Today, Rep.-elect Rick Nolan (D-MN8) announced several of his key staff appointments. Most notable among them: Jeff Anderson, one-time opponenet in the DFL primary and former Duluth City Council President, will be Nolan's District Director. Anderson will oversee district offices in Duluth and Brainerd, along with yet-to-be-determined offices on the Iron Range and another city in the southern portion of the district.

Jim Swiderski of Onamia will be Nolan's D.C. office Legislative Director. He staffed Nolan's congressional committee back in the '70s and '80s and

Jodie Torkelson of Thief River Falls will serve as deputy chief of staff, assisting chief of staff Mike Misterek. Torkelson worked under Leon Panetta when he was President Bill Clinton's chief of staff.

Iona Yates of Clarissa will be Nolan's Chief Scheduler, a job she performed in the campaign. Yates is another longtime Nolan staffer and ally.

Steve Johnson of Red Wing will be Nolan's Communications Director, a role Johnson also performed during Nolan's first stint in Congress. Johnson has spent the last 30 years in the communication field, leaving a top post at Ainsley Shea to take this job.

Happy New Year from MinnesotaBrown.com! As we conclude 2012 and approach the bounty of 2013, enjoy my annual roundup of the year's top posts. This is a comprehensive list of the most popular and my personal favorite writing from the year. Which post made #1? Which northern Minnesota politician owns the northern Minnesota internet? Is that a trick question? If you read this blog, you'll want to read this list. The results may surprise you.

My son Henry at Split Rock Lighthouse during a family trip this summer.

More...

In my wildest dreams I could not imagine a story about me as kind as this one, or that such a thing would appear in a publication entitled "Wilderness News."

Aaron Brown could easily be dubbed the Garrison Keillor of the north. He possesses a keen eye for the attributes that make Minnesotans Minnesotan—specifically, Iron Rangers. His writing aptly portrays the people and politics of the Iron Range with sensitivity and humor, even as he fights for a new vision of its future. He believes that with the right choices, Rangers can beat their mining rap and provide a stable economy for people who love northern Minnesota’s outdoors.

If you wish, you may read the entire story on pages 14 and 15 of this PDF archive of the Winter issue of "Wilderness News." I discuss northern Minnesota's future and go into some detail about my recent decision to launch a major new radio show instead of continuing my political involvement.

Thank you, Alissa Johnson and "Wilderness News." Sorry for subjecting you all to this, but I don't have people to push this covertly while I pretend not to care.

This is my Sunday column for the Dec. 30, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. The complete list of top words from the Global Language Monitor may be found here.

Apocalypse Then: Meet the top words of 2012
By Aaron J. Brown

Some say 2012 has been a rough year, but consider this. I used to have to look up the word "apocalypse" in order to spell it correctly, now it rolls off my fingertips like "the" or "a."

The Global Language Monitor, an organization monitoring the use of words across the internet and major worldwide media, named "apocalypse" the top word of 2012. Yes, that’s right. The word for the end times described in most major world religious texts was hot, hot, hot this year. While it's a little disappointing to see this happen in a year in which the actual apocalypse did NOT occur, there are several reasons for the selection.

Start with the rampant speculation about the expiration of an ancient Mayan calendar earlier this month and then add all the historic storms and international economic woes. This year, people dropped the word “apocalypse” like a street greeting, to the point that the real apocalypse will probably have to be phrased in the form of a pun for anyone to notice it. My nomination is “Actualpocalypse.” It’s too bad that, if it comes to this, my word will not be on the internet in time to trend.

“Deficit” finishes second on the GLM list. Deficit spending and long term debt plagued most Western democracies this year and there isn’t much prospect of this subsiding in the near future. On the bright side, “deficit” does not involve the belching fire of global death. Unless you are a Republican, of course, in which case this was a particularly hard year for you.

The Summer Olympics in London propelled “Olympiad” to the #3 spot. This quadrennial gathering of sweaty internationals in a city renowned for its comical chimney sweeps was the most positive thing on the Global Language Monitor radar this year.

Related to “apocalypse,” the #4 word trend was “Bak’tun,” the cyclical calendar of the Mayans many incorrectly believed foretold the end of the world. Naturally, scholars and actual Mayans were quick to point out that it’s just a calendar. The world doesn’t end when our “Hang in There” kitty calendars expire every Dec. 31, so it wouldn’t end in this case either. That didn’t stop people from freaking out, because people are, to varying degrees, idiots.

Continuing in this theme, #5 was “meme.” For newspaper readers, “meme” might be a new word to you. These would be the viral internet gags that spread like wildfire. A meme is more like an idea or concept than an individual joke. For instance, a cat playing a piano in a YouTube video might start a meme that goes on to include the same cat playing backup to Alicia Keys and, eventually, Billy Joel playing a concert in a cat suit.

No. 6, “MOOC” had my attention: Massive Open Online Class. You should know that I started my career as a newspaper reporter and editor before bailing to teach college just as print advertising revenue experienced, well, an apocalypse of sorts. Being familiar with online media, teaching online courses became a big part of my life. Well, these new “MOOC” concepts allow a sort of public commons approach to higher education poised to revolutionize the field I took up to avoid the previous revolution. In short, it looks like I’ll be doing tent show revivals and blacksmithing, just like my ancestors.

The words go on from there: The Cloud, Omnishambles and Frankenstorm. New technology and adorable ways to describe terrible things: that’s how we, as a people, roll. Gangnam Style. (Which is the top phrase of 2012, and if you don’t know that that means, get thee to YouTube).

All told, it’s (#20) “adorkable.”

Aaron J. Brown is an author and community college instructor from the Iron Range. He writes MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts 91.7 KAXE's Great Northern Radio Show on public stations.

This is just a reminder that this blog is just one of several ongoing writing projects. You can hear my Northern Community Radio commentaries on the Morning Show and Between You and Me. My column appears every Sunday in the Hibbing (Minn.) Daily Tribune. I write and produce Northern Community Radio's Great Northern Radio Show. I write special commentaries for Minnesota Public Radio and, of course, wrote the book "Overburden: Modern Life on the Iron Range."

I'm tidying up the organization of some of this blog's tabs (hence this post), but look for a new design sometime later in 2013 as I consider migrating to a new host.

The Star Tribune reported yesterday the strong year by northern Minnesota taconite operations and the potential for a slight slow-down in 2013.

The Iron Range economy is deeply tied to national and international trends. All our line graphs roughly resemble the national ones. The difference is timing. We don't always go up or down at the same time as the rest of the country.

So, while the national economy sputtered for a couple years after the collapse of 2008 and 2009, we recovered quickly and had a robust 2011 and 2012. Now we're hitting a plateau, just as the nation will as this long, slow recovery continues.

