If you drop a wheel off the side of a county road, you realize how easy it would be to roll into the ditch. That chest pain you feel is probably just indigestion, but what if it was a heart attack? Cutting a fallen tree. Changing your car’s oil. Climbing a ladder to retrieve holiday… Read More →
Notions of race in an immigrant culture
November 24, 2023 by 1 Comment
In almost eight years of research, writing and editing on my current book, I’ve learned a few things. One is that our views of history are shaped by our preexisting knowledge of how it turns out. We become enamored with alternate outcomes or unusual events that seem to have shaped fate. However, the people of… Read More →
FARGO, Season 5, Episode 2: ‘Trials and Tribulations’
November 23, 2023 by 1 Comment
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. ‘Trials and… Read More →
In da club, ya
November 22, 2023 by Leave a Comment
Some might remember the night my friend and podcasting partner Karl Jacob and I co-hosted a Roaring ’20s 100th birthday party for the Hibbing High School auditorium last month. It was a lovely evening of storytelling, sketch comedy, jazz and old time music in one of the great cathedrals of Iron Range education. What you… Read More →
FARGO, Season 5, Episode 1: ‘The Tragedy of the Commons’
November 21, 2023 by 1 Comment
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. ‘The Tragedy… Read More →
Paint the town red
November 18, 2023 by 1 Comment
Nothing good happens when a middle aged man from the Iron Range gets a Doja Cat song stuck in his head. Plump, scruffy, festooned in plaid with a Stormy Kromer cap on my head, now is not the time for me to mouth “B****, I said what I said” at a fellow motorist. And yet,… Read More →
Where the wild deer are
November 11, 2023 by 1 Comment
Hunters harvested fewer deer in northern Minnesota during the rifle opener this year. Experts cite several theories to explain the downswing, including habitat, climate, predation and fewer hunters. But the real answer will shock you. [INT. well furnished library of a palatial mansion. DOE sips tea while gazing out a picture window. BUCK sits in… Read More →
Humor comes home to ‘This Small Town’
November 4, 2023 by 1 Comment
November brings homecoming season to small towns across America. No, not high school homecomings or summer reunions. People choose to go to those. I’m talking about good old fashioned family holiday visits, the kind borne of obligation, ritual and guilt. And love! Of course! Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range knows all about homecomings. For a century,… Read More →
Ironweed
October 31, 2023 by 1 Comment
Today the Minnesota Reformer published my latest essay about about the new $68 million cannabis facility proposed for a shuttered Grand Rapids factory. The short version is that I’m skeptical. The long version gets to the root of that issue. The title of this post refers to the notion of commercial weed on the Iron… Read More →
Woods and waters, cheese and beer
October 28, 2023 by 2 Comments
What is the difference between Minnesota and Wisconsin? A foreign journalist asked me this question a few years ago. I prepared to extol the supremacy of my native Minnesota, only to emit a series of clicks, ums and ers. The journalist couldn’t tell the difference. My delay in responding only seemed to prove her point…. Read More →
