-
Life is short
Rick Weegman from the Duluth News-Tribune writes a column today about a young woman from my hometown of Cherry, Minn., who was killed in a car wreck. It’s about the everyday reality of mortality, something that hits home for me since I crossed that same intersection thousands of times when I was in high school.…
-
Remember, U.S. Steel deals in the folding money
Just a friendly reminder, the biggest investor of new capital into the Iron Range economy this year will not be Essar Global, Excelsior Energy, Wal-Mart or even the Pabst brewing company. No, the most new money will come from U.S. Steel, which is dropping a smooth $350 million to restart an old line at Keewatin…
-
Minnesota Power to step up wind power by 200 mW
I’m already breaking my no blog rule for the day. Minnesota Power announces the purchase of a transmission line and the intention to phase out of one of its coal contracts in favor of 200 megawatts of wind power from the Dakotas. From today’s MP’s press release: In a major move to accelerate its strategy…
-
Rural broadband needs a little less hooey and a little more Huey
You know, it’s not necessarily cool to idolize the late Louisiana Gov. and Sen. Huey Long, who was assassinated at the peak of his power in 1935. Most people don’t know who he was and, technically speaking, he was a corrupt despot. But he took a poor state, Louisiana, and brought it from one century…
-
Northern Cheapskate featured in Star Tribune
For those who don’t know, my wife Christina is the Northern Cheapskate, blogging about family budgeting, money-saving tips and personal finance. She got a great write-up in Kara McGuire’s Star Tribune “Ka Ching” column in the Money section today. Check it out. Here’s the setup, which is followed by several specific tips that Christina suggested…
-
Minnesota is Mullet Country
My friend and former Minnesotan Paul Ryan sent me this Star Tribune link about the 3-year-old winner of the Minnesota Mullet Contest. There’s a picture at the link. It is indeed a fine mullet, but this is no day to celebrate. A mullet is a conscious choice for which a child cannot legitimately give consent.…
-
Taking requests: Bob Dylan Fudge Bars
Over the next few days I’ll be responding to questions or requests that I’ve been getting via e-mail. The next few days will include idle speculation on local retail developments and the Minnesota Steel project. Today I’ll clear out an old request, the posting of the recipe for the Bob Dylan Fudge Bars that I…
-
Creature Comforts is back … on cable
Some of you might remember that I was one of several key interviewers for the show “Creature Comforts,” which aired last summer on CBS. In essence I and others interviewed real people about a broad range of topics and then the show’s producers, writers and animators made it look like animals were saying the lines.…
-
Snow no
Forecasters are calling for more snow, about six inches in some places, for parts of northern Minnesota tonight and tomorrow. The melt off to this point has already flooded many roads up here. This brings to mind an interesting question. Should I be building an ark and, if so, should it have skis? The Senate…
-
Dylan Days stokes literary flames on the Iron Range
As some of you know, I am one of the organizers of Dylan Days, an annual event celebrating Hibbing’s own Bob Dylan and the arts community of northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. This week we’re releasing the results of the Dylan Days Creative Writing Contest. The contest takes on even deeper meaning this year in the…
-
BS Factory will stop at nothing
Now that Excelsior Energy’s boondoggle Mesaba Energy Project is hitting the hard wall of reality (that its overpriced coal gas plant won’t have a customer because of the vast expense of the technology) its leaders are lashing out at opponents. I joked in an previous post about Excelsior co-CEO Tom Micheletti’s reference to Minnesota Power…
-
7 random things
I don’t normally play along with crazy Internet forward games but since this one came from my wife (the Northern Cheapskate), and she knows all our account numbers while I don’t, I’ll play along with this one. Here’s the game. I’ve been tagged to share seven random facts about myself on my blog. At the…
-
Corn is for eating
I don’t know that the world faces an economic crisis like some are saying but I will say this. If the United States does spiral into a major recession or depression it now appears that our decision to use one of our major food sources — corn — as a a major part of our…
-
Too many Thomas videos
We can’t be news and politics all the time. If you’re like me you grew up during the 1980s. If you grew up in the 1980s there is a statistically significant chance you now have young children who love Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. If so, this clip will please you. Related posts: No…
-
The few, the proud, the ‘flame attendants’
I know the whole root of the China Olympics controversy is human rights, which is is very, very important and all, but I can’t help but chuckle at the woes of the Olympic torch as it traverses the globe. Protesters have been trying to extinguish the torch everywhere it goes. They’re expressing outrage over how…