This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired on 91.7 KAXE's "Between You and Me" earlier in January.

When I grow up
By Aaron J. Brown

The first time someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was to be a detective. I had then, and possess now, no interest in the actual work of being a detective: the capers, the clues, the legal process. Rather, I was thinking about “Sesame Street” and the music that played as their knockoff Sherlock Holmes Muppet™ wandered on stage. See, at the time – age 5 or something like that – I believed, naively but truly, that everyone had a theme song. If you were a mechanic, a banker or a professional athlete, your entrance into a room corresponded with an appropriate musical interlude. I liked the tune that accompanied Sherlock Hemlock, the Sesame Street detective, and that was enough.

Later I learned that most work does not involve a theme song. In fact, it almost always involves a silent moment of reflection followed by intense mental energy dedicated to 1) the completion of vital tasks, and 2) not killing co-workers or supervisors with blunt weapons, such as sticks or fire axes. There are advanced degrees, safety training sessions and some form of retirement planning workshops, but never – indeed, never ever – is there theme music. This is a pity.

Perhaps if people thought of their jobs, their careers, their identities from the standpoint of “what would this sound like, musically,” they might find themselves trying harder for a better melody, or at least a more consistent bass line and drum beat. You know, something you can dance to. It really doesn’t matter what you do. This could apply to any profession. Even if your job is mundane, your life doesn’t have to be. A one-hit wonder? Still OK, as compared to a no-hit average schmoe barely living, rather existing in a form of pre-death.

The president gets theme music. I think that sets a good tone. For instance, let’s say a federal official walks into a room. Sometimes it’s a census worker. Sometimes it’s the president. You know what’s the difference? “Hail to the Chief!” RUM PUM PA TUM BA PA RUM BE DUM BE TUM TUM! Theme music!

Professional wrestlers know what I’m talking about. They make theme music a centerpiece of the whole show (I’m sorry, “competition”). If it weren’t for the theme music, you wouldn’t know which characters (wrestlers) were the good guys and which were the bad guys. A black leotard no longer indicates a bad guy wrestler (indeed, it may now indicate a complicated wrestler, struggling with the difficulties of being a man in the 21st century). What’s the difference? Well, I turn your attention to the theme music.

Is it ominous? Yes?

Does it include lyrics that indicate hostility? Yes?

Does the hostile music indicate hubris, directing anger toward women, animals or people who write newspaper columns? Yes?

Well, then that’s a bad guy. But if the hostility is directed toward institutions, such as “the man,” or “the government,” or “the system,” well, then you’ve got yourself a complicated wrestler, conditionally loved by some, based upon a sociopolitical scoring system that factors in income, education and desire to kick ass, respectively. But you know what? All of these factors can be overcome quickly … if the theme song rocks sufficiently.

Let your song rock, people. Let it rock hard.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com or in his book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

This week on 91.7 KAXE's weekly "Between You and Me" program the topic trends toward carbs. The Saturday morning call-in/music show will explore bread: how to make it, what we like about it and what bread means. I'll chime in with my usual contribution, in my case exploring the world of the second-day bread store.

"Between You and Me" features the voices of northern Minnesota (and all those fascinated by it) and some great musical interludes and writing. Tune in Saturday morning between 10 and noon at 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming live online all over the world at www.kaxe.org. These food shows often end up being among the best because, as you surely know, food is about more than food.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Jan. 24, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. UPDATE: Grammatical error fixed.

Pictures of a new world
By Aaron J. Brown

This past Christmas Santa Claus gave our oldest son Henry a camera that takes real pictures. The “real pictures” were important because Henry, 4, and his brothers Doug and George, 2 apiece, already owned several small, pretend devices that claimed to take pictures but instead showed Lightning McQueen in the display window. As any kid can tell you, animated talking race car Lightning McQueen is not omnipresent (so you better start the DVD over again).

But now Henry has a real digital camera and has been logging one snapshot after another. The camera he got was advertised more for parents than for kids, taking pictures “drop after drop after drop.” Most adult cameras advertise photo quality. This camera promises nothing in that department. In fact, it seems to say “accept what we give you – or we’ll make it breakable and collect your money anyway.”

