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A tale of two iron ranges
In the middle to late 1800s, prospectors discovered iron ore in a remote land far from the big cities, a place utterly insignificant in world affairs. This discovery, however, could not be ignored. The ore was too plentiful and valuable. The events that followed would bring people of many languages and cultures together to mine…
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Only one debate in MN-8, but stark differences show
At long last Taconite, Minnesota’s entrance sign rings true: Northern Minnesota is once again “hub of the nation.” Minnesota’s “Fightin’” Eighth Congressional District is one of just a few in the country in which the outcome is not 99 percent assured. Yet despite several million advertising dollars scorched on behalf of Democratic incumbent Rep. Rick…
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‘Mesabi Pioneers’ spins fiction amid rich history
Ever since humans first crawled from the primordial ooze they have made futile attempts to write novels, ultimately abandoning these crude failures inside file cabinets crafted from the bones of long-extinct beasts. So it was in the beginning, so it shall be in the end. I’ve got a botched literary bun in the stone-cold oven…
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Great Northern Radio Show to rebroadcast Park Rapids show
UPDATE: You can now download the podcast here. This Sunday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. you can hear the rebroadcast of my Great Northern Radio Show, which aired live last Saturday night from Armory Square in downtown Park Rapids, Minnesota. The show will air on Northern Community Radio, including 91.7 KAXE (Grand Rapids and…
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Take a trip in the tortoise time machine
Think back to childhood. Do you remember that one nontraditional pet you had? I’m not talking about a dog or cat here. Dogs and cats see their names stitched in Christmas stockings. They wear sacred vestments, such as collars and sweaters. Dogs and cats insist upon themselves in ways that caged animals usually don’t. Non-traditional…
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‘Great Northern’ weekend in Park Rapids starts now
My favorite weekends are Great Northern Radio Show weekends. They are exhausting, invigorating and inspiring. And another one begins today. The Great Northern Radio Show, my personal twist on the old variety show format, will broadcast live from Armory Square in downtown Park Rapids, Minnesota, this Saturday from 5-7 p.m. on Northern Community Radio. At…
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Notes from the Northern Swing
Here’s your thought experiment for the day. Go watch some kind of live coverage of Congress. It doesn’t matter what they talk about, just look at them. Ancient partisans, middle aged careerists, twitchy young up-and-comers emit loud nothings into microphones then whispering crucial somethings out of earshot. Watching Congress in action shows why an unshakeable…
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Great Northern Radio Show in Park Rapids on 9/27
If you’ve wondered why posting has sluffed off some here at the Iron Range’s fastest-growing news and culture blog there is good reason. I’ve been writing the latest edition of the Great Northern Radio Show while balancing my usual mix of writing, teaching and cloak-and-dagger projects. I’m happy to announce that the script is done…
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Another cold winter? Gee, you think?
Several news outlets are reporting the annual weather predictions offered by the Farmer’s Almanac. In short, Minnesota is poised for another cold winter, much like the last one. One recalls that while few all-time-low temperature records were broken last winter, we smashed records for consecutive days below zero degrees Fahrenheit. It was a slog, an…
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Silent strain: growing hunger in community demands action
A kindergarten teacher ducks into the lounge shortly after first bell. She rustles through a collection of abandoned snacks: forgotten granola bars and leftover lunches. She got the call from a working mother who was running late. Her daughter would be here soon. “She never gets to eat on mornings like this,” says the teacher.…
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On brains, screens and the cross-eyed future of labor
Push the power button. The icon appears. We have a few seconds. Sip coffee. Look out the window. Sunny now, but look to the west where clouds gather just above the trees. Did we check the weather last night? Power on. Here we go. First the notifications pour over the top of the screen. Then…
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On past, present, future and the modern minivan
Humans prefer borders. We’re like squirrels that way, and screech just the same. We see our world in one place and that of others locked over there, across some line only we can see. Some borders stand arbitrary, penned on maps with compasses and rulers by a whiskey-breathing voyager of the old times. Some borders…
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Minnehaha: a place to rest where the water falls
Slowly approaching a premature middle age I find myself firmly anchored in the woods of Northern Minnesota. Each occasional trip to our state’s Twin Cities metropolis is less a drive and more the unraveling of one life for the winding up of another. The rules change. People wear different stripes, gather in exponentially larger numbers.…
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2014 Minnesota primary: sorting out best of what’s available
I remember once sitting at the kitchen table with my dad shortly after he turned 30. I was 8 or 9 and in the process of memorizing an encyclopedia on American Democracy. “Dad,” I said, “You’re old enough to run for the Senate!” I was busy imaging his campaign. (He’d need to wash off that…
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One Bigfoot myth we can hardly bear
Like many of my era, I was introduced to the “myth” of Sasquatch (aka “Bigfoot”) through the motion picture “Harry and the Hendersons.” In this movie, not only was Sasquatch real, his heart was bigger than his feet, thawing the stern countenance of John Lithgow, who was a pretend jerk in a lot of movies…