It occurs to me that this week I turned in a newspaper column about see-through yoga pants to run on Easter Sunday.

Is that a bad thing?

If the yoga pants were too much for your delicate sensibilities, try a couple of my Easter classics.

The first is a rather funny piece about the creeping commercialization of Easter entitled "Big Easter."

And, of course, how could you forget my exclusive 2005 interview with the Easter Bunny himself.

This is my Sunday column for the March 31, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

Getting to the bottom of the yoga ‘pants’emonium
By Aaron J. Brown

Allow me to state my qualifications to talk about yoga pants. I’ve done yoga a couple times on my Nintendo Wii. I really enjoy how yoga pants look on women, especially my wife, for reasons that are completely impure. And that’s about it.

This is also a way of explaining how the story of designer yoga pants company Lululemon’s recent recall of its most popular pants has such legs. (Brace yourself. The other reason this story is so powerful is that the people who write the news LOVE puns, especially as they relate to taboo body parts).

I’ve already worked my way through the “guy” response to this crisis. 1) Incredulous reaction so as to cover true feelings. 2) Titillation. 3) Shame. 4) Titillation, again, but less this time. 5) Acceptance. Really, this Yogapantsgate scandal is based on two fundamental points of interest: A large segment of our population would like to see through yoga pants, a prospect that an equally large segment of our population would like to prevent. The yin and the yang.

Read the full column.

The Minnesota Twins open their 2013 season on Monday. This season's opener is decidedly less optimistic than last year's, which was the first season in quite a long time that there was no perceptible optimism whatsoever from anyone except people earning paychecks from the Minnesota Twins. And last year went terribly. So we've got this to look forward to.

There is always hope, though, and where hope takes root optimism follows in its own time.

This is also the first season in a long time where I won't be watching on television. We made the change, at my suggestion, to a reduced satellite TV package at the house and the channel that shows Twins games didn't make the cut. So I'll be listening on the radio once in a while, catching them on national games of the week (Ha!), and finding scores where I can.

In truth, this is how I experienced the Twins when I was a child, when my support for them was yet unmarred by adult cynicism. The Twins were something followed in the pages of the local newspaper. News of their successes and failures passed through messengers, uncles and old men who knew my family. Days would go by and these dispatches would contain not one, but several scores.

I went camping with a friend one time and asked a strange old man playing horseshoes if he knew how the Twins had done Friday and Saturday. "Lost two," he told me. "Detroit." Why do I remember this? But I do.

The Twins are folklore now. Their existence to me is faith incarnate. I know they are there. I know they will probably lose, but maybe not? Perhaps if the light shines on me I will go to the cathedral in St. Paul to see the proof.

But only if I get a good deal on tickets. Because Detroit looks tough this year.

The saltie Federal Hunter arrives in Duluth Friday.

With temperatures rising -- and I mean ever so slightly -- we are starting to feel like it really might be spring in northern Minnesota.

The best indicators are found in unusual places. The chicks have arrived at area L & M Supply stores (Every year the marquee reads "Chicks are Coming.") And, of course, the shipping news is another practical reminder of the season. From the Duluth Seaway Port Authority:

Port of Duluth-Superior prepares for earliest arrival of 1st Saltie of the Season

Duluth, Minn. USA – The Port of Duluth-Superior is preparing to welcome its first oceangoing ship (“saltie”) of the 2013 commercial shipping season. The Hong Kong-flag Federal Hunter is expected to arrive on Friday afternoon, March 29, which will also put it first in Twin Ports’ history books as the earliest arrival for a full transit of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway (GLSLS) system. The previous record was set by the India-flag L/T Argosy on April 1, 1995.

Adding to excitement is the anticipated weekend arrival of a sister ship, the Cyprus-flag Federal Elbe, almost on Hunter’s heels.

Last week, the first ship, the coal and iron ore-bearing Mesabi Miner, left the Duluth harbor through a channel cut by an ice breaking vessel.

"Does the Midwest matter?" That's the question posed in an essay by Frank Bures in MinnPost today. Bures remembered his youth in Winona, Minnesota, this way:

Growing up, I remember feeling like greatness was something that belonged far away, and that if I wanted to do anything worthwhile, my only choice was to leave. That is, after all, the American story: Go west. Go east. Go somewhere. But don’t stay! For as long as anyone can remember, the Midwest has always been the place you left behind. It is preamble. It is backstory.

This is a sentiment expressed well in the late Paul Gruchow's essay "What We Teach our Rural Children," from Grass Roots: The Universe of Home," which was a major influence of mine. Bures continues:

The world has changed much since the Midwest solidified itself in the nation’s psyche, and I’m not even sure if the term ‘Midwest’ is relevant anymore. Looking around I see that there are many Midwesterners, be they Africans or Asians, farmers or hipsters, Latinos or Anglos. I can’t help feeling like the days of Gopher Prairie and Lake Wobegon are long past.

Still, our anxiety about our place in the culture remains, and my fear is that it makes us unable to see the true value of things closer to home, that our inferiority complex contributes to a sense where we are allowed to be the culture’s consumers, but not its producers.

Bures found an example of the possibilities of the midwest standing in the Mason City, Iowa, architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Wright worked in a different era, at a time when people still felt a sense of destiny, before the energy it took to settle the region had dissipated, and back when almost anything seemed possible — even an entirely new, entirely American architecture.

When I stand in one of Wright’s buildings, I get the same feeling as when I stand in front of a Grant Wood painting, or when I read Mark Twain. They too were of the Middle West, but there’s no self-deprecation, no apology, no self-consciousness about this. There is only ambition and brilliance and the feeling that they were part of the whole, not just part of a part.

That is my hope for the new Midwest, and I believe we are on the way there, as a new generation of connected artists and thinkers push past the Hollywood tropes and Keillorian caricatures. Rather than feel like the national discourse is something we’re listening in on, we again feel like it’s something we have a voice in.

Amen.

Deep in the core of the newer generations of Americans - call them X, call them Y, call them the 21st century - beat hearts that yearn for things that are real. We have so many ways of replicating reality now, and we've tried them all. We'll try more. What works is always what is most real. What is fake always falls hard, eventually.

I submit that the Midwest remains real. Not always pretty, though often. Not always welcoming, though compelling. But always real. Outside our towns and cities you find places to be alone, and we mean that. Alone. The landscape and the people draw energy from one another and, in between, I'd argue you can find a pretty darn good situation.

That's Midwestern for "life of meaning."

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I found this MPR story by Dan Kraker to be a very helpful scientific explanation of the minerals involved in new nonferrous mining proposals in northern Minnesota. Refreshingly informative.

"Sulfur is the great collector of metals in nature," [UM-Duluth geologist Jim Miller] said. "If it wasn't for sulfur, there would be no economic quantities of copper-nickel to be mined. And so to extract these metals, we're going to have to deal with the sulfur." 

