Duluth Alligator Conspiracy #CrookedEmily
Footage sent to the Duluth News-Tribune and leaked here in the wake of Jim Richardson’s disappearance.
Recommendations For Alligator Removal Service?
Can anyone recommend a good alligator removal service? My brother and I own Duluth’s Best Bread and have had quite a few guests and workers eaten in the past month. I think they are coming in through the pipes or something.
I was planning on ignoring it but OSHA says if we don’t get the gators out in 90 days we have to pay like a $200 fine.
Bob and Joan
[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]
Bob Dylan mentions a couple of northland towns at the beginning of the first song with Joan Baez in this video.
Underwater Optics Slideshow
Some early underwater photography experiments, Lake Superior 2012. Pictures taken with a Kodak Playsport.
Music Shopping in Duluth
I am drained; I just want to appreciate things today. It’s almost Sidewalk Days in Duluth. Makes me appreciate all I can walk to downtown. Today, I am gushing about music.
I was walking downtown enjoying the summer and stopped in to Electric Fetus. There, I picked up the new Jean Michel Jarre CD (a double-disc, actually), Electronica 1&2. On the set, Jarre collaborates with hip, exciting new artists I have never heard of, as well as Cyndi Lauper, Laurie Anderson, Edward Snowden, Edgar Froese, John Carpenter … an eclectic batch of voices. I look at the disc and see the Orb as a collaborator and realize the Orb is already “old school” to today’s music what my parents’ music was to me. The entire package is a reminder that I am (approaching) middle age. I said “approaching.”
But it also reminds me how lucky I am that the Electric Fetus is around. And it got me thinking hard about record stores in the Twin Ports. (more…)
A funny thing happened on the way home from the Duluth Airshow … or is a crash landing not a funny thing?
From the Isanti County Sheriff’s Office:
On July 9 at 6:50 p.m., the Isanti County Sheriff’s Office Communications division received a report of a plane crash in Stanchfield Township, close to the address of 38045 Lever St. NE. All emergency personnel were started to the crash.
After several minutes we received information that there were no injuries and the pilot and copilot were out walking around.
Upon arrival it was determined that a retired U.S. Navy 630 Bi-plane, yellow in color, had engine failure while flying from Duluth to Anoka. (more…)
Poll: Best Restaurant on the North Shore
Last week we compiled a list of nominees for the best restaurant on the North Shore of Lake Superior. The specific territory: Knife River to Grand Portage — basically anything in Lake or Cook counties was eligible for nomination.
Obviously several Duluth-area restaurants are technically “on the North Shore” — in particular the winner of PDD’s Perfect Restaurant Poll: New Scenic Café. For this poll we’re looking at places that are, at the very least, a serious bike ride from the Zenith City.
What’s the Perfect North Shore Restaurant? Vote now and have a say. Keep in mind that this is a runoff poll, so as time goes by the number of options will reduce. If the restaurant you initially voted for is eliminated, you may vote again among the remaining options.
We started with 27 nominees, then whittled it down to the Final Four: Angry Trout Café, the Crooked Spoon, Gunflint Tavern and Vanilla Bean.
This poll is now closed. The results were:
Gunflint Tavern – 35 percent
Angry Trout – 26 percent
Crooked Spoon – 22 percent
Vanilla Bean – 17 percent
This Week: baked goods, brews, Boku and more
Here’s a bit of what you’ll find in this week’s PDD Calendar:
Local vendors sell produce, baked goods and other items at the Hermantown Farmers Market, the Backpacker Magazine Get Out More Tour visits Trailfitters, Kenny Ahern brings his Kaleidoscope show back to the Duluth Public Library, folks can learn about whitetailed deer at Gooseberry Falls, brews and literature are paired up at the Red Herring Lounge, Boku Frequency plays as part of the Chester Creek Concert Series and an adaptation of one of the most beloved action films ever comes to the Zinema.
Downtown Duluth’s Sidewalk Days are happening once again, Red Mountain plays on the pier at Glensheen Mansion, Hermantown is the place to catch live music and grab some suds and grub, glam metal meets Broadway at the Duluth Playhouse, forty artists are featured in the Duluth Art Institute’s outdoor-painting festival, Lake Place Park is the site for two evenings of dance, the Hilltop Obstacle Fun Run goes down at Marshall School and the Bayfront Reggae & World Music Festival returns.
Reflections on Race and Community-oriented Policing
This is going to begin in Milwaukee, pass through St. Paul, and end in Duluth.
When I was a kid, the Milwaukee Police Department gave away baseball cards. The cards were printed for the police with the Milwaukee Brewers as the celebrities. Each officer carried two, and you had to talk to more than one officer over the summer to collect a full set. It was a great strategy for bringing families and police together. My favorite Brewer was Rollie Fingers, because he had a handlebar moustache. I didn’t know anything, any damn thing at all, about baseball.
