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The night Ali lit the torch in Gilbert
I spent most of the summer of 1996 nocturnal. Even though I couldn’t tell you much about those days, the nights seemed hotter and more humid than average. This was Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range, a place where winter cold gets more press than the deceptive heat of summer. I was 16. It was my first summer with a driver’s license,…
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Bringing local food back home
We often hear the phrase, “you are what you eat.” It could also be said that “you are where you eat.” Here in Northern Minnesota, people subsisted off the land for millennia. But then came Wonder Bread, TV dinners, hot dogs and Cheetos: tasty, calorific foods that can be named but not necessarily identified. Cheap to buy, these…
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Great Northern Radio Show homecoming June 18
They say you’ve got to pick a genre and stick with it. Don’t be newsy if you want to be funny. Don’t be regional if you want to reach people in other places. Don’t talk about the arts if you want to talk about politics. This is what bloggers are told if they want to build…
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Fired up for the end of school
The Jack Pine must burn to live. While most everything in nature is adapted to avoid fire, the Jack Pine welcomes the flame. Old Jack’s branches and needles evolved to attract and spread fire. Indeed, most of its tightly-sealed cones contain seeds that will only be released by temperatures above 112 degrees. It’s amazing to…
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Congratulations, whoever you are!
The gold-lined invitation glinted from the pile of mail, classing up the usual stack of junk and bills. Addressed by hand, the heavy stock envelope coughed out yet another envelope from inside the first one. This envelope was smaller, but meant business. Inside this fat envelope was a collection of photos of a proud member…
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Rethinking strength of Iron Range towns
The small working class towns of Minnesota’s iron ranges were founded for a profoundly simple purpose. Each village cut into the thick forests of Northern Minnesota to provide housing and supplies within walking distance of an iron mine. Few towns grew beyond that purpose. Dozens were were abandoned after a decade or two. As the…
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Daniel Berrigan, radical priest & Range native
On Saturday, April 30, peace activist and Jesuit Catholic priest Daniel Berrigan died at the age of 94. Berrigan was probably best known for his high profile protests of the Vietnam War, including multiple arrests for anti-war demonstrations. Most notably, Berrigan and fellow protesters seized draft records from an office in Maryland and burned them…
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On Letters of Hope
“Plant a nut, get a nut,” someone once told me about my son Doug’s antics. Approaching 9 years old, he has somehow outpaced my childhood obsession with historical trivia and the macabre. Last year, he wandered down to my home office and extracted a ten-pound American history textbook left over from my college days. “Can…
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Great Northern Radio Show from Pequot Lakes
The speed of life seems to have accelerated lately. End of the semester. Kids in school and activities. In any event, I’ve not talked about my April 9 Great Northern Radio Show from Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. The Pequot Lakes show was a lot of fun and turned out well. The musical lineup delivered big time. Reina…
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Mud for our modern world
Thus ends the afternoon meeting. You can hear him now, the co-worker who’d rather be fishing. He slaps open the conference room door as though exiting an outhouse. Then comes the husky voiced lady from the department that has no name, the one who smokes reds on the loading dock without blinking. “Clear as mud,”…
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‘If you want to predict the future, listen to the future’
Last week, students delivered informative speeches in my class at Hibbing Community College. One student spoke of the generational divide in how we communicate. He referred to Generation X, those of us born between 1965 and 1985, and said, “You know, like our parents.” Now, Gen Xers have been parents for some time. I’m 36.…
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Ideas at heart of MPR Iron Range forum
Every society has its elite. That might not seem possible here on the Iron Range, where ore dust still clings to old company houses and Mich Golden Light cans dot the ditches like poor man’s glitter. But even the Iron Range has its elite: the professional meeting-attenders, money-handlers and vote-collectors. They aren’t all bad people.…
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Radio Magic: Reina del Cid and me as a Centaur
This Saturday, April 9, I’ll be bringing my Great Northern Radio Show to Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. I previewed the show late last week here at the blog. Today (Friday), I leave my familiar environs here on the Iron Range, escaping to Minnesota’s Central Lakes region where one finds Pequot Lakes along Highway 371. We’ve got a full 36 hours of…
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Breaking the code
In a March 27 op-ed in the Mesabi Daily News, Republican congressional candidate Stewart Mills argued that environmental regulations aimed at reducing the carbon emissions from coal is akin to a “war on ore.” “As your congressman, I will fight the Environmental Protection Agency, which has been weaponized by Democrats in the fight against safe…
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Great Northern Radio Show in Pequot Lakes
Next week I’ll be hosting another of my traveling Great Northern Radio Show programs from the Central Lakes town of Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. If you follow the blog, please consider attending the show or listening on the radio. Participate in social media during the show. This project is arguably my greatest passion. So many great…