Unlike the cameras with the fancy zooms and shutter speeds, this camera only shoots a subject in focus if that subject stands exactly six feet in front of the camera (or approximately, we haven’t figured it out yet). There is an automatic flash. It’s mostly for show.

Henry began taking pictures the moment we opened the package and installed the requisite batteries. The debut photograph depicted our dog Molly staring up at the camera, with a face that said, “Et tu, small human.”

Since then Henry has kept shooting more and more pictures, usually in the periphery of our vision. We hear the beeps, the boops, the faux clicks, the “shoobooboop” of the on/off button. But the content of Henry’s photography has, until recent, remained a mystery. However, at some point this digital camera’s memory was bound to fill, and fill it did. It was then that we enjoyed the process of downloading his pictures to the family computer.

About half of the photos depicted some version of the floor: wood laminate, carpet; upstairs, downstairs. Most of those shots also showed Henry’s foot, legs or belly (depending on whether he was sitting or standing). One nearly universal image was his partially askew sock, aiming off into the left or right corner of most frames.

The most endearing part of the photographs came in how they appeared together. For the first time as parents we were seeing the world through the eyes of one of these small people we’ve been feeding all this time. Among the favorite shots were the dozens of early-morning photos Henry took of his younger brothers while they were sleeping, waking up and, eventually, jumping in the cribs for the camera before we were aware any of it was happening.

Also dominant in the theme were the many pictures of toys. Obviously toys are a big deal to kids. Toys are their version of storage shelves, Pampered Chef products and Facebook. So important! And each photo of toys seems to show the trains, trucks and random animals in a light we hadn’t considered before.

Seeing these photos reminded me of the (bear with me) “real film” photos I would take when I was a kid. Though most of these pictures are lost to time, more specifically a poorly insulated family garage, I remember them still. I recall the scrubby lawn of my childhood home where I had set up my toys in formation. All the pictures of my younger sisters and I point down at the ground, where we are. Why wouldn’t a kid take similar pictures?

What we forget as we get older is to look down, to consider what’s already around as being important, and to document the moments that others cannot see. For this, we’re thankful for Henry’s new camera and his new hobby; even if some of the pictures fail to show us parental types in our usual, glowing light.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune and a local writer, college instructor and radio commentator. Read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com or in his book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

This week edition of the Saturday morning call-in and radio program "Between You and Me" on KAXE explores the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King in northern Minnesota in these modern times. Each week the show reviews a new topic, highlighting the voices, attitudes and cultures of this unique region. Also, cool music and good times. I am one of several contributing essayists and producers.

Tune in from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 KAXE in northern Minnesota and streaming live all over the world at www.kaxe.org.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

For most folks, the latest video from the band OK GO! for their latest song "This Too Shall Pass" is just plain fun. (These were the guys who did the "treadmill video" that was popular some time ago, having since established themselves the masters of the one-take video) For nerdy band geeks, however, this becomes profoundly healing salve.

As political junkies of all stripes coke out on analysis of today's Massachusetts special election for the United States Senate, remember this.

Some residents of major party bastions will vote for other parties when 1) there is a major national wave; others when 2) the dominant party nominates an idiot and/or terrible candidate; and 3) this will never occur when it is convenient. Looks like Democrats have the perfect storm today. Big Blue may pull off a miracle, but it will more closely resemble a mid-1990s Vikings victory than any Democrat would prefer.

I'll leave the ramifications of the national political issue to others, but in places like Minnesota -- including my native Iron Range -- the lessons should hereby be absorbed. Just like with show biz, it's easy for politics to become absorbed with the glitz of the top of the ticket. But a reliable top of the ticket depends upon a deep bench, with not one but several thoughtful people who could step up to other offices as needed. It's true of states and of regions. Areas dominated by one party are often criticized for "machine politics." Fair enough. The machine has to work. If it doesn't ...

UPDATE: Republican Scott Brown wins the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts. Yeah, seemed like that was going to happen.

If you missed it, the state and U.S. Steel have reached a potential deal for the mining/steel-making giant sell a large chunk of land on Lake Vermilion to become a new state park. The Iron Range-area park was a rather unexpected proposal from Gov. Tim Pawlenty two years ago that stalled when U.S. Steel got cold feet about the land sale. The company has returned to the table with its new, higher land valuation and it appears an $18 million price tag is enough to get the issue back into the bonding bill discussion.