The baseball cards were part of a “community-oriented policing” initiative. I was a kid; I barely understood what that meant, but I understood the problem it was meant to address.
In 1981, when I was nine, Ernest Lacy was arrested on suspicion of rape in Milwaukee. According to an account in The New York Times, Lacy was taken into a police van, where “two of the officers then held his legs down by placing their feet on his legs, and a third officer placed his knee between Mr. Lacy’s shoulder blades, forcing him to lie face down with his left cheek pinned to the ground. … Then, one of the policemen pulled Mr. Lacy’s arms up beyond his shoulder blades and over his ears [with] one violent, convulsive seizure and then the black man was absolutely still. … [T]he extension of Mr. Lacy’s arms toward his head interfered with the flow of oxygen to his lungs. … [T]his was fatal.” Lacy was taken alive into a police van and was removed dead, a victim of police brutality.
(Another man was convicted of the rape, if that matters to anyone reading this. It shouldn’t for Ernest Lacy any more than it did for Clayton, Jackson and McGhie.) (more…)
Six old pictures of Duluth’s Cascade Park
Click any thumbnail to view the full images.
The Trio’s Trek to (almost) Canada
‘Tis the season for North Shore hiking videos. This one is by Jake Oswald.
Portage – “Shake the Bones”
Selective Focus: Plein Air Duluth-Paint Du Nord
Next week the Duluth Art Institute will be hosting its second annual outdoor painting festival, Plein Air Duluth: Paint du Nord, from July 10 – 16, 2016. (more…)
Glen’s Neighbor – “Destiny”
Drummer Pat Byrne produced this video for Glen’s Neighbor, utilizing practice session footage and some Duluth scenery. The song is from the band’s debut album Behind the Door.
Nominees for Perfect North Shore Restaurant Poll
Warm weather and wanderlust have Duluthians dreaming of a North Shore vacation. In this spirit, we’ve decided to conduct a poll to determine the best place to eat up the shore.
Before voting, we have to establish a list of nominees. What are the criteria for determining a North Shore Restaurant? After some debate, we’ve decided to include eateries on the shore located in Lake and Cook counties, from Knife River in the south to Grand Portage in the north.
While it might seem counterintuitive to some, this means the New Scenic Café is not included in the poll, since it is located in Duluth Township. It’s abundantly clear the Scenic is a favored restaurant; the café won PDD’s Perfect Restaurant Poll and has drawn accolades from foodies farther afield. For the purposes of this poll, we’re looking for restaurants that require a little more of an excursion from Duluth.
What’s the perfect North Shore restaurant (besides the New Scenic Café)? You tell us. We’ll round up the nominees and produce a poll in the coming days.
Call for Duluth Alligator Attack Video Testimonials
Since I don’t appreciate the sass I am getting from the Mayoralty on this issue, I would like to issue a call for citizen video testimonials. Have you been attacked by an alligator in the Duluth city limits? Tell your story on PDD. Let’s MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD.
Two Harbors Weather Balloon Launch and Landing
Students and science teachers at Two Harbors High School recently embarked on a project bringing their equipment to the upper edges of the Earth’s atmosphere during a week-long S.T.E.M. camp (science, technology, engineering and math).
The students teamed up with the National Weather Service office in Duluth and the Lake County Radio Amateurs to learn about the atmosphere, problem solve and analyze the live data packets received from the on-board sensors and track its location via GPS and APRS systems, both of which failed near the end of the flight. Recovery relied on extrapolating altitude, pressure and temperature data from the sensors to estimate a landing area. The parachute was visible in a tree a few hundred yards away from the estimate. Two Harbors science teachers involved were Penny Juenemann (biology), Mark Schlangen (physical science), and Brian Rauvola (chemistry). All students involved were heading into 8th grade.
Where is the Leadership?
I will remind Mayor Larson that alligator attacks have been recorded in Duluth since at least 2011 as documented here. Just because she claims she didn’t see one on the beach yesterday doesn’t mean they aren’t out there ATTACKING INNOCENT CONSTITUENTS. It goes without saying that it will be hard to get re-elected if you are eaten by an alligator.
Wrestling with a $90 turkey
Ninety dollars for a pastured turkey. Are you kidding me??? When I agreed to take the extra bird off the farmer’s hands, I assumed it might cost about half that. At the time I was working minimum wage as a part-time farmhand. I traded nearly two days of work for this bird, and probably half that in bike time just to get to and from the Food Farm. Take a peek at Ed’s Big Adventure to find out if the final product was worth all the blood, sweat, and tears. You just might wind up planning your Thanksgiving celebration today.
Boat – People
I found this poem on my desk — you step away for a week, and everything you see when you come back is bright and new. These are just the last stanzas, because I want to honor copyright and because they move me:
