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Sunday Bulletin Board: The key to fixing stuff: A good, firm slap of the hand!

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:54 GMT

Then & NowRUSTY of St. Paul: “When I was growing up, in the late 1950s and 1960s, we had an old, heavy Admiral TV. It had a black steel cabinet which sat up on legs. It had tubes that had to warm up before the image on the screen appeared.“Often the vertical hold would goof up, so that we had a pile of lines moving from the bottom of the screen to the top. There was a vertical hold knob to twist to adjust the problem, but sometimes it didn’t quite solve the issue. In those cases, either my dad or we boys would slap the right side of the box with an open hand as hard as we could . . . and that usually was the ticket.“Fast-forward to last week. I was having trouble with our P.O. box at the post office in the small town in northern Wisconsin where we live for half the year. I could open the door with the key as usual, but when I locked it shut, I could then open it with my fingernail placed under the corner of the door. But then I couldn’t close the do...

Muzzleloader hunter made second shot count to drop three-antlered trophy buck

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:54 GMT

They say the world belongs to those who show up.In this case it’s a very rare deer that belongs to Chase Mortenson for showing up.It’s a funky-looking deer at that, with a third and middle antler that gave this buck the moniker of “unicorn.” Mortenson, of Madison, Minn., dropped the 11-point buck around 4:45 p.m. Sunday just west of Granite Falls.It was the second day of the muzzleloader deer season. Chase Mortenson had taken up an invitation from his uncle Scott Mortenson to come out and hunt on his land between the city of Granite Falls and the Granite Falls Energy plant.Chase said his brother declined the invitation to come out with him, and regrets it now.Had his brother came out, Chase said his brother would have been the one in the blind from which he was able to harvest this big buck.As it was, Chase was hunkered down in the blind as strong winds ushered in eye-tearing temperatures. The blustery winds didn’t seem to bother the two big bucks that Mortenson saw around 100 to 15...

Literary calendar for week of Dec. 3

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:54 GMT

FITZGERALD IN ST. PAUL: Fourth in the discussion series featuring Scott Fitzgerald’s short stories, hosted by poet/baker Danny Klecko, concentrates on “The Ice Palace.” One of the St. Paul-born author’s most famous stories, published in 1920, it’s about a Southern belle who visits her fiance’s emotionally cold family during the Winter Carnival and fears she will die when she is lost in the icy depths of the ice palace. The experience convinces her she is not suited to Northern climes and she returns to her sunny home. With guests Tim Nolan, poet and curator of the Readings by Writers series, and Mark Taylor, organizer of Fitzgerald/Summit Avenue walking tours. 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, SubText Bookstore, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul.Jeremy Norton reads from his book “Trauma Sponges: Dispatches From the Scarred Heart of Emergency Response” at 6 p.m. Dec. 7, 2023, at Minnesota Humanities Center in St. Paul. (Courtesy of the author)JEREMY N...

Skywatch: The season to be under the stars

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:54 GMT

No matter what holidays you celebrate this time of year, there’s much to celebrate in the night sky in December. There’s even a little Christmas tree in the night sky that I’ll tell you about in a bit.We have a major and a minor meteor shower this month. It’s the annual Geminid meteor shower. It peaks on the night of Dec. 13-14. No moonlight means lovely dark skies for the Geminids this year, making catching the meteors, even the fainter ones, much easier. I’ll have much more about the Geminids in next week’s column.This year’s winter solstice is on Dec. 21, otherwise known as the official first day of winter. On winter solstice day the sun shines directly over the Tropic of Capricorn on the winter solstice. It’s the longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. From then until late next June, the sun’s path among the backdrop of stars will slowly migrate northward, and the sun will appear higher and higher in the sky in the northern hemisphere, and days will get longer and ...

Repeat copper thefts darken St. Paul streets … and now hamper phone service, too

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:54 GMT

After sundown, James Cowles’ bike ride on Lexington Parkway and past the Como Lakeside Pavilion has become darker than ever.Street lanterns that once illuminated the way now stand useless, the access panels at their bases ripped off to expose electrical wiring that splays out haphazardly like so much spaghetti.Copper wire thieves have made short work of the lighting in and around Como Park, as well as along many of St. Paul’s other parkways and thoroughfares, cloaking much of the city in darkness by 5 p.m. That’s fueled mounting concerns about repair costs, public safety and general aesthetics.Cowles, a web developer who lives off Larpenteur Avenue, recently stopped to snap a picture of the Como Pavilion glowing eerily against the stygian backdrop of its unlit parking lot. Otherwise, “it was really pitch black,” he said, recalling the cloudy, moonless sky. “It was uneasy.”It’s not that pleas for fixes have fallen on deaf ears at City H...

