.” Maddie weighs about 10-11 lbs.
Maddie is an indoor cat who never goes outside. She’s sweet and cuddly when at home, but she’s timid and skittish in strange situations. She’s probably very frightened and hiding in bushes or under a deck/porch. Maddie was last seen on July 18 near 48th Avenue East and Cooke Street in Duluth. (more…)
Socks for Survivors
The Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse is holding its fourth annual golf scramble — “Socks for Survivors” — on July 31 at Nemadji Golf Course. If golf isn’t your thing, that’s okay! You can still help support CASDA’s essential services.
Many individuals come into crisis shelters with nothing but the clothing on their backs. Socks are the least donated, but one of the most needed items in shelters. As the kids say, “you can be a hero too!” (more…)
Chester Bowl Park Downhill Ski “Fun Slope”
Duluth’s Parks and Recreation Division is preparing Chester Bowl Park for a new “fun slope,” according to a news release issued today.
Crews will be out clearing out a section of the hill within the ski area in preparation for the upcoming winter season. The new “fun slope” with gentle waves of snowy berms for skiing was identified as a desired addition to the park in the Chester Park Mini-Master Plan, approved in November 2014.
Crews will be working this week into next during daytime hours, but the public should not experience any interruption in their use of the park spaces or trails. The area will be covered with wood chips to reduce erosion and smooth out the area winter operations.