The Most Read Saturday Essays of 2017
Perfect Duluth Day’s “Saturday Essay” series concluded its second season last week. At the end of each year we take a look back at some of the favorites — like the literary version of a 1980’s-era TV sitcom flashback episode. This week is part one, highlighting the essays that were read the most times in the past year according to the folks at Google Analytics.
Before digging into the 2017 countdown, here’s a brief paragraph to spell out for the uninitiated how the “Saturday Essay” feature works:
PDD publishes an essay every Saturday. Yours truly, Paul Lundgren, is the editor. A small group of writers are featured somewhat regularly, but anyone is welcome and encouraged to submit a piece for consideration. Shoot an email to paul @ perfectduluthday.com to inquire.
And now, the champions of Duluth literature … (more…)
Feeding the fish with Santa
Edward L. Simon captured the view from inside the big tank at the Great Lakes Aquarium when he went diving with Santa.
Selective Focus: Market Day
Market Day started as a Downtown Duluth Pop Up Shop in 2016, and moved into a twisty, multi-level space at 15 N. Third Ave. W. last spring. It’s filled with a variety of local art, crafts and workspace for classes. Director Lanae Rhoads tells us about some of the activities going on in the space.
LR: We are a shop that desires to celebrate the Farmer’s Market vibe all year long. In fact, we started as a Farmers Market at UMD in 1999. The University decided to make Market 2016 the last season. With that decision we needed to find other ways to showcase our local artisans. And through that loss Market Day was born. We received one of the holiday 2016 Pop-Up shop program spaces. It was a wonderful success and we decided to continue together in a permanent location that opened this past March. (more…)
The Gay Agenda on the UMD Campus
On Dec. 4 I heard a reading of Suzannah Weiss‘s The Gay Agenda on the UMD campus.
The work is intended as a web series. When I was a student, creative writing students held ambitions to be seen by a dozen people in a one-act play on campus. Today, new media gives everyone with a talent for words an opportunity to be seen by thousands. As a result, talented young people can be alive with an ambition that I never saw as a student. (more…)
Video Archive: Original Star Wars ends run in Duluth
The clip was featured on PDD once before, just a year ago, when actress Carrie Fisher died. Today we roll it out again to mark the 40th anniversary of the day the original Star Wars movie closed in Duluth — Dec. 22, 1977. It was screened 459 times during a 191-day run.
Video Archive: Low – “Happy Christmas (War is Over)”
Ten years ago today — Dec. 21, 2007 — Duluth band Low rehearsed for a holiday concert with choir members Marc Gartman, Greg Cougar Conley, Jerree Small, Jennifer Jones and Amy Abts.
For more archival holiday video joy, check out A Perfect Duluth Christmas: PDD’s Holiday Video Showcase.
Duluth Yacht Club 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award
The 2017 Duluth Yacht Club Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to former DYC Commodore Nelson Thomas.
Video by Frederick Dudderar.
“Sea Smoke” from the Hot Tub on the North Shore
I left Duluth for Bluefin Bay in the late afternoon, after dropping off my mail at the UMD post office (where the lines are shorter than the Mount Royal office by a lot). (more…)
Loaves & Fishes forms nonprofit for property maintenance
Bike Cave, half under demolition.
The Loaves & Fishes volunteer community in Duluth has formed a nonprofit branch to deal with upkeep on its houses and other properties that provide food and shelter for the homeless and other at-risk people. (more…)
1929 Ford Happy Time Mini Eatery
The Happy Time concession wagon purportedly was “the first mail truck in Duluth.” It’s a 1929 Model A Ford truck that obviously was converted to a popcorn wagon. It’s shown here parked in the former Super One parking lot on the 2200 block of East Fifth Street in Superior’s East End neighborhood. It was marked for sale the day these photos were shot, Dec. 2. (more…)
Video: Boreal Owl on Duluth Lakewalk
The Minnesota Christmas Bird Count is underway. The Audubon Society uses information from more than 1,000 members of the public for its annual census of birds.
