Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act of 1978
This 10-minute documentary on the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act of 1978 was produced by Sam Fulton and Mark Rogalski for National History Day on the theme of “Debate & Diplomacy.” The process paper and bibliography is at mn.nhd.org.
PDD Quiz: May 2022
See how much of this month’s headlines you remember with this current events quiz for May 2022!
Baseball will be the theme of the next PDD quiz, which comes your way on June 12. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by June 8. (more…)
Johnny Depp – Amber Heard Trial vs. Ukraine War: A Mashup
Judge Azcarate agrees to a last-minute venue change and the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard defamation trial moves to Ukraine. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard get in Russian T-90 tanks spray-painted with “Z”s to fight each other. One is in a Russian tank, and the other one is in a Russian tank appropriated by Ukraine. No one knows which is which. The celebrities pursue each other shooting high explosive rounds from the 125 mm smooth-bore tank guns. Their “cope cages” and reactive armor spectacularly fail. The roads clog with burned-out tanks as the battle takes longer than legal analysts expected.
Bogged down in the countryside by the infamous Ukrainian mud, the venue changes again. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard pursue each other through the bowels of the sprawling steel plant complex at Mariupol, on the north coast of the Sea of Azov. Miles of tunnels under the plant conceal what really happened in the fog of war. All we know is they are both actors on the destabilizing world stage, cogs in a grinding apocalypse.
Johnny Depp and Amber Heard level each other’s cities in a great humanitarian crisis. Threats of a Johnny Depp chemical weapons attack haunt Amber Heard who puts on an aging gas mask and thinks, “This might be it” as she rushes into the fight. But the threats were a bluff: Johnny Depp has snorted all the nerve gas. (more…)
Postcard from Duluth’s Lincoln Park Pond
This 110-year-old postcard offers an illustrated view of the pond at Lincoln Park. The sender of this card, Anna Carlson, was kind enough to pencil her name on the front. The card is postmarked May 22, 1912 and the recipient is Mildred Wilkenson of Clare, Mich., courtesy of H. Hales. (more…)
Sean Kelly – “The Wreck of the Hotel Chris Swanson”
Pennsylvania-based parody musician Sean Kelly has a new song that is focused on Two Harbors Mayor Chris Swanson, who faces a recall election if he does not resign by May 31. Swanson has been accused of having conflicts of interest between his business pursuits and his role as mayor.
Best wolf pup howls from Voyageurs National Park
The Voyageurs Wolf Project is trying to raise $100,000 to continue studying 10 different wolf packs. If an adorable montage of the best wolf pup howls can’t get that done, nothing can.
The Voyageurs Wolf Project is focused on understanding the summer ecology of wolves in Voyageurs National Park, about 100 miles north of Duluth.
Ingeborg von Agassiz – “My Little Red Heart”
A new song and video from Duluth-based electro-folk artist Ingeborg von Agassiz.
Minnesota Historia: Hunting for Ancient Agates
What is it about agates that cause such an obsession? Let the experts in Moose Lake, the Agate Capital of the World and home of the Agate Stampede, fill you in.
Minnesota Historia is a six-part WDSE-TV web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
Have you seen Rollo, the Limit?
Big names have performed in Duluth in the past — you’ll find prideful mention of celebrities such as Louis Armstrong, Charlie Chaplin and Buddy Holly having graced our grounds with their talents. But alarmingly missing from this impressive list of notables is Rollo the Limit, the roller skating daredevil. (more…)
Dissonance Sessions: Charlie Parr
Duluth’s Charlie Parr is the featured artist on the first episode of Dissonance Sessions, a video series that is part art therapy session, part recording session. Parr discusses his experiences with depression, grief, anxiety and family dynamics while delivering intimate performances of songs from his most recent album, Last of the Better Days Ahead. The show is hosted by Sarah Souder Johnson. (more…)
Duluth aerial photos, then and now, compared and combined
Sometime back, I included an aerial photo in a PDD comment and realized that because they are taken from straight overhead, the photos on Minnesota Historical Aerial Photographs Online can be matched up pretty easily with Google’s current aerial imagery. And then I put that thought aside for quite some months until I finally came back to it and put together this seven-part series of aerial photos showing places in Duluth that have changed somewhat dramatically over the past decades. (more…)
Duluth Homegrown Kickball Classic 2022: A Short Film
Photographer Kip Praslowicz gets all artsy with this video showcasing Homegrown Music Festival kickball athleticism.
PDD Quiz: Duluth Parks III
With summer (hopefully) upon us, it’s time for a third quiz on Duluth parks (find previous entries here and here). As with the previous two entries, Duluth’s Historical Parks: Their First 160 Years, by Tony Dierckins and Nancy S. Nelson, was an invaluable source of information.
The next PDD quiz will cover headlines from May 2022; it will be published on May 29. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at aklawite@d.umn.edu by May 26. (more…)
Ripped in Superior’s East End in 2002
[Editor’s note: For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. The Sultan of Sot visited drinking establishments in the East End of Superior for this article, which appeared in the May 1, 2002 issue of the Ripsaw newspaper. A few updates: The Office went out of business in 2015. East End Tavern and Hudy’s Bar remain in business. Mr. B’s later became Pudge’s]
I set out looking for Eddie’s Ribs in Superior’s Itasca neighborhood, following the left-handed, pencil-scrawled directions of some coffin-dodger I met at the Pioneer Bar in Duluth. At some point, I take a turn that I’m pretty sure is incorrect, driving into an area that common logic would demand turn into either a suburb or a swamp, when suddenly — whoa! — a bunch of bars. Needless to say, it’s at this point that the whole big-plate-of-ribs idea is immediately jettisoned to make way for the get-hammered-right-here-and-now idea. It’s a common occurrence in my life. (more…)
Duluth: A Great Place to Visit and an Even Better Place to Live
The aerial view of Bayfront Park during its yellow canopy days at the five-second mark of this 1991 Duluth tourism promo is perhaps the highlight.
