We accidentally left our door open during part of Sunday afternoon, and the young cat we were watching took the opportunity to disappear. Please keep an eye out for him. He’s a very nice cat named Ozzie. Thank you!

Ethan – 4017 McCulloch St. – 218-461-9180.

Anyone out there missing a dog tonight? There’s a sweet pit bull or boxer (it’s dark) brindle colored, limping around by my garage, but every time I approach her she runs off. The pup is limping pretty hard and is likely scared. I’m on Chester Parkway down from Skyline on the west side of the creek. 310-6541.

The Anthropology Senior Seminar course I am teaching at UMD is focusing on local food and sustainability. A few weeks ago we had a class meal prepared by students with local ingredients. We had a lively debate about what qualifies as local and why it is important to eat locally.

Definitions of local vary–Whole Foods Co-op uses 300-miles as a benchmark. Some of the Twin Cities coops allow anything that comes from a five state area (Minnesota and the states that touch it) to count as local. Other local grocery stores are using the term, too, though I’m not sure what criteria they are using. Other definitions are more restrictive.

What about a PDD definition? What counts as local food?

Local food usually means small to mid-scale production, requiring more human labor, but less fossil fuel–that means more jobs, but also potentially higher costs. How willing are you to spend a little extra money for locally produced foods? How much extra?

I’m going to have more questions about these topics as I’m currently involved in several research projects along these lines, but that’s enough for now.

Help support the effort to bring fiber to the Twin Ports. 2 – 4 at the DECC. Mention that you are going to Google Fest and get free parking. Music, face painting and a chance to see the making of the Hollywood production. I’m not really sure what all is going on, but it sounds interesting.

With three amazing colleges in the area, producing some of the most intelligent minds Minnesota has to offer, investment in the future of technological progress in Duluth already seems like a good idea. Recently, however, with the advent of Mayor Don Ness’s term, our city has seen a robust growth on the involvement of younger generations in the politics of the region. These are the same minds that, generally speaking, fully comprehend the vast value of human inter-connectivity and the ability to utilize cloud data to apply distributive processing to the human intellect. Duluth in particular represents a bastion of human kindness and advanced social responsibility the likes of which are nearly incomprehensible on a large-city scale; our downtown area is immensely reflective of this. As a veteran of the United States Air Force, I’ve witnessed firsthand not only the inhuman characteristics and notions of self-entitlement prevalent in cities such as Tokyo, but also the indifference and uncaring attitudes fostered by lackadaisical local political forces in a two-city region, as the Shreveport/Bossier area of Louisiana proved so succinctly for me.

In short, Duluth and Superior represent the best-functioning example of an interstate relationship between two medium-sized cities, united by a common goal: survive the next winter.

Has anyone else heard about dog thieves or “bunchers” in the area?

Two different people have told me to keep an eye on our dog as there has been a rash of stolen dogs in the Duluth area. I just peeked on craigslist and the pets board is full of warnings.

Why hasn’t the DNT or the news picked up on this?

Keep an extra close eye on Fido for the time being.

Finding myself recently laid off, I have decided to get a start on my midlife crisis by buying a skateboard.  Being laid off (need a database person?) I don’t want to spend too much but being a gearhead I know I want something decent to learn with.  Where should I go in the Twin Ports to find such a board?

My work is conducting a training tomorrow for about 75 people, and the guy who was providing our sound system had a family emergency. So now we have no sound system. We don’t need anything elaborate – just a speaker or two, and a microphone, and an easy-to-understand setup. We would have to pick it up tonight and would return it tomorrow night. Can anyone help us out? You can either respond here or call me at 218-391-2733. Thanks!

I have discovered something wonderful!  Cedar Summit Farm cream.  It’s the real old fashioned deal from a family run sustainable farm near New Prague, Minnesota.  Shake it vigorously and it becomes the most awesome butter.  Whip it good and it becomes the best whipped cream I’ve ever tasted.

Problem is, I have to drive to the Whole Foods Co-Op in Grand Marais to stock up.   Of course, being available in Grand Marais, the delivery truck drives right through Duluth.  Indeed, the Whole Foods Co-Op in Duluth stocks Cedar Summit Farm milk but not the cream.

So, please take my word and join me in emailing, calling or otherwise communicating to the Whole Foods Co-Op in Duluth that they must stock Cedar Summit Farm Cream!  Contact info at wholefoods.coop.

And no, I’m not affiliated with Cedar Summit Farm in any way other than being a Cedar Summit Farm cream devotee!  For more see cedarsummit.com.

They even have happy cows!  Let the movement begin!

PDD is working normally for me and pretty much everyone else I’ve asked, but at least one person says it’s been enormously slow for a few days now. Is anyone else experiencing this? If you are, it should take two minutes for the page to load allowing you to comment, so thanks for taking the time to let us know.

Right now we’re assuming everything is fine and one person’s computer hates this site for some reason.