This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Nov. 30, 2008 Hibbing Daily Tribune. This was based, in part, on a radio essay I did for KAXE several weeks ago.

The warm, yet difficult, business of friendship
By Aaron J. Brown

So I recently joined Facebook, a social networking Internet site where you connect with old friends and make new ones in the process. For a hipster Internet dude in his 20s (albeit late 20s), joining Facebook this late in life is kind of embarrassing, but it has also prompted an important question. Just what is a friend?

It’s amazing how tricky the business of friendship becomes over time. I made my first friend pretty easily. I climbed aboard the yellow school bus along St. Louis County Highway 7 on the Iron Range of northern Minnesota. I sat next to a kid with wild, unkempt blonde hair. After a moment of awkward silence, one of us suggested that we should be friends. And for two years this boy from down the highway would be my best friend. We both climbed on that bus looking for a friend, and fate put us in the first seat on the left side in September 1985. In kindergarten, we watched the Space Shuttle Challenger blow up on TV together.

The interesting thing about childhood friendships is that they often end abruptly, for very adult reasons that aren’t understood at the time. My friendship with the blonde kid from the bus waned as his family slipped into the sinkhole of poverty and violence not uncommon to the marshland along the quiet miles of Highway 7.

That sounds pretty tragic, doesn’t it? Like a sad play that wins a lot of awards. Here’s the thing. At the time I didn’t even notice until it had already happened. Friends pass in and out of a kid’s life with relative ease. I see this today with my oldest son, now 3, whenever we go to the play place at a fast food restaurant. We go there and Henry shouts, “Kids!” And he plays with them enthusiastically until it’s time to go and we NEVER SEE THEM AGAIN. One of them might be a future president, a future girlfriend, a future movie star but it wouldn’t matter. This moment in childhood would remain capped in amber, frozen at a moment when other kids didn’t have names but remained our friends.

Going back to elementary school, the years between 2nd and 4th grade seemed a constant realignment of friends and best friends. It took nothing for a kid to say, So-and-So is my BEST friend, not knowing that the term “best” was the ultimate in qualifiers, implying that all others were less. This was easy to ignore when grade school alliances constantly shifted, yielding a new “best” friend for each marking period. But later, it gets complicated.

As an adult, many of us have a hard time declaring a best friend. Sure, it’s easy to name a “best friend” from high school. A “best friend” from college. A “best friend” from work, or the Rotary Club, the church or the softball team. But a “best friend.” I think I could name a best friend, but if I did I’d be so worried about offending my other friends. At the same time, if you don’t name your spouse as your best friend you also risk stepping in a semantic bear trap. I have some friends who refer to each other as “bff2,” in a nod to the difficulty of naming a true best friend. At the same time, I see most of my friends far less often than I would like. There are so many important reasons why, all of them to be forgotten years from now.

In the end, wouldn’t it be great to do things the kid way? Everyone is your friend until proven otherwise. Your best friend is the one standing next to you.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Contact him or read more at his blog, MinnesotaBrown.com. His new book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” is out now.

My book tour brings me back to Grand Rapids this upcoming week for a reading and my first book club discussion. The first rule about Book Club is that you must talk incessantly about Book Club. The second rule about Book Club is that you must say the same thing in a slightly different way than the last person, which is a metaphor for talking nonstop about Book Club. Does anyone else agree?

On Tuesday, Dec. 2 I'll be speaking at the Grand Rapids Public Library about my book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range." I'll be reading from the book, taking questions and telling some new stories that aren't in the book. (More info here). The reading is free, open to the public and starts at 7 p.m. The library is on NE 2nd Street along the banks of the mighty Mississippi River.

Before that event, I'll be visiting with the KAXE Book Club for a 5:30 p.m. potluck meeting that is open to the public. KAXE is located across a parking lot from the library, so attending both is not only fun but easy.

So, come on over to Grand Rapids on the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 2! I'll be doing a signing in Virginia on Saturday, Dec. 6 as well. Stay tuned. "Overburden" is a book for the sons and daughters of the Iron Range, which is not an age group so much as an attitude. People who grew up during the '80s will especially identify with my point of view. I will personally vouch for its validity as a holiday gift, mostly because when you buy a copy my small, innocent children just might enjoy a happier Christmas. Not like last year. They were so sad.

Meantime, are you in a book club? Have you ever considered adopting "Overburden" for your book club? I will make every effort to speak to book clubs on the Iron Range. I also do readings, lectures and keynote speeches for Minnesota events. Maybe you want Garrison Keillor but can't swing the price tag? I'm the surprisingly good off-brand wine you found by mistake. I am getting solid feedback on my presentations. It's unique and I try hard to entertain. I'm a hipster.

Doug Grow at MinnPost reports that a Jim Oberstar appointment as Secretary of Transportation is unlikely. Twin Cities Daily Liberal blogs that this isn't a bad thing. Agreed, but me, I'm an Iron Range blogger working in the 8th Congressional District. What the holy hell am I going to write about if Jim stays in the House? I coulda' been a contender!

I won't declare this over until the president-elect names a transportation secretary.

My essay for the Saturday KAXE program "Between You and Me" this week deals with the show's topic: Big City. What is the "big city" in your world? As a station that covers the vast region of northern Minnesota, from Brainerd to Bemidji to Grand Rapids and the Iron Range, KAXE will be beaming this question into a lot of rural places with a lot of strong opinions to be mined. Speaking of mining, my piece explores some of the "big cities" of the Iron Range that I have known.

"Between You and Me" features music, discussion and more. It airs between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 FM or streaming online at www.kaxe.org. This week, DJ the DJ is the guest host. He always provides a great perspective, with a quality musical selection to boot.

Thanksgiving is still the great, unspoiled American holiday. Cheap as a cooked bird and all about the family. Enjoy your Thanksgiving. No blogging today. Probably no blogging tomorrow. Get off the blogs. Eat! Be merry!

I may have already tubed my invitation to the Iron Range Resources teddy bear picnic, but in the spirit of the holidays I'll take a minute to point out some pro-IRR news.

My friend and fellow Cherryite Lee Bloomquist, the IRR information officer, posted a status update on the Essar Steel Minnesota combined mine and steel plant project near Nashwauk. I keep hearing rumors that the bad economy is slowing or stopping Essar's construction timeline, but according to Lee's observations things are moving along as planned. It's nice that someone is posting video of the work sites for things like this and the Mesabi Nugget project. Most people only know these sites through the newspaper descriptions.

I think the Range needs to be making plans for a post-mining economy, but in the meantime projects like this that further connect our mineral products to the global marketplace and add efficiency to the steelmaking process. It's not a perfect project, but it's much more realistic than the Project That Must Not Be Named. Nevertheless, the bad national economy is going to have a whiplash effect on the Iron Range that we should all be preparing for right now.

Last night brought another fine evening of discussion on my "Overburden" Iron Range book tour. This time the venue was the lecture hall at Vermilion Community College. Though the audience was primarily "captive" (my colleague and host Pam Brunfelt's Minnesota History class) many community members and other students also came out for the reading and lecture. It was nice to do the dog and pony show for a mixed age group. It's amazing how different the generational perspective on the Iron Range is between today's college students and their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.