Trampled by Turtles – “Whiskey”
Trampled by Turtles perform “Whiskey” at GLC Live at 20 Monroe in Grand Rapids, Mich. The song is from the band’s 2004 album Songs from a Ghost Town. The video was shot by Justin Razmus, Heather Kanig and Cooper Baumgartner and edited by 616 Media with audio mixed by Adam Krinsky.
Postcard from the Duluth-Superior Hi Bridge
Before the Blatnik Bridge was named for Congressman John A. Blatnik in 1971, it was called the Duluth-Superior Bridge and known colloquially as the “High Bridge,” but for some reason it shows up on a few postcards as the “Hi Bridge,” as if people were supposed to wave and say Minnesota-nice hellos as they crossed. (more…)
Northern Lights Time Lapse
Seth Trobec put together this time-lapse compilation video to document the two best aurora displays he has witnessed in 2022. One of the two scenes was shot about 80 miles northwest of Duluth.
“The scene with the stream and trees across a field was set near Calio, North Dakota the night of March 30-31,” Trobec wrote in the YouTube description. “The other lightshow in the video was viewed from Deadhorse Lake near Marcell, Minnesota. I took thousands of pictures with my Sony A7riii, each of those nights, and compiled the best parts for this video and set it to music.”
The “Sorry” Bowl
Following up on my project to communicate with the far future using stone or metal, I have produced the first piece: The “Sorry” Bowl. This was a collaboration with Sean MacManus/MacManus Stoneworks. Thinking of likely futures, I chose the word “sorry” because it’s what I really wanted to say. The rest of the story:
Minnesota Historia: The Root Beer Lady
Dorothy Molter was the last permanent resident of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. She sold candy bars and homemade soft drinks to paddlers for decades. But there’s so much more to her story than root beer.
Minnesota Historia is a six-part WDSE-TV web series dedicated to Minnesota’s quirky past. It is hosted by Hailey Eidenschink and produced/edited/written by Mike Scholtz.
Live-in volunteers help provide care at Bob Tavani House
Kate Bradley stands on the porch of the Bob Tavani House for Medical Respite. Bradley and her partner, Kelly Wallin, are live-in volunteers who help provide shelter and care for those in need of housing after a hospital stay. (Photo by Jack Wiedner)
Kate Bradley clears off a wooden dining-room table, which doubles as her desk during the day. She switches out her laptop and office supplies for mismatched plates and silverware.
Bradley’s partner, Kelly Wallin, scrounges through the refrigerator, gathering ingredients for meatloaf. “No ketchup,” he reminds himself, as one of the residents is allergic to tomatoes. He will have to improvise. (more…)
Twin Ports breweries nab three medals at World Beer Cup
Representatives of Bent Paddle (left) and Earth Rider (right) accepted medals at the 2022 World Beer Cup.
Bent Paddle in Duluth and Earth Rider in Superior each won gold medals at the World Beer Cup on May 5. It’s the first time more than one medal was won by the region’s breweries at the competition. Bent Paddle also took home a bronze medal. (more…)
The Slice: Run, Smelt, Run Parade 2022
Magic Smelt Puppet Troupe brought back its smelt-themed second-line parade and fish fry in 2022 after a two-year absence due to COVID-19. The WDSE-TV clip above is from The Slice, a series that presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north. (more…)
PDD Quiz Delayed
Greetings, PDD quizzers!
The PDD quiz will be delayed by one week; the next installment of the Duluth parks quiz will be published on May 22.
See you then!
A Weird Experience Writing About Great Lakes Shipwrecks
I got spooked by a coincidence while researching Great Lakes shipwrecks for a story. The coincidence involved a shipwreck so terrifying I decided not to write my story at all.
I had planned to write about each category of maritime disaster: shipwrecks, ghost ships, and disappearances. With a proper shipwreck, the fact of the sinking is undisputed, but the wreck itself may or may not ever be found. A ghost ship has been abandoned but doesn’t immediately sink, sometimes not for years, resulting in haunting sighting reports. I had written a story about a ghost ship already. Now I wanted to write about a ship disappearing. With such missing ships, a sinking is often assumed, but the ship is simply gone; it may as well have sailed into a black hole.
My disappearance tale remains unwritten. The story I was going to write was of a ship vanishing in plain sight as it sailed under the Aerial Lift Bridge. The mystery would be where did it go, and how — was it all an illusion/what is reality anyway, etc. The ship’s possible fates would include “what if the lift bridge acted like a teleporter.” The end would reveal a document recording an encounter with the ship in the distant past, describing the crew as phased half into the deck — a nod to the Philadelphia Experiment. The story would end with this horror image of the still-alive crew, instead of with an explanation. Dude this story was going to rock. All I needed was the name of this doomed hell ship and I could start writing. (more…)