Month: August 2014

Duluth school principals defend short skirts

For your back-to-school reading pleasure, from the Oct. 2, 1921 Duluth News Tribune:

1921-Duluth-school-principals-defend-short-skirts

 

Gems of Itasca: The Bovey Edition

Bovey is an historical jewel on the Iron Range, known for its rich mining history in the early 1900s. It’s also the home of the world-famous 1918 photograph Grace. (more…)

Bike Duluth Festival 2014 Video

Video by Dudley Edmondson from the Bike Duluth Festival.

Mystery Solved.

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It was Chester Creek Spider-Man.

(photo album here of this hero in his natural habitat)

Another Wonderful Mitchell Letter

Dennis P. Mitchell’s letter in this morning’s Duluth News Tribune is a gem.  Dennis and his wife Rosemarie gained notoriety with their London Olympics letter a few years ago. Today, they reveal the sordid happenings in the Sally Forth comic strip.

‘Sally Forth’ sets poor example for youths

Duluth Wet Basement Recommendation

I’m looking for a recommendation for someone to come take a look at a wet basement problem. My wife and I purchased our first home a couple months ago. With the torrential rainfall last night, I awoke this morning to a nice soggy wet carpet in the basement. I’ve got the mess cleaned up and now it is time to solve the problem. It appears the rain decided to enter the house via the egress window. Who would you recommend come and solve this for me?

Ten things a perfect city needs

A hipster economy and celebrities misbehaving in public are also essential for the ideal city.Except for ethnic diversity, I think Duluth makes the cut:

The Guardian: The 10 things a perfect city needs

This week: singing vampires, gay pride and football

perfect-reed duluth-nola bender-day

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

You have your choice of geekery tonight with the Doctor Who Peter Capaldi era debuting at Marcus Cinema and Zinema 2 offering a Joss Whedon Sing Along hosted by the Zenith City Browncoats and some local online calendar editor.

Pride Festival is this weekend, running Thursday through Sunday, and opens with the Mayor’s Reception at the Depot. The celebration includes an art exhibit with a Friday opening at Zeitgeist and a 5K run on Saturday.

School hasn’t started yet, but the Denfeld Hunters have their football season opener on Thursday at Public Schools Stadium as they host the Cambridge-Isanti Bluejackets.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.

Introducing Perfect Duluth Day’s new responsive design

pdd-responsive1

It’s been over five years since we’ve freshened things up around here. Welcome to the new look of PDD. At the moment we’re still fixing all the things that are breaking left and right as a result of messing with the layout of the PDD Blog, but soon things will be functioning better than ever.

Here are some fancy bullet points to get you up to speed:

  • What we have done, essentially, is changed PDD’s WordPress theme. The result is a responsive design that will adapt to whatever device you are using to view this website.
  • If you are on a desktop computer, you’ll notice the content field is bigger and the navigation sidebar that used to be on the left of all pages is gone. Everything that was there is still available through the navigation at the top of the page.
  • If you are on a phone or tablet, everything about this website should look much better.
  • (more…)

Ark of the Anthropocene is coming to Duluth and needs support!

Ark-of-the-Anthropocene-DNT-photoMinneapolis-based artist and musician Sean Connaughty has done many wonderful and interesting things. Among them are a series of self contained ceramic biospheres that he sculpts, fills with plant life, and then submerges in waterways to become free floating universes. He wires them with cameras so viewers can hit his website and see what is going on inside. Now he has taken on his biggest version of the project yet, a massive concrete ‘Ark’ biosphere which will be submerged in Lake Superior near the Aquarium. The image is of the Ark being hoisted in place for the Northern Spark Festival in June at the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis.
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Duluth Mystery Photo: Denfeld football players from 1951

Help name these Denfeld Hunters. The image above is one of three dated Nov. 29, 1951 that were listed for sale on eBay. The description read: “These three photos were of the football players from Denfeld High School in Duluth, Minnesota. The sign in the background says Public Schools Stadium. The photos are from 1951. Two of the boys are identified: Eli Miletich and Richard Wilson. Eli Miletich gained some local celebrity later in life on the Duluth Police force.”

So, who can name the other two gridiron greats from West Duluth?
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Lost Husky on Central Entrance

Roughly 2-year-old Siberian Husky lost on Central Entrance around 9 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23. Please call 218-251-3091 if you have any info. He was going to be trained as an emotional support animal for a vet with PTSD. He is a new member of our family and we love him very much!

