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Skywatch: Celestial dot-to-dot puzzles

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:00:48 GMT

When you gaze upon the night sky, especially in the dark skies of the countryside, you can see all kinds of people and creatures up there. In September, you’ll find a disgraced hunter turned hero, two bears, another mighty hunter chasing the big bear, a swan, a giant scorpion, a dolphin, a harp, a stretched-out dragon, and a winged horse. If you can honestly see all of them as what they’re supposed to be, you either have a great imagination, or you’re a big liar! The vast majority of constellations don’t look like what they’re supposed to be, not even close in some cases.Constellations are just like dot-to-dot puzzles in a kid’s coloring book. Unlike the coloring book, though, the stars that make up the dots vary in brightness, and there are no numbers by the stars. We have to decide what stars to connect with our mind’s eye.(Mike Lynch)Just as people do now, our ancestors tried to make sense of the randomness of the multitude of stars that greeted them every night. They connected t...

Readers and writers: A treasured local poet launches her latest collection

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:00:48 GMT

(Lynx House Press)When Deborah Keenan reads from her new poetry collection Saturday at Hamline University, the Klas Center is sure to be filled with her writing students past and present, fellow poets and friends to listen to Keenan read in her mesmerizing voice from “The Saint of Everything.”Saints hover over many of the poems in Keenan’s 11th book: The Saint of Abandoned Nurseries, the Saint of Maps, the Saints of Common Murders and of Childhood. Her publisher, Lynx House Press, describes this collection as “poems of deep sentiment, and certain collisions of memory and imagination, poems that respect melancholy, and poems that deepen our understanding of betrayal and tenderness. (It is) about decades of thinking, feeling, considering what living might really mean and what a person does or doesn’t do to protect one’s spirit, one’s soul.”There are tough poems here, too, including one in which a couple finds a dead child in a tree, and ...

Denmark Township man raises money for native Morocco after devastating earthquake

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:00:48 GMT

As soon as Hassan Sahouani heard the news about an earthquake hitting his native country of Morocco, he called his sister in Marrakech.Jamila Sahouani immediately began sending videos of the damage caused by the 6.8-magnitude quake. At least 2,900 people are reported to have died in the Sept. 8 earthquake, but the death toll continues to rise as search and rescue teams comb through mountains of rubble.“It’s a disaster,” said Sahouani, who lives in Denmark Township in southern Washington County. “Nobody can prepare for this, especially with a magnitude of 6.8. People are not prepared, and no government can be prepared for something like that because it’s overwhelming.”Sahouani’s niece, Romaysa Sahouani, teaches French and Arabic in a mountain village near the epicenter. Five of her colleagues were killed in the earthquake, and the school no longer exists, he said.Damage done to the apartment building where Hassan Sahouani’s niece, Romaysa Sahouani, lived in Mo...

Finn Sisu founder hands off ski shop to longtime employees after 45 years

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:00:48 GMT

If you cross-country ski in Minnesota, you’ve probably heard of Ahvo Taipale, the Finnish founder of Finn Sisu and former coach of the University of Minnesota women’s Nordic ski team.An icon in the Nordic ski community both in Minnesota and abroad, Taipale decided to sell his ski and sauna shop this summer after a 45-year run. Finn Sisu now belongs to three longtime employees: Karen Weium, Tom Novak and Nate Rhode.Weium said it took about 2½ years for the trio to buy out Taipale, who was looking for his next adventure in life.“I am pushing 80 years of age and I think it is time that younger people run the show,” Taipale said, adding that he “enjoyed every minute of it.”From left, Karen Weium, Tom Novak and Nate Rhode officially took over Finn Sisu in Lauderdale in July. Longtime owner Ahvo Taipale is at right. (Courtesy of Finn Sisu)Born in Finland, Taipale said he learned how to cross-country ski at the age of 2 and it was his main form of transportation to ...

Literary calendar for week of Sept. 17

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:00:48 GMT

GARY HEYN: Presents “Standing at the Grave: A Family’s Journey from the Grand Duchy of Posen to the Prairies of North Dakota” in conversation with Carla Hagen. 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 19, SubText Books, 6 W. Fifth St., St. Paul.Jacqueline Holland (Courtesy of the author)JACQUELINE HOLLAND: Minnesotan discusses her debut novel “The God of Endings,” chosen by six publications as one of the most anticipated of the season. It tells the story of Collette, headmistress of an exclusive arts school in upstate New York. She is a 150-year-old vampire who keeps her blood lust under control until a gifted student enters her life. In-person, presented by Club Book, a program of Metro Public Libraries (MELSA). Free. 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 20, Riverview Library, 1 E. George St., St. Paul.SONYA HUBER: Presents “Love and Industry” in conversation with Kate Hopper. 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 21, Magers & Quinn, 3038 Hennepin Ave. S., Mpls.ROB JUNG: Robert J...

