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COLUMN: Ten years, worse for wear
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Ten years, worse for wearBy Aaron J. Brown Ten years ago this morning the thing on my mind as I walked to work was a photograph I’d just seen of me hosting a country music show at the…
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Live at the 2011 #mnblogcon in Minneapolis
It always amazes me that the crisp modern skyline of Minneapolis is contained in the same state as the ore dumps of the Range, my dirt road and the woods around my house. Today I’m down at the Midtown Exchange Building for the 2011 Minnesota Blogger Conference. I’ll be researching ways to make this blog…
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Iron Range Maidens to derby battle Wisconsin women
The Iron Range Maidens roller derby team will host a Wisconsin team for a new “Grease”-themed bout next weekend on Saturday, Sept. 24. Christina and I attended their first home bout a few months ago and had a blast. I thought I knew what roller derby was when I went, but I learned that I…
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Brown on the Air: ETHNICITY!
My essay for this week’s 91.7 KAXE edition of “Between You and Me” is about “my people.” The show’s topic is ethnicity. Guest host Linda Johnson will be taking stories from you, the listener, and playing great music. I’ll have some amusing observations about my strange blend of Iron Range nationalities. You can hear “Between…
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MinnesotaBrown @mnblogcon 2011
My wife the Northern Cheapskate (TM, not what I call her around the house) and I will be attending the Minnesota Blogger Conference in Minneapolis tomorrow. Thought it’s perhaps self-indulgent, I may share some amusing thoughts about my foray into the dense, urban core of Minnesota’s blogosphere on Saturday. If you’ll be there say hello.…
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Crime, car wash bath, cozy times in northern Minn.
The Grand Rapids Herald-Review is playing a hot hand. Their police reports, the style of which is local must-read material, included a couple gems this week: Things that make you go “huh?” A man stripped at the laundromat in Bigfork, put his clothes in a washer, then went to the car wash to bathe. He…
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One should only read the Whig papers
A letter by Michael Burger ran in Wednesday evening’s edition of the Grand Rapids (Minn.) Herald-Review declaring the organization of the Modern Whig Party. Burger cited the need to reconstitute the Whigs, defunct since 1856, because of partisanship in Washington and the Independence Party being a state party instead of a national one. He reminds…
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Autumn brings change, offline and on
Yesterday delivered a beautiful Labor Day in northern Minnesota. Forecasters predict a sunny, temperate early Fall week ahead. Today I waited with our oldest son as the bus came to take him to first grade. He’s first on the route out here in the woods. I saw him pause at the first seat where he…
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Once you Gogebic, you never go back
It’s interesting to see how Wisconsin officials are traveling to Minnesota’s Iron Range Tuesday for guidance on mine regulatory issues surrounding the proposed Gogebic Taconite mine in northern Wisconsin. It’s also interesting to see how the comments section of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel can so quickly resemble the back-and-forth of any northern Minnesota open forum…
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Happy Farmer Labor Day from the Iron Range
At 10:30 this morning they’ll hold the 100th Farmer’s Day Parade on the freshly repaved streets of Bovey, Minnesota. Bovey was bypassed in 2007 by the never-ending, never-complete expansion of the Cross-Range Expressway. City leaders have responded by installing a brickwork strip down the center of Old 169. Today they’ll break in that street with…
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COLUMN: My cougar town script is a cat-astrophy
This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Sept. 4, 2011 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I hinted at elements of this column in a recent radio essay, but this is markedly different from what I broadcast. My cougar town script is a cat-astrophy By Aaron J. Brown On June 11, 2011 a mountain lion…
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Iron Range student engineers post big win
After an emotionally taxing week discussing Iron Range political and economic development failures it helps to go into the long weekend with some good news. Lee Bloomquist at the IRRRB “Rangeviews” blog highlights the success of two Iron Range Engineering students who won the Minnesota Cup student engineering prize for their generator that runs on…
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Report: Northlanders die faster, more spectacularly than most
This Duluth News Tribune headline caught my eye: “Risk of dying is greater in the Northland.” If you live in northern Minnesota your chances of dying this year are apparently greater than in other parts of the state. Your risk of dying in your lifetime, however, holds with the state average, which is 100 percent.…
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Brown on the Air: RESORTING TO THIS!
I’ll be on the air with a new essay on 91.7 KAXE‘s Saturday morning program “Between You and Me,” this time joining the show’s theme of northern Minnesota resorts as they close up the summer season. My diatribe veers deeply into the fleeting nature of life, the aging process, the coming winter and, of course,…
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‘Art in the Park’ series ends tonight with live Range music
Tonight brings the final “Art in the Park” free live music show on the stage of the Minnesota Discovery Center amphitheater in Chisholm, Minnesota. All summer long the former Ironworld has been offering free shows, museum access and a live venue for local bands producing original music. Give it a shot if you haven’t tried…