NEWS YOU CAN USE | You can save trees by Kathy Magnuson, Minnesota Women’s Press • Do you ever aspire to great and noble tasks? Then you share something in common with Helen Keller. She said, “I long to accomplish great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker.”
Underground corn mazes and walls that grab you: The Soap Factory’s Haunted Basement by Melissa Slachetka, TC Daily Planet • The Soap Factory gallery is very industrial-looking; in fact, it used to actually be a soap factory. Once again this year, in the gallery’s 100-year-old basement filled with soap vats and old elevator shafts, there is a haunted house. This is the scariest haunted spot in the Twin Cities, so bring someone you can grab on to.
Immersion language conference to be held in St. Paul by Staff, Minnesota Daily • Educators from places as far-reaching as New Zealand and Finland will be in the Twin Cities this week to discuss their ideas on helping students become multilingual.
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SINGLE WHITE FRINGE GEEK | Shameless Plug of the Day – My play Dog Tag opens in Chicago by Matthew Everett • Just in case you have friends in the Chicago area, I thought I’d let everyone know that the year of the dog for my friend and co-writer Anne Bertram and I continues.
LOON COMMONS | The 3rd P of Plugging into the Prairie by Brian Devore • In July, I reported on the possibilities and problems associated with making diverse native prairie systems part of our bioenergy mix on Midwestern farms. Two weeks ago, I had a chance to get a farmer’s eye view of yet another prairie energy “P”: practicality.
FACTS AND FICTIONS | Sheep bubble by Eleanor Arnason • There is an article on Iceland in today’s Guardian. The Icelanders interviewed are still being philosophic, saying “We’ve been poor before” and “We know how to work hard” and “We don’t have to worry about eating; we have plenty of fish.”
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