Bitching Posts

You can run but you can’t hide hate

I stopped at the Lakeside Super One for groceries and saw that the Christian youth ministry “You Can Run But You Can’t Hide” had a table set up outside and was collecting money to “prevent teen suicide.” I didn’t immediately recognize the name of the group, but once I thought about it I realized it was this bunch.

Really? This group was labeled an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Law Poverty Center. I wonder if Super One realizes what this group represents. I will be calling and asking them that question. YCRBYCH representatives are very dishonest about themselves when they ask to speak at schools, and I would bet they don’t reveal their true agenda when asking to solicit.

MODERATOR’S NOTE:

In the interest of fairness to Super One Foods, PDD’s moderators are inserting Super One’s response here with the submitted post rather than burying it in the comments. (It should be clarified that the early comments to this post occurred before this information was presented.)

According to Boyd Hanson, director of human resources at Miner’s Inc., which owns the Super One Foods chain, there was never proper approval for the You Can Run But Cannot Hide group to solicit in front of the Lakeside Super One … or any other Super One for that matter.

Hanson says the group presented itself to a Lakeside Super One employee as a Christian ministry with a mission to stop teen suicide. The employee said that would be fine, but when the store manager, John Radcliff, arrived he asked the group to leave because Super One has a no-solicitation policy.

“We allow the Salvation Army to ring the bell in our entrances … some of those kind of things,” Hanson said. “But generally speaking anything that would have any kind of a political or religious-type view we don’t allow to do that. … Why this group came to our store we don’t even know. … We just don’t get involved in those kind of things.”

UMD Ticketing

I’m newish to town and still trying to figure out regulations. Can I get some advice here?

I live on Grandview Ave, down by Eighth Street. You don’t need a college permit to park there. I forgot to switch sides yesterday. My fault. I screwed up. Normally I remember. I saw the ticket on my car and was prepared to pay my fine to the city of Duluth.

Craigslist … is it stupider here?

Craigslist is probably a bad place to gauge the local intelligence of any given place, but after about two minutes of Duluth CL, the profound examples of improper grammar and spelling become overwhelming, like a Shitnami blowing out the manhole covers, so I wondered if Craigslist is any indicator of local smarts, or is just stupid, plain everywhere? Indeed, good grammar is only one form of intelligence, and may not even save you in a knife fight. Certainly the best example was not “looking for painter’s,” but this 1987 Harley was fun. Is there already a thread for creative Craigslist ads? And if not, why not?

For the love of music

I understand the novelty of closing a street and having live music. I applaud the city and the organizers for putting such shindigs together. However, I think that the person who decided that it is a good idea to close Superior Street downtown and in front of Fitger’s, at the same time, on a weekday, during rush hour, is a complete idiot and should be fired.

This isn’t the first time they have done that, but apparently “the decider” comes nowhere near the area during the closures, or he/she would see the traffic chaos and downright anger created by doing so.

Am I completely wrong on this, or do most people think it is acceptable to gridlock a major traffic flow for the sake of novelty? I know I could “lighten up,” and I would if I knew it was an oversight or mistake by the organizer, but really? Did ya’ not think of that?

DNT online content roadblock

I pay full price for a print edition subscription of the Duluth News Tribune for my Mother, who is in a nursing home. I however, read what content I can online. Recently, I have been blocked from doing so by a message asking me to register for free access. I jumped through the hoops to do so and was instructed that an e-mail message would follow that would allow me to finish the process. Well, I never got an e-mail and I continue to be blocked from reading online content. Has anyone else run into this dilemma and does anyone have any suggestions on how to get around it? User friendly? Not so much.

My Crackberry cracked up!

So, Research in Motion is in all likelihood on its way out in the near future. This bodes ill for me as I’m the proud(?) owner of a 9330.

In reality, I love my BlackBerry. It’s tough and reliable … although it’s difficult to get workable apps these days.

That said, my phone did take a damaging fall (down, but not out) which killed the LCD. I’ve got a white screen after boot up which didn’t change after several attempts and “tricks” in an attempt to correct the situation. (Battery removal, MicroSD card removal, etc.) I know it’s not the op system, as the phone still works.

Disaster Vultures Have Arrived

I just got the first call from someone trying to cash in on the disaster. Claimed he wasn’t trying to sell something and was just calling in light of the recent flooding in the area. (Right, that is why you are making cold calls.) “Brad’s tree and stump service” offering free estimates. I don’t see this business in the local directory and the number comes up from a cell phone and the name James Macgregor. We are on the freakin Do Not Call List, and our phone has an option that gives a message saying we do not accept calls from solicitors and you must dial one to get through if you are not selling anything. This person must have hit the one to bypass the filter. I would suggest we all be careful of unsolicited help and hire local! This is disgusting!

