Minnesota Brown

Minnesota Brown: Modern Life on the Iron Range

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  • Happy Halloween!

    Behold the Brown family pumpkin for 2007! (The highlight: while I was carving this pumpkin Henry stood over my shoulder shouting, “Cut it up! Cut it up!” It was like being in a knife fight.) Related posts: No related posts.

  • ‘Chain of Command’ worth seeing

    ‘Chain of Command’ worth seeing

    On Saturday, we saw the HCC production of “Chain of Command,” an original play about the Iraq war directed by my friend Mike Ricci and written by Minneapolis playwright Dominic Orlando. The play was excellent. The script wasn’t finished until less than two weeks before the first performance and this cast of amateur actors did…

  • Aarrrrrrgh!

    Remember yesterday? The Iron Range seemed to be closing the deal on the Essar Global Minnesota Steel project near Nashwauk, the all-in-one iron ore to steel plant that has been in the works for a decade and a half. Yeah, that was cool. Until Gov. Tim “Lucy” Pawlenty pulled the football out from under our…

  • The missing voice

    The missing voice

    There are plenty of memorials for Paul Wellstone in today’s papers and in the blogosphere. I did one back in 2004 and I feel the same today. I just can’t let the anniversary of Wellstone’s untimely passing go by without commenting. People who met Paul Wellstone liked him, even when they didn’t agree with him.…

  • Another sad announcement

    Another sad announcement

    There was a car accident on Highway 169 this week that resulted in the death of Lester Tangedahl from Chisholm. When I was 16 I decided to volunteer for the local DFL party because I had decided that Paul Wellstone needed to get re-elected to the U.S. Senate. I marched into the local campaign office…

  • Passing of an Iron Range legend

    Passing of an Iron Range legend

    If the Iron Range was a book, Mary Anderson would have been one of the most important characters. Anderson passed away yesterday. I never had the chance to meet her, but she remains one of the great figures in Range history. She’ll always be most remembered for leading the city of Kinney’s secession from the…

  • Please don’t talk about your children on your phone in the men’s room stall

    Please don’t talk about your children on your phone in the men’s room stall

    I’ve seen this one other time in my life but this time seemed more disturbing. I went in the men’s room and heard a guy talking. This is rare in itself. Men usually have a code of silence in public bathrooms. (Note that the Sen. Craig scandal, sordid as it may have been, did not…

  • Oy! The Range is on the BBC

    Oy! The Range is on the BBC

    That little news ticker on the side of this blog is already paying off. Check out this Lucy Ash story from the BBC about how Chinese demand for steel has re-energized the Iron Range steel industry. But when you go to your next public meeting, or talk to community leaders, or go to vote, remember…

  • Chain of Command opens Thursday, Oct. 25 for two weekends

    Chain of Command opens Thursday, Oct. 25 for two weekends

    My friend Mike Ricci, director of the Hibbing Community College Theatre, is opening an original show this week. You should always come to Hibbing to see Mike’s shows, but this one especially. A Minneapolis playwright worked with Mike and his cast to write an original play speaking to the human element of the Iraq war.…

  • Essar buys Minnesota Steel: Project is for real

    Essar buys Minnesota Steel: Project is for real

    The headline may seem redundant to a business section editor, but on the Iron Range we are so used to getting burned on big economic projects that we don’t start popping bottle tops until the ink is dry. (Or is it that we don’t STOP popping bottle tops until the ink is dry; maybe both).…

  • Long weekend segues to busy week

    Long weekend segues to busy week

    The week is off to a fast start after a very fun weekend. My friends Joe and Krysten were married Saturday and I was best man. The whole wedding weekend was flawlessly executed. It was a very classy and yet very fun affair. I drank only enough to do the “Wild Wild West” dance without…

  • MEA Weekend

    MEA Weekend

    Teachers and students from Minnesota know what I’m talking about. I’m enjoying the first day of the long MEA weekend. In Minnesota, schools and colleges take off two days for the state teacher’s union convention. Most teachers don’t actually go to the convention, so it’s something of a holiday. I’ve got a busy MEA weekend…

  • The danger looming above Bovey

    Local media have reported on the dangers surrounding the eroding Canisteo Mine Pit by Bovey, where water levels in the pit now rest several feet above portions of the city of Bovey. A rapidly eroding wall of earth is all that prevents a major flood that would destroy much of the town and wash out…

  • Time to ‘hunt’

    Time to ‘hunt’

    I often tell people that, while I do not hunt, I come from a family with deep hunting traditions. This is my way of defraying the perplexed looks I get from my Iron Range/Northern Minnesota brethren who can’t understand a guy who lives here but doesn’t hunt OR fish. Really, I have nothing against hunting.…

  • Read what others say about "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range"

    Aaron J. Brown’s “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” was a critical and commercial success as a debut book published by a new company, Red Step Press of Duluth, in November 2008. “Overburden” won a Northeastern Minnesota Book Award the next year and continues to shape the discussion and spur conversation in Minnesota and…