"Pointergate" @kstptv.bsky.social can't resist fake outrage stories about light rail. First it was about how it would cause crime, then about how the NIMBYs need a tunnel, then about alleged fraud, now it's about signals. Not even 2 brain cells to rub together by anyone in this entire story.

#OnThisDay Dec 24, 1889: Electric streetcars begin operating in Minneapolis for the first time, over the 4th Ave Line from the downtown railway stations to E 34th Street. The city already had 67 miles of horsecar lines, the conversion to electricity would see track mileage double in just 2 years.

#OnThisDay Dec 24 1947: Switchboard operators Adele Gagnon and Anne Westby handling the crush of Christmas Eve telephone traffic at the Northwestern Bell central offices in downtown Minneapolis.

This is a great piece on municipal taxation and Tom is known for cogent analysis and compelling writing. My favorite line? "Yes! You’re so smart I could vomit." The City of St. Paul is lucky to have him.

Sept 22 1933: Dr. Joseph Goebbels creates a new umbrella organization to regulate all film, music, theater, press, literary, and fine arts institutions. The Reich Chamber of Culture soon exerts control over all cultural life as Hitler declares a "merciless war" on works that "insult German feeling"

"Captain, they're now locking lasers on us." "Lasers? Lasers can't even penetrate our navigation shields, don't they know that?

You're not allowed to have any fun in Northfield, MN.

Happy lutefisk hotline season to all who celebrate.

#OnThisDay Dec 22, 1858 Philadelphia-born educator Edward Neill dedicates the 1st House of Hope Presbyterian Church in St. Paul. After merging with another church, the congregation moves to a magnificent gothic revival building on Summit Ave in 1914. The original site now has a primo view of I-35E.

#OnThisDay Dec 21: The winter solstice is listed in the "Minnesota Year Book for 1853," a combination travel guide, calendar, and weather almanac designed for recent immigrants to the Territory. Times are local and about an hour off, as standard Railroad Time would not be introduced until 1883.

#OnThisDay Dec 20, 1981: Last game at Metropolitan Stadium before the @vikings.bsky.social move to the Metrodome. After @chiefs.bsky.social win 10-6, Minnesota fans storm onto the field, tear down the goalposts, rip out seats, and take souvenirs in an unhinged conclusion to the stadium's history.

#OnThisDay Dec 20 2017: The last Delta Airlines Boeing 747 performs a low go-around before making its final landing at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport. A homecoming of sorts, the jumbo jet was originally purchased by Northwest Airlines in 1999. It is retired in Atlanta later that day.

March 1933: Dozens of historic places across Germany, including the Main Market Square in Nuremberg, Central Stadium in Stuttgart, and prestigious institutions such as the Martin Luther School, are renamed for Adolph Hitler. They all returned to their original names after the fall of the regime.

November 18 1943: The Minneapolis Tribune leads with "Snow Stops Buses, Not Trolleys" after a storm snarls traffic and causes buses to slide off the road. The Twin Cities Rapid Transit streetcar system is the only reliable thing moving.

The new E Line BRT still has some things to work out and it's a little slow, but frequency is king and it's also busy! You love to see it

#OnThisDay Dec 18 1985: A milestone in medical history, Mary Lund becomes the first woman in the world to receive a Jarvik-7 artificial heart at Abbott-Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. After 45 days she receives a human heart via transplant and survives. The device becomes a media sensation.

Not everything was better in the past, but Minneapolis City Council Chambers were definitely better in the past. Although recent renovations cleaned up the space and restored a few historic features, the high arched ceilings, fan windows, and chandeliers have not been. #RETVRN

#OnThisDay Dec 17, 1915: Four entrepreneurs driving miners around the Minnesota Iron Range join forces to form Mesaba Transportation Co, becoming Greyhound Bus Lines in 1930. By 1935 it carried 652 million passengers annually, surpassing the railroads as the nation's largest passenger provider.

#OnThisDay Dec 17 1929: Minneapolis Arena at 2900 Dupont Ave S is decorated for the season. When built in 1924, the 5500 seat Arena was a spectacle of its era, home of the Ice Follies, the Minneapolis Millers hockey teams, and roller skating. It was demolished in 1966 to make way for Cub Foods.

POV when Hill and Lake Press, the new state-sponsored media organ of Minneapolis Ward 7, announces the first act of the Shaffer-Goodman dynasty: launching an ICBM at @wedge.live

#OnThisDay Dec 16 1884: Minneapolis machinist William H. Fruen obtains the 1st US Patent for a device which discharges liquid uniformly when a coin is inserted. In 1894 he founds Glenwood-Inglewood Springs, a major Midwest water supplier until the 1990s. Today @utepilsbrewing.com stands on the site.

#OnThisDay Dec 16 1933: Demolition begins on the Old Minneapolis Armory. Built in 1906, it was an imposing castle-like building set amid attractive formal gardens fronting Lyndale Avenue South. Today the block is the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden, site of the famous Spoonbridge & Cherry.

#OnThisDay Dec 16 1946: At least a dozen sticks of dynamite destroy the front of famed Stouffer's Restaurant, blowing out 70 windows in surrounding buildings and leaving a hole in the street. No one is injured. A local mobster is suspected but no motive or culprit is ever found.

