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MinnesotaBrown’s Top Posts of 2021
Happy New Year! If you’re reading this, you’re one of the hard cases. You didn’t find MinnesotaBrown.com by random happenstance. Rather, you’ve continued to check in on this site while I write “Power in the Wilderness” in my basement. I haven’t posted much here. I haven’t trended. Nor have I gone viral, except for a…
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Oracle sees much to do in 2022
Tossing in bed on a dry winter night I wake to get a drink of water. After a sip I hear a strange gurgling from the toilet. Bubbles rise from the drain pipe. Soon the water becomes more turbulent. A terrible groan emerges from the bowl. Like toothpaste from a tube, up comes an otter…
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The bombs we carry
The police officers donned dark blue overcoats. Their bright brass buttons and badges glowed in the morning light. They gathered at the corner of Howard Street and Fifth Avenue. A captain barked orders, steam pouring from his mouth. Men stationed themselves at each exit of the luxurious new Androy Hotel. The town was Hibbing, Minnesota.…
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Most dangerous migrants are the ones leaving our communities
In 2010 I wrote an article entitled “Wanted: Young People.” It was about the 2010 U.S. Census and what it could tell us about the towns and counties of northeastern Minnesota. Ten years ago, data showed that our economic problems stemmed from a lack of people to support existing business and community institutions. It wasn’t…
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Pressure, time, and the tricky business of hope
Pressure and time. That’s how minerals concentrate into ore formations beneath the earth. You might learn this in a geology class. But pressure and time also explain how humans extract those ores. Now we’re talking economics, the kind that affects our lives here on the Mesabi Iron Range. This spring brings an avalanche of news…
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Gearing for a century in spin
In recent weeks my wife and I have been thinking about buying a car. We haven’t decided on one, nor are we in a hurry, but it’s been fascinating to research different vehicles. Being from the Iron Range I always think about where cars are made before buying one. In the case of modern cars,…
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A primal howl from Wolf Island
I live in the woods. Sometime at night you can hear the wolves. I’ve heard many wolves over the years. And yet every time I hear a wolf howl I always look to the stars above the moonlit tree line, wondering if the sound is as close as it seems. My spine shutters. This same…
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Live broadcast ‘Celebrity Chef’ challenge to raise funds for Second Harvest
Well, folks. I might be rusty a year after the Great Northern Radio Show went on hiatus, but I’m getting back in the saddle for one night only. It’s time for some fancy live broadcast witty banter … for a good cause. This past year presented an enormous challenge for many of us, but none…
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MinnesotaBrown’s Top Posts of 2020
It’s time once again to share my most read posts from MinnesotaBrown for the previous year. 2020 may not have been a great year for many, but it was a memorable year, one that will become part the stories we tell for a long time. This year I’ve been working on my book “Power in…
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FARGO, Season 4: “Storia Americana”
Northern Minnesota author Aaron J. Brown reviews each episode of “Fargo” with an eye for unique details from the place where the show is set. The ratings range from INTERESTING (bad), to COULD BE WORSE (not so good) to PRETTY GOOD (not so bad), and OH, YA! (real good then). Beware the spoilers. Episode 11,…
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FARGO, Season 4: “The Nadir”
Northern Minnesota author Aaron J. Brown reviews each episode of “Fargo” with an eye for unique details from the place where the show is set. The ratings range from INTERESTING (bad), to COULD BE WORSE (not so good) to PRETTY GOOD (not so bad), and OH, YA! (real good then). Beware the spoilers. Episode 8:…
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Old book teaches perils of power
Used paperback book stores smell like cigarettes and coffee, the boiled essence of a schoolhouse cloakroom and the back alley behind a restaurant. If you lick one of the books — and you shouldn’t — I suspect it would taste salty. This is merely a hypothesis. It was at just such a store in the…
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FARGO, Season 4: “The Pretend War”
Northern Minnesota author Aaron J. Brown reviews each episode of “Fargo” with an eye for unique details from the place where the show is set. The ratings range from INTERESTING (bad), to COULD BE WORSE (not so good) to PRETTY GOOD (not so bad), and OH, YA! (real good then). Beware the spoilers. Episode 4:…
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FARGO, Season 4: “Raddoppiarlo”
Northern Minnesota author Aaron J. Brown reviews each episode of “Fargo” with an eye for unique details from the place where the show is set. The ratings range from INTERESTING (bad), to COULD BE WORSE (not so good) to PRETTY GOOD (not so bad), and OH, YA! (real good then). Beware the spoilers. Episode 3:…
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Cleveland Cliffs resets the Mesabi Iron Range
Before March 2, 1901 northern Minnesota served as a battleground for two immutable titans of industry, Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. At stake was control of the world’s richest untapped source of iron ore and the nation-building steel it could produce. The scene grew chaotic with new mines opening, closing, and changing hands all…