It's not a done deal. $18 million is a lot in these contentious, cash-strapped times, especially in a bonding bill that requires support from the governor and legislature. State Rep. and gubernatorial candidate Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia) makes some notable and skeptical observations to Politics in Minnesota. In a nutshell, he points to the fact that State Parks are already underfunded and that miles of existing state land on Lake Vermilion holds no amenities for camping or hiking as is. So we're going to pay $18 million for something extra that we then have to maintain (I paraphrase).

This mnpACT post from Dave Mindeman proves to be a good read, but be warned that it quotes me and this may seem self-serving (I'm a sucker for links). Two years ago I joined many in asking why Pawlenty would propose new spending -- something he rejects insofar as education or health care reform are concerned, or most Range bonding projects -- for a park that local officials hadn't asked for. The answer, a reasonable one, from those involved was that this is a one-time opportunity to preserve a pristine part of Lake Vermilion, a lake where development has escalated dramatically over the past 20 years. If the state didn't buy and preserve this land it would be lotted off and sold for more private development leaving very little natural landscape in one of the most populated parts of the lake. (If you forgot, Lake Vermilion is the "destination" lake on the Iron Range, the site of high-scale development by successful people both on and off the Range).

On one hand local governments lose potential property tax revenue from one of the few high value locations around, on the other current residents now get to keep a good view and the lake will take less environmental abuse. Mindeman points out that current residents -- often in high value lake homes -- will see rising property values as a result of the decision and I must admit, that's true (though, they'd counter that they will also see higher individual property taxes, no thanks to Pawlenty).

It's worth a question as to how much the property values and wishes of these Lake Vermilion residents and cabin owners influenced the prioritization of the Lake Vermilion park. It almost seems like there was someone well connected in the area who figured out the magic buttons to push to get this thing a green light. I'm going to feign ignorance until I can explore this more.

The project serves a different people in different ways: 1) the land is preserved for future generations, 2) Pawlenty gets a legacy project, 3) Lake Vermilion residents see less congestion on the lake and keep higher property values, 4) the DNR gets a new park to operate, and 5) U.S. Steel rolls in the Benjamin$, the way they always do. Who could be against this? (Local governments? In case you missed it, they don't count).

Nevertheless, no one was asking for any of it before U.S. Steel announced it no longer wanted the land. And, for all the money, why make a perpetual budget commitment in times when it would seem we can't afford it? If it's worth it, why is MinnesotaCare not worth it? Are we dealing in the value of government actions, or simply in raw dollars?

Skepticism aside, it seems possible that Lake Vermilion State Park could become a reality. I don't doubt that Gov. Pawlenty would further be willing to talk options on how to keep the Vikings in Minnesota through some kind of stadium deal, probably one that involves local taxes instead of state taxes.

So we get a State Park. I like the idea of state park. Who doesn't?

We get to keep the Vikings. I like the idea of the Vikings. Who doesn't?

But that's it. The bonding bill could end up being small and ineffectual, and the budget? HA HA HA! There will be no budget deal. Only a thousand lashes from Satan's cat-o-nine tails for anyone who tries.

Remember, in the 21st century Minnesota we can accomplish anything, so long as it seems arbitrary. The other stuff is for the courts and the kids to sort out.

Iron Range media outlets (in this case, the Mesabi Daily News by way of the Hibbing Daily Tribune) are reporting on the potential for DFL House Majority Leader Tony Sertich (DFL-Chisholm) to become Speaker of the House under a handful of scenarios in 2010. The reality of this scenario depends on two things: 1) the electoral success of current Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, and 2) the makeup and attitude of the DFL caucus after the 2010 elections, assuming the likely but not guaranteed outcome of the DFL retaining the House.

I haven't been posting much lately, but stay tuned today for a few items -- mostly links with comments about Iron Range area doings in statewide context. A lot of change has hit the conventional wisdom of the governor's race, which might generate some commentary. Items will start showing up over the next 24 hours.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

The King Holiday in a new century
By Aaron J. Brown

How are race relations in your neighborhood?

Yes, that’s still awkward, isn’t it? Just ask Harry Reid, who had some rough headlines last week after using some archaic racial words. There were some who felt that the election of Barack Obama to the presidency would, in itself, cure this nation of its original sin, the vast inequality between humans that began the moment the first Europeans stepped on the shores of this continent, themselves fleeing inequalities in Europe. Unfortunately, our first black president can’t sign (or bomb) anything to make that better.

