Month: August 2021
Postcard from Bethany Children’s Home in 1916
This handsome structure at 4000 W. Ninth St. was originally the home of Alfred and Jane Merritt. They sold it to the Swedish Lutheran Church of West Duluth the same year this postcard was mailed, 1916, and it became an orphanage. The home was destroyed by fire on Oct. 10, 1920. (more…)
PDD Quiz: Duluth Movie Mentions
Calling all film buffs and trivia nerds: this quiz is for you! Test your knowledge of movies that name drop Duluth (a perusal of the PDD tag References to Duluth in Film/TV or Other Media might help you cheat study).
The next PDD quiz will review the month’s headlines; it will be published on Aug. 29. Submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by Aug. 24. (more…)
Postcard from the Hiawatha in 1961
Another postcard bearing this image was previously posted on Perfect Duluth Day, but this one bears a postmark from 60 years ago today — Aug. 15, 1961. (more…)
Lake Superior Sea Monster: Three Fatal Encounters
Mouth of the Presque Isle River, Sept. 9, 1987
The cute falls and river here empty into Lake Superior like so many sites along the South Shore: sandy beach, smooth stones, jumbles of fallen half-drowned trees. Depth off shore reaches thirty feet with a sand floor, on the edge of a rock shelf plunging 200 feet.
Statement of first responder on presumed drowning death of Matthew Bruin, 19: “This is not the first drowning victim of the Presque Isle River. It’s important to remember while splashing around in this shallow area by the mouth, that the seabed quickly descends to a couple hundred feet. The warm river water flows over top of the colder lake water, but it’s a conveyor belt to the deep. As the river water cools it sinks, pulling people down. Sadly I think the victim’s body will never be recovered. People say, ‘It’s the Presque Isle monster’ or ‘it’s a sea serpent’, but it is the lake itself, a force of nature that does not care if we live or die.”
Victim’s friend and witness, J.R. Sandvik: “I’m telling you he was pulled under by a large animal… I miss him… I miss you buddy.” (more…)
Postcard of a Night Scene in Duluth
This postcard was mailed Aug. 14, 1941. It shows the Aerial Lift Bridge and western Downtown Duluth buildings in the city lights and illumination from the Moon. (more…)
SubSuperior: Day 1
Beta-test/proof of concept/first annual; video to come. Making music underwater and projecting it on land with hydrophones.
Heely Tricks with JamesG: July 2021
Here’s the hot midsummer installment of wheeled sneaker stunts by former Duluthian James Geisler, also known as the hip-hop artist JamesG.
Duluth Cup Race of 1911
It was 110 years ago today — Aug. 12, 1911 — that the Minnetonka reached the amazing speed of 30 miles per hour and won the Duluth Cup. (more…)
Glenn Miller & the Modernaires – “Elmer’s Tune”
“Elmer’s Tune” was the first hit for Duluth songwriter Sammy Gallop. Glenn Miller & the Modernaires recorded this version 80 years ago today — Aug. 11, 1941. (more…)
Duluth Primary Election Results 2021
With 34 of 34 precincts reporting …
Duluth At-large City Councilor
Top four candidates advance to General Election
Azrin Awal | 2,946
Terese Tomanek | 2,893
Joe Macor | 2,589
Timothy L. Meyer | 989
Ashlie Castaldo | 988
Scott Jenkins | 703
Dezuwon “Pez” Davila | 594
Nancy Stam | 508
Duluth Second District City Councilor
Top two candidates advance to General Election
Mike Mayou | 954
Dave Zbaracki | 289
Andrew C. Jarocki | 254
Andrew Hilfers | 24
Duluth Fourth District City Councilor
Top two candidates advance to General Election
Renee K. Van Nett | 653
Howie Hanson | 524
Nathaniel Rankin | 118
The Slice: Honoring Missing Indigenous Women
Kevin Pendleton of Zenith City Piercing and Tattoo brought attention to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis through a viral photo of a tattoo.
In its series The Slice, WDSE-TV presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.
Guide to Duluth-area Podcasts in 2021
About half of Duluth-area podcasts are a repackaging of radio content, but there are still plenty of independent programs covering everything from politics, history and sports to paranormal encounters and general geekery. (more…)
Video Archive: Tamburitzans in Lake Nebagamon
The Tamburitzans, the longest-running multicultural song and dance company in the United States, has rehearsed in Lake Nebagamon for its national tour since 1947. Mary Ellen Miller had the story for KBJR-TV in 1978 when the Tammies invaded the Lake Nebagamon Village Auditorium. (more…)
Time of Waiting
I remember her waiting up for my father
To come home from God knows where
In a yellow cab at 2:00 A.M.