Duluth Gas Prices

So what is up with the price of gas in Duluth? ($3.75 this a.m. @ BP and Spur)…yeah, yeah I know we’re a tourist town and Grandma’s Marathon just packed their bags and left but seriously, the national average is $3.53 and Sam’s Club has gas this morning at $3.47 (for those so inclined). Talk about getting hosed.

Duluth changes school hours

Why oh why are they changing the elementary school start time to 7:45? I have a son in the autistic spectrum, and getting him to class by this years start time of 9:15 has a challenge!

They now dismiss at 2:15! Great news for us working parents out there. I just got my work schedule to work with the “old” hours and now I have to change everything once again.

I am rapidly losing confidence in the Duluth School Board. Red plans, selling buildings for $1, then raising taxes, and now this.

Watch out for trail-head thieves

I noticed a lot of broken glass last summer at trail-head parking lots, and last Friday I arrived at the parking lot at 123rd Ave. W. (Ely’s Peak, Munger Trail, Superior Hiking Trail) to meet a few folks who just had their car robbed.

So here’s your reminder to hide your valuables before leaving your vehicle and hitting the trails, unless you’re on a stakeout and plan to finally nab this punk (or these punks) in the act.

Blue Laws are Stupid, post #6

According to the latest poll by Public Policy Polling, Minnesotans continue to be in strong support of allowing liquor stores to open on Sundays.

Do you support or oppose allowing Sunday liquor sales?
Support …… 59%
Oppose ……. 27%
Not sure ….. 14%

There’s a bipartisan consensus on the issue with Democrats supporting it 61/22, Republicans 46/38, and independents 68/23. The only group that doesn’t support it is elected officials.

So what happens…

… with the deceased couches and broken tables that have been left behind?

This is a serious question not an editorial comment. I’ve never been through this period in this town and I’d like to know what happens next.

It’s not prognostication if you are not a lummox

“Duluth was trying to develop another economy with technology, like hundreds of others tried,” Link said. “It failed everywhere, not just Duluth.” – J.R. “Rob” Link DNT

It did not fail everywhere. Stupid failed.

We don’t get to be the Galactic Seaport Gateway Harbor to the internets anymore just because we paid some Swedish shysters moneys??  Opportunistic bandwagoneers. What makes this so frustrating is 11 years ago, the same sorts of people (the Dotys, the developers, the councilpersons, the Soft Center representatives [PDF]) were cheerleading and saying exactly the opposite. And it was as obviously /Facepalm then as it appears today.

Where are the roller derby fans in Duluth?

As a Harbor City Roller Dame, it baffles me that we are yet to reach our goal of selling out tickets at the DECC Pioneer Hall since playing there the Fall of 2010. Many skaters are involved in or support the local arts and music scene. We are professionals that live and work in this community. The Dames give back by selecting a local charity to receive a financial contribution and/or volunteer our time.  So it begs me to ask: Why is roller derby not as popular or successful in Duluth as it is in say Minneapolis or even smaller towns like Grand Rapids, MN?

Larger cities support multiple teams and are still successful. While locally we’ve seen numbers fall in the last year as our competitiveness has enhanced (we were undefeated until last month’s bout). Roller derby continues to gain popularity across the nation but is slightly stunted here. We need our fans to show their continued support and find ways to reach other demographics to spread the love of derby in Duluth. Our performance is bolstered by the encouragement of our sports enthusiasts.

Does the PDD community have any thoughts on what we can do to fill our seats? Comments? Feedback?

Women Musicians in Homegrown

Did anyone notice the low number of female performers at the Homegrown Music Festival this year? I did. There seemed to be about eight male performers for every one female. If you don’t want to count just look at the steering committee, it’s pretty representative of the entire festival. There are a few  wonderful women and a bunch of men.   

The ladies are around performing with a variety of styles unique to themselves and Homegrown!  They may be harder to find in that giant Homegrown Field Guide, but if you looked closely you’d find some on Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, not peak days.  Often these women have to be underground, persistent or be extra bad ass, which they are, to get noticed. They often try harder and get less recognition. 

I don’t want to start a fight, maybe just a good discussion, I’m just saying we noticed.

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