DULUTH — The old Sears Diehard TV commercials always intrigued me as a kid. A snow-encased car would stand sentry on top of a frozen lake in International Falls during January, February and March … and then miraculously start and drive away thanks to that Diehard car battery.
That frozen lake and desolate landscape in International Falls seemed as remote as the ice caps on Mars. “Why would anyone want to live there,” I thought as that commercial played.
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Well, I never quite made it to International Falls, but I am in the midst of my 30th Minnesota/Wisconsin winter. And most of them make those Lower Peninsula Michigan winters seem merely like chilly spring days.
Temperatures such as 24 below zero recorded at my house Tuesday morning (with windchills in the minus 40s) don’t seem possible — science fiction numbers — until I stepped onto the deck on that frigid morning and the frozen wood responded with a crack as loud as gunfire. Not only did my face immediately begin to freeze (Why did I shave today?), but my eyeballs seemed to be iced stiff inside my eye sockets, and Essie the puggle limped back into the house with polar-capped paws.
Is it safe for a human being to be outside on a day like this? Will my car start?
It did, and the Beach Boys kept me company on my commute (the “All Summer Long” album, naturally) — for moral support.
After a couple of days of high and low temperatures with a minus symbol in front of them, eventually those temps crawled north of the meteorological Mendoza line — zero.
But, hey, warmer days are ahead. It’s 2 degrees as I write this. My eyeballs and dog can both move freely now, and Old Man Winter hasn’t conquered my car battery yet.
A Dylan museum in Duluth?
Bob Dylan devotees have long wondered why Duluth doesn’t do more to honor their famous native son.
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DNT A&E reporter Jay Gabler is curious, too.
As he writes, “Grand Rapids glories in its status as the birthplace of Judy Garland. Minneapolis celebrates Prince with towering murals, and his Chanhassen studio complex is now a museum. There’s even a Glenn Frey statue standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona. Our city, as the birthplace and early childhood home of the only popular musician to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, has three manhole covers. There are also signs marking ‘Bob Dylan Way’ — which is not, to be clear, an official street name.”
The answer is probably blowin’ in the wind.
Presidential visits to the Northland
Several presidents have visited the Twin Ports over the years, including the two most recent commanders-in-chief, Trump and Biden.
Cold, cold cosmos
Leave it to Astro Bob to put Duluth’s recent deep freeze in interstellar perspective.
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So, even when the Northland woke up Tuesday to temperatures hovering around minus 25 with wind chills in the minus 40s, Astro Bob felt warm and cozy compared to temperatures outside the International Space Station (minus 250 when not in direct sunlight).
The asteroid pictured above is much, much colder, according to Astro Bob.
Not only can no one hear you scream in space, no one can hear you freeze solid in space.
Catch a wave
Here are a few more stories from the past week to check out:
- Following up: Police reforms slow to materialize in Duluth (Subscriber-only story)
- Federal funds drying up?: Trump executive order raises uncertainty over Blatnik project
- Dylan biopic goes for gold: Timothée Chalamet, ‘Complete Unknown’ land major Oscar nominations
- Whatever happened to the old DNT building?: Duluth Public Schools lays out $12M plans for First Street center
- Photos: Great gray owl visits Two Harbors
- In a related story: 20 years ago, great gray owls came to Northland in large numbers
- Powerhouse matchup: Duluth Marshall girls basketball outlasts ‘hungry’ Proctor (Subscriber-only story)
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