Rep.-elect Rick Nolan (D-MN8) announced today that he has been named to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Since WWII, northeastern Minnesota's members of Congress have all served on some version of this committee. Reps. John Blatnik and Jim Oberstar both chaired the committee at different times and outgoing Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8), a former airline pilot, also served on the committee from the other side of the aisle.

The committee is a key hub for appropriating funds for road projects, railways, air travel, and public works, the veritable lifeblood of northern Minnesota politics.

Nolan had sought this appointment and expressed his contentment in the following press release:

Nolan Secures Key Appointment to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee

(WASHINGTON DC) . . . Minnesota’s Eighth District Congressman-elect Rick Nolan has been appointed to serve on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, the body at the epicenter of efforts to spur job growth by revitalizing the nation’s roads, bridges, railroads and waterways.

Nolan, who made growing the economy through major reinvestments in transportation and infrastructure a focal point of his campaign, and requested the assignment during earlier meetings with House leadership, received the word from Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and the House Democratic Caucus.

“This is a major committee assignment – vital to generating good jobs and economic development here in the Eighth Congressional District,” Nolan said. “Building a strong surface and water transportation system creates good paying jobs, improves the quality of our lives, and is the economic backbone of a large district like the Eighth. Timber, taconite, tourism and manufacturing spread over a large geographic area all require strong transportation to be successful. The Eighth District is poised for great economic success going forward if we act now to lay the foundation. That’s what transportation and infrastructure are all about.”

“This committee assignment means we can move forward on Day One with efforts to secure federal support for the Northern Lights Express high speed rail project, fund Essential Air Service for our regional airports, repair and rebuild our network of Northern Minnesota roads and bridges, build capacity and traffic through the Port of Duluth, modernize the electrical grid system and make high speed broadband communications available to everyone, regardless of location.”

Announcing the initial Democratic committee appointments, House Leader Nancy Pelosi said, “Our Democratic Caucus is the most diverse in the history of Congress, and each of our Members will bring a unique perspective to the great challenges of our day – from job creation and economic growth to innovation, education reform, and clean energy development. On every committee, our colleagues will offer their experience, passion, and persistence to the task of effectively and faithfully serving the American people.”

Further committee assignments will be announced at a later date. Nolan officially takes office on January 3rd.

I haven't been writing about it every week, but you should know that the Minnesota Discovery Center in Chisholm has continued its free Thursday night live music events called "Acoustic Cafe." From 5-9 p.m. the cultural center offers free admission so you can hear the tunes and check out what's new around the former Ironworld.

Tonight the performer is an alumnus of my Great Northern Radio Show. Paul Seeba is a St. Paul singer-songwriter originally from Hibbing. He sang a great original song about Gus Hall and Mesaba Park in the Eveleth edition of the Great Northern. You can hear him tonight in Chisholm. The cafe serves a dinner and this makes for a nice evening.

Though having kids dramatically reshaped how I watch late night television, I probably logged as many hours watching David Letterman in my teens and early 20s as anyone but the feed managers at NBC and CBS. It was cool to see him honored recently by the Kennedy Center for his work. CBS is re-airing the Kennedy Center honors tonight at 8 p.m. CST.

This rare interview of Letterman by Charlie Rose is a treat.



When I was in school I let my sister have my bedroom upstairs so I could sleep in the basement on, well, I guess you'd call it a cot. I told my parents it was because it was nice and cool down there in the summer, but I stayed there through the winter and for years until I left for college (and for good).

The real reason was that there was a television down there that connected to the spine of the antennae my dad had put on the roof. Great reception by Iron Range standards, and you could get FM and AM radio there, too. Johnny Carson, Letterman, Conan O'Brien, then Jack Horkheimer over on PBS, until all hours. I shouldn't have been allowed to do that, but I'm glad I did.

OK, time to change up from the seasonal music:



That would be A-Ha's "Take on Me" by five young accordionists from the KUM SONG School, filmed in Pyongyang, North Korea a year ago.

(h/t Dan Lewis's "Now I Know" newsletter, which has more fascinating back story on North Korea's fondness for accordions)

Our boys met Santa Claus at Bentleyville earlier this month.

Happy Christmas Eve!

I'm not really here blogging on Christmas Eve. God willing, I'm on a sled somewhere, skidding down an unsafe hill with one, two or all three of my offspring. I'm eating pickles wrapped in salami bound with cream cheese, pouring coffee down my gullet like rocket fuel, because this night goes long. I'm driving across the Iron Range, past the lights of the neighborhood, family in tow.

I know some of us poke around the internet on holidays, though, so here are some fun holiday posts from the MinnesotaBrown archives. I posted about recent holiday material yesterday.

You can't have Christmas Eve without "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." Last year I
updated this cherished old poem for the Information Age.

Since it is Christmas Eve, here's a piece I did for a 2010 show about Christmas Trees. I have a particular, heart-warming, nerdy thing I did as a kid involving Christmas trees and a form of proto-blogging.

Many of us are going home for Christmas. There's something about returning to your family, your traditions, your ghosts that requires real courage. There was a nice response to this 2010 piece.

Hey, remember the Bush Administration? I know, right? In 2006 I wrote a piece detailing a run-in between Santa Claus and a heightened terror alert. Don't worry, kids. Santa came to play.

We did a show on stockings a few years ago. Did you know how strange the story of St. Nicholas was? I found out.

What happens when Santa gets it wrong? It's an under-reported aspect of the  Christmas story.

Finally, every Christmas must be spent with Bob in this raucous video from Dylan's unusual 2010 Christmas album:



I won't lie. I've seen an Iron Range Christmas party or two go down kind of like this.

And don't forget, you can hear the recent Bigfork edition of the Great Northern Radio Show today at noon on Northern Community Radio. I recommend it for the drive to grandma's house.

Merry Christmas!

If you can't get to a radio Monday at noon to hear the rebroadcast of last Saturday night's Great Northern Radio Show originally broadcast live from the Edge Center in Bigfork, try this.

Below is the embedded sound file available at PRX, where independent public radio stations in Minnesota can pick up the program for free, and other independent public stations can do so at an affordable price.



I heard the show as a "listener" for the first time last night. We got an excellent sound mix on this show. It's a cozy, thoughtful and funny program. I hope you like it.

The downloadable MP3 podcast is available at here. Click to listen in your browser or save it to your computer to load into your MP3 player.

Newsweek has previewed the final cover of its print edition. It now becomes an entirely online publication called Newsweek Global, published by parent company The Daily Beast.
I went to college for print journalism, graduating just a couple years before my college ended its print journalism program. The media has changed so much in such a short time. It's an amazing time to do what we do. Let us seize the opportunity to do new, better work in 2013.

