Paul Lundgren
Missing Person: Walter Clock
The Duluth Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a missing 69-year-old male. Walter Clock was last seen on Saturday at noon, leaving his residence in the 2200 block of West Second Street.
UPDATE: He has been found.
Amusement seekers are well cared for by theatrical houses of the Zenith City
That was the headline above this photo collage from the Sept. 30, 1914 edition of the Duluth News Tribune. Of course, the Lyceum, Rex, Grand, Zelda and Empress are all gone now. Only the Orpheum remains — remodeled and renamed the NorShor Theatre in 1941.
The Duluth Economic Development Authority is working with Westlake Reed Leskosky and SJA Architects on restoration plans for the NorShor. Have patience; it’ll take some time.
Duluth Beer Tour 2011
How many different beers are produced in Duluth and commercially available in July 2011? Could you drink a pint of each in one day and not require a stomach pump? (more…)
We are opposed to the notion that you are the first to be unopposed, Mr. Ness
At least one news organization reported yesterday that Mayor Don Ness is the first Duluth mayor to be unopposed in an election. Well, it’s not true.
Mayor Ness is indeed the only mayor in the past 126 years to go unopposed, but Maryanne Norton at the Duluth Public Library has found three Duluth mayors in the 1800s who were unopposed.
Sidney Luce was elected unopposed in 1872 and served one term.
Dr. Vespasian Smith was elected twice with no opposition — in 1873 and 1874. (Mayors served one-year terms until 1913, when the current four-year system began.)
Horace B. Moore was elected unopposed in 1885 and served one term.
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Introducing PDD Calendar Beta Test +
Perfect Duluth Day is launching an events calendar, and for the next month or so you can preview it at it’s permanent URL:
We have created this calendar because a majority of posts to the PDD Blog are about events, but the format of a blog is not a practical way to organize that type of information. If you wanted to know what’s happening today based on PDD posts, you’d have to select the “events” category and skim through weeks of random items looking for today’s date. That is lame.
So today our calendar is born. It doesn’t have a ton of events in it yet, and it probably has some technical issues left to be fixed, but the general format is set and it has seemed to be working well during our initial testing phase.
Check it out and tell us what you think with a comment to this post or an e-mail to calendar @ perfectduluthday.com.
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Lynx on its way
Captain LeeAnne Gordon of the Tall Ship Lynx informed the folks at Visit Duluth today that she estimates her ship’s arrival in Duluth at 3:30 p.m. The Lynx is sailing into the harbor for the Duluth Music and Maritime Festival. This will be the first visit to Duluth for the 114-ton Lynx, an interpretation of a privateer or naval schooner from the War of 1812.
Duluth Schools Construction Tour
Duluth Public Schools just released a 53-page PDF (which takes a moment to load) titled “Duluth’s 21st Century Public Schools: Construction Tour, July 2011.” It includes updated construction photos of the district’s three new and six updated schools. Here’s a brief gallery for those too lazy to take on 53 pages.
Twin Ports Bridge Festival 2011 Photos
Michael Franti and Spearhead put on quite the jubilant performance during the Twin Ports Bridge Festival at Bayfront Park. Cheers to organizer Shane Bauer; this was a great event. (more…)
Photos from Clifford E. Johnson of Cliff’s Barber Shop
Cliff’s Barber Shop in West Duluth is for sale. The proprietor, Clifford E. Johnson, died two years ago. I took the photo above in April, when Cliff’s shop was being cleared out after an estate sale.
The sale included boxes upon boxes of old slides. Most of them were of vacations to Hawaii and so on, but I found two boxes that had some local images, so I plopped down $10 and brought them home for a slide show. The folks at Swim Creative have scanned a few of the more interesting slides so I can share them on Perfect Duluth Day. (more…)
Perfect Duluth Night
Soak it in, people.
Duluth 2011 Election Candidate Filings
Duluth citizens desiring to be a candidate for elected office must file before July 19. Candidates for city offices file with the city clerk; candidates for school board file at Historic Old Central High School in room 215.
(The list below is a final list of who filed. Updates were made to this post as filing was happening, so some comments to this post predate the completion of the list.)
Mayor of Duluth
Don Ness (incumbent) (more…)
Duluth Music and Maritime Festival 2011
US Brig Niagara, Pride of Baltimore II and Lynx
Additional entertainers announced in recent weeks for the Duluth Music and Maritime Festival include Mason Jennings, Chmielewski Funtime Band, Heiruspecs, Haley Bonar and Cantus.
