David Beard
Associative Agnosia and a Writer Born in Duluth
Michael Fedo on Associative Agnosia:
During my 1940s and 50s elementary school years in Duluth, Minnesota, I was the only boy in my class who could not identify automobiles by make. Chevrolets, Fords, Plymouths—all appeared indistinct to me. I couldn’t recognize one from another, unless I happened to spot the name on its hood or trunk.
Fascinating read by one of Duluth’s most prominent exports, in the new issue of You & Me.
Local Poet, Global Community, World Literature
Jayson Iwen has co-translated a significant poem by Salim Barakat, a Kurdish-Syrian poet.
It’s a love poem, and as co-translator Huda Fakhreddine says, “Dylana and Diram’s love infiltrates and overwhelms the landscape. Barakat does not use images of nature to draw analogies with their relationship. The spiritual and sensual bond between them consumes nature and natural scenery and transforms it into a mere manifestation of a surging emotional deluge.”
The poem can be read in the prestigious World Literature Today.
Three Festivals
Festival season is here. I didn’t get to the Park Point Art Fair until after it had closed on Saturday, but that was OK. I was only really there because I wanted to check out the gluten-free fair food. Auntie M’s Gluten Free Fair food tempted me to make the drive to the end of the Point. (more…)
How much tension is there when the game goes 15 innings?
Friends of mine went to watch the Duluth Huskies play in Thunder Bay … at the Duluth Buffalo Wild Wings, where they are given a screen for away games. (Locally, this minor league baseball team plays at Wade Stadium. They can be heard on both AM and FM radio, too.) It’s super-cool to see our minor-league team play on the TV next to the big guys.
A recent outing lasted 15 innings. Read more about that at northwoodsleague.com. Is there a 14th inning stretch? Maybe you love baseball and you can tell me what it’s like?
Boards and Brews
I’ve attended two fun games nights lately. “Boards & Brews” is an event sponsored by UMD Alumni Relations, Bent Paddle Brewing, and Dungeon’s End Game Store. UMD provides snacks, Bent Paddle sells beer, and Dungeon’s End teaches games. (more…)
Golfing in Duluth
From the Enger course Facebook page.
I was talking sports, violence, and masculinity with friends and as we rattled through sports that made me, at least, uncomfortable, I went for the one I know I like — golf. No one gets hurt (football) or damaged (running). Yes, there are stories of obsessive coaches doing immense damage to their charges, but I imagine those coaches would have abused anyway — the sport of golf just normalized the behavior.
Maybe golf is what we need, what I need. Golf may be a good walk, ruined, to some, but I could stand a good walk. (more…)
Duluth’s Robot Rickshaw is the geekiest thing
Jeff Pesek of Tech{dot}MN celebrates Duluth’s Robot Rickshaw in the article “Robot Rickshaw is the geekiest thing in Minnesota’s tech scene.”
A rapidly-deployable, human-driven, two wheeled cart full of robots that play music. Piloted by a lunatic in a hazmat suit+teddy bear.
Rickshaw is Troy Rogers, and the article is cool.
Yu and J’s in the Miller Hill Mall — already gone?
I loved Yu and J’s Grilled Subs in the Miller Hill Mall. I loved that is was independently owned. I loved the tang of the bulgogi sauce (and wish we had more Asian alternatives in Duluth.)
… but the lights are out … I hope those tasty recipes will appear in a summer festival cart or a food truck or some other wonderful venue. Please let me know. (more…)
The new issue of Freshwater Review has been published
Internal Landscape oil painting by Natalie Salminen Rude
The new issue of Freshwater Review has been published. It is the College of St. Scholastica’s student-run annual journal of literature and art, including work by writers and artists throughout the region.
Sweet, sorrowful story from Wildwoods
From the Wildwoods Rehabilitation Facebook page:
In our lives as rehabbers, we witness many happy moments, but also many tragedies and moments of heartbreak. This story is one of the sad ones.
When friends of Wildwoods saw these very young, very tiny grey fox kits wandering around outside their den without their mom, they knew something was amiss. Something had happened to Mom; she was gone. (more…)
Seriously? with Elias Mokole
A new radio feature on KUMD features my friend Elias Mokole as the inaugural guest. (more…)
Nanay’s Kitchen and Asian Food in the Twin Ports
I had a small window Saturday between the end of my workday and the end of the serving of food at Nanay’s Kitchen.
Once or twice a month, Beth will prepare a standard meal, and for about ten dollars, you eat a variety of Phillippine foods. This month, the menu was:
- Pork Adobo (the real reason I go; this pork belly entree is amazing)
- Chicken Caldereta with Coconut milk and Peanut Butter
- Pancit (noodles)
- Lumpia (Beth’s famous egg rolls)
- Jasmine (rice)
Lake Superior Writers 2018 writing contest winners announced
The winners have been announced in Lake Superior Writers annual writing contest. Winner in each category receive a prize of $250 and publication on the Lake Superior Writers website. (more…)
Sun in the First Weekend of Summer
It was sunny out this past weekend. I argued a little bit with a friend about how warm it was, until I realized that I was at the top of the hill. How quickly I forget that the top of the hill is warmer in summer by as many as ten degrees.