President Obama tried to tell us this a couple times in deep, sober speeches. Communication teachers like me raved over the well-constructed address President Obama delivered on race during the campaign: honest, forward-looking, and grounded in historical context. But few of us, or anyone else, listened with any intent of changing our minds.

Incremental change makes for weak cable news fodder and snooze-worthy blog posts, so the hell with it. We like our fights heated and personal in this country, and race makes it really easy to spot the other side. There are a couple of angry gears our society hasn’t ground since, well 1968, and the media isn’t afraid to up-shift the drama. Resentment is about the easiest crop in the world to grow.

Tomorrow brings the national holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who as the old song says “freed a lot of people, but it seems the good, they die young.” Perhaps most of us believe that Dr. King gets a holiday because he won, in his case rights for millions of African Americans. That’s why we celebrate George Washington and Abraham Lincoln on Presidents Day. Washington beat the British in the Revolutionary War, and before that he whipped the French. Two empires! Lincoln beat the rebels and slavery. America Rules!

In the fervor of honoring victory among the population, we forget that these men are accorded holidays for what they refused to do. Washington refused a crown. Lincoln refused to let the union divide or for slavery to continue even though that would have been much better politics in his time. And King refused to limit his message of equality and justice to racial identity or civic laws. Indeed, much of his greatest work centered around the argument that segregation and oppression weren’t just bad for African Americans (of course they were) but that these transgressions represented tragic flaws in humanity that could, and must be repaired.

Here on the Iron Range, the change in racial attitudes since Obama’s election move at exactly the same pace as before: positively, yes, but slowly and only with the gentle progression of the generations. Our children will never even considering race to being a barrier to becoming president and yet jokes of a certain nature still bubble up from the dark corners of our society, as they do elsewhere.

Nevertheless, tomorrow represents the thought that no one individual accomplishment, certainly no one leader – not even King – can finish the work that needs to be done. In his writings, King held a deeper aspiration for the civil rights movement and its stated goal of ending the oppression of racial segregation. This aspiration was so deep, and will be so difficult to achieve that one president, or a thousand cannot succeed alone. Where there is inequity and injustice between the races, we can call foul and demand change. But what will we do about inequity and injustice between individuals, between the groups and factions of towns like this one?

What about intolerance between religions, or political beliefs, professions or even circles of friends? It’s no race war, and it plays bad on cable news (no ratings!), but only the surface of our problems appear on the news, the true enemy rests in our own hearts and those of our fellow humans. The true enemy can not be defeated with death and hate, but only with love and a desire to understand.

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

Every once in a while I can sense when an episode of "Between You and Me," the 91.7 KAXE Saturday morning call-in and music radio show juggernaut, will stick to the ribs. This Saturday's show (10 a.m. to noon) should do just that as host Heidi Holtan leads a discussion about the unique words and sounds of the Minnesota accent. As usual, I have filed my weekly contribution which looks at how an early career in radio and a lifetime of watching Carson and Letterman warped my accent. It should be a great show.

"Between You and Me" documents the voices, stories and attitudes of the people of northern Minnesota. You can listen from 10 a.m. to noon every Saturday morning on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming online all over the world at www.kaxe.org. I am one of three weekly contributors mixed in with music, calls and other fun programming.

This is my weekly column for the Sunday, Jan. 10, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Notes from the freezer
By Aaron J. Brown

Across the Upper Midwest, especially here in northern Minnesota, we settle in for the portion of winter no one sings songs about. Christmas is over. New Years has passed. We asked to let it snow, and it has. We drank to days of Auld Lang Syne and now must find new, more creative excuses to drink. Because it’s very cold, you see.

Cold like this draws the national TV weather anchors like the Gore-Tex wearing, banana-freezing, condescending gnats they are before driving them back toward the coasts faster than our pup Molly Dog does her morning business. You see the weatherpeople out there, in the dark, talking to New York. Of course it’s cold. It’s dark. It’s January. Why are you here now? It’s much more temperate in the summer. Do we see you then? Of course not. You only appreciate extremes. Minnesota is a summer secret paid for by the price of winter, specifically January.