Thanks to everyone who came out and to the Ely Winton Historical Society for co-sponsoring the event. And an additional thank you to Pam Brunfelt for her contribution to my book and for organizing this event. If you're in Ely, you can buy a copy of "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" at Lisa's Upstairs Bookstore at the Piragis Northwoods store or through the Ely Winton Historical Society.

Next up: Tuesday, Dec. 2 in Grand Rapids. The KAXE Book Club meets at 5:30 p.m. at the studios for a potluck discussion of the book. Then we trek across the parking lot at 7 p.m. for the big, free community lecture at the Grand Rapids Public Library. Come for one event or both!

Christmas shopping season is here. Hint, hint!

Kudos to Kim Johnson and the WDIO production team that worked on this series about the past, present and future of the labor movement in northern Minnesota. This is some of the best issue-related reporting I've seen on local TV in quite a while.

Moving away from political and economic topics (but not too far away), I remind you all of my community lecture in Ely this evening. At 7 p.m. in the CL104 lecture hall of Vermilion Community College I will give a brief lecture and reading from my new book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range." I will be speaking to members of Pam Brunfelt's history class, but the event is free and open to the public. Afterward I'll sign books. I'll be trolling around Ely beforehand to do some small drop ins on local media and Lisa's Upstairs Bookstore at Piragis Northwoods.

The book is a humorous and heartfelt look at the Iron Range I've known, loved and questioned my whole life. Unlike history books or "chamber of commerce" books I strive for honesty and a new outlook on an area that recently learned that the end is not near, not yet anyway. We're getting good notices so far and sales have exceeded expectations. My target audience is Iron Rangers, former Iron Rangers, future Iron Rangers and all those mystified by the Range. Need a Christmas gift under $20? This is WAY better than the "Ove' Glove." In fact, you could also use the book to handle hot things if you really wanted to.

As expected, the Iron Range Resources board voted Monday to give Excelsior Energy a sweetheart two-year extension on making any payments on its combined $9.5 million in IRR loans since 2001. Bill Hanna of the Mesabi Daily News is reporting that the vote was 9-1, with Rep. Tom Anzelc (DFL-Balsam Township) the sole "no" vote. This differs from the vote total Tom described to me yesterday afternoon (he said it was a voice vote and that he believed it was 7-3). Here is Hanna's description of the exchange:

Anzelc proposed that Excelsior Energy make “good-faith” monthly payments on the $1.5 million loan beginning in January.

He found support for his proposal in a “friendly amendment’ by East Range lawmaker/board member Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, who wanted the payments to begin July 2009, the start of the agency’s new fiscal year.

However, the vast majority of board members said to vote for such a resolution could jeopardize an economic development project that was given birth by the agency in 2001 - at a time when the bottom had fallen out of the Range economy with the closing of the LTV Mining Co. and the loss of 1,400 jobs.

“I don’t want any vote I would make to jeopardize a project that would be good for the area. And this isn’t the first time the board has looked at payment extensions,” said Board Member Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook.

...

“I appreciate all the discussion. But this is about fiscal responsibility . We need to be very protective and good stewards of this money,” Anzelc said.

In any event, this confederacy of lawyers, lobbyists and consultants prevailed again with the help of a handful of officials who couldn't tell a kilowatt from a steak sandwich. Excelsior gets another two years to attempt to build a $2.1 billion power plant that the power industry doesn't want in order to sell overpriced power to customers who are using less electricity than last year. It doesn't have permits and probably won't get them. It doesn't have a customer and probably won't get one. It hasn't reported more than $60,000 in private investment since its inception and probably never will. It bills itself as a "clean coal" project but initial proposals still don't include carbon capture. They say they're "sequestration ready" which is like me saying I'm "ready" to date several attractive supermodels at the same time. Good luck! And yet, with a straight face, Hanna reports the following:

After the meeting, Julie Jorgensen, co-CEO and co-president of Excelsior Energy, said her confidence level is high that the $2 billion-plus project will move ahead.

“There is bipartisan agreement that clean coal projects are going to be important to the nation’s energy policy. President-elect Barack Obama has made that clear,” she said.

Yes, jump on the Obama bandwagon, why don't you. Yes, Obama has supported clean coal plants and will in the future. But even the coal industry knows that these carbon capture plants work best near the mouth of coal mines in areas where you can actually bury the carbon. Excelsior's Mesaba Energy Project is thousands of miles from coal and thousands of additional miles from the place they'd need to bury carbon. They would need a coal contract (probably with a competitor, who would rake them on the price) and a $1 billion pipeline (that's just a large number that has been thrown around; it's probably much more than that) just to function.

This will never happen. That $9.5 million is gone forever. The sooner we admit it and move on the sooner we can focus on Iron Range infrastructure, small businesses, entrepreneurship and education. These people continue to misrepresent the reality of this boondoggle and local media, partly through agenda and partly through pure ignorance, has helped them every step of the way. Now the death of this wasteful project will come during the 2010 election year. (Brilliant, guys ... just brilliant). And if someone loses a seat or a governor's race as a result, I will shed not one single tear.

NOTE: I am Tom Anzelc's campaign chair and friend. While we do discuss these matters before, sometimes during and always after the fact, I don't speak for him on this blog. In this case, however, I am proud of Tom's courage in standing against his friends to protect the people of the Iron Range from pinstriped bandits. My words, not his.

Political junkies are still learning to cope with the dramatic emotional drop-off that has occurred after the end of the election. Sure, we still have the Minnesota Senate recount and idle chatter about President-elect Obama's cabinet to poke at. Some of the hard cases are really tweaking out over these things. But that's nothing compared with the "Joe the Plumber," "palling around with terrorists," "seven houses" nonsense we all screamed about a couple months ago. We're now left with this ugly hunk of reality: it's time to make better policy.

I was honored to be selected to represent Minnesota for a special project by a media endeavor called "Purplestates.tv." Purplestates dubs itself "People-powered professional journalism" (find out more). It put four regular folks on the campaign trail during the election to cover the candidates and share their changing political thoughts. Now the "50/50/50" project is underway. This is 50 bloggers in 50 states over the course of 50 days covering the U.S. economic crisis in video log form. These bloggers span the political spectrum from Republican red to Democratic blue, hence the purple.

My vLog will run on Friday, Dec. 5. As usual, I will explore how the Iron Range of northern Minnesota fits into the to the global economy of the day. I'm pointing this project out now so you can go over and see some of the great (sometimes bizarre) videos the other bloggers have been posting. These are short, professionally edited pieces that show the diverse nature of America's population and politics. Below are two good ones from a liberal and a conservative, both of which will surprise you. The Georgia guy got picked up by CNN and the Alabama guy made me wish I had used props in my video.

UPDATE: Anyone know the coding on how to shrink these video embeds?

Below is the press release for my Tuesday night lecture and book signing at Vermilion Community College. Ely by starlight makes for a great evening. Stop on by!

November 18, 2008
Press Release
For Immediate Release

Aaron Brown, Author of Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range, to speak at Vermilion Community College on Tuesday, November 25 at 7 p.m.

Aaron Brown, the author of the new book, Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range, will speak at Vermilion Community College in Ely at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 25 in CL104, the lecture hall in the classroom building.

