My kids aren’t kids anymore. In just a few years they’ll move out on their own. I remember the excitement of that time of life, but as a parent I’m struck by the enormous financial burdens they’ll face. In 1999, our first apartment rent in Hibbing was a little over $300 a month. You can’t… Read More →
Loss of Nashwauk ambulance would affect huge area
November 25, 2023 by 6 Comments
If you drop a wheel off the side of a county road, you realize how easy it would be to roll into the ditch. That chest pain you feel is probably just indigestion, but what if it was a heart attack? Cutting a fallen tree. Changing your car’s oil. Climbing a ladder to retrieve holiday… Read More →
Paint the town red
November 18, 2023 by 1 Comment
Nothing good happens when a middle aged man from the Iron Range gets a Doja Cat song stuck in his head. Plump, scruffy, festooned in plaid with a Stormy Kromer cap on my head, now is not the time for me to mouth “B****, I said what I said” at a fellow motorist. And yet,… Read More →
Where the wild deer are
November 11, 2023 by 1 Comment
Hunters harvested fewer deer in northern Minnesota during the rifle opener this year. Experts cite several theories to explain the downswing, including habitat, climate, predation and fewer hunters. But the real answer will shock you. [INT. well furnished library of a palatial mansion. DOE sips tea while gazing out a picture window. BUCK sits in… Read More →
Humor comes home to ‘This Small Town’
November 4, 2023 by 1 Comment
November brings homecoming season to small towns across America. No, not high school homecomings or summer reunions. People choose to go to those. I’m talking about good old fashioned family holiday visits, the kind borne of obligation, ritual and guilt. And love! Of course! Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range knows all about homecomings. For a century,… Read More →
Woods and waters, cheese and beer
October 28, 2023 by 2 Comments
What is the difference between Minnesota and Wisconsin? A foreign journalist asked me this question a few years ago. I prepared to extol the supremacy of my native Minnesota, only to emit a series of clicks, ums and ers. The journalist couldn’t tell the difference. My delay in responding only seemed to prove her point…. Read More →
The here and now of a sci-fi future
October 21, 2023 by 1 Comment
As daily news comes to resemble science fiction, I imbibe in more science fiction. No matter how fantastical the genre becomes, or how far it reaches into the future, science fiction reflects the present better than political science. Sci-fi speaks without inhibition about what we want, what we fear, and how we feel about ourselves…. Read More →
Canned squid and the damage done
October 14, 2023 by 1 Comment
The little yellow box on the clearance shelf caught my eye. Its vibrant art deco motif suggested the product might have been packaged anytime between 1929 and present day. But this was no antique shop. This was the Hibbing Walmart. A chorus of computerized beeps sang from the registers while this strange box marked “Vigo”… Read More →
1920s roar back to life
October 7, 2023 by Leave a Comment
The 1920s earned the nickname, “the Roaring ‘20s,” from economic exuberance and social change. Farm kids moved to town. Women started having fun in public. Social experiments like Prohibition became more complicated than originally planned. Despite all that, it was a politically conservative era, electing Harding, Coolidge and Hoover as presidents. The economy boomed for… Read More →
New car smells like the future
September 30, 2023 by Leave a Comment
How exciting to own a brand new car. I mean, it’s a minivan, but still. Look at all the features on this thing! “Hello, I am your vehicle.” You talk? “Yes. I am here to help you fully enjoy your driving experience.” Great, well, how does this thing work? “It’s simple. Just enter the vehicle… Read More →