Minnesotans know that the January cold snap – annual, inevitable – whips back the heads of the unaccustomed, and chills the feet of the natives. Our feet are always cold these days. Cold in boots, in sneakers and certainly in the sort of shoes most modern folks are expected to wear to work. Work these days constitutes all manner of sitting, a profession most unhelpful when it is so very cold.

In cold like this the doors of a Chrysler minivan sound like the fantastical hum of a “Star Wars” Imperial fighter ship. Jwaaaaa! It’s a sort of hum that adds six consonants to a vowel in a way that only special effects people could. Well, special effects people and also January in Minnesota. Everything in a Minnesota winter sounds like a science fiction noise, from the deep freezing of our lakes with its space ship groaning, to the creak of every joint and piston.

A certain sound emerges from the ground when we walk in these temperatures. It is the sound of a small animal being strangled, one with each footstep. WRANTCH WRANTCH WRANCTH! We are comforted by the fact that these individual sounds are not animals we’re killing with cold, just hours in our life. Or maybe just minutes, if we stay healthy.

It is this time of year where young boys such as ours form a love/hate relationship with the institution of mittens. They resent them, and yet their tiny fingers know their survival depends upon them. We try many methods of putting them on; however, about the only effective way is to sneak them into the coat sleeve in advance.

The aforementioned Molly Dog’s bark to get back inside becomes more urgent, somewhat like Morse Code for “ME FROZEN LIKE STICK (stop) MMM FISH-STICK (stop) ME WANT FISH STICK (stop).” Dogs change gears quickly. This year our oldest boy Henry and I dug something we call a “Molly Maze” in the back yard.

In this kind of cold, resentment forms over the presumably “cold” temperatures touted by national network morning programs. Fifteen degrees in Connecticut is not cold. Not really. Below zero is really the only metric that counts. The “Arctic Chill” they tout only matters if that bulbous blue blob materializes over your home town. It always forms over our heads. Always.

We know, from experience and legend, that this winter freeze will subside, washed over like warm barbarians through the ancient Roman Empire of Holy Freaking Cold. It’s going to happen. But we also know from experience that it will occur no time soon. Nevertheless, the passage of the annual January cold snap brings some hope to us, the shivering people of the North. There’s still hockey, and a little football, and the care and maintenance of our heating systems, plenty to keep us busy until the good, warm times roll again.

Aaron J. Brown is a columnist for the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Read more at his blog MinnesotaBrown.com or in his book “Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range.”

I am proceeding with plans to publish my series of DFL governor candidate interviews into a revised and improved (and highly affordable) e-book. Ideally this book will become outrageously popular with the 1,000-plus DFL delegates, campaign staffs and journalists covering the race. At $2.95 a pop you can imagine how papa might yet get a new dock out of this sordid business. Right now I'm deciding on the best method of distributing the book, but my goal is to have something you can load up as a PDF or into your Kindle. It's actually quite an intriguing experiment that has me thinking of other e-publishing ideas. Hey, anything to justify my delays in writing my novel, eh? (HA HA HA ... WEEP WEEP WEEP)

I was a little disheartened to see this excellent piece of analysis on the governor's race from MinnPost's Doug Grow. ("17 candidates on the long march," a great read). I had planned something virtually identical for the e-book. Then Susan Gaertner and Steve Kelley did the Primary Shuffle, rendering much moot. Then, two days later, the only copy of my first draft of the thing was saved onto a flash drive that, at this moment, is believed to be stuck somewhere in our washing machine's drainage system. In other words, God smote my post using Doug Grow and a household appliance. I am mentally constructing a sermon about grace and fate, which is also a nice distraction from trying to write a novel.

What will you be when you grow up? That's the question many of us weathered as we actually grew up but one that few of us ponder once we get there. This is the topic of this Saturday morning's "Between You and Me" on 91.7 KAXE and the subject of my weekly essay contribution. My theme dates back to the days when I would watch "Sesame Street" and idolize the Sherlock Holmes muppet, not because of what he did but because his theme music appealed to me. Theme music can improve any job, a concept I explore this Saturday.

"Between You and Me" is a call-in and music program that features the voices and attitudes of the people of northern Minnesota. This week DJ the DJ guest hosts the program. DJ always programs a top-notch musical compilation to accompany the calls. I'd suggest that you tune in, from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 FM KAXE in northern Minnesota and streaming online all over the world at www.kaxe.org.

