Paul Lundgren
Sushi in Duluth
Not long ago, zero restaurants in Duluth served sushi.
City Pages did a cover story about Duluth culture in 2001 titled “Hey, we’re in Duluth.” Zak Sally, then bassist of the Duluth-based band Low, lamented Duluth’s lack of sushi in the article.
The singers get their fair share of the world on the road but say they miss sushi. If somebody opened a sushi bar in Duluth, Sally deadpans, the local news would run an item explaining what sushi is. Not that everyone in town is chafing at its limits.
Shortly after the article, sushi popped up in Duluth at the old Bennett’s restaurant (now Midi) and in Superior at the old Sakana (now Marlee’s Caribbean).
Today, sushi is on the menu at a handful of area restaurants:
Black Water Lounge (They still serve sushi, don’t they?)
China King Buffet (no website; opening announced on PDD here)
Hanabi Japanese Cuisine
Osaka Sushi Hibachi Steakhouse (no website; PDD reviews here)
Zen House (Duluth)
Zen House (Hermantown)
Discussion topic: Hanabi is clearly the best and China King Buffet is clearly the least expensive, right?
UPDATE: Commenters note that two grocery stores — Mt. Royal Fine Foods and Cub Foods — both sell sushi in Duluth.
The Infamous Dr. Thunder paints a mural in Indianapolis that MSNBC dubs a “must see”
Superior native Erik Pearson spent part of this past summer working on a mural in Indianapolis, which made MSNBC’s list of “America’s must-see murals.”
You can see Erik’s murals in Superior at Red Mug Coffeehouse and along some back-alley spots, as mentioned in the PDD post “The Infamous Dr. Thunder paints a mural on the back door of Who’s Bar in Superior.”
The Fontanelles – “Stranger”
httpv://youtu.be/i5fssTMflUg
Video from last month’s “One Week Live” series at Beaner’s Central, edited by Dan Dresser.
Urban Canoeing in Minnesota
Video by Jake Strassman, one of the guys behind … (more…)
Where in Duluth?
Yes, time once again to play PDD’s exciting game of photo trivia. Where in Duluth was this photo shot?
2011 Duluth General Election Sample Ballot
Brush up on your referendums, kids. The city and the school district have some wordy questions for you. (By the way, you should be able to click on the images below to see them larger and read them more easily. The city question is the back side of the ballot, and is a separate image below.)
Another note about the ballot: As usual, depending on what neighborhood you live in, you might also vote on a district city councilor and/or school board member. This ballot has the district council race blanked out and does not include a district school board race.
This Week: Bellydancers, singers, nerds, rosemalers and movies in a barn
Since the PDD Calendar editor has come down with a nasty case of computer virus, allow me to take a shot at highlighting a few hot events this week. (more…)
Duluth 2011 Primary Election Results
With 36 of 36 precincts reporting and 6,620 total ballots cast:
At-large Duluth City Councilors
(Two positions; top four candidates advance)
Emily Larson – 4,918 | 40%
Linda Krug – 4,860 | 40%
Tim Riley – 947 | 8%
Chad Smith – 645 | 5%
Eric Edwardson – 446 | 4%
Gareth W. Bates – 442 | 4%
Fourth District Duluth City Councilor
(Top two candidates advance.)
Jacqueline Halberg – 695 | 44%
Garry Krause – 649 | 41%
Ryan Miles – 134 | 9%
Wallace Newquist – 59 | 4%
Travis Silvers – 29 | 2%
At-large Duluth School Board Member
(Top two candidates advance.)
Michael Miernicki – 3,783 | 61%
Ryan Stauber – 1,882 | 30%
Doug Frisk – 515 | 8%
Found: Eyeglasses on Wisconsin Point
I found a pair of eyeglasses on Wisconsin Point on Sunday, Sept. 11, along the shore near parking lot 1. I hung them on the sign at the parking lot, so if you’re looking for them they’re probably still there.
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PDD Calendar Launch on Monday, Sept. 12
Here’s the short version of things you need to know about the big changes at Perfect Duluth Day:
1) The PDD Calendar, which has been available in test mode for two months, will be launching full scale on Monday.
2) The editor of the calendar is Abigail Schoenecker, who can be reached at calendar @ perfectduluthday.com.