This video by Milton Blomberg shows off a boreal owl on the Duluth Lakewalk.
Celebrating a Birthday, Duluth Style
Over the course of a week, I celebrated my birthday, Duluth-style. In sharing the story with you, I celebrate the things about Duluth I like. (more…)
Mystery Photo #59: Duluth Wau-Pse-Ke Club Cabin
What’s the deal with the Wau-Pse-Ke Club and its cabin? Though the stamp, and presumably the postmark with it, were torn off this old postcard, we know the cabin dates back at least to 1911 and was on the Lester River. (more…)
Ripped at the NorShor Experience in 2007
[Editor’s note: Duluth’s NorShor Theatre has been closed for more than seven years. It will reopen in February when the new operator, the Duluth Playhouse, launches its production of “Mama Mia.”
The NorShor, of course, has a long and storied history, including a stretch from 2006 to 2010 when it operated as a strip club called the NorShor Experience.
For this week’s essay we’ve once again pulled out a relic from the archive of Slim Goodbuzz, who served as Duluth’s “booze connoisseur” from 1999 to 2009. Ten years ago he paid a visit to the NorShor and published this bawdy report for Duluth’s weekly Transistor.]
Big Lips has the method down.
Every 10 minutes or so, he rises from where he’s been sitting alone at a table in the corner. Then, with his hands casually in the pockets of his camouflage jacket, he simply takes a little stroll, puckering his big fat lips and whistling as he looks to the left and to the right and behind him, making sure that no one is videotaping him or that his wife isn’t standing behind him ready to clobber him with a frying pan. Eventually, he makes it the 10 or 15 feet to the stage where some naked chick is grinding her life away. “Well,” he appears to suggest, “as long as I’m on my stroll, I might as well tip this stripper.” (more…)
Selective Focus: Natalie Salminen Rude
Natalie Salminen Rude works in a variety of mediums, and recently opened a studio/gallery in the Woodland neighborhood. She tells how her varied interests come together in her work.
NS: I work in a host of mediums which all wonderfully inform each other. Encaustic, oils, photography, haiku — each process shapes the other. There’s this constant hum of cross-pollination that happens in my studio. I think curiosity and a fascination with connection are the forces that propel me to do the work I’m doing. And beauty. Always on the hunt for beauty. (more…)
Zamboni Karaoke: Duluth East Edition
Ian Mageau, Ryder Donovan and Garret Worth of the Duluth East Greyhounds boys hockey team climb into an ice resurfacing machine to sing for the latest Game On! Minnesota hockey-related shenanigans.
Second Duluth Chilly Billy’s will open in March
Miller Hill Mall will be the location of Duluth’s second Chilly Billy’s Frozen Yogurt shop. It will open in the mall’s food court in March. (more…)
Video: Canadian Pacific Holiday Train in Plummer, Minn.
On Tuesday the 19th annual Canadian Pacific Holiday Train rolled through the city of Plummer, about 220 miles northwest of Duluth. Richard Hoeg was there and captured photos and video for his 365 Days of Birds blog. (more…)
Petitioning to Change Duluth in 2017
A look at petitions on change.org shows a pretty good rate of success for people who wanted to change something in Duluth in 2017. As of the morning of Dec. 13, two petitions had more than one thousand supporters and both of those issues appear to be resolved. (more…)
Donating a Car to Community Action Duluth (with Reflection)
Last week, my ex-wife and I planned to get rid of her old car, still stored in my garage for the four years since she moved out. She bought a new car, I bought a new car, her 2002 Hyundai Accent still remained there.
The goal was to donate it to Community Action Duluth to let her get the tax deduction. But because it’s a donation, it needed to go when the towing company could fit the pickup in its schedule. Eventually it arrived. (more…)
Tina Smith is Minnesota’s new U.S. Senator
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton has selected his lieutenant governor, Tina Smith, to replace Al Franken in the U.S. Senate. Smith said she will run for the seat in 2018.
State Senator Michelle Fischbach of Paynesville will replace Smith as lieutenant governor.