Brown is a fifth generation Iron Ranger who chose to return to the Range to make a life for himself and his family. He teaches Speech at Hibbing Community College and is the former editor of The Hibbing Daily Tribune. In his autobiographical book he reflects on what it means to be an Iron Ranger by examining the history, politics, economics, and culture of the area. Brown’s program on Overburden will resonate for rangers who will recognize themselves in the stories he tells about growing up on the Range. His story will also be of interest to people who want to gain a greater understanding of the central importance of the Iron Range in the history of the United States.

In an interview on the blog, MNBlue, Brown explained: “I wrote this book mostly as a way for my generation of Iron Rangers to begin seeing this unique region in northern Minnesota for what it really is and what it could really become… Today, there is new opportunity, even more if you consider the possibilities of the Internet and our high quality of life and low cost of living…But like the iron ore under the ground, extracting opportunity and growth from rural Minnesota will require hard work, perseverance and time.”

Coffee an’ will be served, and Aaron Brown will sign copies of his book following his lecture. The program is cosponsored by the Ely Winton Historical Society and funded by the Brunfelt-Sainio Memorial Fund for the Public Humanities through the Vermilion Community College Foundation. For more information contact Pam Brunfelt at 218-235-2136 or p.brunfelt@vcc.edu.

Today the Iron Range Resources Board meets to discuss extending the deadline for the $9.5 million in loans to Excelsior Energy for its Mesaba Energy Project. The Mesaba Project is a $2.1 billion (probably more) coal gasification power plant proposed for Itasca County and/or Hoyt Lakes.

I have, at times impolitely, called for this project's purge from the lexicon of serious economic development discussion on the Iron Range. I have long maintained that there is no way this thing gets a customer, substantial private investment or permits. I won't list the whole works here, but this project is just loaded with problems and exists solely because a very short list of elected officials have poured every dime of state and federal money they could find into the pockets of the lobbyists and lawyers running Excelsior Energy. Their efforts have yet to produce a customer for this overpriced power, permits for this uncertain technology or private investment in this unproven company.

Nevertheless, I expect the board will extend the loan for one or two years. They will use the logic that calling in the notes now would ensure Excelsior's immediate bankruptcy. This is true. But by extending the loan, Excelsior will use the time to hunt for more federal money and permitting favors to continue its never ending quest to ram a white elephant down the throats of the energy industry. There is still no statistical likelihood they will succeed. The good economy in which investment might have been found is gone. Excelsior was born of desperation during a bad economy in 2001 and will die with a whimper during another bad economy.

The Iron Range's greatest economic development hopes lie elsewhere. Let's dig someplace new.

Doug Grow, who is apparently my blogging BFF for the weekend, wrote a great story for MinnPost about Irv Anderson, the late State Representative and Speaker of the House whose funeral was held Saturday in International Falls. The story demonstrates quite a bit about Anderson's personality but also much about the political culture of northern Minnesota where I learned the political ropes. It's "old school" around here, for better and worse.

Xcel announces a 3 percent drop in power consumption from the August to September period from last year. (MinnPost reports on a Wall Street Journal story). That's good from an environmental standpoint. And it further proves that the proposed $2.1 billion Mesaba Energy Project, which would produce gobs of electricity priced higher than last year's market value is among the stupidest things the Iron Range and Minnesota have ever attempted to do. Much more on that tomorrow.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I used a version of this story for my Saturday essay on KAXE.

Into the den of girl clothes
By Aaron J. Brown

Like others, I did many things for the first time during my freshman year of college. For today’s purposes let’s focus on the first time I ever bought a shirt for another person. Not just any person, but a girl. It was shopping season in Iowa and I was preparing to return home for Christmas to see my family, my friends, my native land of the Iron Range, but most importantly to visit Christina, my girlfriend, later wife and eventual mother of our three small children. I think it’s three. I may have lost count. Anyway, back to the 1990s. Bill Clinton is President. Billy Joel is not yet on the oldies stations. The Internet is for nerds only. I must buy a blue shirt for my girlfriend for Christmas at the Kennedy Mall in Dubuque.

Where does one buy a blue girl shirt, specifically a sweater, which in my mind was what people in relationships were supposed to exchange? Where does one buy any shirt in a strange land like Iowa? As an Iron Ranger I was used to sparse retail options. And there just isn’t much in the price range of a student paying his way through college with a job in radio journalism. Wandering the mall like an immigrant I fled to the familiar confines of JC Penney.

At Penney’s, things seemed much easier. You had your old lady clothes over there. Your younger lady clothes over here. And, over there, the girly style clothes I knew darn well she’d never wear. Like Goldilocks, I was going for what seemed “just right.” Milling around the sweater section, a young saleswoman approached. She was probably my age but seasoned in the business of selling girl shirts to people with flop sweat.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“I’m looking for a sweater … for my girlfriend … for Christmas,” I replied, thinking that would suffice. I assumed she would pull out special box from some special lady treasure chest containing the exact sweater that boys were supposed to give girls who were more than friends. And, to this day, I give great credit to this woman for accepting the premise that “blue sweater” was the best way to go for my first Christmas with a girlfriend.

“What size is she?” asked the saleswoman.

Size? Well, she’s smaller than me. She’s bigger than a child or a tripod, I suppose. She’s smaller than an ATM, that’s for sure. She’s not short but also not tall. Not heavy. Definitely not heavy. Don’t want to convey that notion. What to say … what to say?

“I suppose,” I said, “she’d be about your size.” Whether this was true or not, I have no idea. It’s true this woman was about Christina’s height but as for other proportions I was purely guessing. It mystified me then as it still does. Girl clothes are sized on some kind of exponential scale. As they get smaller the numbers get closer together but never touch zero. Even when sized using guy-friendly words like small, medium and large they are not universal, nor predictable.

Then there was the matter of style. The woman, mercifully, steered me away from a little number that had buttons to a soft, blue v-neck that would be my final choice. Medium. Can’t go wrong with medium.

In the years since this first Christmas, I’ve learned to simply stick to the list I’m provided in so far as gifts are concerned. Our first Christmas living together I bought Christina a food processor, which is appalling from a feminist perspective, but exactly what she wanted and still in our cabinet. The years tick by, but each gift is special – whether birthday, Christmas, anniversary or, more recently, Mothers Day. Each one, however, is only an affirmation of that first one: the trip into the den of girl clothes to buy the sweater that would say, “Stay warm, if not stylish, because I want you to stick with me through the winter.”

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Contact him or read more at his blog, MinnesotaBrown.com. His new book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” is out now.

Here's an interesting post from "Graham" at Entrecard, a traffic service for bloggers. He suggests, tongue in cheek, that it's the journalism industry that really needs a bailout. Here's an excerpt:

I don’t have the solutions, but I know four things about the future of journalism, blogging, and newspapers:

1. Print newspapers will die.
2. People will still need accurate, accountable, factual reporting
3. Blogging in its current form cannot replace newspapers
4. Something new, some new form of blogging / citizens journalism, backed by healthy industry, will have to emerge.