Mining opponents have legitimate concerns about sulfur (and other elements) related to this mining. It also seems that mining companies are developing innovative ways to treat the run-off to handle sulfur. What seems the crux of the matter, to me anyway, are these legacy costs. The mines will have to treat the sulfuric run-off for a very long time, even if the mining itself ends. Addressing this problem would lift the fundamental barrier to mining new minerals on the Iron Range.

Is the sulfur issue insurmountable? Maybe not. But a laser-like focus on that problem and/or solution seems the best use of everyone's time.

Well, I take that back. A better use of everybody's time would be for each person on the Iron Range, young and old, to dedicate themselves to one thing this year that will make the Range a better place to live, regardless of mining or not. Costs are minimal and the results would amaze everyone.

Rep. Rick Nolan (D-MN8) jumped into the debate over the new route for Highway 53, strongly opposing the western route proposal that resurfaced late last week. The Mesabi Daily News reports that Nolan called the proposal a "nonstarter."

The public meeting described in the story sounded like a good representation of the local opinion I've heard on the topic. Nobody really wants the highway to be relocated; they'd like it to stay the same. Only problem is, public officials agreed to move the highway at taxpayer expense 50 years ago.

The obvious fixes run into other mine property and future mining areas. Several of the proposed routes involve elaborate bridges built near mining activity. Our region's dependence on mining has run into a logistical wall.

I was intrigued by a quote from the MDN story from what appears to be a wider-ranging discussion of Range transportation projects.

State Sen. David Tomassoni, DFL-Chisholm, asked, “At what point do we become more important than rocks?”

The context of this quote isn't exactly clear, but it seems like a step in the right direction. Still phrased as a question, mind you. Let's step over that line now and just say: We are more important than rocks.

Ahhhh. Feels good, am I right?

In all seriousness, it seems like this is all going back to talks between the state and Cliffs Natural Resources, the owner and operator of the mine in question. It would appear that the choices are an unpopular plan to reroute the highway, thus dramatically reshaping the economic and transportation flow of two major Range cities, or a road that has to be moved at taxpayer expense 40-50 years from now.

Which one do you think is going to go?

Did you know I once wrote Herbie the Love Bug fan faction on this very topic? You should know that.

A state ruling indicates that Cohesset city councilor Dennis Blankensop did not violate the open meeting law when he attended a Jan. 8 council meeting via the internet video service Skype. The Grand Rapids Herald-Review has the story.

The Minnesota Newspaper Association continues to argue that a city councilor attending a meeting from another state violates the principles of the "access" component of the open meeting law. The councilor can participate but he is not accessible to the public, according to MNA attorney Mark Anfinson.

State regulators and Cohasset city officials argue that there is a provision allowing video conferencing so long as it occurs in a public setting and at least some of the councilors are there to see the public's reactions and hear their questions.

Blankensop will resume his council activity via Skype from California this week.

The concern here is not the specific actions in Cohasset, but the potential precedent set in a region where the same social circles that produce elected officials also produce snowbirds. The social stratification in the area would escalate. Let's hope this becomes the exception and not the norm.

Officials are returning to the drawing board on the required relocation of Highway 53 between Eveleth and Virginia, including a controversial plan to locate the highway west of Eveleth.

The Mesabi Daily News reports that costs and the immense value of the ore seem to be driving the project toward a dramatic re-imagination from how most people know this important Iron Range thoroughfare.

This is my Sunday column for the March 24, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

March madness? Already there
By Aaron J. Brown

St. Urho’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day have passed us by, two stripes – one purple and one green – on a slushy brown highway winding into the dark and foggy moor called Springtime in Minnesota.

I grant you, St. Paddy’s Day is a widely accepted international celebration of Irish heritage. St. Urho’s Day is a strange local custom crafted in the 1950s by American Finns in this area for reasons unclear. But still, this is the season of arbitrary holidays designed to reinforce the thin, worn straps holding sanity inside the winter-scarred remnants of our chilled pudding brains.

For instance, I recently learned that National Ravioli Day occurred this past week, something I learned from a colleague after eating a can of raviolis for lunch. Was it really National Ravioli Day? Works for me. We need something to believe in. Let’s start with raviolis and work our way up.

We have a small dog named Molly. When we let her out on a cold, windy day she stands on the edge of the deck stairs barking into the wind. She continues on like this until one of three things happens, 1) we shoo her off the deck, 2) she gives up, or 3) the wind dies down. It seems strange behavior to us most of the time, but not now.

Now is the time we throw on our coats loosely, never mind the scarf, to charge into the elements looking for a fight. Maybe we can land a punch on the jowly neck of winter? Temperatures hover well below freezing but water still seeps directly through the tough heels of our boots and shoes. Never mind that, either. Walk it off. Curse. Spring will come soon enough. Of course, many people die this way, but that is the price.

This week the Mesabi Miner became the first ship to depart the port of Duluth for the 2013 shipping season. The snow-encrusted ship slipped out an ice channel forged by a Coast Guard cutter on the promise that, though the surrounding ice would not melt, the frigid waterway might not freeze over again.

I’m pretty sure I heard a small songbird die of exposure out my window one night this week. Not good for the bird, but the fact that he was around is probably cause for some limited form of optimism.

The children are beginning to realize that Earth rotates around the Sun, tilting on its axis. Well, not that exactly. They remember that there is such a thing as summer and it’s closer than Christmas. We are beginning to remember this, too. Is it legal to send your offspring running down a dirt road pulling cinder blocks? Because after a long dark solstice marathon of three boys and four walls, one of which plays Spongebob Squarepants on a loop, this is becoming an attractive option. Maybe a bike ride? OK, fine. A bike ride.

Now I’m wondering if that wasn’t a songbird but, in fact, a mouse living in our attic.

People turned actively hostile this week, both toward the weather and toward any human who bore some lingering allegiance to winter activities. “You went skiing? Screw you, pal!” This is actually a pretty good precursor to seasonal change. God does not lift the veil of winter until we are broken. Some years this happens early. Some years it happens later. Something to do with where Easter falls? I’m not sure.

Now I’m wondering how many mice are up there. Or were they flying squirrels? We’ve had flying squirrels before.

I wish I could promise you this would be my last column this year about the end of winter. But you know as well as I that such a vow would be made on a bed of lies.

Nah, had to have been a bird, right? A cute little songbird that died tragically in a blizzard. That’s the best case scenario.

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

Magnetation continues its expansion on the western Mesabi, upping production of its iron concentrate to serve what will be its first taconite processing plant in Indiana. It's also exploring the possibility of opening new iron mining near Coleraine which would be more involved than the company's current scram mining (essentially reprocessing mine dumps with new technology).

As Beth Bily with Business North reports, some of this new mining could potentially interfere with some popular sites on the western Mesabi:

Local officials and residents expressed concern about the fate of a number of recreational facilities if a permit to mine is issued. Facilities located within or near the mining lease area include: Mesabi Bike Trail, Keystone snowmobile trail, Itasca Gun Club, a county public water access and Nordic ski trails. A 40-acre parcel where Mt. Itasca ski hill and jumps are located was not included in the lease.