3) Effective immediately, PDD’s Blog Policies are changing a bit to discourage posting about events on the blog.
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Time to settle this once and for all
The bird in this photo is …
This poll is now closed. The results were:
A skyrat, one of the Devil’s flying rodents, which should be fed rocks from a slingshot. — 70.4 percent
A seagull, one of God’s lovely creatures, which should be fed popcorn gently tossed in its vicinity. — 29.6 percent
[poll id=”10″]
The Park Point Fox
Photos by Hattie Peterson. (Click any image to see it full size or to go through them all slide-show style.)
Minnesota Point: Protector or Guide?
From the 1950 book This is Duluth, by Dora May Macdonald:
According to rumour, George Sherwood, one of the old-time real estate men, stood on the barren hills one day with an Easterner, expounding on the charms of the village and the advantages to be gained by investing in Duluth real estate. Pointing to the sandy stretch of land curving out into the water, he said, “There lies Minnesota Point. It looks like God’s arm protecting the town of Duluth.”
The Easterner, unimpressed by the rocky hills, sand, or sentiment, replied, “It looks to me more like God’s finger pointing the way out of town.”
Iran continues to be Iran
Associated Press via the Washington Post: “Iran sentences two American men to eight years in jail in blow to hopes for freedom“
Perfect Duluth Day Spelling, Punctuation and Proper Usage Police
From time to time the geeks who comment on this website will get into arguments about grammar, spelling and so on. It doesn’t happen too often, but when it does it kind of excites certain people while it embarrasses and annoys others. Some people just love to show off their mad English skills, while others don’t care if their capable of getting there sentences from here to they’re properly.
With that in mind, this post has been created as a bitching ground for uptight word nerds.
Don’t let this post stop you from creating your own post to showcase public blunders in the future, it just seemed like this type of stuff needs a home base.
Here are some related posts from the past:
Really? And I had my hopes up …
Need Fun!
Great food. Bad punctuation.
Unnecessary quotation marks are sometimes disturbing
A Small Request
To help this discussion along, we’ve started the “Perfect Duluth Day Writer’s Guide,” as a handy reference to Duluth-related nouns that are frequently botched.
Let your ranting begin.
Sample Ballot for Duluth Primary Election on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011
Duluthians who live in the Fourth Council District, which includes parts of the West End, Piedmont Heights and Duluth Heights neighborhoods, will also vote on that council seat. The candidates are Jacqueline Halberg, Garry Krause, Ryan Miles, Wallace Newquist and Travis Silvers.
There will be more races in the General Election in November, but only one or two candidates filed for those offices, so they are not on the primary ballot. To see a complete list of candidates visit the “Duluth 2011 Election Candidate Filings” post.
Duluth Early History
A 1914 recap of Duluth history:
Proctor’s Yellowstone #225 circa 1963
The ol’ steam locomotive from the Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range Railroad that sits in downtown Proctor has been there a long time. This photo is from the Cliff’s Barber Shop Collection, dated 1963. Below is a 2009 photo from the Minnesota Railroading Photos on minnesotajones.com. (more…)
All roads lead to Duluth
The location of the city at the head of navigation, in the center of a continent, 1,400 miles from the sea, gives it unequaled facilities (through 8,000 miles of railways centering here) as a natural distributing point for a great and prosperous section.
We have cheap power, cheap coal, cheap gas, cheap iron, cheap raw material of woods, in vast quantities with unequaled transportation facilities in every direction.
—Duluth News Tribune, Sept. 30, 1914
Hey Tourists, Welcome to Our City
In the search for info on the song “Welcome to Our City,” for the list of “Songs with ‘Duluth’ in the lyrics or title,” PDD’s Fairy Research Spy found this 1910 Duluth News Tribune illustration (which has the same title as the song, but predates it by six years). Note that the Aerial Lift Bridge is not a lift bridge … it was the Aerial Ferry Bridge back then, with a gondola car carrying cars/wagons across.
Poll: Should the PDD Calendar display or hide event descriptions?
Two weeks ago we launched the new PDD Calendar (in test mode) and asked you for feedback. Although we received good feedback in general, there was one specific area we asked about as an afterthought in the comments and didn’t get much response on, so we’ll ask again in a more obvious and simple-to-respond-to way (though it still requires some degree of explanation):
How would you like the entries on any given day to look? (more…)