It's a bad time to be a journalist. I know that very well. But what a (relatively) great time to be a citizen journalist living in Minnesota. MinnPost is demonstrating success in generating top notch journalism for an all-online organization. Meantime, up north, the KAXE Community Internet Project (still in beta form) is about to name its new editor who will be charged with taking a network of community journalists and bloggers and turning it into a functional nonprofit community news site featuring diverse points of view and local content for small towns. Hometown Focus is still trying to do grassroots journalism for the Iron Range using a commercial model. The million dollar question for all of these projects remains: where's the money? But that's the same problem newspapers have without the crippling debt.

If I were a graduate student in journalism I'd park myself in the North Star State and explore how these various endeavors, along with the traditional small dailies like the Mesabi Daily News and Hibbing Daily Tribune (for which I write a column) turn out. The answer will be vitally important to the future of information in the Information Age.

I've been meaning to pass this along all week. Doug Grow of MinnPost profiled Mike Antonovich, the former Gophers hockey great and new mayor of the Iron Range town of Coleraine. Read it.

The story seems to have several purposes. One, it shows how a hockey stardom is still great currency in Minnesota small towns. It also shows something that most state political observers miss. While the Range votes overwhelmingly DFL many of the people in local elected offices are not Democrats. Antonovich, who seems to be an independent by Grow's characterization, speaks of the DFL "leaving behind the Iron Range" in referring to specific problems like the unsafe, chewed up two-lane section of Highway 169 between Pengilly and Taconite.

Now we could argue about the true culprit in the unfinished business of Highway 169 ... or the unmitigated danger of the Canisteo Mine Pit near Bovey, the Range-wide problem of aging infrastructure and other woes. I've got my theories. But the reason many local government types are losing faith is probably because bloviating officials, governors, senators and representatives have been saying the same thing for 30 years and nothing much changes except along the margins. Nor does it seem that becoming Republicans would change much either. Fact is, quite often, Range towns might feel like they're on their own with only the sustaining funds of Iron Range Resources keeping them from collapse.

I speak, of course, as a Iron Range DFLer with close ties to many people in local and state office. But I do think there needs to be an increased sense of urgency about the real, unfinished and often uninteresting problems of our Iron Range cities and school districts. Once we finish the four-lane transRange highway on 169 and the north-south route of Highway 53 we can usher in the Renaissance around here. Real results on lingering problems like school debt, infrastructure and roads will win longtime loyalty from local opinion leaders and, more importantly, equal or increased quality of life for another generation.

Check out the anti-establishment clarion call from the Duluth News-Tribune editorial board today. They are calling for the ouster of four long serving members of the St. Louis County Board in the 2010 election for various transgressions, mostly related to sexual harassment cases and the resulting failure of the board to acknowledge any wrong-doing.

... though the claims of sexual harassment were substantiated, the commissioners involved escaped reprimand by their fellow board members.

Meanwhile, the two women who were sufficiently courageous to bring forth the claims no longer are employees of the county.

[County watchdog group] We Are Watching this week called on all county residents to demand a legal settlement for the women. While sad and disappointing that commissioners would need to be publicly pressured into doing the right thing, it’s certainly not surprising. Not for this group.

Good candidates are needed to run against Forsman, Fink, Raukar and Nelson. This week, the commissioners received failing grades. In less than two years, voters can make sure they’re expelled.

Why, it's as though the people who wrote this editorial are entirely different people than the ones who wrote the editorial endorsing John McCain and Norm Coleman just a few short weeks ago. Change. It's contagious! Some of these commissioners have survived tough elections in the past, but this isn't the sort of thing that incumbents like to see two years ahead of a re-election campaign. Those 2010 county board endorsement interviews ought to be a blast!

My essay this Saturday for "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE focuses on this week's topic of "gifts." I talk about the trip into the den of girl clothes that men often must make in the early stages of a relationship. The story I tell has the added benefit of being about the woman to whom I am now married, which will seem especially amazing when you hear it.

"Between You and Me," which airs Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM and streaming online at www.kaxe.org, features a topic, music and the voices of the people of Northern Minnesota. Call in and share your thoughts and stories. My commentaries usually run in the first half of the program.

My wife Christina, who is the Northern Cheapskate, will be the special guest co-host this week sitting in with host and producer Heidi Holtan and talking about ways to save money during the holiday shopping season.

Thanks to all who came out to my "Overburden" reading and lecture last night in Gilbert. It was a great discussion. I unveiled a couple of new riffs that I will be working on for future events. And I was surprised to see Ms. Weigert and Mrs. Elias, my high school band teacher and librarian! That's the beauty of living and working in the place where you grew up. A good time was had by all. We're restocked at Woodward's in Virginia finally and I'll be holding a signing there in a couple weeks. The super cheap among you should know that the book will be in the Gilbert Library from now on, along with a few other libraries in northern Minnesota.

But, if you care about the children, you should really get your own copy.

Next up: Tuesday night in Ely!

Business North ran a great story by Beth Bily about the political trends emerging in Duluth and the Iron Range after the 2008 election. Check it out.

Remember, I'll be reading, speaking and signing books at 6:30 tonight at the Gilbert Public Library. It should be fun, so come on down.

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, a Democrat, has officially defeated longtime U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) after late absentee ballots were counted yesterday. There are plenty of places to read about the political implications, but I just want to point out the fact that two names originating from the Iron Range now decorate U.S. Senate offices: Begich and Klobuchar.

Begich is the nephew of former State Rep. and current Iron Range Resources citizen board member Joe Begich (DFL-Eveleth). Begich's father Nick, who was originally from the Iron Range, was Alaska's last Democratic Congressman, who died in a plane crash with the Speaker of the House Hale Boggs. Alaska is a strange state, politically speaking, and you should read about this unresolved story if you've never heard it. Nick Begich was one of many Minnesotans who flocked to the pioneer country of Alaska in the '50s, '60s and beyond, giving Sarah Palin the accent we all got to know during the last election.

Meantime, our U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar's dad Jim is from the Iron Range, where her grandfather worked the underground mines on the Vermilion Range. This means the Iron Range is just 98 seats away from total domination of the U.S. Senate.

I talked about this on KAXE this morning with Scott Hall. Go to the "KAXE Live" button and listen to the last part of the 6:30-6:45 a.m. section and the first part of the 6:45-7 a.m. section. for Nov. 19.

UPDATE: The Mesabi Daily News talked to Joe Begich about his nephew's election to the Senate.

In the early days of the Iron Range, most iron ore miners lived in company location towns where alcohol sales were restricted so that the miners would not drink too much. To defy their bosses, and also to drink vast amounts of alcohol and visit with, uh, professional ladies, these miners would trek across the Range to the city of Gilbert, the wettest and wildest town on the Range. At some point, a trans-Range trolley was installed, ostensibly as public transit but logistically as a way of getting miners to Gilbert on their day off. To date, the long line cut through the woods of the Iron Range for the long-defunct trolley tracks remains visible to the naked (no pun intended) eye.

Years later, a 16-year-old pizza delivery driver would hand an order of chicken drummies to a stripper ON STAGE at the Gladiator Bar in Gilbert. That pizza delivery driver would grow to become a "man." A "man" with a "blog." This blog.

Guess where I'll be Wednesday night? (TONIGHT!) Any guesses? Gilbert y'all!

Gilbert Public Library. 6:30 p.m. Book lecture.