The environmental review process could include mitigation of trails or other facilities that would require relocation. The most likely facility to face a move is the local gun club, which sits on top of a tailings basin.

The actual impact, however, won't be known until Magnetation presents its full mine plan, which hasn't happened yet. The location of these recreational areas will be a factor in their strategy. It's interesting to note that of all the various "projects" that have cropped up on the Iron Range in the last decade or so, only Magnetation is actually operating and growing. Most other growth has come in the established mines.

Of course, we all await the opening of Essar Steel near Nashwauk, which despite setbacks is still poised to be the first new taconite plant on the Range since the collapse of the 1980s.

As a student of history, it's hard not to marvel at stories like this ("The Lyndon Johnson Tapes: Richard Nixon's 'treason'").

It was President Lyndon Johnson who installed the famous policy of recording everything that happened in the Oval Office. His idea was that the tapes would provide the historical record to correct the speculations of the times. His successor President Nixon continued the practice, which ended up being his undoing as tapes revealed his connection to the Watergate break-in scandal and cover-up. After that, no American president has dared allow recordings of sensitive matters in the White House.

But these original Johnson tapes continue to provide fascinating historical understanding of events of that time, including this: Johnson was planning to jump into the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago to wrest the nomination from the two competing Minnesotans, Johnson's vice president Hubert Humphrey and Sen. Eugene McCarthy. The plan was undone by the fact that Johnson could not safely land on the roof in a helicopter.

Further, Johnson had evidence that then-candidate Richard Nixon had secretly sabotaged the Vietnam peace talks, continuing the bloody war that Johnson privately wanted to wind down. But a false sense of confidence that Humphrey would win prevented him from revealing the scandal.

Mostly, this story reminds me that since Nixon presidents have sought to reduce the number of records showing how they thought or what they talked about privately. There are few letters. Few annotations. E-mail is stripped of all sensitive content. Conversations are not recorded. The whole enterprise is left to interviews after the fact, in which facts are spun by officials who each may have a different motivation in explaining how the story played out. Indeed, sometimes memory is just plain faulty.

In this context, Johnson's efforts to record history represent a mind-blowing act of courage ... and ego, of course ... but net courage.

Of course, Johnson's tapes also provide some lighter conversations that show more about the man himself. See below the jump for two such chats, one a candid conversation between two dead presidents, and another between Johnson and the man who tailored his favorite pants.

The old Dupont power house, just before it was demolished this time last year, shot by Minneapolis photographer Vance Gellart.

I've paged through just some of the many photos shot by Minneapolis photographer Vance Gellart from his travels across the Iron Range trying to capture the unique colors, gritty ambiance and stunning contrasts found in this northern Minnesota region. It's a remarkable collection.

Gellart will unveil his Iron Range exhibit at the B'nai Abraham Cultural Center in Virginia, Minnesota, at 1 p.m. this Saturday, March 23. The cultural center is itself an important part of Range history, as its the last remaining Jewish center of a region that once had a thriving Jewish community. I expect Gellart's exhibit will tour other sites in the future as well.

I'm fond of the above shot for several reasons. One, you all know how upset I was when the city of Hibbing decided to knock down the Dupont blasting powder company power house last year. Second, I happened to be consulting with Vance about his project before the fact and told him to hurry up and head over to Carey Lake to shoot the building before they knocked it down. The demolishing company gave no notice, not even to the city, that the building would be knocked down just days later. Thus, this is one of the last shots of the Dupont building ever taken.

Bob Collins at MPR's NewsCut reminds us that Voyager 1 has left the solar system. This little unmanned spacecraft documented so much of what we know about a tiny corner of the universe we ourselves cannot travel in a lifetime, even if we got off our duffs and tried.

I knew that Voyager 1 had samples of Earth culture on board, in case it was found some day by some one. There are 27 songs, which you can listen to below all in a row.



I played this series one song after another eating my lunch today. Then I looked at the slide show of pictures at the end imagining myself an extraterrestrial experiencing a new culture for the first time. I learned much. And yet, I learned nothing. That, in summary, is Earth.

The Mesabi Miner loads coal for shipment to Marquette, Mich. It will return to pick up iron ore this weekend.

Spring in northern Minnesota has officially begun, despite the bitter cold, blowing snow and ice-snared harbor. Today the ship Mesabi Miner departs from the Port of Duluth and Superior by way of a channel carved by an ice cutter last week.

Just like in the National Basketball Association, the Lakers always get going around March.

Would you like to know more about the many springtime ships of Duluth and their cargo? Sure you would.

Rachael Kilgour

There's a pretty cool-sounding concert slated for tonight at Hibbing Community College. I wasn't aware it was Women's History Month, but if that inspires people to put three of the best northern Minnesota singer-songwriter's on one showbill I'm all for it.

HCC Music Series presents, Women's History Month Showcase featuring singer/songwriters Rachael Kilgour, Aurora Baer, and Germaine Gemberling with Rich Mattson. 7:00 PM at the HCC Theater. Tickets are $5 for the public and available for purchase at the HCC Bookstore or at the door the evening of the event. HCC Students may attend free with a current HCC student ID.

Aurora Baer

Amalia Spagnolo previewed the show last Sunday for the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

I wish I could get to this one. I'd like to scout all these acts for my Great Northern Radio Show. I've heard good things about them. If you go, let me know what you think.

Disclosure: I work at Hibbing Community College.

Germaine Gemberling

Disclosure II: Did you like how I casually dropped in the fact that I have a radio show? No bigs, yo. Just a little 30-piece traveling production. I could just let it go, but I don't. Why is that? I'm very conflicted about whether I am a real person or just a puffed-up internet persona on a regional blog read by about 400 people.

Disclosure III: I think I am a real person. I think. And I'm selling myself short. It's more like 500 people.

A major job fair will be held at the Thunderbird Mall in Virginia, Minnesota, today. Representatives from several companies hiring on the Iron Range will be on hand to take resumes and applications. Tell your kid. Tell your cousin. Tell your buddy.

Many are surprised to learn that the Iron Range of Northern Minnesota once boasted an interurban rail service called the Mesaba Railway.

Hourly trains between Hibbing and Gilbert served the St. Louis County side of the Mesabi Iron Range, a row of towns that follow a rich iron formation that gives the region its name. The fact that the train stopped in Hibbing is why the western Mesabi in Itasca County is often forgotten as an important part of the region's mining might.

The train ran from 1912 to 1927, a time of enormous growth and sociopolitical turbulence on the Range. The railway actually fell into receivership and was picked up by the company that would later join the confederation of companies known as the Greyhound Bus Company.

Anyway, this train enthused computer animator made a short movie of some of the trains you'd see on the railway of that time. I enjoyed seeing this:



The animator claims not to know anything about the region; only a love for the particular trains that served this area. So the animations are highly focused on accurate train images and sounds, and sometimes comically inaccurate about the towns themselves or the time these trains ran. (There is a circus, a Ferris wheel and a zeppelin flying over Hibbing, for instance). But if you've been to the Iron Range of today, you might have your mind blown by the look and sound of these trolleys, one of which you can still ride over at the Minnesota Discovery Center.

