Frankie Yankovic and His Yanks – “Duluth Polka”
Frankie Yankovic and His Yanks released “Duluth Polka” in 1954 as a 7-inch 45-RPM single and as a 10-inch 78-RPM “promotion record” on the Columbia label (as seen in the video above). (more…)
More video from the best thing that ever happened
New Study Indicates Science Wrong about ‘Pretty Much Everything Health-Related’
A recently published study in Scientific Facts Daily has scientists around the world shaking their heads in befuddlement and dismay. Marshaling the combined data from more than 50 years and 73,000 scientific papers summarizing more than 100,000 scientific studies, the work concludes that scientific studies on the efficacy of consuming more or less of certain food types, adding nutrients or nutritional supplements to one’s diet, or using certain medicines to treat disease are all “pretty much wrong.”
“Like, almost completely wrong, every time,” chief researcher Dr. Martina Ferkes-Boothe, an international expert on hypertension, indicated. “Seriously,” Ferkes-Booth continued, “If I wasn’t a scientist myself, I’d think someone was making this shit up. First, we tell everyone not to eat fat or cholesterol, or they’ll have a heart attack and die. People were choking down those cardboard Lean Cuisine low-fat pizzas for like a decade. Totally wrong. Could have been eating real cheese, instead of that weird soy snot, the whole time. And don’t even start in on butter made out of yogurt. So many fucked up mashed potatoes. I feel just awful about it now.” (more…)
Taqueria El Oasis Del Norte open in Superior pub
Everyday options for authentic Mexican food in the Twin Ports have vastly improved. Earlier this month, El Oasis Del Norte food truck started serving up items like tacos, burritos and tortas at Average Joe’s Pub in Superior. (more…)
What makes Lake Superior ice look blue?
In this edition of WDSE-TV‘s The Slice, Jay Austin from the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Large Lakes Observatory explains why Lake Superior ice has a blue hue.
Saturday Essays in Book Form
I have self-published a small book containing 15 essays. They comprise the lion’s share of the 17 essays which Perfect Duluth Day so kindly ran as part of the Saturday Essay series. It is available at Zenith Bookstore on Central Avenue in West Duluth next to Beaner’s Central.
Game Changer: A Watershed Moment
Duluth-based Blue Forest Films produced this short feature about Alyssa Nelson’s transition from UMD Bulldogs athletics to fly fishing and nature education. Game Changer was screened last weekend during the Great Water Fly Fishing Expo at Hamline University in St. Paul.
Another Blue Forest Films production, Bigotry to Brook Trout, screens on Friday in Duluth during the Watershed Arts & Film Fest.
Jacob Mahon & the Salty Dogs – “Dazed and Confused” and “Whole Lotta Love”
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
New video by Illy Killy featuring footage of Jacob Mahon & the Salty Dogs from last fall’s Duluth Does Zeppelin concert at Sacred Heart Music Center.
Kathy McTavish named an inaugural Jerome Hill artist fellow
The Jerome Foundation has announced the first recipients of the new Jerome Hill Artist Fellowships program. Duluth-based artist Kathy McTavish was among the artists chosen from 1,172 applications. (more…)
Doughboys on Duluth: “Campaign in the Ass”
Doughboys, the podcast about chain restaurants, mentions Duluth in episode 77, “Cold Stone Creamery with Kevin T. Porter,” released Nov. 2, 2016. (more…)
Poll: What Duluth-area restaurant has the best fish fry?