Did I say "book lecture?" I meant to say "book smackdown" or "passionate book lovin.'"

I'll be reading from my new book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range," discussing the Iron Range, talking to you and signing books. Do I just read from the pages? No. I make the pages come out of the book and party like its 1907 and we don't yet know that the steel trusts will crush our strike. Will there be coffee available? Yes. Much better coffee than when the industrial barons crushed the 1916 strike. Will I attempt to be humorous? Yes, the way it was humorous that the heavy handed anti-labor tactics of the early 20th century paved the way for solid pro-labor politics on the Range in the 20th and 21st centuries. Will my humor succeed? Just look at this post. Maybe. Maybe it will succeed. Did I mention there will be coffee?

Aaron Brown's Overburden Book Tour
Lecture, Reading and Book Signing
6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 19
Gilbert Public Library
19 N. Broadway Ave.
Gilbert, MN
FREE TO ATTEND! (Books cost 16.95 plus tax, all proceeds go to my shadowy network of business associates)

Can't make it? Buy online.

I hope they didn't print t-shirts yet. Cliffs Natural Resources (formerly Cleveland Cliffs) is no longer merging with Appalachian coal giant Alpha Natural Resources even though Cliffs changed its name to match theirs.

Awkward.

The Duluth News Tribune has the full story. It appears that this another example of the economy influencing the long range planning of the companies in the mining business here on northern Minnesota's Iron Range.

Who likes coal anyway? Not me. Buck up, Cliffs. You find another vast resource to mine and burn. One that respects you and treats you right.

This Mesabi Daily News story from yesterday explores the legislative strategy of environmental groups opposed to the PolyMet mining project on the East Range. The MDN also writes about the legislative strategy of pro-development groups, but usually in the form of drippingly-ironic editorials.

Is drippingly a word?

Anyway, there will be a legislative smackdown over sulfide mining this winter with most of the fighting occurring within the DFL caucus. The real number to watch is not the vote count (PolyMet will get its permits somehow, I expect), but the price of copper, nickel and other minerals that PolyMet intends to mine. These prices have been dropping and, if they don't recover, the permits aren't the problem anymore.

Sure, Democrats have lots to be happy about with Barack Obama's win, but this item from "Wired" shows that the biggest benefit might come for everyone in the form of improved and expanded Internet access in rural areas and among economically strapped populations. For the first time in several decades the FCC may not be controlled entirely by the telecom industry. That could mean huge gains for "net neutrality" (equal access to the same universal Internet instead of multiple networks in which private companies control the fastest Internet) and public broadband networks, which have long been opposed by big service providers.

Check out this section from a Wired blog post by Sarah Lai Stirland about Susan Crawford, the Obama transition team's FCC reviewer:

And in a final introductory statement during her talk (that's likely to send shivers down the spines of telecom company executives) she said that she believes internet access is a "utility."

"This is like water, electricity, sewage systems: Something that each and all Americans need to succeed in the modern era. We're doing very badly, and we're in a dismal state," she said at the time.

I'll say again: if places like the Iron Range or any other rural part of Minnesota are to truly diversify their economies, increased Internet usage, application and education will be necessary to compete. I would hope the big companies would realize the opportunity involved in privately providing Internet as a public utility, but they shouldn't be allowed to preserve the status quo at the expense of our country's economic strength in the future.

I don't know how much of a priority the Obama administration will make this Internet endeavor, but he has mentioned it in several interviews. Certainly, a net neutrality-friendly FCC will be a first step in the right direction.

H/T mcjoan at DailyKos

Former House speaker and longtime former State Rep. Irv Anderson (DFL-International Falls) died Monday morning at age 85. This short breaking story comes from the Mesabi Daily News and will be updated for the morning edition. There will be many obituaries recorded across the state on Tuesday that will show a fuller picture of the man's work, but it should be noted that at the time of his retirement in 2006 Irv was the last WWII veteran in the State House of Representatives. Anderson was a very powerful legislator, who lost his power in a series of painful elections, and then fought his way back into the legislature and all the way back to become Speaker of the House. He was a tough customer, but he was tough because he had to be tough to protect his hometown and all the rural residents of District 3A. He'll be remembered for a very long time all around Minnesota. As my friend Rep. Tom Anzelc always said when he was running to succeed Anderson in 2006: "I am running to follow Irv, because no one could replace him."

Ever have to make exactly one minute of small talk with someone you recently called "wrong for America?"

Ever have it filmed and put on CNN? Awkward 2 D Xtreme! My favorite is when they try to talk about football.



H/T Wonkette

Over at the Iron Range Resources agency, longtime area newspaper reporter and current IRR public information officer Lee Bloomquist has begun blogging for the agency. It's a "company blog" to be sure, but his first post gives some interesting information and pictures on the new Mesabi Nugget plant near Hoyt Lakes which will be operating next year.

I'm sure Lee will provide some valuable information and perspective on the Iron Range news of the day even though he's working for the agency in doing so. He's not the kind of guy to call "up" down. At least we know what his employer biases are, something hard to discern with corporate-owned media outlets. If I start to see "Business is Beautiful" on Twitter, though, there will be hell to pay.

Speaking of biases, here are mine:

Northern Minnesota community colleges (good)
KAXE (good)
Cheese (good)
Beer (good)

Should any of these forces combine to form a nefarious plot to overthrow the government, do not trust me ... for my will is not my own.

Check out this interesting feature from today's Duluth News Tribune profiling people who choose to live at the poverty line in northern Minnesota. Anecdotally, I can say there are LOTS of people like this up here, often living below the radar. The fact that you can do this is a testament to the greatness of northern Minnesota and the Iron Range and the reason why people still live here after being pounded by bad economic period after bad economic period. I have a few relatives and friends doing this right now. My sister moved to Grand Marais with nothing but a tent. I don't even think it was her tent (she was sharing it). That's just how things roll up there.

I still likes me house and car, though. Thus, back to work!

Last week I had a conversation with State Rep. Paul Thissen (DFL-Minneapolis) shortly after he announced his candidacy for governor. Rep. Thissen has been a friend to this blog, occasionally offering insightful comments on health care reform (his specialty area). I first talked to Thissen when he brought his health and human services committee to the Iron Range for hearings. Our conversation then was part of a well-received series of columns I wrote for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. (Part 1 and Part 2). Like my earlier interview with State Sen. Tom Bakk (DFL-Cook), another likely candidate for governor, I will share my conversation in two parts: the first an objective review of the candidate's message, the second my analysis of the candidate and his or her chances.

THE PAUL THISSEN INTERVIEW:


Paul Thissen is the chair of the House Health and Human Services committee, assuming that title with the DFL takeover in 2007 after just four years in the legislature. His time in office has been marked by work on a wide range of issues, but his specialty is clearly in health care reform. He was chief author of the Children's Health Security Act, insuring 40,000 additional Minnesota children, and championed the passage of the 2008 Health Reform Act.

Thissen is a Minneapolis lawyer, married with three kids, and he's running on the idea that you can organize a campaign that isn't all about financial capital or inside games at the capitol. But he also knows political reality, which is why he's announcing so early and planning a statewide push to build a adequately funded campaign.