Meantime, we're Newsweek subscribers. Are we going to read this online stuff? Let's find out!

You may have noticed that I've been feeling Christmasy. So, for those celebrating, enjoy Porky Pig singing "Blue Christmas," Clarence Carter's "Back Door Santa," and a DMX impromptu rap of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

You might also enjoy my nostalgia-laden series on "Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration" from earlier in the week. We talk about singing raisins, singing camels, skating walruses and sentient bells.

I'll have a way to listen to the holiday edition of the Great Northern Radio Show posted here tonight and a Christmas message tomorrow. After that, a couple days of quiet.

This is my Sunday column for the Dec. 23, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. Merry Christmas and/or Happy New Year to all!

So this is Christmas
By Aaron J. Brown

You know that Christmas can be all kinds of trouble when you get an e-mail from the Human Resources department at work telling you that it really, really, really is no big deal if you can’t bake at that stuff like you planned. Even though you said you would, and that you were raised to keep your word, the people who love you will understand. And they do love you, assures my HR department. There’s no reason to stress out.

Ah, there it is. Stress. Stress is expensive to America because it eats into productivity, the only thing keeping our empire afloat (don’t stress out about this; the empire is counting on you). Stress causes conflict, the degradation of relationships and physical ailments, such as ulcers or getting punched in the face.

Most of our economy is based on things that cause or claim to relieve stress. We love cars, but hate traffic. Cars are made of steel, which comes from mills and mines, which requires miners to cut loose after a long day’s work. Miners go to the bar and talk about cars. Cars are great -- except, of course, for the one owned presently. That one is a hunk of garbage.

This paradox brings us to what, for Christians anyway, is the most important religious and family holiday of the year: Christmas. Even other religions regard this time of year as spiritually significant and those who do not subscribe to a religion still probably subscribe to cable television, where a marathon of animated Christmas specials from the 1980s is airing right now. Some of them are alright to watch if there’s nothing else on.

Several years ago Martha Stewart and a bum rush of interior decorating consultants revolutionized the way we (and by “we,” I mean people with disposable income) celebrate Christmas. This added stressful demands for elaborate “creative” tasks to the previous list of cooking, cleaning, buying gifts, wrapping presents and locating the children in the snow bank you tossed them into. Now this phenomenon has shot itself up with ‘roids and calls itself “Pinterest.”

Pinterest is a website, OK, and if that sort of thing freaks you out just skip down to the part about the water balloons. But for those who might be interested, Pinterest is a particular kind of website that allows people to share, among other things, elaborate creative ideas in an aesthetically pleasing magazine-like format. That all sounds very sophisticated, of course, but to be honest the whole thing led to me spraying water all over my bathroom with balloons that were being turned into “ice orbs,” so I don’t know what to think anymore.

So it’s cold out, right. Water freezes. You fill up a water balloon and “place food coloring into the balloon” before tying it and putting it outside. Once it’s frozen, cut off the balloon and you’ve got yourself a bona fide “ice orb,” suitable for back-lighting and posting on the internet.

And it’s a really great idea, until you realize (upon revisiting water balloon physics for the first time in many years) that when you fill a balloon with water, its natural inclination is to spray that water out like rum from a very bad elf. There will be no “gentle dripping of dye” into the balloon under such conditions, trust me on this one. What has to happen is you place the food coloring into the balloon FIRST and then put in the water, turning the exercise of tying the water balloon into a delicate operation akin to defusing a suitcase bomb.

The orbs are pretty, though.

In coming days we see our families and share our stress-addled lives with one another. Our cups and plates runneth over with the laborious fruits of holiday stress. If all goes well, we survive long enough to sigh gratefully that we survived and maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t so bad.

Maybe, just maybe, love, especially for others, can conquer stress better than anything else.

Aaron J. Brown is an author and community college instructor from the Iron Range. He writes MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts 91.7 KAXE’s Great Northern Radio Show on public stations.

William Kessler as the 400-year-old elf who gives us our orders

You can hear last week's live recording of the Great Northern Radio Show from the Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork, Minnesota, tonight at 9 p.m. on Northern Community Radio (91.7 in Grand Rapids/Iron Range, 89.9 Brainerd, 90.5 Bemidji, or streaming).

They will rebroadcast us again at noon on Christmas Eve and we are likely to be aired by other independent public stations around Minnesota over the holidays. Check with a station near you.

Our show, which took place during a snow and ice storm, was a blend of comedy, holiday music, local talent and the brilliant musicianship of the Sam Miltich Trio. A washed up rodeo cowboy named Earl attempts to save Christmas for the children of the Bigfork Valley. Militant eel pout disrupt a public radio documentary about ice fishing. College freshmen send letters from the front lines of the civil wars going on at home now that they're back from school. Also, I interview a real cowboy, still ranching in in late 80s, who I'm certain could still kick my ass. It was a fun show. I think you'll like it.

My son Doug was inspired to make this picture of "A Cowboy Christmas" after hearing the program:

Rapper DMX drops a killer version of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" during a stop at a radio station. Safe for work. Safe for everywhere.

Another alternative to traditional Christmas music, an R&B throwback with Mr. Clarence Carter:

Outgoing U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN8) gave an interview to the Star Tribune, essentially saying that he is likely leaving politics and Minnesota to rejoin his family in New Hampshire. It's interesting reading for those who followed one of the most closely-watched congressional races in the country.

Cravaack did not close the door on a return to politics, but an immediate comeback in Minnesota's Eighth District appears unlikely. State Republicans are trying to keep him in the mix for future campaigns, but it appears his heart is not in those ideas at this time.

Meantime, Rep.-elect Rick Nolan (D-MN8) was named the nation's biggest comeback story by Stu Rothenberg at Roll Call. Nolan's three-decade self-imposed absence from politics still fascinates many on the Beltway.

Aerial view of the stage as Earl the Cowboy saves Christmas in Bigfork

Another edition of the Great Northern Radio Show hit the airwaves last Saturday, broadcast live from the Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork. This one was titled "Christmas on Edge" and strove to combine the trappings of a holiday special with a down-home vibe from the unique culture of the Bigfork valley.

I live in the woods not terribly far from Bigfork and this was the first show where I left my garage in the woods and drove further into the woods to get to the show. I really can't say enough about the talented people who make the "Edge of the Wilderness" a really special place.

Though a major ice and snow storm made it difficult for people to get there, our show regulars made it and we pulled off a fine program. The Edge Center wrote a blog post about the show.

William Kessler as our wise old elf.