[That temperature phenomenon is discussed here and here.]
But it was a fun weekend of stories in the sun. (more…)
Wondering why I didn’t panic
On the day of the Husky Energy oil refinery explosion, fire, ecological disaster in Superior, I didn’t panic. I didn’t even find out until nearly 5 p.m. And when I did, I turned on the TV and let the coverage flow as background noise.
Later, I talked to friends who were anywhere from anxious to panicked. I’ve been thinking about why my response was so different. (more…)
Busy Bodies Tent #60 ~ Sons of the Desert
Did you know Duluth has a Laurel and Hardy society?
Me neither, until Tim Broman mentioned it: Busy Bodies Tent #60 ~ Sons of the Desert. I’d love to hear more about this organization from PDD readers.
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #10
Below are more items from an old trivia deck I bought at Savers. Some of the questions can be misleading and the answers wrong, but such is the way with history.
1. Name the master stone sculptor who carved the stone ornaments on so many Duluth homes and buildings.
2. What was the College of St. Scholastica’s earlier name?
3. Who were Bob Junkert and Don Rose?
4. In what year did the new Central High School open?
5. Where was the first junior college located in Duluth?
6. Which architect designed Endion School and the old Duluth Public Library?
7. What was the first building erected on the present site of the UMD campus?
8. What religious organization established St. Luke’s Hospital?
9. What was “Jeno’s Erector Set”?
10. A restaurant on Superior Street called Paddy Dorna’s was operated by Paddy. In what other career was Paddy locally famous?
11. Duluth’s first wedding, between Hester Crooks and William Boutwell, took place in what area of Duluth? (more…)
Coldsnap on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Spectrum West”
Photographer John Gregor‘s interview on Wisconsin Public Radio’s “Spectrum West” arts program with Alan Ross is now available for online streaming at wpr.org.
Low on “Fear the Walking Dead”
[arve url=”https://youtu.be/iupa8tqKTOw”]
My heart melts when the softer Low songs play. So when the otherwise mediocre season finale of Fear the Walking Dead included Low’s “Long Way Around the Sea,” I melted.
Way up North, Gay up North
Duluth newscasters Dan Hanger and Edward Moody share their stories of being gay news anchors in Lavender magazine.
Duluth Trivia Deck Sampler #9
Below are more questions from a Duluth Trivia Deck I found at Savers.
1. True or false? The fires of 1918 destroyed the Northland Country Club, the Homecroft and Cobb Schools, the Alger-Smith Lumber Yards and approaches to the Interstate Bridge.
2. In what sport did Walter Hoover excel?
3. True of false? The Viking Explorer, the replica of the ship sailed by Leif Erickson, has never sailed.
4. Who planned the Duluth Civic Center?
5. Who dedicated Enger Tower?
6. For how many years was Samuel Frisbee Snively mayor of Duluth?
7. Why was the Hotel Duluth’s Black Bear Lounge so named?
8. What recent year will be the year remembered at the year bears invaded Duluth?
9. What leading proponent of prohibition lectured in Duluth in 1910?
10. What suffragette spoke in Duluth in 1889?
11. What was the title of Nixon’s address in Duluth?
(more…)
Snowshoeing in Mahtowa
I went snowshoeing in Mahtowa this weekend.
Snowshoes are a gentle miracle of physics. At first it’s disconcerting to walk alongside a tree or a shrub more than a foot above the ground. I’m not supposed to be up here, and my poles are proof of this, as they press deep into the snow to bite the frozen earth. (more…)
Human Fabric of Duluth tells powerful story of addiction and recovery
If you’ve not kept up with the Human Fabric of Duluth webseries of photos and stories, you missed this week’s story of inspiration. (more…)
Handrails
The house was built before the end of World War I, finished room by room by my great grandfather after a hard day’s work at Kurth Malting in Milwaukee, where I grew up.
When was a child at the kitchen table doing homework in the 1980s, the house still wasn’t finished. The porch was sinking into the earth, and every spring I climbed beneath to crank the jack that lifted the sagging southwest corner.
There were no handrails on the steep staircase from the first floor to the basement or winding alongside the stairs from the first floor to the attic. Maybe handrails were luxuries they could not afford, or maybe handrails never crossed his mind, the way that he died without ever wearing a seatbelt.
Every day his wife, my great-grandmother, fetched a can of veggies from the root cellar for dinner. Tinned vegetables did not require the cool air of the basement to stay fresh, but old habits died hard. Cans of beets and corn and beans were still stored downstairs. (more…)