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A new legion for old stories and values
This past Saturday I climbed the narrow stairs of the Keewatin City Hall, stepping around the hoist chair at the bottom which was new last year but is now just part of the scenery. The occasion was the annual Keewatin Legion and Sons of the Legion spaghetti feed held in the auditorium where they used…
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Brown in the big city
I had a great day speaking to employees at Minnesota Public Radio in St. Paul today for their staff Conversations with Community series. My topic was the Iron Range. My goal, as always, was to express how life here on today’s Iron Range is a complicated, almost literary existence, full of frustration and defeat, hope…
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My secret project is not-so-secret trend
The New York Times Book Review has a story (“All Programs Considered” by Bill McKibben) that fits nicely, perhaps too nicely, with thoughts I have been having lately about the direction of my writing and media projects. You know that this blog and my columns, essays and book, are professional in that I am sometimes…
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Alternate reality in the State of Superior: Election 2010
This is the first of an occasional series exploring the people and times of an alternate reality. In this world, the areas today known as northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula joined together as the Lake Superior Territory in 1848 and became the State of Superior in 1866. With vast mineral and timber…
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The Minnesota Twins and the Meaning of Life
Growing up on northern Minnesota’s Iron Range through the 1980s and ’90s meant coming of age around an unremitting economic recession. However it also meant being a wide-eyed kid both times the Minnesota Twins won Major League Baseball’s World Series in 1987 and 1991. So in other words, we learned that the world sucked but…
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Obligatory #RandyMoss post, with fish
This photo of Randy Moss on a fishing trip has been making the rounds today. Very Minnesota. Welcome back to the Vikings, Randy. I know some people are happy about the likely trade for Moss from the Patriots today. Others are upset. But keep in mind that real Middle Ages vikings would not judge a…
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Jump the fence, peek over the tall ridge
Over the weekend I gave a lecture at the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm. A small but kind crowd was there for my talk about Iron Range political history and I thank these folks for coming out on a a beautiful fall day. I took the “back way” home and what a day for a…
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I’m on to you, minivan advertisement
We’ve got a 2006 Chrysler Town and Country minivan. What’s funny about the Town and Country is that you tell people you bought the Town and Country and they go, “Ohhh, niiiiice,” as though this signifies some kind of class distinction. But really it’s a Dodge Caravan with a slightly different interior. We like ours…
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Making the moves
Scene: a northern Minnesota McDonald’s Play Place. My son George, 3, approaches a similarly aged girl outside the tube slide. GEORGE: “We’re going to Wal-Mart next.” GIRL: (stares blankly) GEORGE: (points to coat) “This is my coat.” GIRL: (stares blankly) GEORGE: “Do you like my coat?” GIRL: (pauses) “We’re at the McDonald’s.” GEORGE: Yeah. (long…
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Live blogging #mnblogconf (Minnesota Blog Conference) in St. Paul
Here are some intermittent updates from today’s Minnesota Blog Conference in downtown St. Paul: 3:03 pmI’m ODing on blog talk. Need steak and open flames, anything three dimensional will do. More later. 11:35 amEgg salad, because I live dangerously. 11:14 amMe to “blog-to-book” presenter: “How do I break out of regional base to national audience?”…
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Minnesota blog conference lures Browns to urban environs
Today Christina and I will be heading south for the Minnesota Blog Conference in St. Paul. She’ll be presenting in one of the sessions on Saturday and I will be a dutiful participant in all the proceedings. I look forward to meeting some of our colleagues in the Minnesota blogosphere and learning more about our…
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Empire past
David Schneider writes at 3quarksdaily about how maps don’t mean what they used to. That’s a very simplistic way of describing a strong, creative piece exploring a changing world. He writes about Brooklyn. I’m working on the Iron Range version of this, which is weighed down by a lot of haul truck references and, thus,…
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The cold, cold circle
Readers of my book, “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range,” might remember that I’m a fan of the myth and historical impact surrounding the Northwest Passage. Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range was just one of many regions that early European explorers believed might have been part of the fabled “sea route to the Orient.” The…
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Whitepine down
When we first considered building our current house in the country, what struck me about the site was this tall white pine along the property line. The woods around northern Minnesota’s Iron Range once teemed with some of the largest white pine in North America, a fact that literally put the place on the map…
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More carping
I’m still on the mailing list for the Asian Carp controversy. A ruling on whether the threat of this invasive species will close two of the Chicago locks is expected soon. MInnesota Public Radio’s Bob Kelleher has the story. Mostly I’m writing this because I get to show more carp pictures. Is that wrong? Probably.…