If you missed it, and I know several did because of the weather and busy holiday season, you can catch the full rebroadcast on Northern Community Radio (91.7 Grand Rapids/Iron Range, 89.9 Brainerd, 90.5 KBXE Bemidji, kaxe.org) at 9 p.m. this Saturday, Dec. 22, and noon on Christmas Eve.

Later I'll post the link to the podcast version of the show, which should be available by the end of the week.

This is a really great soundtrack to any sort of Christmas gathering and a great companion soundtrack for what's going on these next few days. We tried to fit in a little bit of something for everyone.

You can find some pictures by our stage director Shelly Nowak here and below the jump (click on the headline). Lots more at Great Northern Radio Show page on Facebook.

Yes, this is a bit recorded for a yuck-yuck commercial radio morning show. It makes me laugh every single time I've heard it for however many years now.

Porky Pig reprises "Blue Christmas."

I conclude my series of posts about the 1987 Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration special with my favorite segment in the program: "The Carol of the Bells."

The humor in "Carol of the Bells" is the Claymation special's tightest and most sophisticated, to the extent that it almost seems designed to lead children in hand from pure slapstick laughs to a world of humor that requires some life experience and awareness of the literary canon.

Anyone can identify with the one student in class, the one guy at work, the one player on a team represented by this incompetent bell. Either we hate that bell or we are that bell, perhaps both. The work of the world is represented by the bells banging themselves to the point of physical pain to create the beauty of music (creation is sacrifice). Even as the "dumb bell" ruins the piece, we find him endearing. This is very American. And it's hard to be a teacher without feeling like the conductor does at several points in the episode -- but even he gets the job done in the end.




"I lost mine." Gets me every time.

Part 1: California Raisins do "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."
Part 2: Three camels jazz up "We Three Kings."
Part 3: Walruses and Penguins do not mix, even among "Angels We Have Met on High."

The remaining videos are below the jump, including a sampling of original 1987 TV commercials from the show:

In breaking news, Duluth, Minn., Mayor Don Ness just announced via Facebook that the city has reached a three year agreement with Bentleyville to keep the holiday attraction in Bayfront Park for the next three years.

Founder Nathan Bentley had reportedly been considering other options, including ending Bentleyville, because of fatigue over the massive project and new considerations after demonstrators won a court case to preach at the family winter fun zone.

My family and I have made the trip to Duluth for Bentleyville for three straight years. It's a massive tourism attraction in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin and really something special for people in the area to enjoy. Good job, Duluth, and thank you to Bentleyville.

Now we move on through Will Vinton's 1987 "Claymation Christmas Celebration" to a significant moment in the Emmy Award-winning stop-motion animation special, the Walruses and the Penguins.

This is the most blatant comic relief in the half-hour special, relying heavily on the physical comedy of amorous walruses attempting to figure skate to "Angels We Have Heard on High" amid a platoon of curious penguins. And yes, this was certainly my favorite episode in my first several viewings of the special in elementary school. Age and developing taste, however, raise serious concerns.

• These walruses have legs. Walruses do not have legs.
• The female walrus has bears the feminine shape of a human woman, but animators stopped short of giving her full breasts.
• As discussed at length in previous writing, penguins (my favorite animal as a child) live in the Antarctic Circle. Polar bears and walruses live in the Arctic Circle. They would never meet. If they did meet, it would be in violence.
• Even assuming that cartoon tranquility overrules natural distrust within hypothetical penguin/walrus meetings, these walruses are very rude to the penguins to the extent that they are likely to be cold and selfish lovers, incapable of long-term commitment.
• The penguins seek to capitalize on the horrible ice incident by attempting to murder the walruses. Though they are unsuccessful, this is glossed over.

In Part 1, we discussed the California Raisins. In Part 2, camels sing "We Three Kings."

As I continue through Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration special of 1987, we now go to the program's first musical animation, the opening salvo in this barrage of holiday-themed stop motion videos.

"We Three Kings" opens with the somber version of the song, sung by the actual kings, you might expect. But then the singing camels come in and the paradigm shifts.

I cannot think of this song without thinking of these camels, despite the decades that have passed since first I laid eyes on their smug grins and jerky humps.



In Part 1, I shared the California Raisins breathing new life into "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

UPDATE: The land in question was sold at auction today ... to Excelsior Energy! Some thoughts below.

The hard luck story of Excelsior Energy's failed Mesaba Energy Project reaches a new milestone today as a land auction could deprive the proto-company of the site it named for its proposed power plant. The company had initially proposed a coal gasification plant some 10 years ago but has recently discussed converting to natural gas after efforts to find customers for the more expensive technology fizzled out. It stands to become one of the biggest economic development failures in the region's history.

As Peter Passi reports in today's Duluth News Tribune, losing the land for the site could jeopardize the permits awarded to Excelsior Energy, effectively killing the project.

The company owes an interest payment on a $9.5 million loan from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board by the end of the month, the first since the loan was restructured to attempt to save the beleaguered project. There are rumors the company is in talks with other utility companies to sell what it has, which is mostly just some of the permits. We ought to know within a couple weeks whether this long story has reached an end, or if there are more chapters ahead.

UPDATE: Looks like more chapters. Excelsior Energy bought most of the land being auctioned today (prevously they had only held "options" on the land). Though the company is still in no position to develop the project as they've described, this could be part of a move to package the project for sale.

It's sometimes odd the things from your childhood that endure in memory. I've lost the sound of my uncle's voice, for instance, but I remember Will Vinton's Emmy-winning Claymation Christmas Celebration special which first aired on CBS in December of 1987. A later VHS recording of this broadcast would become a precious family possession for many years.

This special ambitiously combined light-hearted stop-motion cartoons with more artistic animated renderings of classic Christmas imagery. Two dinosaurs loosely modeled after film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert hosted the program, progressing through a series of independent clips. I have fond memories of this special from my childhood, but it occurs to me that it's the sort of thing that networks would never broadcast these days.

I'll be sharing several of the segments from the special in honor of the Christmas holiday this week. First up, the anchor of Vinton's famed 1980s Claymation enterprise: the California Raisins.

Wikipedia, you've got this one:

The California Raisins were a fictional rhythm and blues musical group as well as advertising and merchandising characters composed of anthropomorphized raisins.

They lead off the Claymation Christmas with a soulful rendering of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer."



Though what we did was different, the "vibe" of this video was a loose inspiration for the opening segment of my Great Northern Radio Show holiday special in Bigfork last Saturday.

