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Fall: Love it or leaf it
High up an old oak tree on a rolling hill just outside Hibbing, Minnesota, two talking leaves dangle by hardening stems. Fall has arrived. LEAFY: Lefty, you ever get the sense that things are changing? LEFTY: Everythin’ changes, Leafy. No point worryin.’ LEAFY: But, I mean, *really* changing. I don’t know how to tell…
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Comfort food for the dieter’s soul
My name is Aaron and it has been four months since my last Holiday gas station cookie. This, of course, refers to the third cookie I ate that night, because they cost less if you buy three, and why wouldn’t you want to eat three? They are the greatest cookies ever made. Sure, your mom’s…
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No hope on the Iron Range, but for hope we create
To drive the Iron Range spine of Highway 169 is to see a sleeping giant not unlike the region’s namesake, Missabe — the Dakota and Ojibwe “big man” resting on the divide between all that is north and south. Missabe’s body is not like that of a man. Its fluids are water. Its bones are timbers.…
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Iron Range mining commentary in the works
The nonferrous mining debate in northern Minnesota continues its holding pattern around the flaming, riot-scarred airport of Progress. I’ve written a two-part Iron Range mining commentary series for the Hibbing Daily Tribune, the first of which ran today. I have decided that instead of running the two-part series here on the blog, I’ll release an…
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On wormholes and fantasy football
In the movie “Napoleon Dynamite,” caretaker Uncle Rico can’t escape past mistakes. “If I had a time machine,” he said, “you’d better believe things would be different.” He was referring to a football game in which he didn’t even play, but also life. So, too, go the folk mantras of many among us this week…
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Summer ends with turtle-racing flourish
Summer lives, of course. It’s still kind of nice outside. The leaves are still kind of green. The calendar places the start of fall in September, but we all know that’s junk. Tomorrow I’ll pilot the car early in the morning to teach a college class for something called “Fall Semester” and how can you argue…
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The untold perils of media consolidation
I write a column for the Hibbing Daily Tribune, which is part of the Superior Publishing Group, a division of American Consolidated Media of Texas, itself a division of a vast international company, the name of which I forget. Australian bankers, mostly. When the Superior Publishing group reorganized its management structure a year ago —…
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COLUMN: From way up here the ants look like people
This is my Sunday column for the March 25, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. From way up here the ants look like peopleBy Aaron J. Brown I ran up the driveway from our lime green and white trailer house across County Highway 7 to the mailbox. Mom used to let me do this…
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You win this round …
Dammit. On the same day the Hibbing Daily Tribune runs my column about hitting a deer with my Ford Focus station wagon, the Duluth News Tribune runs Janna Goerdt’s column about hitting a moose with her Subaru. Not only does she get the bigger, rarer and much more literary dead animal on which to pontificate,…
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The joy of context
This is the kind of headline that lights up the Iron Range: “Yes, Virginia, Menards is coming“(Mesabi Daily News, Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008) In case you’re wondering, Menards is a home improvement store. That’s a very important detail. Also, Virginia is a town on the Iron Range. Also another important detail. I’d hate to imagine…
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Thoughts and prayers to Mike
My thoughts and prayers are with Mike Jennings, editor of the Hibbing Daily Tribune and one of the best working newspaper journalists on the Iron Range. He has been hospitalized with a heart condition and faces a difficult recovery. Tribune publisher Wanda Moeller tells the dramatic story in today’s edition. Join me in wishing Mike…
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Show me the money … in fractions of pennies over the fullness of time
The problem with the new media is that very, very few people can make a living in it. Blogging is popular, diverse and exciting; but utterly unprofitable. I do this blog because A) I am an obsessive news geek addicted to information and politics; B) It soothes my insatiable ego; and C) I justify the…
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Acronyms? Environmentalists? Developers? Politicians? Run the story!
The Mesabi Daily News has not one, not two, but THREE stories about environmental laws as they relate to mining. Hot damn. Buy a copy early because the kids like to buy these up and sell them on the eBay. If you DO follow such stories, enjoy these links: Environmental group hits PolyMetCommittee members tour…
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Newspaper industry’s problems run deep
I found a great column via DailyKos (I know, I know; it’s so not cool to link to Kos diaries, but this one isn’t partisan) that explains the state of today’s newspaper industry. What Walter Brasch describes is the EXACT problem facing small dailies across northern Minnesota and bigger regional papers like Duluth and Fargo.…
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Twin Ports daily chopped down to twice weekly
According to the Duluth News-Tribune and others, the Superior (Wis.) Daily Telegram will drop from publishing six days a week to just twice. The paper’s management insists that the Telegram will focus on online content to continue serving its readers. Let me translate that: “Hey, Little Billy. Spot had to go away, but don’t worry.…