And the success of Barack Obama's successful vast grassroots campaign seems to be part of Thissen's inspiration.

"The world is changing and institutions are changing," said Thissen. "The successful campaign in this race will be the one that empowers people."

Thissen plans to spend the next year touring the state, talking to people and learning what they want from the next governor. He has set up an "Idea Board" on his website to allow people to share their proposals to solve problems they see in their communities.

When asked how he'd explain his candidacy to blue collar Iron Range DFLers at a bar or union hall, Thissen offered his family's history as a metaphor. His family has been in Minnesota for five generations, with roots in farming, railroading, and teaching (both Thissen's parents were school teachers).

"What my family has shared over the generations is the importance of affordable health care, secure retirement and a good education," said Thissen.
He told me about a workbench his grandfather made that he used recently.

"My grandfather could have built a workbench that would have lasted 10 years; instead, he made it to last generations," Thissen said. "That spirit, that thinking for the future is what's driving me in this campaign."

The state budget, facing big deficits, will be a top issue during the 2009 session.

"If things are as bad as they are sounding, the depth of cuts needed will be things that Minnesotans wouldn’t stand for," said Thissen. Once we go through that debate I think we'll find that all options on the table. It’s a bad time to raise revenues but there are some things to talk about that could close the gaps."

Specifically, Thissen suggests repackaging health services -- an enormous part of the state budget -- to be be more efficient and locally controlled without cutting services themselves. This way of approaching the problem is indicative of Thissen's governing style.

"We lose the long term thinking when we go budget cycle to budget cycle," said Thissen.

Another large part of the budget, education, is also on Thissen's mind. Again, he suggests finding ways to tie funding to results without sacrificing the quality of education from region to region, or from educational level to level.

"We see an achievement gap between regions of this state and we need to make sure we have a seamless system from early childhood all the way up to college," said Thissen.

The combination of massive education, health and human services budget needs and a likely budget deficit creates a "frightening" set of circumstances for the state, one that lawmakers often put in terms of numbers, rather than people. He used the example of the closure of Hibbing's Golden Crest nursing home, where some families of high-needs residents have yet to resolve their loved ones' next move.

"At the state level we often think about problems from a 30,000-foot perspective, but we need to see what’s happening on the ground," said Thissen. "That's true in health care and it's true in economic development."

On the jobs front, Thissen takes a localized view.

My economic plan is about empowering communities more," said Thissen. "There are differences among our regions that must be respected. The answer for Hibbing might be different than the answer for somewhere else."

Thissen talked about Iron Range Resources, the unique state agency that manages the Iron Range's production tax revenue collected from mining companies in lieu of local property taxes. The agency is also charged with leading economic development efforts on the Iron Range. Thissen explained his strategy for job growth on the Range and around the state.

"I don't believe in selling out a community just for economic development," said Thissen. He said job growth must be balanced with human impact, the environment and long term planning to find the best way to keep communities vital.

"We have to connect with the global economy ... [self-generating] job growth and innovation are key to this," said Thissen. In this regard, he said, the Iron Range is well positioned for the future.

Ultimately, Thissen is realistic about the challenges before him. While he'll be fundraising like any other candidate, his real focus will be in getting out to every corner of Minnesota to try to inspire the support of the future delegates and voters that will decide if his campaign is viable or an asterisk.

"I know theres going to be a lot of people in this race," said Thissen. "I won't be handed anything. This will be about me going out to build trust with people."

ANALYSIS:

I'm so strung out from the election that it's hard for me to think about 2010 yet. For some reason when I talked to Tom Bakk last spring the ongoing campaign masked the sad fact that we were two years away from the election we're talking about. I know the reality that successful campaigns need to start their fundraising and organizational work this year, but what's often lost as a result is the message and the mettle of the person running. In this regard, I am impressed with Thissen's approach to an early start. He is going to go on tour and listen, learning the on-the-ground problems of Minnesotans in a very geographically diverse state.

As a non-metro resident, I am always concerned when the words "Minneapolis" or "St. Paul" or "Name o' Suburb" appear after a legislator's name. My main worry is that the Iron Range and other rural parts of northern Minnesota will be treated like an eccentric relative at the reunion rather than what we really are: a really important eccentric relative who controls most of the state's minerals, water and wood products. More than once during the interview, Thissen spoke of a state government that recognized the geographic diversity of the state and the need for each area to have some way of influencing how state resources for its residents are used.

If Thissen really does get into the guts of every corner of the state and really does listen, he might have an outside chance. I described my talk with Thissen to a friend this way, and I'll stick with it now: He's so damn reasonable. As a health care expert, he strives and generally succeeds to avoid "wonkishness," showing a clear speaking style that makes sense -- especially to independent-minded anti-ideologues. The risk with being reasonable is that voters might lose him in the shuffle of loud, emotional, and better known candidates who might join this race. But the fact is that reasonable people make good governors. Thissen is experienced but not yet a career politician. He has shown something that I have found lacking at every level of government, from dog catcher up to President: curiosity. He wants to learn more about a problem before he decides what the best solution is. And he's also willing to talk about specific problems. We spent a good portion of our talk last week talking about the woes facing one Iron Range nursing home that is closing later this month, greatly affecting several dozen Iron Range families. Most candidates avoid specifics, but not Thissen.

As I've said, I'm staying neutral in this one for the time being. I'd like to know who's running and what they have to say before I make that decision. That said, there's a lot in Paul Thissen for people to like:

• He quoted my book ("Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range"). (OK, that one was just for me).
• He showed the skill to move up to become health committee chair quickly, but hasn't been around long enough to become stagnant.
• As someone I know at the capitol says, "He looks like a governor, talks like a governor and walks like a governor." His name ID may be low, but these qualities can't be replicated.
• He reaches out when he sees people affected by policy to find out what they think.
  
• He's shown a 21st century ability to use the internet functionally while balancing work in government.
• He passed on the chance to jump on buzz words like "green economy" and "jobs" and acknowledged that economic growth of any kind must be built the hard way, with innovation and investment.
  

But there is at the same time no avoiding the obvious: Thissen's challenge in this endeavor is great and he is not yet positioned for top tier status against heavyweights that might include Tim Walz, Margaret Anderson Kelliher or RT Rybak. That said, Thissen could get there. At the least, he is worth a good listen for any DFL delegate, voter or opinion leader. He would match up well (as would others) against Tim Pawlenty or another top GOP prospect.

For more information, see Paul Thissen for Governor.

Dammit. On the same day the Hibbing Daily Tribune runs my column about hitting a deer with my Ford Focus station wagon, the Duluth News Tribune runs Janna Goerdt's column about hitting a moose with her Subaru. Not only does she get the bigger, rarer and much more literary dead animal on which to pontificate, she drives a better car. (All wheel drive standard on all models).

I've been served.

Meantime, down at the Star Tribune I expect Nick Coleman's eagerly awaited column about running over a brontosaurus with his monster truck to run any day, shaming outstate writers back to our clip files and resumes.

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UPDATE: In further humiliation, I just picked up the hard copy of today's Tribune and see they forgot to run my column again. Look for it this week or next Sunday.