Students of Iron Range history might have heard the name William E. "Pussyfoot" Johnson. In addition to holding a fantastically literary name, Johnson holds significance in northern Minnesota history. After all, he was the man who famously brought prohibition to the Iron Range, a place that vehemently, violently didn't want it. The Hibbing Tribune editorial page eviscerated him constantly for several years. Johnson didn't like Hibbing either, calling it the "worst-governed community in America."

You should know that this is what he looked like:

William E. "Pussyfoot" Johnson, WikiCommons, via Zenith City Online

Tony Dierckens wrote a fine post over at Zenith City Online about Johnson's prohibition efforts in Duluth and the iron ranges of northern Minnesota.

To answer your question, he was called "Pussyfoot" because of his ability to track bootleggers through the woods without detection. Yes, that guy in the picture.

Texas-based singer/songwriter Tom Russell named his recent 2011 album "Mesabi." It includes the title track below, which seems to call on the mystique of Bob Dylan, the North Country and the Iron Range. Sings Russell:

Some things never change, on the Mesabi Iron Range
Where the wild north country rain screams
"Please don't make me do the work my father did"
Bethlehem of the troubadour kid.

Great song. Have a listen.



Again, the story of the Iron Range is the stuff of powerful art. If some local won't accept Bob Dylan as an example, maybe this guy. He's good too.

(h/t to reader Michael for the link)

There is no denying the dark pallor hanging over every corner of the United States after last Friday's devastating tragedy. President Obama spoke Sunday at a memorial service for the teachers and students lost in Newtown. I share his remarkable speech here:



I also share this piece, "I Am Adam Lanza's Mother," by Liza Long, the mother of a mentally ill son, which has been making the rounds.

Beyond this I have nothing more to say. I grew up around guns. Don't own any now. Mental illness abounds throughout my entire family, including my own immediate family. I have three children about the same age as those lost at Sandy Hook Elementary. I should have something to say, but I am still at a loss. It's Christmas. Let's be decent to one another. Just be decent.

This is my Sunday column for the Dec. 16, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. A version of this piece aired Dec. 8 on Northern Community Radio's "Between You and Me."

The gift of skills
By Aaron J. Brown

Life in northern Minnesota isn’t easy. You have to identify trees, drive through snow and pronounce the word “sauna” correctly just to function in public life. If you want full acceptance, you have to speak in a congratulatory manner about dead deer, eat ethnic food of dubious preparation and have built, or at least winterized, something on your property.

Born and raised in northern Minnesota, this challenge is part of my life, but it is a struggle. I was a book kid. A band kid. A writer kid. I avoided lessons on field dressing a deer and eating lutefisk, largely for the same reason: they smelled bad.

That’s why it was a treat to come across a new book, “The Minnesota Book of Skills” by longtime outdoors writer and northern Minnesota native Chris Niskanen. In this book of skills, the author details scads of how-to stories, some essential to life in these north woods and some merely helpful to fit in among the flannel shirts and long white beards found at your finer back woods filling stations.

The book is a rickety ride through a wide-ranging field of Minnesota facts and traditions. Early on you are greeted with tips on extracting ticks from your body and knocking rice into your canoe. Niskanen gives a helpful description of how to build a quality ice rink in your own yard, though he fails to explain how an overfed smarty pants overcomes the shame of never learning to skate as he approaches middle age.

Naturally, sauna etiquette comes up, something that many old Finns hope their ne’er-do-well sons-in-law from the suburbs read twice before their next visit. Soon after, a surprisingly moving passage on building your own casket out of local lumber might bring tears to your eyes and macabre plans to your bucket list.

Several short field guides dot the “Minnesota Book of Skills.” For the botanically challenged, a very simple set of drawings explains Minnesota’s five most common trees, though it does leave out several species found in my yard.

An essay on the history of snowmobiling reminded me that I was once hired to give a talk about snowmobiles even though I knew almost nothing about what Niskanen clearly explained. I showed pictures of old snowmobiles and compared them to the contraption in the movie adaptation of Jules Verne’s “The Time Machine.” Alas, some lessons too late.

The most jarring transition in the book comes when Niskanen segues from explaining exciting new technology in female field urination to a guide on home pickling. I like pickles, or at least I did. And the section demonstrating how to field dress a deer reminded me why I shall always buy hamburger from the store instead, so long as I am gainfully employed.

Having watched many an otherwise self-reliant chap try to back up a trailer, Niskanen’s related tutorial will be of great help to some. And apparently today’s popular music can’t be much bawdier than the French chanteys sung on our nearby rivers during the days of the Voyageurs.

Sure, the pronunciation guide to Minnesota towns could have included more Range towns. I’d really like to avoid hearing the mangling of “Bovey” or references to a place called “Mount Iron.” Former President George W. Bush probably could have used even more help in avoiding referring to the whole place as the “Iron Ridge” back in 2004. Still, Niskanen includes “Taconite,” which has been called “Taco Night” by far too many passing strangers.

Published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press, “The Minnesota Book of Skills” may be found at your local book store, or – should you visit my home – wrapped in the orange coat I keep to ensure no hunter shoots me before my time.

Aaron J. Brown is an author and community college instructor from Minnesota’s Iron Range. He writes MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts the Great Northern Radio Show on Northern Community Radio. Hear the recent holiday episode at www.kaxe.org.

Today brings the Great Northern Radio Show holiday special, broadcast live on Northern Community Radio from the Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork, Minnesota. The show runs from 5-7 p.m. The free tickets to the theater are reserved, but there are usually unclaimed tickets at the door if you would like to see it live.

You can hear the show on 91.7 KAXE in most of northeastern Minnesota, based in Grand Rapids, the Iron Range and Aitkin. Translator 89.9 FM carries the show in Brainerd and Baxter. 90.5 KBXE Bemdji and Bagley carries the show in the northwestern portion of the state. You can stream it live all over the world at www.kaxe.org.

Stay tuned for future rebroadcasts on Northern Community Radio and on independent public stations throughout Minnesota. The show also releases a podcast of our original broadcast.

They say it will snow this weekend in northern Minnesota. I saw this floating around social media as sort of a local joke, but it is a real product:

Behold the "Snow Wolf" wheeled shovel in action. It's an ergonomic dream, they say. A snowblower without the dirty engine attached, they say.


I see a device that would be hurled in the woods in a blizzard, confounding the anthropologists of the future.

There's been a renewed push lately to attract film projects to northern Minnesota. Yesterday, the IRRRB approved an $800,000 incentive to attract movie projects to the Iron Range. News that the Minnesota Film Board was working with a production company for a 2013 movie made for headlines recently as well.

Of course, the region had a taste of action seven years ago when Niki Caro's "North Country," starring Charlize Theron, was filmed at locations around the Iron Range. The film project brought a small economic boom to the area's hospitality industry as cast, crew and extras flooded the area's small towns.