ChuchCrew: Duluth Dæn

Dan Wilczek takes a few downhill runs. Video by Alex Colorito.

A Century of the Pickwick


 

Duluth’s oldest and longest operating restaurant is celebrating its centennial this week. Although it didn’t bear the Pickwick name in 1914, the establishment that would later become the Pickwick Restaurant and Pub opened 100 years ago. The centennial celebration continues through Saturday. See the PDD Calendar for details.
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St. Louis River video at Jay Cooke State Park

Video by Douglas Feltman; music by Dexter Britain.

Death of Hugh A. Wetmore

The post “Buffalo Bill Cody, his little sister Helen, and their connection to Duluth” notes that Hugh Wetmore died in 1900. He did not. He died April 6, 1909 in Chicago.

What date, and in what state, if you know, did Alexander Calhoun Jester die? I have seen online at least three different dates and three different states.

Goodbye Little and Big Chester

Little Chester demolition - MPR photo

MPR: Ski jumps that launched Olympians come tumbling down
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Rollin’ 218

Been sitting on this waiting for summer to peak for its release, but that never happened obvs.

Beating it under the Ninth Street Bridge

BeatThis1992

Above is a photo from the old Ripsaw magazine showing the famous “Beat it” tag underneath the Ninth Street Bridge over Chester Creek. The tag is dated Oct. 1, 1992, and was reportedly painted over when the bridge was renovated in 2003.

Below is the updated tag, as photographed in 2014.

Beat it ... slap

The age-old question is: How did you do that? You are the one who did it, right? Why is the new tag backward?

Volunteers wanted for fixit clinic in September

Duluth Technology Co. is organizing a fixit clinic, modeled after one held in Minneapolis this summer. We would like to make the fixit clinics a regular occurrence, but the very first one is also going to be a grand opening event for Duluth Technology Co.
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This week: it’s going to be loud

  

Here’s a sampling of what you have to look forward to this week on the PDD Calendar.

There is a Freedom of Information workshop at the library tonight, hosted by Public Record Media.

The Head of the Lakes Fair opens on Tuesday and runs through Sunday at the Head of the Lakes Fairgrounds.

Duluth native, De’Lon Grant, is back from touring to do a one-man cabaret at the Teatro Zuccone on Wednesday.

On Thursday the Leap Frogs (the U.S. Navy Seals Parachute Landing Team) will be landing in the parking lot of the Duluth Heritage Sports Center.

Tribute Fest, a celebration of cover bands and very loud music, emanates from Bayfront Park Friday and Saturday.

There will also be loud things in the sky this weekend with the Duluth Airshow, running Saturday and Sunday.

So what are you doing this week? Can we tag along? Any upcoming events that you want to promote? Let us know.

Redstone damaged by fire

Redstone

From the assistant fire chief’s office:

At 00:52 this morning, the Duluth Fire Department responded to a structure fire at 1511 E. Superior St. The first vehicle on scene reported a working fire, with heavy fire showing from a first-floor window of a three-story building. The fire had extended to the second floor via a pipe chase.
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Dangerous backpacks?

I bike most places, and almost always wear my backpack because it has everything I might need. I decided to take in a movie at the Duluth 10 theater, and biked down as usual. Also as usual I locked my bike to the only thing within two blocks of the theater that you can lock a bike to, which is the H.C. parking sign post. I proceeded in to pay for my ticket and was informed that I couldn’t take my backpack in. That is where my beef begins.
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Flat Track Derby Results

As WDIO noted:

“The Twin Ports’ Harbor City Roller Dames are hosting the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association Division 2 Playoffs.”

I am sorry I could not make it. I want to know more about the results. Please post!

Struggling Apple Tree

We moved into a house near Hartley Park last summer and were delighted when the apple tree in our new backyard produced basket after basket of fruit in the fall. This summer, though, we never saw the tree blossom, and while the leaves seem healthy, there are clearly no signs of apples. Any ideas what might have caused the lack of blossoms this year? We wondered if last winter was simply too tough on the tree, or if something else is wrong. Does anyone else know of apple (or other fruit) trees struggling this year? Any suggestions for a lawn/garden center or somewhere else to seek advice to ensure apples next year?