Anyway, this is pretty much what my dreams look like, if anyone is curious about that.

UPDATE: For more on the history of the Mesabi Railway, see this story from the Hometown Focus in Virginia.
(h/t Robert Thiel)

The debate over potential iron mining in Wisconsin has turned the gaze of many a Wisconsin media outlet upon my native Minnesota Iron Range, where iron mining has gone on for more than a century. Some paint us as a picturesque paradise poised for economic strength, some call us a charming region of boom and bust, and some paint us as some sort of mining-addicted hellscape. They are all wrong. We are a combination of those things.

Here's what they're saying in Green Bay. It's a long story with several Iron Rangers quoted, mostly saying how dependent the region is on mining. My friend Andy sent this to me, mostly because the video of the Iron Range mining student is a choice representative of the contemporary Iron Range accent.

My only comment is that mining employment remains a distant minority of the employment on the Iron Range. It is only because those jobs are among the region's best and most available to people with a two year degree that we perceive the dependence. A perceived dependence is still a dependence, so long as we see the world the same way.

This is my weekly column for the Saturday, March 16, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune. I'm told it's running a day early this week so the paper can fit the rest of it's annual edition material into the Sunday edition. So, happy Saturday!

Following the papal trail
By Aaron J. Brown

First, congratulations to Pope Francis (former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio) and Catholics the world over. It was an historic week, one that reminds of the deep tradition and impact of the very first Christian church. I have to admit, most were surprised to see an Argentinean emerge onto the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square to meet the faithful.

Then again, no one expects the Spanish Invocation.

Sigh. Dangerous territory for non-Catholics like me this week. I really do respect the church, even if I’m not a member. But it’s a big hat. And big robes. And the guy who did the Latin translation on the live TV news feed sounded a little bit like the comedian Stephen Wright. What’s a guy to do?

I have to say, though an ancient tradition, the pomp and circumstance of the Conclave sure fires up the imagination. And for political junkies like me coming down off the fall elections, you can’t beat polling by smoke. Though the outcome of the election to replace Pope Emeritus Benedict was of no direct consequence to my life, I could be heard remarking to my wife, “you seeing anything about smoke in that chimney?”

Colored smoke is a great way to handle news. If it weren’t for the many environmental implications, I’d like all my news to be smoke-based. Put a big smokestack up on the tallest hill. Mail out a really big color chart. Then, when we roll out of bed, we’d know the story at a glance.

Blue smoke would indicate “cold and windy” or “sluggish hiring amid high unemployment.”

Yellow smoke would indicate “sunny and pleasant” or “Twins win!”

Red smoke would indicate that a Hollywood starlet had some trouble with her dress and we should all be really upset but mostly we just want to see the pictures.

Green smoke would indicate “find out more at our website, W-W-W (DOT) SMOKENEWS (DOT) COM (SLASH) SMOKE ‘EM IF WE GOT THE STORY.”

Naturally, the smokestack proprietor, or editor in this case, would be able to sell home-version smokestacks to allow people to blow red or blue smoke based on whether they believed that days smoke reflected a liberal or conservative bias, or purple smoke if they would like their name removed from the D-U-I report.

Windy days would be a challenge. Then again, when I was editor of a newspaper some guy stole the van with all the papers in it and that was that. So it goes. We’ll have more news tomorrow.

Sometimes it’s better to let 2,000-year-old rituals just be. As we watched the black smoke pour out of the Vatican chimney, the television analysts were left to comment on what might be happening inside based literally on nothing but smoke. Watching a TV reporter comment on something they don’t really understand is a regular occurrence. Some of them really are quite good at that. But when even your base of speculative information is lacking nuggets like “it’s cold,” or “some guy said this,” or “we have video,” the illusion unravels.

For instance, there was no way in St. Heck’s Basilica that an American was going to be elected pope. I’m not Catholic, but even a cursory glance at the political situation made this clear. Nevertheless, American reporters breathlessly reported that various U.S. cardinals were “front runners,” based by all appearances on the fact that they said so. They compared the church vote to Chicago-style political wheeling and dealing.

All due respect, but we’re dealing with an organization that was already several hundred years old when even devout Catholics admit that they elected a long string of “wicked popes.” And not “Boston wicked.” I’m pretty sure those cardinals have some kind of Jedi tricks that make arm twisting unnecessary, even Byzantine. And they know Byzantine because the church predates that as well.

This new pope seems like a pleasant fellow. Let’s run with that. Don’t argue with the white smoke.

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

The small towns of the Iron Range once each had their own small movie theaters. There were several theaters in the bigger towns like Hibbing.

Up in Cook right now, they've got longest continuous single-screen theater in Minnesota, open since 1939. But the Comet Theater is in danger, as this film shows:



They need digital equipment to stay alive in modern times. Today the Comet launched a Kickstarter project to add digital projection equipment. If they raise $80,000 they'll stay open. If not, the theater will go dark. It's a true crossroads moment for this little town on the western shores of Lake Vermilion.

The Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank were among the highlights, performing from their new album "Number One Contender."

Last Saturday night, my Great Northern Radio Show broadcast live from Bagley High School on Northern Community Radio. The Great Northern will be rebroadcast this Saturday morning from 10 a.m. to noon on 91.7 KAXE (Grand Rapids/Iron Range), 90.5 KBXE (Bagley and Bemidji), 89.9 FM (Brainerd) and 103.9 FM (Ely), and of course on www.kaxe.org.

Despite the bad weather, we had a solid turnout and a great time at the show. It was one of our strongest all-around musical programs and we got some good laughs out of our sketch material. I hope you like it. The podcast and additional rebroadcasts will follow. Tell your local public radio station they should carry the Great Northern Radio Show, which is available on PRX.

The Bemidji Pioneer gave us a lovely front-page review Sunday morning after the show and we got a wonderful review in the Bagley Farmer-Independent this week as well (no web version).

Meantime, tune in Saturday morning from 10 a.m. to noon. You can see more pictures of the show taken by our stage director Shelly Nowak below the jump.

The Death of Caesar, by Jean-Léon Gérôme

Friday is the Ides of March, the famous day in which Roman Emperor Julius Caesar took a little walk down to the forum in 44 B.C. and was stabbed 23 times by 60 prominent conspirators. The term comes from a warning he received on the street, "Beware the Ides of March." "Ha-Ha," said Jules. "What's the worst that could happen?"

What a joy that, 2,056 years later, we of the Mesabi Ferrum Regio could enjoy this press release:

Beware The ... Ides of March. Because this years it's gonna Rock! with The Dweebs, with special guest Captain May I, featuring former members of JUNK FM, HAIRBALL, 12RODS, SLOW CHILDREN.

Hibbing VFW Hibbing National Guard Armory Doors open at 6 p.m. must be 21 years of age to attend General Admission: $15.00-$20.00 at the door VIP: $35.00-$40.00 (includes concert cup and free beer all night) NO ATM ON-SITE. CASH ONLY EVENT! Ticket outlet locations: Ouch Ink, Sidelines Sports Bar, Central Liquor, Luckys Bar, Saginaw Union Station, Keewatin Kare.