UPDATE 2: The column will run sometime this week. I'm writing a new piece for my regular Sunday column. The editor is out at the Tribune and the staff is scrambling to keep up with the e-mail. I e-mailed early in the week and was buried by obituaries, press releases and angry e-mails from people who recently acquired the internet.

UPDATE: The column was lost during production at the paper, so this will actually run in the hard copy of the paper sometime this week. This is only relevant if you like to clip these and put them on your fridge, which even my mom stopped doing years ago.

UPDATE 2: The column actually ran Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008 Hibbing Daily Tribune. I read a version of this piece for my Saturday essay on KAXE yesterday.

Fast cattle: the problem with deer
By Aaron J. Brown

Yes, I hit another deer. This was not the first time I’d put fender to fur. I’ve smashed almost every vehicle I’ve ever owned against a deer at least once during the time I drove it. I’ve clipped running deer, flattened standing deer and I’ve even seen deer barrel into the side of my car. The sights and sounds are so familiar. The thud, the breaking glass of my headlights, the skittering sound as the deer attempts to run away or as it rolls over and over, its hooves and/or antlers tinkling across the pavement until it lands somewhere. Then comes the swearing as I fumble for my hazard lights and look for a place to pull over to survey the damage.

First, let me stop and explain something. Some will cringe at the my lack of compassion in this narrative. Indeed, if I kept running over people or dogs or pretty much anything with a name with my car, my tone would be decidedly different. But I have gradually lost my sympathy for highway deer because there are so very many deer out where I live and they possess an illogical behavior around cars that defies both God and Darwin. Why? Why do deer wait until they’re inside your braking distance to dart out of the ditch? Why do they double back and forth in front of you when picking one direction would literally save their lives and, unbeknownst to them, your insurance deductible? Why doesn’t a wise old deer – someone like Bambi’s dad – take the other deer aside and talk some sense into them? “Bambi. Cars are fast and very hard. They will crush your rib cage and the DNR will take you to the dump. And I recently learned that we have no eternal souls, making all of this an exceptional bummer.”

This brings me back to my story, a tale about the reality of a “post-deer collision” world. This past month I did something for the first time; I ran over a deer that was already dead. I know. I KNOW! How does that happen? What were you doing? How fast were you driving? Fool! Shame!

Let me explain. I live a half hour from everywhere in the woods just north of Northern Minnesota’s Iron Range. This means I leave for work early, often when it’s still pitch black. I was driving around a bend in the road and suddenly, WHAM, my headlights catch a pile of fur in the road with approximately four legs sticking up from it. Some logging truck or the like had obliterated the deer earlier, leaving the carcass in the road for me to run over. Because the deer was on the ground my car scraped over the top of it, ripping both my undercarriage and the deer remains to pieces. My car looked like I had been running down zombies in one of those new zombie movies where the zombies are fast. Liquid flowed onto the ground, mixing with deer blood, creating an oily concoction that smelled like a crime scene. Three guys stopped to help and I thought they dragged the deer off the road, but it turns out most of that deer was up in the innards of my car.

Long story short, the car spent a week in the shop where a crew worked on A) fixing the car and B) getting the deer parts out. I know one of the mechanics and asked him what it was like afterward. His eyes got kind of distant, sort of like you see in victims of post traumatic stress disorder. “It was bad. Really bad.”

And that’s why my car still smells like fur when the engine gets warm. I expect this will last through most of the winter. Happy hunting!

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Contact him or read more at his blog, MinnesotaBrown.com. His new book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range” is out now.

You may have noticed less political content at MinnesotaBrown lately. I've been focusing on my book and resulting book promotion lately, much of which is apolitical. Also I'm trying to detox after the busy election season. The ongoing U.S. Senate recount in Minnesota is to a decompressing political junkie what Black Velvet whiskey is to a recovering alcoholic. Nothing good can come of it.

I have been doing a little political work, though. This past week I talked with State Rep. Paul Thissen (DFL-Minneapolis) who announced he is running for governor in 2010. That's a long way off and painful to even think about, but Thissen is a relative unknown who is charting an unusual path to the nomination. I'll talk about that more in a post I am tentatively scheduling for Monday. Meantime, Sunday brings my weekly Hibbing Daily Tribune column. The piece for tomorrow served as the source material for my radio essay about deer for today's "Between You and Me" on KAXE.

My weekly essay for the Saturday, Nov. 15, 2008 edition of "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE deals with deer. Yes, you probably remember my run-in with a deer in my car from a few weeks ago and my recent trip to the hunting shack for the purposes of not hunting. Well, this essay explores topics like these in gory, and HILARIOUS, detail.

"Between You and Me" is a Saturday morning call-in and music show featuring the thoughts and stories of northern Minnesota's people. Each week highlights a new topic -- usually, well, topical. The show aims to reflect northern Minnesota culture in an entertaining and inclusive way. You should join in with your calls and e-mail!

Tune in between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming online at www.kaxe.org. My piece usually airs around 10:30 a.m., but it varies based on the number of calls coming in.

If you want to hear me on KTNF's Mark Heaney Show from Wednesday you can listen to the archive here (other listening options here). The show highlights some of the things I talk about during my usual reading/lecture for my new book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range." I also threaten to raise an army and storm the Twin Cities. Good times.

Thanks to the guest hosts, Eric Pusey and Two-Putt Tommy from MNBlue.com, for having me on.

Thanks to the many who came out to the Duluth Barnes and Noble last night for my reading and book signing. I saw a few familiar faces, but mostly a lot of new friends who have been following the blog and book. I sure appreciate everyone who showed up.

If you couldn't make it you can still get a signed copy at the Duluth Barnes and Noble, Howard Street Booksellers in Hibbing or the Village Bookstore in Grand Rapids. We are restocking books at Woodward's in Virginia (I am told they sold out) and have some in stock at Lisa's Upstairs Book Store at Piragis Northwoods in Ely. Many Barnes and Noble stores throughout Minnesota are stocking the book on their Regional shelves and if your store hasn't, tell them they should. I'll be doing several other signing and lecture events over the next three weeks. (See "Book News" for more information on my events in Gilbert, Ely, Grand Rapids, Virginia and more).

You can also order online for fast home delivery.

Soon enough, we'll be in the Twin Cities for a series of events that, ideally, will each end in a unique display of civil disobedience. And I am working on ideas for more events in Duluth, Brainerd and Bemidji. Any ideas? If your town's library, college or bookstore would like to host an "Overburden" event contact me for details.

I know this only serves to demonstrate my unhip unhipness but I just got on Facebook for the first time and it is totally overwhelming. People are giving me animals (?), hugging me (?) inviting me to join things or go to strange towns to attend spaghetti dinners. People are chatting, sending messages and writing on my wall (?) and I don't know what any of it means, other than I am not getting anything done.

You know, in the old days "social networking" was done at lunch. Then again, in the old days you could drink three martinis at lunch too.

World's changin' I reckon.

I signed up on Facebook to drum up business for "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range," an original collection of humorous, historical and cultural essays about northern Minnesota's unique blue collar utopia. It's the debut release of an exciting new company called Red Step Press. The first reading is tonight at Barnes and Noble in Duluth at 6:30 p.m. So far, I've already sold two books to Facebook friends. I even signed and hand delivered them to the doorstep. I probably won't do this for you but you could always try asking. My main goal is to not get shot and chopped up in someone's basement. That should be everyone's main goal.