That’s in addition to the Suburbs, Gear Daddies, Cracker, Retribution Gospel Choir, Tom Kastle, Ninety to the Dozen, AM Rubin, Bounding Main and family programming by the Duluth Playhouse.
It all happens July 15-18 on the waterfront behind Grandma’s Sports Garden, Bellisio’s and the Paulucci Building.
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Happy eighth birthday to us
Perfect Duluth Day is eight years old today – Wednesday, June 29. We’ll be celebrating tonight at Burrito Union around 8:30ish. Stop on by. There will be a weird cake and an array of door prizes. (We’ll probably be out on the deck — space and weather permitting — so look there first. Find the people with cake on their lips.)
Also, yours truly (Paul Lundgren) will be a guest today on “The Local” with Christine Dean the Radio Queen, celebrating PDD’s birthday by playing songs with “Duluth” in the lyrics or title. That’s at 5 p.m. on 103.3 FM KUMD.
Thanks to Barrett and Starfire for starting this thing and to all you bloggers, cloggers and corn doggers who keep it going. We’re on a pace to hit 10,000 posts before the end of the year. That’s kind of something.
PDD Gravatar Poll Championship
[poll id=”8″]
This poll is now closed. The results were:
Don Ness — 49.2 percent
Bev — 19.7 percent
TimK — 16.6 percent
Hot Shot — 14.4
Duluth’s Retro Antique Mall
You may have noticed a new antique store has opened at 118 E. First St. in Downtown Duluth. It’s a pretty crazy collection. In one corner is some of the remaining used book inventory from R. O. Carlson’s famous store, next to it is stuff from the old Molly’s Bar in Superior … and on and on. There are about 10 different people selling stuff in there, one of whom is Doug Moen, best known for his massive collection of retro clothing. (more…)
PDD Gravatar Poll, Fourth Bracket
[poll id=”7″]
This poll is now closed. The results were:
Hot Shot — 54.1 percent
Tamara — 15.3 percent
Ethan — 11.8 percent
Mary — 9.4 percent
Edgeways — 9.4 percent
Skyline: The Pride of Every Duluthian
The recent post “Lost Dog at Lakeside Super One,” which reunited Jessica with her sweet and crazy dog Marley, ended up spinning off into a discussion about the Lakeside neighborhood and it’s history/boundaries/etc.
While pondering that, PDD’s Fairy Research Spy unearthed this June 30, 1907 Duluth News Tribune article about the ongoing development of Skyline Parkway. (Of course, it wasn’t called “Skyline” until 1929.) (more…)
Eighth Birthday Party Announcement and Other PDD-related Matters
Next Wednesday, June 29, is Perfect Duluth Day’s eighth birthday. As usual, we are having a little get-together, and as usual we are inviting you all, as frightening as that might seem.
So swing on by the Burrito Union next Wednesday in the vague window of 8:30 to 10 p.m. or so. There will be no program or live music or plan to get people drunk and sell them condos; it’s just our annual opportunity to meet in person and shoot the breeze with the folks who put the P in our double-D.
In addition, yours truly will be a guest on “The Local” with Christine Dean next week, celebrating PDD’s birthday by playing songs with “Duluth” in the lyrics or title. That’s Wednesday, June 29, 5 p.m., on 103.3 FM KUMD.
By the way, we should probably let you all know what’s up with some of the technical weirdness PDD intermittently experienced in recent weeks. Here are the boring details:
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Bayfront Reggae – Save on tickets
If you’re going to both days of the Bayfront Reggae Festival, you can save some dough buying tickets online and using this discount code:
PDD1811
Just go to the Buy Tickets Now page and click on “Buy Tickets Now.” Select the number of tickets you want, enter the promotion code, and the price per two-day ticket will drop from $78.50 to $58.50.
(The only catch is you can’t choose the less expensive “advance” tickets and get the discount, even though you are buying in advance; so technically you’re saving $10, even though the discount is $20. Rastafarian math.)
Mary Plaster: Mixed Media Masks
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aeVdPVFeFk&feature=player_embedded
Most of these are still on display at Beaner’s Central. Green Man is gone, though. Must have trekked off into the woods.
Live Music Under the Tents in Canal Park
DeWitt-Seitz Marathon Nights events are in the DeWitt Seitz Marketplace lot, pictured above. Official Grandma’s Marathon live music is in the big parking lot by Grandma’s restaurants.
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