Readers and writers: A trip ‘Up North’ for two great books

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:54 GMT

New books from two Minnesota Book Award-winning authors who live “Up North” are our treat today. Will Weaver, who calls Bemidji home, offers historical fiction with a Norwegian vibe and Douglas Wood, who lives near Sartell, tells in essays of his journey from skinny kid who suffered from ADHD to popular writer and outdoorsman. Both are published by Minnesota presses.“Power and Light”: by Will Weaver (Calumet Editions, $21.99)(Courtesy of Will Weaver.)“Those Haugens are crazy,” Dolly said. ‘”When they finally got power and light, what do they do? They nearly burn down their farm. Then the REA lineman got killed trying to help them rewire, plus one of the younger girls got her arm caught in a wringer washer and broke it. How stupid can you get? And the older brother, he was the one who made Robert the pair of boots that…” — from “Power & Light”The title of Will Weaver’s ninth book, “Power &am...

Ask Amy: Betrayed wife could move on by moving on

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:54 GMT

Dear Amy: My husband let me know that he and our two daughters will be traveling 2,000 miles to celebrate his brother’s 70th birthday, which is two days before my 70th birthday.I am so angry and disappointed that he would do this.His brother and wife have never visited us in our home state.This was all done behind my back, and then after I learned about it, I was told that we would celebrate my birthday sometime in the following month.We’ve had many problems in our marriage, but this feels like the last straw.But I can’t seem to move on.Any ideas on how to move on and get over my anger?— Had ItDear Had It: One way to move on would be to actually move on.Given the way you have described this (topping off a troubled marriage, your husband plans a secret trip with your daughters to celebrate his brother’s landmark birthday, while deliberately ignoring yours), I think you should use their time away to contact a lawyer and educate yourself about your financial prospects, as well as...

Horoscopes Dec. 3, 2023: Julianne Moore, put your energy where it counts

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:54 GMT

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Amanda Seyfried, 38; Bruno Campos, 50; Holly Marie Combs, 50; Julianne Moore, 63.Happy Birthday: Don’t stop focusing until you are satisfied with your results. Don’t trust anyone to take care of your responsibilities for you. Learn from the experience and knowledge you encounter, and you’ll make better decisions. Restrict those who have inconsistent and unsupportive opinions of your plans. Put your energy where it counts, and let your intelligence help you maintain balance and integrity. Everything will fall into place. Your numbers are 6, 14, 22, 29, 33, 41, 45.ARIES (March 21-April 19): Consider making yourself more marketable. An open-minded approach to technology and what’s trending will help you decide what direction is best for you. Discuss your intentions with someone you love, and develop plans that bring you closer to a common goal. 5 starsTAURUS (April 20-May 20): Look at your life and decide what you want to keep and w...

Word Game: Dec. 3, 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:54 GMT

TODAY’S WORD — TRAWLERS (TRAWLERS: TRAWL-ers: Fishing boats that move slowly, trailing a baited line.)Average mark 52 wordsTime limit 60 minutesCan you find 65 or more words in TRAWLERS?TODAY’S WORD — TRAWLERS tale tare teal tear terra trawl trawler rale rare rarest rate rater rawer rawest real rear rest retral alert alter arrest aster wale ware wart waste waster wastrel water weal wear welt west wrest lase laser last least lest earl east sale salt sate sawer seal sear seat slat slate slaw slew stale staler star stare starer steal stew straw strew swale swat swear sweatTo purchase the Word Game book, visit WordGameBooks.com. Order it now for just $5 while supplies last!RULES OF THE GAME:1. Words must be of four or more letters.2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. For example, if “bake” is used, “baked” or “bakes” are not allowed,...

Open secret at climate talks: The top temperature goal is mostly gone

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:30:54 GMT

Leading scientists worldwide delivered a striking dose of reality to the United Nations on Sunday: it’s “becoming inevitable” that countries will miss the ambitious target they set eight years ago for limiting the warming of the Earth.The ominous estimate points to the growing likelihood that global warming will shoot past 1.5 degrees Celsius before the end of this century, inflicting what scientists describe as an overwhelming toll from intensifying storms, drought and heat on people and the economy. It also injects an urgent message into global climate talks in Dubai, where the debate over ramping down fossil fuels is set to flare over the next two weeks.Surpassing the temperature threshold — even temporarily — would be a major blow to the international Paris climate agreement from 2015, which called for nations to keep global temperatures well within 2 degrees Celsius of their preindustrial levels, and within 1.5 degrees if at all possible. The findings come amid climate talks th...