MPR has an intriguing story showing how China's recent economic stimulus plan for its own economy may serve Minnesota's Iron Range well by creating a firewall in international steel prices. It was Chinese growth associated with the Beijing Olympics that yanked the Range out of the doldrums five years ago. Fascinating stuff, economically speaking.

Like my "Tommy" reference?

I'll see you tonight at the Duluth Barnes and Noble in the Miller Hill Mall for the first public reading/discussion of my new book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range." The event starts at 6:30 with a brief talk and book signing to follow. I'll be on hand to talk to folks afterward. I'd sure like to meet some of these Duluth readers who kept this crazy blog going during the elections.

For Twin Cities readers, you can hear me just before the event on 950 AM KTNF (Air America) around 6:05 p.m. for the Mark Heaney Show with guest host Eric Pusey, my MNBlue.com colleague. Listen online.

I just got back to the Range from my early "Good Morning Northland" interview about my book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range." It may have been four hours in the car for 20 minutes in the studio and two minutes on the air, but I'm sure it will all be worth it ... if not now, then in the afterlife.

For those interested, here's how I think it went: Pretty OK. I didn't bring the A-game but I didn't embarrass myself either. Cassie Limpert had to lower her chair so that I wouldn't appear as ridiculously short compared to her as I actually am. I think that got in my head and it took me a question or two to shake it. The people at "Good Morning Northland" are very nice. It's my personal recommendation for northern Minnesota morning TV. Unless of course the person reading this right now works at Northland NewsCenter (Channels 3, 6, 11 and other much larger numbers). If that describes you then ... baby, baby, they mean nothing to me! You're the only local news affiliate for me, baby!

I'll be giving my first reading of "Overburden" at the Duluth Barnes and Noble at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 12. I will bring the A-game and no pleasant Amazonian morning news anchor will be able to stop me! Not even legendary eight-foot Souix Falls anchor Suzie McTallsy with her friendly plains accent and gentle ways!

By now you've probably heard the speculation that U.S. Rep Jim Oberstar is on President-elect Obama's short list for Secretary of Transportation. The Mesabi Daily News welcomed the idea in a Monday editorial. This speculation has been around a long time. I wrote about a collection of potential succession candidates should Oberstar move over to the executive branch back in June. I'd imagine some of these people, and probably others I haven't thought of yet, are getting Google alerts on "Oberstar" and "Secretary of Transportation."

Here's what we know. Oberstar says he's not interested in SecTrans. In fact, he'd probably be taking a demotion in terms of ability to influence transportation funding and policy to take that job. (Oberstar REALLY wants passenger rail between Duluth and the Twin Cities). Furthermore, there's no evidence that President-elect Obama is planning to fill out his cabinet with long-serving members of Congress. He may want to go an entirely different direction. Finally, at this stage in his career, Oberstar isn't going to be seeking a job like this with the possibility of being turned down. That's why I put the chances of an Oberstar appointment down in the single digits, maybe the 20s, in terms of percentage.

However ... it is possible. If Obama asks Oberstar to to run his Transportation Department I couldn't imagine Oberstar saying no, especially if he has assurances for his pet projects and home district. Oberstar has been in Congress a long time and this will be his only chance to serve in any capacity other than U.S. Representative from Minnesota's 8th District.

IF (a huge if) this happens you would see a monumental struggle for the soul of Minnesota's Eighth District in a special election. Liberals and moderates would struggle for the DFL nomination, as would the Iron Range and Duluth and southern exurbs. Geography, ideology, gender, age -- we'd have it all out, baby, and it could get ugly and highly entertaining. And that's just the DFL. (Check out my previous analysis on potential DFL candidates).

The GOP would have a similar soul-searching moment to determine how to be competitive in a seat they haven't had a real chance at since before there was fire. With far fewer GOP office holders in the district, they'd have to perform a miraculous feat of organization or, cheaper and more likely, recruit a star candidate. Rod Grams? Kevin McHale? Kent Hrbek? (Oh, it would hurt me so much if Kent Hrbek ran as a GOP in my district, you have no idea). I only mention McHale because he had a high-profile role in a recent John McCain rally. If he really is a Republican (I'm not sure on that; and he may be uninterested) he'd hold appeal up on the Iron Range where he's from and visits often. Actually, what the heck, let me just throw this out there that Kevin McHale would be the GOP's best and perhaps only chance to win this seat. There, that'll get me some buzz. And yes, I know the Timberwolves are terrible. So is the GOP's 8th District operation.

The stakes are even higher when you consider the 2012 redistricting. It's quite possible that Minnesota will lose a Congressional seat after the next census and conventional wisdom seems to imply that it's the Sixth District (northern suburbs and St. Cloud area) that would be cannibalized if that happens. This means that Jim Oberstar could theoretically just keep doing what he's doing for a very long time. If that's true, his future successor may not yet be potty trained. However, another more GOP-friendly scenario would be to cut the state in half on a east-to-west line. That's the GOP dream scenario leaving just one seat to be shared by Northwestern and Northeastern Minnesota. And if you want a crazy election, that's a good 'un.

The winner in all this is the candidate who is ready to go, regardless of party, ideology or geography. But one scenario has this all happening in, oh, about two weeks. So ... you know ... something to think about up north.

Remember how I hit a deer a couple weeks ago, sending it under the car and ripping everything to pieces? Right, well, I've got the car back from the shop now and every time the engine gets warm it smells like fur. I expect this will last the winter. I talked to a guy I know at the shop and he kind of faded into a PTSD flashback when trying to describe the extraction of deer parts from the undercarriage.

As they say in closing around these parts, "watch for deer."

Like taconite, my "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range" book tour is heading for Duluth this week to get loaded.

Ha! Just kidding. I don't mix boozin' and book sellin' (Book writin' ... well, that's different).

We've had some fine book events here on the Iron Range, with more to come, but this Wednesday, Nov. 12 I will be giving my first public reading of "Overburden" at the Duluth Barnes and Noble in the Miller Hill Mall at 6:30 p.m. They say Barnes and Noble book events sometimes get pretty crazy. The pills. The glow sticks. The dancing girls. I'm sure mine will be even crazier, well worth the $0 you pay to get in and the paltry $16.95 to get a first edition, signed, personalized copy of "Overburden" (actually, it might be less than that with Barnes and Noble discounts). Theoretically, you could turn around and sell the book on eBay for a million bucks. Or maybe more!

I'll be promoting this event in a few upcoming interviews. Triumphantly, I'll be going on the talking picture box on Tuesday as I am slated to be interviewed by WDIO's Cassie Limpert on "Good Morning Northland" early in the 6 o'clock hour Tuesday morning. That's the ABC affiliate on Channels 10 and 13 in northern Minnesota.

I'll be on Duluth radio as well. Monday morning just after 7 a.m. I'll be doing the country B-105 Morning Show. On Wednesday at 7:40 a.m. I'll do the KOOL 101.7 Morning Show again to demonstrate that I really am a little bit country AND a little bit rock 'n' roll. I'm taking a Johnny Cash approach on Monday and a Bob Dylan approach on Wednesday.