Minnesota Brown

Minnesota Brown: Modern Life on the Iron Range

Category: Newspaper Columns

  • Winter wanes and what’s been done

    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…

  • My place in the woods

    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,…

  • Gathering crisis; hopeful challenge

    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…

  • WWII mystery over the skies of northern Minnesota

    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…

  • Best picture of 2014?

    Best picture of 2014?

    KENT: Action! This is Kent Winsington with Movie Time Reviews. Joining me today is Aaron Brown. AARON BROWN: Hey, everyone. I like movies. KENT: Of course, we all like movies! And it doesn’t get any better than Oscar Sunday, when the best movies in the world compete for timeless glory, provided they are predominantly about…

  • What economic diversification looks like

    What economic diversification looks like

    All you really need to do is ask someone who used to live on the Iron Range, “what do you see when you come back to the Range?” While there might be nostalgia over happy memories or familiar sites, more often than not they’ll say, “What happened?” What happened to the businesses that used to…

  • Olympics have me wondering, ‘what’s my time?’

    Olympics have me wondering, ‘what’s my time?’

    Watching the Winter Olympics always makes me glad we don’t have to walk around knowing where we rank at this point in our lives and how many seconds off the leader we are. If you’ve been watching the Olympics you know what I’m talking about. Alpine skiers screech down a mountain at 80 mph, faster…

  • Notes on a changing Iron Range

    Notes on a changing Iron Range

    The wheels of fate keep turning on the Iron Range. Over on the east central Mesabi, Mountain Iron-Buhl, Virginia and Eveleth-Gilbert schools are considering a new shared high school. We await resolution of some sort on expensive, long anticipated mining projects like Essar Steel and PolyMet, all while the reality of our lack of economic…

  • Sports Ball Food for Humans

    Sports Ball Food for Humans

    It’s Football Sunday in America. By now you should be making final arrangements for the perfect Super Bowl party, including cold beverages and delicious appetizers. But what if all this slipped your mind? What if you don’t follow football? What if you don’t have friends? What if you don’t eat food? What if, just maybe,…

  • PolyMet hearings highlight our misdirected passion

    PolyMet hearings highlight our misdirected passion

    The purpose of the meeting was to parse the language of a 2,000-page tome of geology, hydrology, chemistry and economics. That’s a tough sell. Even offered free donuts, average humans would duck a meeting of that description. But this particular meeting on Jan. 16, 2014 — first of three hearings for the PolyMet Mining environmental…

  • Pride cometh before the fall

    Pride cometh before the fall

    In the parade of the Seven Deadly Sins, it is often said that pride leads the procession. They also say “pride cometh before the fall” and that, too, is generally true. In a world of so many illusions, pride is the biggest, falsest illusion of all — so big, that it causes most other problems…

  • Controtastrophegate Crisispocalypse

    Controtastrophegate Crisispocalypse

    Where were you when you heard that they might run out of Velveeta before the Super Bowl? Maybe you were rushing the kids off to school, mindful of your long list of chores for that day, such as maintaining your social media persona. Perhaps you were on the phone with a friend or relative, chatting…

  • Oracle speaks of turbulence in 2014 predictions

    Oracle speaks of turbulence in 2014 predictions

    The Delta Connection Bombardier CRJ-200 dipped its frosty belly beneath the clouds, revealing the flat landscape of the winter bog, white canvas speckled with dark brown and black tamaracks. The captain’s voice filled the loudspeaker. “This is your stop.” The flight attendant had been nervously preparing my parachute since we took off from Minneapolis-St. Paul.…

  • Celebrating my Kirby Puckett birthday

    Celebrating my Kirby Puckett birthday

    It was my birthday this weekend. Nothing special. Let’s not get all worked up about it. My new age doesn’t end in a zero or a five. The year is indistinct: one of those years after I’m young, before I’m old, while I’m still alive. At least, that’s what I’d say if I weren’t raised…

  • Failure is the theme in top words of 2013

    Failure is the theme in top words of 2013

    Language tells all there is to know about people. Death of a language is the death of a culture. Complex languages denote complex people. Languages change, so do we. If this is to be believed, our times shall be designated as the error message one gets when clicking on something that isn’t really there. To…