Repeating that magic, though, has proven difficult and most of the recent projects have been small, independent films by filmmakers from the coasts. For example, a San Francisco filmmaker made a small splash when he recently announced a Kickstarter project to make an independent movie in Duluth. Small caveat: the movie's title is "Duluth is Horrible." Now, in fairness, the guy doesn't actually think Duluth is horrible, that's just the pathos of his story, for which he chose Duluth at random.

We'll see if he raises his money, and perhaps there is no such thing as bad publicity.

Film is, at its best, the transmission of a creative message through illusions of authentic feelings or images. Northern Minnesota really does provide fertile ground for this sort of thing. Harsh winters, beautiful summers -- greens, reds and blues you won't find elsewhere. A people and story that charges right down the line between comedy and tragedy.

Maybe these tax incentives will work, I don't know. But I'd rather see a strong push by the region to produce not just a film site, but an area that produces filmmakers. As "Duluth is Horrible" shows, outside filmmakers might enjoy the aesthetic appeal of our region in telling their stories but they don't come here to tell our story, to honor our people. Only we can do that.

Essar Steel, an Indian company planning to open a new taconite plant near Nashwauk next year, is talking to another company about bringing an historic steel plant to northern Minnesota's Iron Range. This according to reports from yesterday's meeting of the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board in Eveleth.

Essar also got their $6.7 million IRRRB loan extended for the third time in the project's history. The IRRRB and State of Minnesota have invested heavily in the plant, which promised to become the first direct mining-to-steelmaking plant ever on the Iron Range.

The company recently insisted that, despite fears of project stagnation, Essar plans to finish principle construction of the Nashwauk taconite plant in 2013. This taconite plant would essentially "replace" the old Butler Taconite site which closed in the early 1980s, kicking off a long regional depression.

The steel-making component of the project is very important because it was part of the original deal to get Essar production tax breaks and state bonding funds for infrastructure.

Daniel Day-Lewis portrays Abraham Lincoln.

Quite a while ago I read a story that Daniel Day-Lewis would portray Abraham Lincoln in a movie based on Doris Kearns Goodwin's book "Team of Rivals." I had an episode that would probably be categorized as "geeking out" but probably exceeded the norm. The world's best actor. My favorite president. A fantastic book. And, though crass to say, my favorite war. I've been a civil war buff since I was a small child. Yes, a child. And I love movies to boot.

And sure enough, I later learned that the movie was filmed, edited and promoted for distribution on Nov. 16, 2012, just after the election. What joy! What a balm for our dark and twisted times! (And yes, I know that the story of Lincoln was far darker and twisted than our times in so many ways.)

The movie opened in big cities. The movie opened in Duluth and Brainerd. The movie did not open in the Iron Range theaters of Grand Rapids, Hibbing or Virginia. Now, I've been to Duluth and Brainerd, and the Twin Cities and Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for that matter. But we have a young family and I don't leave the confines of the Mesabi all that often.

I suppose my reaction on social media might have been a bit extreme, but nevertheless I was very disappointed in this development. I quickly learned that this was not a decision by local theaters (who were running two screens of the "Twilight" film at the time) but rather a distribution strategy of some sort by the studio.

All this brought back memories from high school, when the movie "Gettysburg" was released and only opened in one theater in Duluth. I was shiftless and single then, so I drove down the first weekend of course. Now, that film was four hours long, and I understood why the Range theaters couldn't support tying up a theater for it. "Lincoln," however, had a national distribution, is directed by Stephen Spielberg and will likely be a strong Academy Award contender. Why was the Range forsaken?

To this I reply, this is no way to treat the reliable Union stalwart of Minnesota. Sure, our northern region was not well populated in the days of the Civil War. The men here would have been loggers and prospectors, unlikely to enlist. But the state itself delivered 10 regiments of soldiers, including the famed "First Minnesota" which held the flank at Gettysburg in a daring, deadly charge, thus saving the battle.

I could go on, and have, but that's all over now.

This weekend "Lincoln opens in Grand Rapids and Hibbing. Naturally, the occasion coincides with the performance of my Great Northern Radio Show on Saturday, meaning I can't attend opening night or Saturday. But I might be able to get into town to see it Sunday, and glory be if that is true.

For the rest of my fellow Range "Lincoln" fans, you can see the movie Friday night and give the theaters evidence that they can and should get such films when they are released. We are not a second-class region, but one that has 100,000 people spread throughout and should be treated with respect. Those going Saturday night can catch the radio show beforehand and have what I can only imagine as being the greatest aesthetic experience possible. (I'll never know, of course).

Cartographer's map of Minnesota in 1861, via Minnesota Historical Society. My home county of Itasca was bigger than St. Louis Co. in those days. Minnesota was the western frontier during the Civil War.

Sam Miltich, Matthew Miltich and Gary Schulte will light up the Edge.

I'm in the midst of preparations for another Great Northern Radio Show this Saturday. I hope you'll listen, and consider coming to the show. We have a small number of free tickets remaining for the show at the Edge Center in Bigfork. Call KAXE at 218-326-1234 to get yours. It's our first holiday show and I think you'll enjoy the night of entertainment we have planned.

Great Northern Radio Show takes holidays to the ‘Edge’

KAXE variety program to broadcast live from Bigfork on Dec. 15

BIGFORK, Minnesota (Nov. 26, 2012) -- The Great Northern Radio Show, a popular variety program produced by Northern Community Radio (91.7 KAXE), heads to Bigfork on Saturday, December 15.

The show will be broadcast live from the Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork from 5-7 p.m. on 91.7 KAXE on the Iron Range and across northern Minnesota, 89.9 Brainerd and 90.5 KBXE Bemidji. The program will also be streamed live at kaxe.org. Admission to the live performance is free, but reservations are requested by calling KAXE at 218-326-1234. Audience members are asked to be seated by 4:30 p.m. Walk-ups are welcome on a first come, first served basis.

Written and hosted by Iron Range writer Aaron J. Brown, the Great Northern Radio Show features music, stories and comedy about modern life off the beaten path.

“We’re really excited to come to Bigfork,” said Brown. “It’s our first try at a holiday show and the Edge Center is such a wonderful theater. I’m excited myself because, while Bigfork might be the ‘edge of the wilderness’ to everyone else, I live in Balsam Township and it’s just a short drive for me.”

The Great Northern Radio Show is a true radio variety show, featuring an eclectic mix of material fit for audiences of all ages and styles of humor. What makes it different is its strong focus on northern Minnesota and the way it includes the location of each show as a central part of the program.