These groups are popular mainstays at the Hibbing VFW, which is why I first thought the concert was there. Last weekend the Hibbing Daily Tribune ran a story entitled "Hibbing VFW: No longer grandpa's country club." Of course, if you were a super fan of 1980s music you probably graduated around 1986. You probably spent some time in the back of vans, which means there's a chance you had a baby before 1990 and have a child now in their mid-20s -- quite possibly having children themselves.

So that means it's not grandpa's country club, it's your country club (adjacent to the town's rolling acres of freeway) and you are a grandpa. Or grandma. Because times are changing and they let women in, too. The important thing is that you continue to age gracefully which, don't worry, you totally, like, are doing that.

If this isn't your speed you might want to check out a photo contest exhibit at the Northwoods Friends of the Arts in Cook, Minnesota.

Ninety-five photos were entered and are up on the walls of the gallery in Cook, behind the Dreamweaver’s Day Spa. Visitors have been voting for their favorite picture for the Viewers’ Choice Award.

A gala event is being held by the Northwoods Friends of the Arts Friday night to name the winners. This is a project backed by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage fund and some of the photos look pretty cool (you can see them in the background of this submitted photo of kids doing art projects).

But if you prefer to celebrate the Ides of March in the traditional way, ie: in a tense political setting where an actual stabbing risk is somewhat elevated, your scene is probably going to be Friday's public forum entitled "The Impact of Nonferrous Mining in the Lake Superior Basin" from 12:30-5 p.m. at Mesabi Range Community and Technical College in Virginia, Minnesota.

I've already received mass e-mails from supporters and opponents of nonferrous mining imploring me to show up in support and/or opposition of the various projects because "the other side" is bringing in people to support and/or oppose the cause. I'm sure an enlightened conversation will ensue, one that resolves the matter once and for all.

For Latin translation, go below the jump:

A poll paid for by the Minnesota Environmental Partnership shows flagging support for copper-nickel mining in northern Minnesota. For the first time in almost five years of polling, more Minnesotans say they oppose such new mining than support it.

The question asked:

As you may know, new mines are being proposed near the Boundary Waters and Lake Superior. These are different from the traditional Minnesota iron ore mines. These new sulfide mining operations would be used to extract copper, nickel and other precious metals from underground rock formations containing sulfur. Based on this description, would you favor or oppose these new mines?

Again, this is a statewide poll of an issue with specific, local importance to northern Minnesota. It's a snapshot that might not fully reflect public opinion or awareness. Other local issues, such as farm subsidies or feed lot regulations, might also post similar statewide numbers. But the story seems to be the drop in support from four years ago.

Naturally, everyone has an opinion. The Duluth News Tribune has the story.

State. Rep. Joe Radinovich (DFL-Crosby) has been officially granted membership in the Iron Range Delegation of state lawmakers. Here he is with Reps. Jason Metsa (DFL-Virginia) and Carly Melin (DFL-Hibbing). Radinovich is already on the record making elementary teachers swoon.



Though in recent decades membership has been limited to representatives and senators with active mining in their districts, Radinovich does represent the Cuyuna Iron Range by Crosby and Ironton, an historically significant region in Minnesota's mining and political story. With redistricting essentially eliminating one of the seven "traditional" spots in the delegation, Radinovich's admission fills out the roster.

The delegation is generally associated with the pro-mining, economically populist brand of DFL politics common to the region, but has included Republican members when they've managed to win election here, most recently among them former State. Rep. Carolyn McElfatrick (R-Deer River).

Meantime, Rep. Mary Murphy (DFL-Hermantown) was frozen off the IRRRB and was not invited to join the Range delegation, even though North Shore's processing plant is in her new district. Her skepticism about nonferrous mining is probably just a coincidence.

That is sarcasm.

CORRECTION: I forgot that former Rep. Al Juhnke was a dues-paying member for many years (during which he was the roommate of Rep. Tom Rukavina, a further mark of bravery).

The John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon is underway along Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior this week. Making its first start in two years on Sunday, the race is expected to wrap up tomorrow, March 13. Last year's race was cancelled because of poor snow conditions. You can follow results and see footage here.

Watching the Beargrease results on local Duluth TV was a big deal in our house growing up. My sister Alyssa got it in her head she was going to race sled dogs and that's how we ended up with a bright white Samoyed dog named Eskimo, who we would later refer to as "Skeezer." I remember driving home from getting Skeezer, my sisters and I in the back seat of the station wagon taking turns hugging this little fluffy fellow.

Of course, we never raced sled dogs. That was a dream unrealized. Eskimo couldn't keep his fur white; he became the Great Off-White Hope. Eskimo lived most of his days running along a fly line my dad built in the back yard, a sort of tether that allowed him a fairly big area to run without us having to build a fence. We had to do something because his favorite thing was to sit in the road. One time in winter he broke out of his fly contraption and ran. He leaped for the road but the snow was so deep that year that he became stuck in the ditch, right up to his chin. Dad had to rescue him.

One time he made it to the road and I watched a car hit him. I thought for sure he was dead. But he was fine. I don't know how, but he was fine.

Skeezer's last years were spent with my aunt and uncle because of some family issues. I was off at college then. I wonder if Skeezer regretted never running the Beargrease. I wonder if he ever thought that he should. He didn't like to be in the house, so I suppose he never saw the race on the TV. Maybe he never knew that's why he came to live with us. I'd sure like to scritch his belly one more time, though. Just one more time.

The federal haze standard is an under-reported "big deal" on the Iron Range. Industrial development here takes place in relatively close proximity to a couple national parks -- the Boundary Waters and Voyageurs. In the west, Ojibwe reservations are no fans of mining pollution and often provide the most effective litigious opposition to mining.

Any new developments or expansions, thus, are subject to laws limiting the total amount of pollution for the region. This is an understandable policy, but one that doesn't do much to distinguish the amounts of pollution each individual company creates. Since the area hovers so close to the haze standard, any new emissions are hard to permit.

Minnesota Power and mining companies like U.S. Steel, Cliffs Natural Resources and Arcelor-Mittal are trying to figure out how to bring their current emissions down so that they can up their capacity later. And new projects like PolyMet, the proposed nonferrous mine, are looking to grab a piece of the "haze spectrum" as well.

This is my Sunday column for the March 10, 2013 Hibbing Daily Tribune. Fitting that a sledding column would follow last week's lamentation of the Minnesota spring. We're still winter-bound.

Sled by example
By Aaron J. Brown

Old Hollywood movies provide show us how far we've come. In classic films of the early 20th Century, people smoked cigarettes every waking moment, blatantly discriminated in the workplace and routinely died of diphtheria. Now, people smoke electronic cigarettes in bathroom stalls, wander a world of subtle stereotypes and quietly eat themselves to death. Progress!

