Today I learned that there was once a proposal to construct a sixth Great Lake. The idea was that it would make construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway easier, reduce dredging costs and provide more water to Chicago.

I was going to post a thought about the Right to Repair question on the ballot in Duluth next week, but the single-sentence question is 255 characters too long to post here. My thought is that the question is probably too complicated for the average person to understand.

Be careful of which hat you buy for your kid, lest they look FREAKISH.

We've been so pleased with the reception for episode one of the @duluthnewstribune.com five-part podcast about the Edmund Fitzgerald: nothing but five-star ratings on Apple Podcasts. Episode two is out today.

Last week I reduced my phone screen time by 70% and I think this is the secret to happiness.

This 1955 wire story that ran in the DNT, touting how a 14-year-old killed 300 animals while on safari in Africa, should leave no doubt as to why certain animals are endangered.

There’s a bee in our yard whose jam seems to be attacking other bees when they land on the flowers. We’ve named her Re-bee-na George.

I'm really thankful we have AI to provide 30-word summaries of 30-word emails.

I feel like we used to celebrate, or at least be a bit more OK with, misfits and standouts in public. Today, people seem to be way more isolated and afraid of anything outside a very narrow norm.

I want to get into the psychology of people who tag the media when posting political memes. Like: “Journalists! Investigate what this Minion is saying!”

Municipal elections are wild. Candidates will claim there are no photos of them and they don’t know how to get one, or they will submit a pinky-nail-sized photo that’s 12 dpi, or a photo so heavily filtered that they barely look human.

I was trying to identify a native bee in my yard and discovered the whimsical names of bee species: Perplexing Bumble Bee, Unequal Cellophane Bee, Modest Masked Bee, Metallic Epauletted Sweat Bee and Neighborly Mining Bee to name a few.

Ozzy performed in Duluth in 1982 and on Easter Sunday in 1984. He had opinions on England's tax rates.

Spreadsheets are not the lined notebook paper version of docs.

Freeze Pops aren’t nearly as fun once you know about microplastics.

I agree with Gen Z about at least one thing: The phrase “you’re welcome” is awkward and weird, and it sometimes comes off a bit rude.

It's now legal for motorcycles to split and filter lanes. Considering the backlash about zipper merging and roundabouts, I can't wait to see what the keyboard warriors think about this.

Today, I got a sneaking suspicion that a Facebook commenter was an AI bot. A reverse image search revealed approximately 25 accounts across various social channels, all with different names, that used the same profile picture.

I'm a big believer in the zipper merge, but one thing I recently learned is that you're not supposed to merge in front of a semi. Though there's usually a lot of space in front of them, they need that space to stop if they have to.

You may know that Garry Bjorklund was the first winner of Grandma's Marathon, but who was the first person to come in last? Well, here you go. Bonus in this story: A guy who decided to run after downing a bunch of beers the night before, and finished in the middle of the pack.

I can't decide if I want to get my news from a Facebook group that mainly posts about lost pets, or from a 17-year-old on TikTok who starts every video with "Guys, we have some breaking news right now ..."

Please remember today that when chaotic events like this happen, misinformation runs rampant. Pause and follow your intellect, not your emotions, as you analyse and share details about this incident.

I wish people who comment on crime stories understood this.

If you want a Northlander to stop talking about the 1991 Halloween blizzard, just change the subject to forest tent caterpillars.

All of this is from the June 1, 1991, Duluth News Tribune. Duluth's manufacturing labor costs remain too high for it to compete with most cities in the region. While costs are competitive with those in the Twin Cities, they are significantly higher than those in Sioux Falls and St. Cloud.

An interesting bit of psychology is that online readers absolutely will not read a news story that isn’t accompanied by a photo.

When people defend this by saying "it was a different time," I suspect they do not consider the opinions and experiences of those who faced discrimination at that time to be valid.

Today I learned about the 1998 Leslie Niesen movie "Wrongfully Accused," which features character names such as Lt. Fergus Falls, Cass Lake, Hibbing Goodhue, Dr. Fridley and Sgt. Orono.

If you've ever posted the words "cry harder" on social media, you're not a good person.

RIP to George Wendt, whose 2011 performance in "Re-Animator: The Musical" at the Steve Allen Theater is something I still think about all the time.

One of the (unintentionally) funniest comments I ever read unironically claimed that no one goes to Canal Park because it’s too crowded down there.

Witnessing laughter amid tears at a northern Minnesota bar that's become a refuge and resource center during wildfires.

What would happen if a Minnesota governor didn't want to go fishing on the opener?

Questions asked of Duluth sixth graders in a 1925 intelligence test:

When I was a student at Denfeld, we were repeatedly told that other schools having their graduation ceremonies at the DECC was uncouth, while ours, in our stately gothic auditorium, was tasteful and sophisticated. It's hard, even today, to shake this indoctrination.

People bring out the pitchforks regarding serial (Oxford) commas, but I believe in AP Style: - Use commas to separate elements in a series, but do not put a comma before the conjunction in most simple series. - Include a final comma in a simple series if omitting it could make the meaning unclear.

I recently learned that 911 service is not nearly as old as I thought. Duluth got it in 1976. Superior and Carlton County got it in 1980.

It's taken me an embarrassingly long time (my entire life so far) to realize that Central Entrance is named such because it's the central entrance to the city, which also has entrances on the east and west ends.

The victim was stabbed more than 30 times before his apartment was set on fire, charges say.

On this Easter Sunday, please enjoy this DNT photo from 1999, when feral domestic rabbits overtook Park Point.

Shoutout to the guy at the WLSSD yard waste site shoveling loose compost into the back seat of his Toyota Corolla.

FACTS.

1/ ❌ NO: These photos do not show a 12-year-old named Shelly Sheridan who went missing in England. ✔️ They show a 16-year-old who briefly went missing in Kentucky in January. 🔗 Posts about missing kids or other emotionally charged topics that go viral are often online scams: bit.ly/ShellyHoax

“Since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, anyone can pose as an expert with minimal effort. Existing journo request platforms have attempted to combat this with AI content detection tools, but these have proven woefully inadequate.”

This must have been incredibly traumatic for this family. And if it happened to them, I'm guessing it happened to others who never saw each other again.

If you've read my daily history thingy in the Duluth News Tribune and wished it was way longer and way darker, well, I have something for you.

Getting ahead of misconceptions: These are not “army worms” nor are they “forest tent caterpillars.” They are invasive. And the spray won’t hurt you, your pets, bees or butterflies.

Emblematic of so many things: I saw a commenter claim that not only should the downtown Duluth Subway close, but all Subway restaurants should close because the commenter is gluten-free and Subway doesn't have an option for them.

The world needs more photos like this 1998 shot from the DNT's Renee Knoeber at Ray's Place, a burger joint formerly at 5231 E. Superior St.

I associated A&E's long-running cop reality show "The First 48" with re-run marathons. But when I learned that it was mentioned as a factor in the 2024 exoneration of a man convicted of murder in Minnesota, the state I live in and cover, I perked right up. Thread 🧵