And waiting for me in the school parking lot
In our old blue station wagon
When whatever it was I was practicing for
Ran late …
And I remember her waiting for me
At the airport when I got back from Japan,
Waiting for everything to be all right,
Waiting for her biopsy results.
Waiting.
— George Bilgere, “Waiting”
Waiting for Cancer
In 1956, in On the Origin of Cancer Cells, Otto Warburg tried to pin down the causes for the “mysterious latency period of the production of cancer.” Fifty years later, in Genetic Progression and the Waiting Time to Cancer, Niko Beerenwinkel, Tibor Antal, David Dingli, Arne Traulsen, Kenneth W Kinzler, Victor E Velculescu, Bert Vogelstein, and Martin A Nowak replace the “mysterious latency period” with talk about a waiting period: they set out to “derive an analytical formula for the expected waiting time for the progression from benign to malignant tumor.” They started with a “normal” cell and predicted the number of mutations the cell will undergo. Based on the number of mutations, they could calculate how long it will take for a normal cell to produce a benign tumor and how long before those mutations produce a tumor that becomes malignant. (more…)
Astrophotography on Observation Hill and Lake Superior
Astronomer and photographer Kyle Johnson spent three weeks on Observation Hill in Duluth and shares the wonders of the cosmos in cinematic fashion in the video above.
In a second video, below, he treks along the North Shore of Lake Superior — visiting the Temperance River, Oberg Mountain Trail and Grand Marais — shooting the North America Nebula in the constellation Cygnus. (more…)
Postcard from Third Avenue in Hibbing, 1921
This postcard was mailed 100 years ago today — Aug. 6, 1921. The image shows Third Avenue in Hibbing looking north, including the Oliver Hotel at 422 Third Avenue. The card was published by T. C. Congdon. (more…)
Artificially Perfect Duluth Day: The Microsoft Flight Simulator
Microsoft’s Flight Simulator came out on the Xbox last week and allows players to fly anywhere in the world, including Duluth. It combines information from Bing maps with an algorithm that builds 3D representations of the landscape, creating shapes and textures when data is missing or incomplete.
The video below shows a simulated flight over Park Point. (more…)
Rafe Carlson – “Lost and Found”
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Hermantown’s Rafe Carlson has a debut single out titled “Lost and Found.” He was profiled on WDIO-TV yesterday. (more…)
Straight Outta Congdon
A caller identifying as “Jebadiah from Duluth, Minn.” made it onto the Aug. 4 episode of the podcast Yo, is this Racist? The show, hosted by Andrew Ti and Tawny Newsome, answers questions from listeners about whether given subjects are an example of racism or not. (more…)
Monthly Grovel: August 2021
August is a busy month at the Perfect Duluth Day Global Headquarters in West Duluth. Our team of cruise directors are hard at work updating the PDD Calendar with Duluth-area happenings — from concerts and community festivals to beer gardens and sauna experiences. Each month we reach out with one beggarly blog post to remind everyone that human beings and not machines are at work editing and publishing calendar events. So if you appreciate it, drop a few bucks in the PayPal account. (more…)
Live music returns to Sacred Heart, fall concerts announced
The Cactus Blossoms performing on the Sacred Heart Music Center altar stage in 2019. (Photo by Michael K. Anderson)
After an 18-month pandemic closure, Sacred Heart Music Center will welcome live audiences back to a full concert schedule beginning in September. (more…)
Life Parade – “Something”
Cameron Mathews of the Duluth band Life Parade performs a cover of the Beatles song “Something” from the 1969 album Abbey Road.
Selective Focus: Andrew Remer’s Marbles, Glass Art & 3D Printing
Andrew Remer has been working with glass since 2016. After taking a class in Minneapolis, he began experimenting with the medium along with some friends. The group rented hourly studio time at Potekglass and later built a garage studio in Shakopee. Remer moved to Duluth in 2019 and began working at Lake Superior Art Glass. He branched out on his own into a full-time artistic career during the COVID-19 pandemic, completing commissions and attending several festivals to share his art. (more…)
League of Women Voters 2021 Duluth Candidate Forum
The League of Women Voters held this candidate forum for At-large Duluth City Council candidates on July 28. Mary Faulkner is the moderator.
Duluth 2021 Primary Election Sample Ballot
Most Duluthians will see a ballot that looks like the sample above when they vote in the Primary Election on Aug. 10. There are two other city council races that will appear on ballots in specific parts of the city. (more…)