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On the Thirteenth Day of Christmas
Hail, hail Christmas morning! The family gathers around the tree to behold the fruits of Santa Claus’s labor. The stockings spew forth troves of sugar and plenty. The spirit of giving crescendos as we exchange gifts selected with care, or that were perhaps on sale. RIP RIP WOW RIP RIP AHHHH RIP RIP THANK YOU!…
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Merry Christmas from MinnesotaBrown
Happy Holidays, dear reader! Merry Christmas to those who celebrate. Happy New Year to those who mark more secular holidays. And Happy Friday to those who would prefer not to deal with any of it. [Silent nod to ninjas and people with sleeping babies] We are nearing the end of 2016, a time of reflection.…
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Life on the Dinner-Supper line
Everybody eats. Not everybody does it the same way. And still more call the same meal by different names. So, my whole life I’ve eaten something called “breakfast” in the morning, a word derived from “to break a fast,” or end a period without food. At midday, I eat something called “lunch,” short for “luncheon.” And…
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On the solstice, winter’s beginning foretells its end
Today is the Winter Solstice. When I was younger, I used to let days like this pass without notice. Just a meaningless notation on my day planner. Not any more. The solstice is the shortest day of the year, the time we in the Northern Hemisphere spin farthest from the Sun. The event marks the first day…
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Season 3 of ‘Fargo’ headed for Eden Valley, MN
Season 3 of the critically-acclaimed “Fargo” on FX will begin filming in Canada in January. This week, the show announced most of its cast. I reviewed the first two seasons of “Fargo” here at MinnesotaBrown.com, providing a uniquely rural Minnesota-centric point of view. The reviews were quite popular during Season 1, but traffic fell back to…
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Don Ness to lead Ordean Foundation
Former Duluth Mayor Don Ness announced Tuesday he would be the next executive director of the Duluth-based Ordean Foundation. Just six months into a new gig in workforce development at Lake Superior College, Ness posted on social media that the opportunity to lead the Ordean Foundation was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Ness assumes the new job in January. Duluth…
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Lee, Reyelts retirements to shake up Duluth TV news
Last month, longtime KBJR news director Barbara Reyelts and newscast anchor Michelle Lee both announced their impending retirement. Their departure reflects changes in the Duluth TV News market that began when WDIO’s legendary Dennis Anderson retired five years ago. Lee steps down Dec. 27. She has been doing TV news in Duluth since 1983 and has anchored the 6…
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Speaking the hope of tomorrow’s Northern Minnesota
A few weekends ago I found myself in the rural environs of Northome, Minnesota. Two of my sons had a LEGO robotics meet there, an insanely long Saturday of watching LEGO robots intermittently pick things up and put them down again. The occasion left lots of time to wander the halls of Northome School. Northome is a logging town located in…
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Evergreen with envy
Even in the distant North Woods of Minnesota you can’t avoid our long cultural obsession with “the holidays.” By now, those of you who celebrate have likely put up your Christmas trees. The Noel tradition of decorating an evergreen tree inside the home dates backs centuries, even before Christianity itself. To discuss this tradition, today…
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Feds deny Twin Metals mineral leases near BWCA
Today, the U.S. government informed Twin Metals, a proposed nonferrous mining project near Ely, that the Forest Service would oppose mineral leases in lands near the federally protected Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. As a result, the Department of Land Management indicated it would not renew the leases, which had expired in 2012. The news…
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Proposition 54, where are you?
Last Saturday, the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor party central committee voted down Proposition 54, a controversial resolution that would have placed the party in opposition to sulfide ore mining. Now, an aside. I earnestly considered whether or not to headline this post about a failed DFL resolution with pun that relates to a black-and-white TV comedy that aired before I was…
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Intriguing buyer seeks to acquire Magnetation assets
A year and a half after declaring bankruptcy, and nearly a year after fully idling its Iron Range scram mining operations, Magnetation might finally have a new owner. Company officials announced late Friday that ERP Iron Ore, LLC, a subsidiary of ERP Compliant Fuels, seeks to buy the idled Magnetation assets. A Dec. 15 bankruptcy court…
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Trusting the wolves, hastening our fate
May 25, 2000: The morning after LTV Steel announced it would close its Hoyt Lakes taconite plant, miners lined up outside the Workforce Center in Virginia, Minnesota. Each wanted to be first to submit a job application to another mine on the Mesabi Iron Range, none of which were hiring. Though employed to monitor youth…
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Text of Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech
Though not in attendance at the ceremony in Stockholm, Bob Dylan nevertheless accepted the Nobel Prize for Literature today. As people in Dylan’s hometown of Hibbing celebrated the accomplishments of their famous son, the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden, Anita Raji, read Dylan’s speech into the record. It was short, grateful, and focused on the question of “What…
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Saturday is ‘Bob Dylan Day’ in Minnesota
The sign honoring Hibbing High School alumnus Bob Zimmerman for his Nobel Prize. (PHOTO: Hibbing High School) This Saturday, Dec. 10, 2016, the Swedish Academy in Stockholm will award Bob Dylan with the Nobel Prize for Literature, in absentia. Patti Smith will sing “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.” Someone will read an acceptance speech written by…