The Dec. 15 show will feature the Sam Miltich Trio, including Gary Schulte and Matthew Miltich, playing a mix of Eastern European folk, jazz and holiday music. Bigfork-area musicians Kim Harrington, Maggie and Kristen Anderson, Jerry Hagen, Terry Price, Harold Boege, Alycia Johnson, and the Celebration of Grace Band from Grace Community Church under the direction of Karen Wetzel are among the expected performers, along with some surprise additions.

The Great Northern Radio Players, a rotating group of actors from towns around Minnesota, will feature local actor Marshall Oelmann, among others. Howard Pitzen of Effie will tell stories about the Effie Rodeo. A western-themed holiday special will be presented, along with material celebrating the history of Bigfork, Effie, Togo and other parts of the region. Guests from popular Northern Community Radio shows are also likely.

Great Northern Radio Show regulars include director Shelly Nowak and associate producer Kelly Gustavsson, both of Hibbing. House music is by Nickolai Koivunen of Zim. Longtime Iron Range broadcaster Scott Hanson provides foley sound. The show is written by Brown with additional material from Hibbing native Matt Nelson.

“Each show is unique, exciting and unpredictable,” said Brown. “Whether you attend the live performance, where you get to see behind the scenes, or listen on the radio, you’ll have a great night of entertainment.”

The Great Northern Radio Show started in 2011. After its Hibbing debut, the show has broadcast from the Chief Theatre in Bemidji, Central Lakes College in Brainerd and the Boardman Auditorium in Eveleth. In 2013, the Great Northern Radio Show heads to the Long Lake Theater in Hubbard and the Reif Center in Grand Rapids, with more stops in the works.

“Our show lives on the road,” said Brown. “Our only home is northern Minnesota and we hope to play every place here that remotely resembles a theater before we’re done.”

The Great Northern Radio Show is rebroadcast on independent public radio stations around the state and is available as a podcast. Find out more at www.kaxe.org. The show is underwritten by the Iron Mining Association of Minnesota and made possible in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Amendment.

A joke in Monday night's "How I Met Your Mother" suggested that prostitutes in Duluth, Minnesota dress very conservatively. Because of the cold? Kind of a context thing, I think. Didn't watch. Could have, but didn't.

Anyway, the Duluth News-Tribune ran this as a "namedrop" in the today's culture page. I really don't know how to process this information right now, except that this seems like a moment for a bro to put an arm around Duluth and say, "Dude, less. Cool towns don't do this. You can be a cool town."

Then again, here I am writing about this. Should I have? What does this mean?

The article did inform me that Jason Segal the character played by Jason Segal, the show's star and the man who revived the Muppets last year, is from St. Cloud. Now that makes sense. All of a sudden, I get that.

UPDATE: I have been informed by a "How I Met Your Mother" fan that Segal is not from St. Cloud, that's his character. That still makes sense. If I were going to cast someone to play some guy from St. Cloud, I would cast Jason Segal. That's spot on.

In a glimpse of what could easily have happened in Minnesota and could yet occur, a Republican legislature and governor passed "right to work" laws in Michigan yesterday, one of the biggest union states in the nation yesterday.

Lawmakers did so with little debate and no hearings, ushering in laws that weaken both public and private sector unions. The argument for the law, which makes it illegal for union contracts to require membership or fair-share pay for collective bargaining, is that it makes business more competitive. The argument against is that this reduces wages and benefits, something widely seen in other states that have adopted this kind of law.

I get that there are two sides of this debate. What I don't get is why this is remotely healthy for our national morale to pass laws affecting a large number of workers to benefit a small number of business owners. I respect business owners, having come from a long line of them, but I also come from a parallel line of blue-collar union workers. Why must my grandfather's modest, lower middle-class life as a miner disabled on the job be held up for scorn in our national discourse? Why are we told he, or I or my sons should make less when the income disparity in this nation grows independent of all economic factors?

It's very frustrating. I'd be much more open to conservative ideas if members of the conservative party weren't openly contemptuous of the work my colleagues and I do in public schools and colleges. And they are. I see it all the time.

If you like the nonstop emotional wringer that our national politics have become, try putting the wages and benefits of millions of workers on the ballot every two years. Want a cost-of-living increase? Want your insurance rates to stay the same? It's on the ballot. Every time. I don't know that this is a healthy way to approach workers rights, and it creates very hurtful divisions in our communities and workplaces. It also stymies productive debate over the role of government and budgeting, because vengeance and fear are the only political commodities being traded. But it will nonetheless continue until the reckoning comes to pass.

The Iron Range Maidens roller derby team has released its new logo:



The selection was made as part of a contest. Doug Kahlberg created the winning entry. I attended a Maidens bout once and wrote this. In addition, you should know that the Maidens have a B-Team named the "Attackonites." Attackonite is a mineral product produced when you refine raw ore with a full body check.

One of my favorite blogs, TYWKIWDBI, posts the following question: "Is English a Scandinavian language?" Some professors in Norway apparently believe so, saying that viking domination of the early English nation had more lingual influence than "Old English" or later intermingling with the romance languages of central Europe. Specifically, sentence structure is one area of strong overlap with the Scandinavian languages (Norwegian, Swedish and Danish).

I studied some French in high school and what I noticed there is that there are many words in common, or comparisons of prefixes or the like. But the sentences are different and you have to think differently to compose a sentence. Old English seems more like Welsh or the Celtic languages of the region, quite different from modern English.

My grandpa was the town cop in Keewatin back back in the '50s and early '60s. Immigrants filled this Iron Range village and grandpa learned snippets of many languages on the job. He always said the Scandinavian languages were easiest, which surprised me.

On a perhaps unrelated tangent, I've heard of there being particular places on Earth that have always generated many civilizations, most of whom spread out across the world. One of those places are the rough terrain of northern Scandinavia. In fact, most of the places (Mongolia, Africa are others) are exceptionally difficult climates. What is it about hardship that makes people?

Anyway, I was watching the Minnesota Vikings game last weekend and remembered reading this and though you should know. Maybe one of these days I should learn a language other than English. So many choices.

Growing up in northern Minnesota in the '80s and '90s, we saw moose in the woods just outside the Iron Range. No, we didn't see moose every day, the way we often see whitetail deer. But you saw a moose or two every year, more if you lived farther north than the Range.

Those days are gone. The last time I saw a moose in the wild was the year 2000. People I know who hunt or photograph moose are having a heck of a time seeing them anywhere, and for good reason. The species is dying and climate change is the top culprit.

Now the Minnesota DNR proposes to name the moose as an endangered species, but there's real question as to whether these efforts are just too late to save Bullwinkle in Frostbite Falls. Controversy is expected because the listing would end moose hunting in Minnesota unless and until the population recovers.

