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Shining steel in the summer of change
On a map the thin red line of the Mesabi iron Range seems to cradle the vast green forests and dark blue lakes of Northern Minnesota. Mesabi, an industrial frontier these last 125 years, has always been where nature meets human progress — for better and worse. So it continues this ever-warming summer of 2015.…
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On Graduation Day
Graduation Day is so much cliché, so much Pomp and Circumstance that they even named the song for it. You dress your best — new tie and dad’s clip, blue dress and subtle flash of white camisole — only to cover all with a plastic table cloth from the dollar store, topping your round head…
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Whatever gets you through the night
As a teenager l slept in the basement on a mildewed, brown-speckled mattress in the same room as a sump pump that rattled to life every time it rained. No, this isn’t the start of a long lost Dickens novel set on the Iron Range. I slept here by choice, giving my sister my warm,…
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A simmering economic crisis on the Iron Range
You know the old saying. If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water it will hop right out. But if you put a frog in a pot of cool water, gradually turning up the heat, the frog won’t realize it’s boiling to death. Politicians of all stripes have boiled a bog’s worth of rhetorical frogs over the years.…
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Don’t worry, they’re just dangerous parasites
Birch trees are nature’s version of that guy you know strung like a trip wire for any good excuse to start wearing shorts again. It’s not about temperature. It’s about attitude. Anyway, it actually is warm now and the birches have already donned light green, pale trunks shining in the sun. Trees of all colors and ages…
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The mighty power of the freshwater seas
In Northern Minnesota, one’s eyes simply adjust to seeing the Canadian flag alongside the Stars and Stripes. Whether it started as a diplomatic favor, or a ploy to pull in Canadian tourists, the practice shows no signs of changing. The pep bands learn “O, Canada” and it’s widely understood that we have a lot more…
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The Iron Range is dead; long live the Range
“The king is dead; long live the king.” This saying from the height of European monarchies meant when the person at a nation’s helm physically died, the title lived on with the next person in the royal line. Massive change could be seen as mere progression. This simple continuity kept order even at a time…
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On wilderness
This week the ice retreated from the lake. Hard-blowing southern winds warmed the jackets off our backs before knocking over the driveway basketball hoop just hours after we set it up. Colorful birds, fresh off winging 2,000 miles, flitted through our old trees, considered the scene, moved on. When you live in the woods of…
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Eat the exercise, drink the burn
If exercise were a food or drink, I would want more of it. It makes me feel great. It helps me function better around other people. My clothes fit more comfortably and I have more energy. But I can’t eat exercise, nor can I chug it from a brown paper sack. So when the time…
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Ma Peep and the way things are
“It ain’t easy being no Peep,” she said. She puffed a jelly bean flavored e-cigaratte on the porch of the large cardboard box her family has lived in since last March. “Things come harder for me, fo’ sho. I went up the doctor’s office, nurse says to me ‘I need a vein.’ I says I…
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Chaos Theory reigns in global iron ore war
I must admit, somewhat sheepishly, that I first learned about the mathematical concept of Chaos Theory not from exhaustive graduate study, but from Jeff Goldblum in the movie “Jurassic Park.” To quote his character, the wry Dr. Ian Malcam, always quick with a cynical retort amid encroaching dinosaurs, “A butterfly can flap it’s wings in…
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The forgotten dome city of Northern Minnesota
One of the most compelling aspects of studying history are the “what-ifs” of our past. In our personal lives “what-ifs” can drive us mad — “What if I?” “Why didn’t she? If only he” — but in the abstract “what-ifs” make for enjoyable party talk. Since I don’t go to parties (I have children) I’ll…
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The wheels on the bus go on your phone
Each morning, out on the dirt road by our house deep in the Northern Minnesota wilds, I wait for the bus with my elementary school-aged boys. It’s a special time for reflection, conversation and encouragement. We build the special bond between father and sons. I wouldn’t trade those first five minutes of the day for…
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Live to sauna; sauna to live
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines sauna as “a Finnish steam bath in which the steam is provided by water thrown on hot stones; also: a bathhouse or room used for such a bath.” Now research suggests that sauna might also be the ticket to a longer, healthier life. Back in 2013, I wrote about the traditional Nordic/Finnish sauna (pronounced “sow-na”) as a…
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Minnesota will take you back
With the notable exception of Minnesota Lynx WNBA fans, most who follow our state’s professional sports teams survive on memories of competitive Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves and North Stars squads. They must, in order to tolerate those same franchises, or their grammatically incorrect replacements (I’m looking at you, “The Minnesota Wild”) today. Last year’s Minnesota Twins…