#OnThisDay Dec 15 1946: WTCN's new mast is completed atop Foshay Tower. One of Minnesota's oldest radio stations founded in 1925, in this heyday it was a top news outlet owned by both Twin Cities big newspapers. Later it fell on a series of owners, formats and troubles known as "The Fiasco at 1280"

#OnThisDay Dec 15-16 1864: The Battle of Nashville. Suffering high causalities, five Minnesota regiments play a crucial role in a major Union victory and destruction of Gen John Bell Hood's entire Army, effectively ending the American Civil War in the Western theater.

What @startribune.com choses to post on different platforms is interesting. Over at X dot com their vibe is much different than on Bsky. Publisher Steve Grove recently said how proud he was that none of his management team have a journalism background. It shows, because this is not journalism:

#OnThisDay Dec 13 1931: While standing at the anemometer on the roof of the Minneapolis Federal Building, "Miss Santa Claus" is informed by US Weather Bureau forecaster Ulysses Purssell that the year will have White Christmas. By December 25, 1931, there is no measurable snow on the ground.

#OnThisDay Dec 13 1994: Met Sports Center in Bloomington is demolished, almost. The televised implosion of the former home of the Minnesota North Stars is a bust and leaves much of the building still standing. It's later brought down with heavy equipment.

#OnThisDay Dec 13 1947: Christmas shopping crowds in front of Dayton's Department store at Nicollet Avenue and 7th Street in downtown Minneapolis.

Minneapolis at 10pm: clear skies, -4° F, wind 12 mph from west northwest, wind chill -23° F. The Great River has frozen over.

Modern recreation of Charles Minard's famous diagram of Napoleon's withdrawal from Russia in the winter of 1812-13.

We really need an annual awards program for this like the Emmy's or Golden Globes, voted on by community and adjudicated by @taylordahlin.com, then broadcast by @wedge.live at a winter-themed summer gala held at the Dayton's Project.

In 1965 Marina City DID once have a gigantic antenna up top. Then in 1968 a second even bigger one!

#OnThisDay Dec 12, 2010 at 5:00am: The inflatable teflon roof of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis tears open and deflates under the weight of 17" snowstorm. The @vikings.bsky.social vs @newyorkgiants.bsky.social game is postponed and moved to Ford Field in Detroit.

Rochelle from Edina @startribune.com would like you to observe decorum while ICE terrorizes the community. In the long run, courts will sort everything out. She recommends carrying a passport when outside, just in case.

At least 100 trumpeter swans could be seen from the north shore of Minneapolis' Lake Harriet while making a migratory stop to feed, preen and rest Wednesday afternoon. 📷️ Aaron Lavinsky/The Minnesota Star Tribune

#OnThisDay Dec 11, 1970: University of Minnesota agronomist Norman E. Borlaug receives the Nobel Peace Prize for his work hybridizing wheat to increase crop yields. Known as the "father of the green revolution," he is credited with saving over a billion people from starvation worldwide.

#OnThisDay Dec 11 1956: After the City of St Paul evicts the residents of Swede Hollow, a shantytown in the railroad trench on downtown's eastern edge, the buildings are burned to the ground by the Fire Department. 1000s of immigrants from many backgrounds had lived in this place since 1850.

A night of celebrities at Pizza Luce. First I met @omarfatehmn.com (not pictured), then Fanny Pack, the famous dog from @palmersman.bsky.social (pictured) and her artist owner (partially pictured). A true politician, the second I raised the camera Fanny Pack crossed her little legs in a pose.

#OnThisDay Dec 10, 1966: Minneapolis native James Arness, famous for his role as marshal Matt Dillon in the second Western-themed television series ever written for adults, appears on the cover of TV Guide.

#OnThisDay Dec 10 1897: Workers rush to repair the wooden apron covering St Anthony Falls after another washout. Since a tunnel collapse in 1869, damage to the Falls due to heavy industrialization was a constant maintenance headache until a massive concrete face was poured by the Army Corps in 1950.

All's quiet after the storm

This puts me in mind of the famous Poo Poo Pee Pee sign on Stinson Blvd. I hear tell that it sometimes changes year to year. I wonder what the beautiful Christmas message will be this year?

#OnThisDay Dec 8 1886: After a contested vote, residents of Browns Valley MN brawl in the streets with those from Wheaton MN over possession of the Traverse County records. 100s of people are involved, one shot is fired, no injuries reported. 3 years later the matter is resolved in favor of Wheaton.

I feel like the Reformer chose a generic office building photo that kinda buries the lede:

I'm thoroughly convinced the interior of the @startribune.com building is now just a handful of 1st year marketing interns and the office cleaners, who's job it is to take corporate press releases they randomly find in the trash and copy-paste them into the website.

#OnThisDay Dec 8 1966: Celebration Mass as St. Mary's Basilica is dedicated Co-Cathedral of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, completing Archbishop John Ireland's 1880's vision of a merged Twin Cities. If they would not be joined physically, they were at least now as one spiritually.

#OnThisDay Dec 7, 1973: After 3 years of reconstruction, Minneapolis Public Works officials take a first ride across the iconic 1923 Franklin Avenue Bridge in a 1923 Ford Model T. When built, the bridge was the largest single concrete span in the world.

And here's when the E-Line ribbon finally gives way to big scissors, with US Senators @amyklobuchar.com and @smith.senate.gov, State Sen Scott Dibble, Rep @katiejonesmpls.bsky.social, Hennepin County Chair Irene Fernando, and happy retirees Rep Frank Hornstein and Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle.

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