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On matters of pants, I stand with George F. Will
Every word of this Washington Post column, “Demon Denim,” by conservative intellectual columnist George F. Will is in accordance with my beliefs about pants. Will and I are in total, unmitigated agreement. I am disturbed by this, but not as disturbed as you after you read the column. It bears mentioning that I am 31…
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Winter Frolic 2011 means another medallion mystery in Hibbing
The annual Winter Frolic Jubilee kicks off this weekend in the Iron Range city of Hibbing. It’s loads of typical frozen small town fun. You can read about it at the Hibbing Daily Tribune, in a story that includes this nugget: This year, local author Aaron Brown will pen the return of private detective Sal…
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Minus Kirby Puckett
Thirty-four below this morning as the sun peeked over the treetops, futilely hurling its hot solar rays at the ice box that is northern Minnesota. Henry’s school bus sounded like it had the consumption. It would get to school but not without protracted effort and considerable noise. Temperatures ran even lower just a few miles…
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True Grit
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Must be Santa
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Porky Pig sings Blue Christmas
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Good thing we can explain this
There’s a total lunar eclipse tonight to go along with the gorgeous but haunting yellow moon I saw over the treeline on the northwestern horizon this early morning. I was out on the country road by our house in northern Minnesota waiting for the bus with my kindergartner who was seeing his first yellow moon.…
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Footage of Metrodome collapse
Here’s exclusive Fox Sports video of the Metrodome collapsing from the inside. Minnesotans seem torn on whether this will ultimately send the Vikings into a new stadium or to Los Angeles for a boatload of money and a new name. Then again, they could go the Lakers route and just keep the Minnesota-specific name for…
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Metrodome collapses under heavy snow
The roof of the Metrodome collapsed last night under the estimated 17-20 inches of snow that fell in yesterday’s near-record Minnesota blizzard. Fortunately today’s Vikings football game had already been rescheduled for Monday (and now probably some other time, possibly some other place). It bears mentioning that the officials’ decision to postpone the game was…
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How does it feel, to be somewhat older than before?
The Wall Street Journal poses the question “Should Bob Dylan retire?” The Duluth native and Hibbing-raised musician is a favorite here as I help coordinate Dylan Days in Hibbing and have long been a fan of the man’s songwriting and songs, particularly his 1965-1975 catalog. This is not the first time we’ll be asking such…
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A great song keeps the Fitz alive
Today is the 35th anniversary of the sinking of the massive ore ship Edmund Fitzgerald in a terrible November storm on Lake Superior. This tragedy remains recent enough to affect the lives of some people still living in the Great Lakes region. Nevertheless, one gets the feeling that Gordon Lightfoot’s song about “The Wreck of…
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The wave happened
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The gales of November are not kidding this time
TYWKIWDBI reports on the massive winds of yesterday’s storms in the middle of the country, including this NOAA graphic of waves on Lake Superior. Shipping companies pulled all the ore ships off the lake out of deference to the storied “Gales of November” made famous by sinking the legendary SS Edmund Fitzgerald in 1975. Those…
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And the winner is … nerds
Fans of last night’s post on the British election have probably figured out that the result of the voting is unclear and subject to several more days of wrangling. The Times of London has a really cool interactive map of the election results that also features profile information on each constituency explain the area’s economy,…
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35,000 feet and falling