This is my column for the Sunday, Jan. 3, 2010 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece also aired as my weekly contribution to "Between You and Me" yesterday on 91.7 KAXE.

World’s a ‘Twitter’ over year’s top words
By Aaron J. Brown

If you don’t know what Twitter is, how it works or why it matters, chances are it’s been a hard year for you, if not a hard decade. I don’t particularly love the social networking site or use it as much as I could, but being aware of Twitter is necessary these days. Twitter is the “top word” of 2009 according to Global Language Monitor. And this is already lame. If you don’t like Twitter you stopped reading 18 words ago. If you do like Twitter, you checked out when I brought up the concept of “language.” That’s the sort of high talk that requires more than 140 characters.

Characters are letters, you see. Well, sort of. I am alone.

Anyone left reading now is probably the very sort of person who would be interested in the other top words of 2009 and the fascinating collection of expressions that make up the top words of our yet-unnamed previous decade. Thanks for sticking around. In fact, people like us are the only ones who know why 140-character phrases can so quickly shape the way humans think and use language. In honor of that, I completed the rest of this column a while back in 140-character “tweets” LIVE on the REAL Twitter (@minnesotabrown).

• Hey Twitter followers; I am writing about Twitter for my annual top words column. One of the interesting things I've learned about Twitter i
• Ha ha! That's a super old Twitter joke from 2008. The next several tweets you see will be me actually writing a column using Twitter.
• Top word of 2009 was Twitter. Top character? Probably "&" or maybe "2."
• Global Language Monitor details other top words besides Twitter. Among them 'Obama.' How does it feel 2 have name serve as political litmus?
• Kind of shanked that last one. Hard 2 write punchline with so few words. Me learn to write more economically, less like Faulkner, that hack.
• Other top 2009 words include H1N1 and "vampire." Vampires are so hot right now and so are people who have H1N1 (What, too soon?)
• Most top 2009 words are related to politics/economy: stimulus, deficit, healthcare, outrage, bailout, unemployed, foreclosure.
• Also 'transparency' & 'cartel.' Cartels have transparency. If investor has problem just look into dark room & BAM BAM BAM ... in the head.
• Another top 2009 word: hadron. The "God Particle" was discovered and might detail the secrets of the Big Bang & the universe.
• Seems fitting that related research on dark matter saw breakthrough here on the Iron Range at the bottom of an old underground mine.
• Twitter woefully inadequate place to discuss dark matter and origins of Big Bang; then again so is average human mind. Hey, now. Problem.
• No subject/verb agreement. My language not like usual. Almost, but not quite. Some element lacking. Must move on.
• Global Language Monitor also explores top phrases of 2009. "King of Pop" and "Obama-mania" are 1-2. A mixed year for skinny famous guys.
• "Climate Change" & "Swine Flu" also top list of 2009 phrases. To get on this list this year you pretty much have to sweat mortality & doom.
• Also, top words/phrases of the decade. This decade is considered to be the most depressing of the last six in opinion polls. See why:
• Global warming 9/11 Obama bailout evacuee/refugee derivative Google surge Chinglish tsunami H1N1 subprime dot.com Y2K misunderestimate Chad
• Of top 16 words of the decade only 4 aren't related to bad economy, war or disaster. 17th word did not fit in prior tweet: Twitter. Fitting!

I’ll leave it to you to decide if Twitter is helping or hurting the English language. One thing is certain and that is that it is changing the way people think and talk about news, pop culture and how we interact. In a medium that requires the fast transmission of Internet links, one can begin to understand how Twitter got to the top spot. Let’s see what pops up here in 2010.

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

The Saturday morning KAXE call-in and music program "Between You and Me" will be exploring winter book recommendations this week. I'll be joining the conversation with my regular contribution, this week recalling 2009's top words according to the Global Language Monitor, an annual tradition of mine.

This year's top word is Twitter and I actually wrote portions of the column on my Twitter feed (@minnesotabrown).

Tune in between 10 a.m. and noon on 91.7 FM in northern Minnesota or streaming live all over the world at www.kaxe.org. The piece will also run as my weekly column in Sunday's Hibbing Daily Tribune.