With ‘The [Uncertain] Four Seasons,’ classical musicians and St. Kate student poets tackle climate change

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:00:48 GMT

To respond to climate change and call for action, St. Catherine University students will present original poetry later this month onstage at The O’Shaughnessy, alongside new music that uses climate data to reinterpret classical concertos.“The [Uncertain] Four Seasons” is a re-composition of Antonio Vivaldi’s famous four-part piece, put through an algorithm that changes the music based on geospatial predictions for the year 2050, drawn from a report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Rising surface temperatures alter the tempo; ocean temps alter the pitch; sea level data changes the mode, or base scale; species decline increases the length of silent rests.At St. Kate’s, the algorithmic version and Vivaldi’s original will be juxtaposed against each other in a new arrangement by Emily Isaacson of the organization Classical Uprising and Jesse Irons, a Grammy-nominated violinist. The performance will also feature the Minnesota Opera Orches...

St. Paul, Ramsey County still at impasse over riverfront zoning rules due to RiversEdge project

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:00:48 GMT

When the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources mandated that cities along some 72 miles of the Mississippi River rewrite height standards for new real estate development, among other zoning rules near the water, the city of St. Paul was among the first to raise its hand and volunteer to lead the way.Fast-forward seven years, and St. Paul’s new riverfront zoning code appears stuck in a kind of planning limbo, even as at least 19 other cities have finalized or nearly wrapped up their new zoning ordinances.In January 2020, the DNR informed St. Paul that it had a year to adopt a riverfront zoning ordinance. Some of that work was waylaid by the pandemic. The city finally held a public hearing on draft language in January of this year, but there’s been no visible progress since.So what’s the holdup?Nicolle Goodman, director of St. Paul Planning and Economic Development, said Wednesday that she had called for further analysis on how the city’s draft rules —...

Sunday Bulletin Board: Twenty-two years later, she gives thanks for an argument lost …

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:00:48 GMT

Life (and death) as we know itA LADY WHO LOVES LITTLE PEOPLE: “Last March, my husband and I were on a cruise where we met a couple who told us a remarkable story.“Both E and C emigrated as adults from the Philippines to New York; however, they didn’t meet for several years after their arrival. This is their story:“E’s niece invited E and his family to her and her husband’s 25th-wedding-anniversary celebration in Germany. E & C decided to attend with their two children & C’s mother. E wanted to extend the Germany trip; however, school started during the time of the extension. C wanted her children to be there on the first day so they wouldn’t miss out on important information. E kept arguing the case for having the extension, and C kept arguing for the children not to miss the first days of school. After many discussions, C reluctantly agreed to E’s schedule, but she wasn’t happy about it.“On the flight home from Germany, their plane ...

Other voices: McCarthy’s pursuit of Biden comes with lots of noise, so far little evidence

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:00:48 GMT

On its face, the impeachment probe announced Tuesday by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is a waste of time.Republicans have admitted they have no actual proof of actual wrongdoing by President Joe Biden.Nor do they even know for certain that their accusations are based on legitimate information, not just something they pulled from someone’s partisan internet blog.Nor do most of them seem to really care. The theatrics are the point, all of it encouraged from the wings by former President Donald Trump, whose legal woes are backed up by more hard evidence than Mar-a-Lago has storage boxes.In the Biden matter, so far, the investigation looks less like fact-finding than performative vengeance.In an announcement after which McCarthy took no questions, he called the impeachment inquiry the “logical next step” for Republican claims — did we mention they are unproven? — that President Joe Biden somehow was enriched by his son Hunter’s international business v...

10 tips to survive a remote internship in news media (or anywhere else)

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 16:00:48 GMT

Greetings, new remote worker! You’re receiving this 10-step guide not as punishment or homework, but as a handy reference based on my several years of working with interns and fellows, increasingly remotely. I’ve been in the news media — and other industries — a couple of decades now, and it amazes me how little communication there is involving basic office etiquette and other workplace survival mechanisms. In a communications field, no less!This crib sheet was written for new reporters, but I suspect it could be adapted for interns and new hires in government, marketing, nonprofits … any field where workers used to meet face-to-face with the public, and each other, to get eye-to-eye, and are now left trying to accomplish the same by Zoom, text and email, or silent muttering under their breath in their “home office.”So do this, don’t do that:PICK UP THE PHONE: If you’re here just to rewrite press releases, quit now. Don’t get me wrong — I love an event listing, events ar...