In an early scene in the classic Frank Capra film "It's a Wonderful Life," young Peter Bailey sleds down a hill on a shovel, skids across an icy lake and tumbles into open water, to be rescued by his big brother George. In this regard -- sledding -- not only have we failed to make any progress, we've actively endeavored to ensure that Peter Bailey would have hit this open water at a much higher speed.

In my relatively sparse three decades of consciousness, the Minnesota institution of sledding has advanced tremendously, spurred by science and a loveably mediocre Chevy Chase holiday movie. New sleds slide off the factory line coated in teflon, attached to a long list of warnings few read and everyone defies.

We neutralize the many hours we spend warning children not to jump off furniture or run with scissors when we put them on slabs of plastic and hurl them down a hill at 30 mph. We justify this largely because we, as parents, loved to sled as children. And, hey, we survived!

Physically, anyway.

Except for those of us who were injured.

And those of us who died (they don’t count).

And the emotional trauma, of course, but it’s hard to say whether that was from sledding or years of midwestern emotional neglect. And so, we sled.

We took the boys sledding at a big hill near Eveleth on Christmas Eve. Some time weeks earlier several snowmen had been crafted by area youth. With below zero temperatures and bitter winds, these half melted specters had become disfigured white monoliths barely visible from the top of the hill. We happily sent our kids down, going faster than the fleetest Mongolian steppe warriors during the rule of Ghengis Khan.

They'd figure it out, right? Sure. And, indeed, they did.

Nevertheless, we watched our precious offspring shoot down the hill toward these snow formations, which I will remind were HARD AS STONE and the SAME COLOR as the ground, sky, wind and trees. All you could really do was hold up your hand like Iron Man and say, “ooooooo.” If they got really close to the widow-makers you would say “OOOOOO.” Then, as the boys glided to a graceful stop, we’d add a little hissing sound through pursed lips.

Minnesotans are not generally known as reckless, but we are surprisingly radical when you review the history books. We are pleasant enough. But when pushed, well, then we’ll shut down the mines in a decades-long labor battle to secure better rights for workers. Then everything’s fine for a while. Oh, wait? 1950s Southern-dominated Democratic Party? Have some Hubert Humphrey. You’re welcome.

Sledding is, perhaps, an extension of this trait. We get our thrills where we can and we like to make it count. We’ve got sleds for all kinds of snow because we know that not all snow is the same. The only thing that really matters is to go very, very fast while we still can.

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

Today is the big day! The Great Northern Radio Show broadcasts live from Bagley, Minnesota tonight from 5-7 p.m. on Northern Community Radio. You can listen at 91.7 KAXE (Grand Rapids/Iron Range/Aitkin), 90.5 KBXE (Bemidji/Bagley/Walker), and translators 89.9 (Brainerd/Baxter) and 103.9 (Ely). We're streaming live all over the world at www.kaxe.org.

We still have some seats available for those who can join us in the Bagley High School auditorium. Please arrive by 4:30 p.m. You catch many extra elements when you see the show as it's being broadcast and audiences are tremendously helpful to the sound of our program.

Our show features The Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank, Mary Bue with Kyle Maclean, Sonny Johnson and Kate Wig, along with our cast of players including Sara Breeze, Mark Christiensen, Erika Kooda, sound man Scott Hanson, and many popular voices from Northern Community Radio.

The show will be available as a podcast and rebroadcast on other stations in coming days and weeks.

Bagley, MN. Photo taken approx. 1902-1905 (Clearwater Co. Historical Society)

I'm in Bagley today preparing for our next live broadcast of the Great Northern Radio Show, Saturday night at 5 from the Bagley High School auditorium stage. I've been hyping our great lineup all week, including the Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank, Mary Bue, Sonny Johnson and our cast of characters. You can tune in from 5-7 p.m. on Northern Communty Radio. We even have a few seats left if you'd like to come out and see the show live, which I heartily recommend. Find out more by calling 800-662-5799 or visiting KAXE.org.


Bagley has, of course, changed quite a bit since this 110-year-old photo was taken. U.S. Highway 2 runs through town on its way to the far west, alongside the rails laid down by James J. Hill's Great Northern Railway, our show's namesake. Northern Community Radio has placed a strong new radio transmitter outside town. And they serve a nice meal at the Fireside, which I aim to check out when I'm in town.

Find out how we'll be arriving in Bagley by clicking on the headline to go below the jump:

The American Institute of Economic Research places two Minnesota metro areas high on a list of best college towns. Minneapolis-St. Paul is ranked sixth among major metro areas. Duluth is ranked 14th on the small metro list, just behind Honolulu.



While #6 and #14 might not be enough for a medal, it's fun to see who is lower on the list, or excluded entirely. Like most Minnesotans, I was taught at an early age that it's better to be in the middle of a list than at the top or bottom. More on the AIER results here.

I'ma go ahead and link this Bill Hanna Mesabi Daily News editorial about the state budget forecast solely because he commits to a "Fantasy Island" motif in describing how government functions. Headline: "'Ze Plane! Ze Plane!’ bringing money to St. Paul’s Fantasy Island"

Bill's point is ultimately that government should focus on jobs, not government programs. Which is nice and all, but since the government has many purposes that have nothing to do with job creation it's kind of a vague argument.

Who cares!

One little quibble, if you don't already know who Tattoo was, the diminutive sidekick to a smooth-talking 1970s TV island boss Ricardo Montalbon, you start today's reading at a severe deficit. But perhaps that's for the best.

The best writing drives people back to the primary sources. Bill may have struck on the true crux of our situation: rich oligarchs on a privately-owned island scorching through money in a desperate, futile quest for self-validation.

I'm sure that's what he meant, right? Well, this is for future scholars to decide. This editorial now belongs to the ages.

It's coming! The spring edition of my Great Northern Radio Show hits the stage of the Bagley High School auditorium and airwaves of Northern Community Radio this upcoming Saturday, March 9. The show airs from 5-7 p.m. and free tickets are still available by calling KAXE at 800-662-5799. Find out more about the show and make plans to join us in Bagley, in your car, in your living room or on a radio assembled from some copper wire and salt crystals.

This week I've been highlighting the performers who will appear in the show. First off, I don't have a video of her, but Katie Wig from our Brainerd show will be back for the Bagley show, this time with an original number. You may recall her stunning performance of "Can't Help Fallin' In Love With You" last summer.

Below you can see a Lakeland TV News segment about the Great Northern from last spring's show in Bemidji:



Sara Breeze will be joining us again in the Great Northern Radio Players, along with Mark Christensen from that same show. Erika Kooda, who was in our Bigfork show, will round out the troupe.

Several popular voices from KAXE and KBXE will also be a part of the show, along with guests from the Bagley area and elsewhere in Northern Minnesota.

Of course, that's not to exclude our sound effects man Scott Hanson, house piano man and myself in various roles. Some of the musicians may kick in support here and there, too. Shelly Nowak is back directing the show. Kelly Gustavsson handles our stage lighting and is an associate producer for the show. Dan Houg is the ever-vital lord of sound. Mary Bue is filling in on house piano as our resident construction laborer/piano virtuoso Nickolai Koivunen builds up enough seniority in his new job to get Saturdays off. We're lucky she was already booked in our show.