UPDATE: My mistake, I misread the story. This would elevate the moose on the "species of concern" and put it on the endangered list, but not quite trigger the end of the hunting season. Nevertheless, the hunting season is one of the things at stake in the long run.

The investigation is ongoing, but this old garage near my home was incinerated in the vehicular incident reported here by the Hibbing Daily Tribune.



I wrote about the garage before the election. It is entirely gone now. According to people around the township it was a terrible scene. Prayers to the family of the person involved.

Gov. Mark Dayton (DFL-Minnesota) and legislative leaders from the state House and Senate will hold a joint press conference today at 11:30 a.m. Courtesy of The Uptake, I'll carry the event live here at MinnesotaBrown.com. Last week, state budget forecasters announced a deficit of about $1.1 billion, about what was expected. Still in the mix is the repayment of school districts for funds borrowed last biennium.

In Minnesota we don't have a traditional "Democratic Party" like most states. Rather, we have the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party, a unique product of a mid-20th Century merger of the Democratic Party and the powerful Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party). The DFL won the House and Senate in the 2012 elections, giving them their first control of both houses and the legislature since Gov. Rudy Perpich was defeated in 1990.

You can view the live stream of the press conference below the jump. After the event, an archive will be posted if you wish to watch later.

More>>>

Rep.-elect Rick Nolan (D-MN8) is in the lede of a story in the New York Times about the importance of experience in political leaders. Nolan ran as an experienced "down-home" small businessman, but had this little nugget in his resume: he served in Congress 30 years ago and left of his own choice because of how messed up Washington was then.

The Grand Rapids Herald Review was very kind to the Great Northern Radio Show in Sunday's paper. They ran our press release and put my stage-lit mug up over the mast on the front page and sprawled across the culture section. I question the effect this will have on rack sales, but I suppose that's their business.

We still have some tickets available for next Saturday's show at the Edge Center for the Arts in Bigfork, Minnesota, though I expect the free tickets will run out sometime this week. The show runs 5-7 p.m. on Dec. 15, but we ask the audience to be seated by 4:30 p.m. Some rush seating will be available for unclaimed tickets at the door.

Most of you can and should listen on the radio: 91.7 KAXE Grand Rapids, 89.9 Brainerd, and 90.5 KBXE Bemidji, with online stream at KAXE.org.

I'll have more on our first-ever holiday show later this week. Holy cow, I'm still lining up people. Surprises aplenty! Make the drive if you can.

If you're wondering what the show is all about, you can hear our previous shows here or listen to the most recent Eveleth show in the embedded player below.

This is my Sunday column for the Dec. 9, 2012 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I previewed this column earlier in the week, complete with the 1998 Cherry High School class picture, in which my class posed in a hay field with hay bales. Also, I am wearing white pants.

Hay! What? Hay bales! (This is a joke)

By Aaron J. Brown

Regular readers might know that I grew up in the Cherry area. I say "area" because I never actually lived in Cherry Township proper, but rather in the surrounding metroplex, which includes McDavitt (known locally as Zim, where I lived), Clinton, Lavell and Iron Junction.

With the exception of Iron Junction, which is a tiny old railroad town with a couple streets and a post office, the rest of these places are square townships populated sparsely by a large population of mostly Finnish immigrants. You can trace the foundation of these townships back to the time Finns were blacklisted from working at the mines on the nearby Mesabi Iron Range because of their union organizing and highly literate rabble-rousing. Most set out to buy cheap land in the country and farm the rocky fields.

As a result of these historic conditions, the Cherry area has a number of farms: fewer, of course, than in the old days, but still you'll find a dairy farm and some livestock up there. Farming in northern Minnesota is a special challenge because some of the soil is often really, really bad and the growing season is much shorter than it should be for a farm intended to grow crops people would actually want to eat, much less buy. At least two generations of Finnish-Americans persisted, however, mostly out of spite, often by spending their idle winters in the woods logging and milling lumber. Some still do. One thing that grows particularly well around here is hay.

The whole region around the towns of the Iron Range is a hotbed of hay. From my childhood near Cherry, to my current life north of Nashwauk, I've always lived very near hayfields. That's why I was so interested to hear this report on National Public Radio last week that in parts of the United States, drought has driven up the price of hay so high that hay bales are being stolen right out of farmer's fields at night. A sheriff in Oklahoma tells the story of placing a GPS tracking device in a farmer's hay bale to successfully locate and arrest hay rustlers.

Stories like this have me contemplating a plot from the show "Seinfeld" regarding returnable bottles. Where is the price break that would make it profitable to run empty bottles to Michigan for the more generous refunds available there? In "Seinfeld," as postman Newman warns, they find this question to be a viper’s den. But what about hay bales? Could a farmer in northern Minnesota run hay bales (trading at between $75 to $150) to the southern Great Plains with any hope of making a profit? Something to think about as the world turns hot.

Meantime, here are some assorted memories of hay bales:

Cherry was for many years considered a powerhouse in 9-man football, the competitive division for the smallest public schools. Even with only nine guys playing on an 80-yard field, we often played "ironman" with guys playing both sides of the ball for the whole game. I remember our quarterback was also a linebacker. Crazy.

An old tractor rests in a hayfield down the road from me.

Anyway, the team has had lackluster success in recent years, prompting the joke that Cherry football hasn't been the same since they switched to round bales. (Explanation: Older square bales were usually loaded by hand, requiring lots of muscle work by strapping young men. The new round bales are lifted by tractors, which are typically driven by angry old men whose children have abandoned them).

This is an old joke, not exclusive to Cherry, and a generalization. I’m sure many hay farmers have happy families.

When I was a small child my mother used to tell me that the hay bales in the fields were actually alive and, even though you didn't notice them moving, every day they'd get a little bit closer to the road. When they got to the ditch they would jump out at cars, she told me. This belief thrilled and horrified me. Later I would wonder how mom came up with this, but nevertheless began telling my children the same thing as soon as they could speak.

We have a family joke that whenever we pass a hayfield, pile of hay, or truck filled with hay, whoever sees it will say "hay," in as subtle a way as possible. The point is to get someone else to say, "Yeah, what?" Then you say "hay bales." That's the joke. It took the kids a while to figure out this one. They just kept yelling "HAY BALES!" anytime they saw one, but lately they've been executing. I'm very proud of them.

I really hope the hay bales don't get them.

Aaron J. Brown is an author and community college instructor from the Iron Range. He writes MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts 91.7 KAXE’s Great Northern Radio Show. The next show will be broadcast live Saturday, Dec. 15 at the Edge Center for the Performing Arts in Bigfork. Find out more at kaxe.org.