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To the Nether and back
Summer vacation is well underway, and not more than a few days into the annual ritual the boys had trod well-worn digital paths across the pretend universe of the video game Minecraft. They are obsessed with finding virtual ore to make tools, houses and various contraptions. Though the geology of Minecraft is a bit suspect…
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‘Sometimes a Great Notion’
Come look: Where the big pile of uncracked books rises up against the ocean of my bed, see the wide river of reading failure flow down to the ocean, ebbing back up with the tide of unfinished scripts and banal blog posts. But I did finish reading one book, one big, rickety book that came…
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‘A hundred years went by’
Last week the leaves popped and it became summer on the Iron Range. Once again we fly the colors of our flag — birch green, sky blue and iron ore red. Our haunted northern Minnesota spring, which revealed all that the snow had covered, dissolves into a comfortable summer — the woods obscured by woods,…
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Oh ya, Yooper is a word now
Last Monday, the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary officially enshrined the word “Yooper” in its lexicon. The charming regional entry came with the dictionary’s annual introduction of new words that also included fracking, catfishing and poutine. If you don’t know what a Yooper is, here is the official Merriam-Webster definition: Yoop·er noun \ˈyu̇-ər\ : a native or…
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Times a’ Changin’ in Bob Dylan’s hometown
When Robert Zimmerman left Hibbing in 1959, it’s unlikely he or his hometown would predict these facts: That a “space theatre” named for a prominent local grocer would be constructed a few blocks from the Zimmerman home … because, you know, men walked on the moon; That the Zimmerman home would one day be on…
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Jim Oberstar: a memory held up by union steel
My Sunday newspaper column for May 11, 2014 was excerpted from the post I wrote after the passing of Jim Oberstar on Saturday, May 3. I am republishing that post today. Early Saturday morning former Congressman Jim Oberstar died peacefully in his sleep at his Maryland home at the age of 79. The news of…
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The forest for the trees
“If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason.” ~ Jack Handey, Deep Thoughts (Saturday Night Live) Never mind the TV or the Internet. Trees report the real news in northern Minnesota. Is the maple sap running? Are the…
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Antlers for fighting; ain’t easy being a baby bird
I live in a forest. Growing up just outside the red-stained cities of the Iron Range I never considered that I’d one day live even further away from stoplights and pizza delivery than I already did. But here I am in the woods of Itasca County. The deer stroll by out front, more like neighbors…
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The Easter Bunny’s Terrible Mistake
Morning light washes over a pastoral meadow view, bespeckled with budding flowers and flickering sun-touched dew drops. A small grey rabbit tentatively hops into view, sniffing her way toward a long, narrow clearing. She labors to lift a ball peen hammer over her tiny, furry head to pound two heavy iron stakes into the soft,…
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On humans, machines and crows
I imagine that the animal world looks at we humans much the same way that we look at crows. We are not exactly beautiful, except to each other and especially ourselves. We are crafty, like crows; exploiting intelligence for what any other animal would call an unfair advantage (if those other stupid animals were smart…
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The Old Fish and the Lake
Last month a Minnesota angler pulled a 52-pound lake trout through a 10-inch hole in the ice on Lac La Croix near Crane Lake. Because the fisherman was 100 feet over the Canadian border, he ran afoul of Ontario’s catch limits. His fish, likely a world record holder, was confiscated. Despite crushing the previous record…
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Winter wanes and what’s been done
No sense talking about weather. You know what’s been done. Another winter in northern Minnesota just passed, technically. The equinox came and went. We’re tilting toward the sun, into the warmth. Sure, the air is still cold. Sure, the wind still blows. Sure, we’re encased in ice. Still. For some time, too. Sure, all of…
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My place in the woods
I’ve talked to city people who have a hard time falling asleep without the ambient noise of traffic or the hum of industry. And I know country people who say the same thing about the sounds of nature or wind through the trees. It’s a misconception that the woods are quieter than the city. True,…
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Gathering crisis; hopeful challenge
I’m not sure how many of my birthdays I spent at Zimmy’s in downtown Hibbing, Minnesota; but I know my 21st was on the list, and so was my 30th, and several other random numbers I’ve since forgotten. I do know I’ve spent 13 Dylan Days — all of them — at Zimmy’s. I’ve given…
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WWII mystery over the skies of northern Minnesota
“I believe submarines Underneath deep blue seas Saw the flags: Japanese No one will believe me” ~ “Submarines,” by The Lumineers In 2014, history seems buried six feet under the bookshelves. Grandparents know a little more, doling out dusty recollections over the meat and potatoes of family gatherings. If there was a sculpture struck, a…