Again, join us in Bagley or on the radio.

There was a time I had a close relationship with my bike. When I lived in town I rode it to work, to interviews, to the Rotary meetings. My last night at the paper before I went to grad school, I rode the bike round and round over the thread bare carpet of the Hibbing Daily Tribune until the sports guy finished his pages.

That year I rode the Mesabi Trail's big annual summer ride and did this sort of Dukes of Hazard move on the bike, bending the front wheel. I wobbled past the finish line but never got it fixed. We moved to the country. I got a fat tire dirt bike for getting the mail and I never did fix my cross bike, which was fantastic on both pavement and some gravel.

This might be the year. Get your bikes tuned. I like to bring mine to Bikes on Howard in Hibbing. That's not an ad; that's an earned mention. I just have to remember to bring it along when I go in for work one of these days.

As you can see from the below Iron Range Tourism article, the Range's premier recreational trail beckons.

Ridership on the Mesabi Trail is on the rise.

It's coming! The spring edition of my Great Northern Radio Show hits the stage of the Bagley High School auditorium and airwaves of Northern Community Radio this upcoming Saturday, March 9. The show airs from 5-7 p.m. and free tickets are still available by calling KAXE at 800-662-5799. Find out more about the show and make plans to join us in Bagley, in your car, in your living room or through an app on your phone that puts the FFFFFFFMMMMMM! in FM radio.

I've been showcasing some of the talent we have lined up for the show this week. Next up, "The Bemidji Kid" Sonny Johnson, who made his radio debut on our show last year at show at the Chief Theater and has been building a solid musical reputation for himself since. Last summer, Sonny walked into the Reif Center Talent Show in Grand Rapids and took the top prize with this song, which he wrote for our June show in Brainerd:



As part of that contest, Sonny got to open for Roy Clark at the Reif later last year.

One of the two seals that escaped from the Lake Superior Zoo during last year's historic flooding in Duluth has died. Here's the teaser for the AP story at the top of yesterday's Hibbing Daily Tribune.

I share this because there's a lot going on here. The top head is what you tell the kids. The subhead is for the adults. He ran away kids. And this time they couldn't catch him. He's free. He's free.

The top right sky box on the Hibbing Daily Tribune has been very entertaining lately. I shared a couple weeks ago how they teased Dear Abby there one day. Well, they did it again a week later, only with the headline: "Advice Column." Just that. The words themselves.

Well, I suppose that's what it is. Why beat around the bush?

Flop away, seal. Flop away.

It's coming! The spring edition of my Great Northern Radio Show hits the stage of the Bagley High School auditorium and airwaves of Northern Community Radio this upcoming Saturday, March 9. The show airs from 5-7 p.m. and free tickets are still available by calling KAXE at 800-662-5799. Find out more about the show and make plans to join us in Bagley, in your car, in your living room or through those giant headphones that are so hip* and cool**.

I've been showcasing some of the talent we have lined up for the show this week. Next up, Mary Bue, the Duluth-based singer/songwriter/pianist who'll be on the show with guitar accompaniment by Kyle Maclean.

In addition to playing several of her original tunes, Mary will be filling in for our own Nickolai Koivunen on house piano, providing the lively soundtrack people seem to enjoy in our odd little program. Nickolai got a job working as a boomer on a power plant shutdown. Unlike us, he will be harnessed to some kind of pulley system, banging on metal objects with what I can only presume will be a giant wrench of some sort. Careful with the hands, Nickolai. Careful with the hands.

Here's Mary singing one of my favorite songs of hers on the WDSE-TV show "The Playlist" in 2012.




* dope
** smackdaddy

Last May, a motorist plowed their car into a greeting card shop in downtown Virginia, Minnesota, producing this sarcastic offering from yours truly. (example: "I spent hours trying to pick the best car but ended up just sending this one.")

Well, it's starting even earlier this year, as this morning a motorist ran into the front window of a furniture store in this same Iron Range city. No one was hurt. Personally, I blame global warming.

Now, furniture jokes are a tougher medium because you don't have the car/card pun to work with. But here goes:

Read more

As we've already discussed, Duluth Mayor Don Ness delivered his annual State of the City address via video this year. The film was released last night and you can see it here:



Ness wanted to discuss the impact of last year's floods and used video tools to explore the devastation and recovery.

The State of the City address was unveiled last night at Clyde Iron Works in Duluth, a popular live music venue and unmitigated hipster pit, further cementing Ness's reputation as the Hipster King of the Zenith City.

We know from experience that mining is a boom and bust industry. Why, even the speculative future of mining is boom and bust! It all depends on who you talk to.

Here, MPR's Dan Kraker explores the dynamic of potential new mining near the eastern Mesabi Iron Range. You can (and should) listen to the story here:



I pulled the following selection from the story, however, to illustrate two points of view that I view as most relevant to how Iron Rangers think about these projects. This is not to dismiss environmental concerns about mining, but rather to show you mindset of most Range voters, who balance the memories that mining is not secure with the reality that when it is, everything is easier.

"We have hundreds of years of history with mining. It's staring us in the face on the Iron Range or the Upper Peninsula or Butte, Montana," [Univ. of Montanta economics professor Thomas] Power said. "How is it that despite the high wages, and despite the incredible wealth pulled out of the ground, these areas are not prosperous?"

In St. Louis County, where most Minnesota mining is concentrated, the unemployment rate of 6.6 percent is more than a point higher than the statewide average of 5.4 percent. The county's poverty rate of 16.2 percent is the sixth highest rate in Minnesota, well above the state average of 10.1 percent. Many Iron Range communities have seen their populations shrink.

But to people like Jim Lassi, a City Council member in Babbitt, a small town near two proposed copper-nickel mines by PolyMet and Twin Metals, that's exactly the reason these new projects are so desperately needed.

"So many of our small businesses are struggling," he said. "We're really counting on this to get this influx of people to stabilize our economy and boost us up."

Lassi said Babbitt is already making plans for a possible boom by updating its comprehensive plan to prepare for new housing developments and upgrades to utilities and other services. He thinks Babbitt could grow to around 3,000 residents.

"I think that would be max," he said. "That would mean we'd have to double."

These little towns talk about seeing their populations double while their schools lose enrollment, drop programs and their downtown areas crumble. That, in a ever flippin' nutshell, is my problem with mining politics. Will the mining promises pan out? Well, they might. But short of the kind of explosive boom seen here 100 years ago coupled with the political will to extract public dollars from mining profits, it's not likely as rosy as advertised.

I viewed with great interest this Tom Hansell and Patricia Beaver post on The Daily Yonder, "Life After Coal: Does Wales Point the Way?" Yes, coal and iron are very different elements, but their economics have ties.