Who is serving up the Perfect Duluth-area fish fry? In our latest poll, we’re counting on our readers to help suss out the answer to this important question. (more…)
Mystery Photos #88-89: Hardware Store Women

I recently came across two photos of a couple strong Duluth women in an unidentified Duluth hardware store on Minnesota Reflections. There is no accurate date or known specific location (there is a guesstimate year span on this one of 1918-1925, which seems quite unlikely due to their stylish high-collar/big sleeve clothing). Who were they? What year was this? And would they tolerate any nonsense? Unlikely. (more…)
Saturday Essay and Selective Focus Programming Note
Like a bunch of old timers stuck in some newspaper-era, schedule-oriented, deadline-consumed mindset, the brain trust at Perfect Duluth has been locked for several years in the notion that every Friday we need to publish our Selective Focus feature and every Saturday we need to publish our Saturday Essay. No more. It was fine for a while, but we’re done with that rigid scheduling. (more…)
Selective Focus: Justin Christopher Ayd
Justin Christopher Ayd has a close relationship with movies and film. He is working on a feature documentary project shot on the North Shore on super 8 and 16mm film, and explains why in a very digital age, celluloid is the right medium for this project. If you’d like to help out with the project, links are included below.
JCA: I work professionally in two fields simultaneously – filmmaking and film projection. Both aspects of film were introduced to me at a young age, filmmaking and the exhibition side, and by 1992 I knew I wanted to not only make movies, but be the person in the shadows running motion picture film for audiences. (more…)
The Start of the Great Thaw of 2019
Dennis O’Hara presents the new Canal Cam capturing the March 12 sunrise, the beginning of the meltdown before the rain storm.
Duluth City Blocks Puzzles
Apparently a person or entity named P.J. Kossett obtained a copyright in 1978 for the purpose of manufacturing “City Blocks,” a collection of “six puzzles of Duluth scenes.” Shown above is the Duluth Depot, aka St. Louis County Heritage and Arts Center. Also featured in the puzzles: Leif Erikson Park, Ore boat entering harbor, Canal Park, Enger Tower and Spirit Mt. Ski Chalet. (more…)
PDD Ice Chipper Cam
https://vimeo.com/323514734
A sequel to the 2014 PDD Shovel Cam, here’s the Ice Chipper Cam.
T-Icy Roll Ice Cream opens Downtown Duluth location
Duluth’s second T-Icy Roll Ice Cream shop opens today at 202 E. Superior St., the former location of Lake Superior Art Glass.
Owner Daniel Huang and manager Michelle Lin opened the first T-Icy shop on Aug. 10 in the Denfeld Retail Center in West Duluth. The shops specialize in hibachi-style Thai rolled ice cream treats.
Nominees for Perfect Fish Fry Poll
It’s Lent, the official season to dine on fried fish and chips with a side of slaw, which leads us to Perfect Duluth Day’s latest poll. What local eatery has the best fish fry? (more…)
Some youth pastor in Duluth is having the craziest sex
The podcast Omnibus! with Ken Jennings and John Roderick references Duluth in the March 12 episode “Tippi Hedren’s Fingernails.”
At the beginning of the show the hosts talk about reasons to get married and note it might assure more frequent sexual intercourse. Around the 4-minute mark, Jennings refers to an unmentioned source — “what the numbers say” — and comments that “far from the stereotypes about cold marriage beds, in fact, married people are having more and better and freakier sex than all of us. Some youth pastor in Duluth is having the craziest sex.”
No Empty Bowl?
WDIO tells me Empty Bowl is off, this year. I own five bowls, and I have probably broken five more — these things get used in my home. I love useful art, and Empty Bowl fills my heart and home with useful art.
Colleagues who throw pots as an art form worry that Empty Bowl hurts the market for pottery, but I would say that the twenty bucks I spent there would never have been spent on something in a gallery — it is the confluence of art and charity that makes Empty Bowl magic.
What is next for Empty Bowl? I don’t know, but I hope it returns.
Renovation of former Carlson Book building nearly complete

The Lange Motors building at 206 E. Superior St. was constructed in 1915 and served as an automobile showroom and service center for four decades. A complete building rehabilitation is nearing completion.
Major restoration work on a historic auto dealership now located in a Downtown Duluth entertainment district appears close to completion and owners say they will begin marketing the space this spring. (more…)



