Hansell and Beaver share this short video comparing South Wales with Appalachia, which is fascinating for many reasons (look at the remarkable similarities in landscapes and try your very best to follow along with BOTH Kentucky and Welsh accents):



But the video, and the post, and indeed this whole discussion ends not with a definitive answer about how mining regions become diversified and self-sufficient, but rather with the soft sounds of wind blowing over hills that are finally turning green again. Some folks pointing at computer screens here and there. But mostly the wind and the hills. A canvas.

It's coming! The spring edition of my Great Northern Radio Show hits the stage of the Bagley High School auditorium and airwaves of Northern Community Radio this upcoming Saturday, March 9. The show airs from 5-7 p.m. and free tickets are still available by calling KAXE at 800-662-5799. Find out more about the show and make plans to join us in Bagley, in your car, in your living room or through those tiny ear bud things that have grown so popular since the advent of "computing" devices.

I'll be showcasing some of the talent we have lined up for the show all week. First up, the Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank. They've got a new album out and will be sharing several new songs and some of their classics. These brothers, Teague and Ian Alexi, are a real force in the Minnesota music scene, both as the Hobo Nephews and in their solo careers. Here they are singing on the WDSE-TV show "The Playlist" in 2010.

Here's an interesting item I received from Beth Pierce at Iron Range Tourism:

Biwabik landowner wants to put farm into production
 
Shawn Callahan is looking for a few good farmers.
 
Callahan, who owns and operates Green Gate Guest House, a sustainably built guest cottage near Biwabik, is hoping to put new life into his historic farmstead.
 
“I’m reaching out to community members who have farming experience, but no land, and would like to use this property for gardens and even livestock,” Shawn explained. “There’s great agricultural potential for this property, but I simply don’t have the time or knowledge to work the land at this point.”
 
According to Shawn, the land was a 13-acre working farm for nearly a century. Infrastructure, such as fencing, a chicken coop, a rainwater collection system, and fruit and berry orchards are already in place.
Callahan doesn’t wish to profit from the land, just put it to use.  “For the right person or group, this is a great opportunity,” Shawn said.
 
A U.S. Department of Agriculture Seasonal High Tunnel Initiative grant sweetens the deal. Callahan recently received the grant to help construct a commercial-sized greenhouse designed to help improve plant and soil quality, extend growing seasons, and reduce nutrient and pesticide transportation.  
 
The person or group who fits best with Shawn’s hope for the property will be in good company with other farmers/producers. Despite northern Minnesota’s relatively short growing season, more than 50 local growers can be found in the region. Their operations range from Cami Kolstad’s organically grown garden produce and gourmet preserves in Soudan and Mirror Lake Beesworks’ honey, candy, syrup and wild rice, to Tom and Danyel Fillipovich’s Eveleth-area heritage breed chickens and turkeys or the MooNeigh Farm’s natural garden produce in Goodland.
 
“There is a thriving and, literally, growing movement across the country to embrace sustainability,” said Ardy Nurmi-Wilberg, Virginia resident and board member for the Northeast Minnesota Regional Sustainable Development Partnership with the University of Minnesota. “It’s no different in northern Minnesota. There are many existing growers and a lot of really great projects and initiatives to promote local foods and a variety of other sustainability topics. Whether it’s the wind mills in Mountain Iron or solar panels at the Hibbing library or even interest by regional restaurants to incorporate locally grown food in their menus, northeastern Minnesota isn’t shying away from this great combination of technology and tradition.”
 
The sustainability movement has more implications than renewable energy, waste reduction or healthy food. Regional job creation and even tourism are impacted.
 
“For a lot of people, experiencing local cuisine is an important part of travel, and knowing something is locally produced makes it even more attractive to visitors and residents alike,” said Beth Pierce, director of Iron Range Tourism Bureau in Eveleth. “It can really be a win for restaurants to incorporate locally grown products into their menus, and for tourists who are after a unique dining experience.”
 
For Callahan, letting the right person or group put the land to good use could mean another source of locally grown food for those who live on the Iron Range, and those who visit.

For more information, contact beth@ironrange.org.

This is my Sunday column for the March 3, 2013 edition of the Hibbing Daily Tribune.

It’s the Minnesota spring that gets you, not winter
By Aaron J. Brown

It’s March. I think all the snowbirds are gone by now. So let’s speak freely, shall we?

I don’t mind that people head south for the winter. Of course, I actually do, but I’m willing to forgive. People have the money to have two homes and spend part of their retirement someplace warm? Fine. Not my preference, but not my business.

Nevertheless, I went up the wall when I saw a local TV news affiliate in Duluth do an actual feature series on people who spend these later winter months in Arizona. The reporter used Skype to talk to pleasant-looking retired couples on the computer. On one hand, people were interacting via video phone calls just like in “2001: A Space Odyssey.” On the other, they were mostly talking about the weather and awkwardly describing their unremarkable lives. This is why science fiction is so popular. Science nonfiction usually turns out this way.

Guess what the big story was? It’s warm in Arizona. But it’s nice up here in the summer and kind of hot in Arizona then, so what you really ought to do is live two places. “Arizona” is also spelled differently than “Minnesota” and has its own distinct state government. Fun fact: “Arizona” backwards is “Anozira.”

But why stop there? If you can afford three places, add a coastal retreat in North Carolina or perhaps Oregon for the in-between times. Four places, you’ll really want a city bungalow of some sort, for the theater season. Five places, if you can swing it, then you want an island, ideally one situated outside the purvey of government, a sort of tax shelter and refuge for when you need to run ships through the blockade and build your MechaFortress in the shape of your own face.

Perhaps I digress. I don’t mind the existence of snowbirds. I mind watching stories about them on the local news that they themselves cannot watch because they are not here. Are you trying to sell us on the idea of moving away? Has it come to this?

I reject such a notion. Global warming is real. I am patient. Arizona will move to me long before I ever live there.

March is the grumpy season. Little things set us off. Like the TV. Is it like this everywhere? I don’t know. It’s like this here. The snow looks like the oily, sparkly discharge from the back end of a broken-down glitter machine. It’s warm enough to make things wet, but not warm enough to melt away the snow. How is this possible? The water came from somewhere? It came from hell. That is the answer. You can’t drink it, swim in it or use it for cooking. It’s hell water from the month of March.

It’s time to brighten things up. “Spring Break” is almost here, even if “spring” is two months away. March is Minnesota’s reminder that we have made choices in life that do not reflect the normal behavior of human populations, huddling around temperate coastal regions. We are different. This is a blessing. This is a curse.

We could spend our winters in Arizona, I suppose. We know lots of people who do. Nice people. It could happen to anyway, I suppose. March in Minnesota breaks people, like a stallion scampering in the shadow of a glue factory.

We are alive and we have not succumbed yet. Not yet. Not ever, so far as we can help it.

Aaron J. Brown is an author and community college instructor from the Iron Range. He writes the blog MinnesotaBrown.com and hosts 91.7 KAXE’s Great Northern Radio Show on public stations. The next program airs live from the Bagley High School auditorium on Saturday, March 9. Find out how to listen or get free tickets at KAXE.org.