Locally Grown

Please excuse me for abusing my bully pulpit here on LoGro, but I’d like to promote an out-of-town event with a highly local connection.

Today’s Star Tribune included the review: “New Gershwin a Hit” in which my stepson, Rico Heisler, received accolades for his starring role. (Those of you who know Rico’s dad, Lance Heisler, or have seen him in court, will have no doubts about where Rico got his theatrical streak.)

In addition to being a professional actor, Rico is also attending law school at William Mitchell College of Law, and he and his wife Kari are the parents of the world’s cutest grandchild.

Tickets to the show, the Tony-award-winning “Crazy For You”, are available through the Bloomington Civic Theatre. The show runs through Sept. 14.

Locally Grown co-host Tracy Davis is featured in the Just Curious column in the August issue (PDF, pages 33-36) of the Northfield Entertainment Guide.

Here’s the excerpted column (3-page PDF) and a link to her business, GuildCraft Carpets. My favorite quote:

I’m a rug dealer, and when I say that I have to make sure that people understand there is no “d” before “rug.” My company,
GuildCraft Carpets, designs, manufactures and imports hand-knotted Oriental rugs.

FNB’s Rick Moe alerted me this morning to this brief blurb in yesterday’s Strib Travel section (I’ve added the links):

Mike Farris, a biology professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, was attempting to climb K2 with six others when an avalanche roared down the mountain in the Pakistani Himalayas last Friday, resulting in the deaths of at least 11 climbers. He reports in his blog that he helped in the rescue attempts and was back at base camp as of last Sunday. While the rest of his six-climber team heads home, Farris, 52, has decided to stay behind, hoping to ascend K2 when conditions are favorable.

 Mike’s web site has a link to his blog. See this blog post for details on why he’s going to make the attempt.

See this other blog for details on his original team’s successful summit and subsequent departure after the K2 tragedy (Wikipedia link) last week.

The Strib’s Ultrafit column back in April was about Farris.

I ran into Bruce Riggs at the GBM yesterday. He’s one of the two America in Bloom (AIB) judges who visted Northfield this week. He was checking his email, getting ready to depart for the airport, so I showed him the photo album of the kidnapping I took on Tuesday, as well as the blog post of the breakfast on Monday. He sent me this email this aft:

Pat Bones and I want to thank everyone for all you did to make us feel so welcome in your community.  We learned so much and met so many positive people.  Everyone should be proud of the work that has been done.  We especially want to thank everyone on the America in Bloom Committee.  Their efforts (combined with a lot of others) have helped make the community even better.  We also want to express our thanks to everyone for taking so much time to be with us.  Our meetings, meals and tours were enlightening and enjoyable and hopefully those who attended benefited as well.

Bruce Riggs  AIB judge 2008

PS: the fishing was great!!  Special thanks to Pat, Sean & Dave Allen and Lee Lansing for arranging it for me.

Wait, let me rephrase that. Can someone fill in the details? Wait, let me rephrase that.

Help me out here, citizens of Northfield!

Six guys + a linoleum mat on a concrete divider + a boombox = summertime entertainment on downtown Northfield’s west side tonight at about 9 pm.

See the photo album or this slideshow, then watch the video below:

Click play to watch. 1 min, 25 sec.

Now that Patsy Ophaug’s a World Class Master swimmer, local businesses want her wearing their apparel.

I shot this photo of her yesterday, standing between Tiny’s and the Goodbye Blue Monday.

She’s wearing a Tiny’s hat and a BMW (Blue Monday Walkers) t-shirt.

I got this email yesterday from Joe Pahr, Advisor and Social Studies Specialist at ARTech:

Today I met Andy Davis of Changing Gears.  He and his fiancee, Melissa, had stopped at Blue Monday on their way from Bloomington, Indiana to San Francisco by bicycle.  Along the way they are filming a documentary about communities and organizations that are working towards sustainable living practices.  We had quite a discussion about what is happening in Northfield…

Tomorrow, Wednesday, I am meeting them at ARTech to do an interview about the school’s solar project.  At least one of the students involved in the project will be there.  You are welcome to join us.  Andy and Melissa will be in town at least until tomorrow afternoon.  Also, I pointed out Griff’s table at Blue Monday and told them to introduce themselves. On a related note, this morning I met Anders Forselius who is cycling around the world from his native Sweden.  His website is  He hopes to be in Beijing for the Summer Olympics. All roads truly lead to Northfield.

Andy and Melissa did stop by my corner office at GBM this morning. We chatted about Northfield’s civic blogosphere and citizen engagement… and our mutual history with Utne Salons.

I’m hoping they stick around till this afternoon to catch our podcast recording session and maybe a beer at the Cow afterwards.

They blogged the first day of their visit to Northfield. I expect they’ll have another post in a day or two.’

11:30am update: Andy and Melissa stayed in Bruce Anderson’s backyard last night. Bruce blogged them.

As a blogger bound by a code of ethics, I’m not at liberty to identify the men in this photo.

However, according to my sources, the babes accompanying them are named Suzette and Michelle, so marginally clueless readers might be able to figure it out.

And while researching this story, I was reminded of the difference in the clothing worn by plainclothes officers vs. undercover officers.

Regardless, somebody puuuuhlease buy those guys makeover gift certificates at Rare Pair.

I was bicycling through Dundas tonight when Chip deMann introduced me to Larry Fowler.

Larry had rented a Harley for the day ($80 weekday rate) from Faribault Harley Davidson and was even sporting some snazzy footwear.

Sitting on a Harley on the main street in Dundas is a babe magnet tactic. Sure enough, within about five minutes, blond bombshell Michelle Millenacker strutted by and made her move. Larry didn’t even have a to roll up the sleeves of his t-shirt. Somebody alert Glenn!

Sean Hayford O’Leary, our resident volunteer techie and web designer,  graduated from ARTech (Northfield School of Arts and Technology) this spring. I attended his open house on Saturday on behalf of the entire LG Triumvirate (above right). He’ll be an Ole this fall, assuming he passes the LGWR this summer.

Andrea Een and Philip Soltis were fondling this new violin at the Goodbye Blue Monday (GBM) last week.

Philip collaborates with local violin-maker David Folland and now that he’s retired from MNDOT, that’ll likely happen more often.

The AP has this story posted this aft: Gasoline prices hit national average of $4 for the first time, expected to go higher.

Rather than a straw poll, let’s have a contest for guessing the day that a gallon of regular gas hits $4 right here in river city.

Attach a comment with the date of your guess. Use the format of month/day, eg: June 8.

Contest closes at 6:15 am on Tuesday, June. 10, which is about the time that I boot up my computer at a local coffeeshop. Only one entry per person, please. You may guess the same day as someone else.

Winner(s) will have their name and photo blogged on LG and mentioned on our podcast.  If you’re cute a nice person, I might invite you to coffee.

Carlelton dedicated this memorial to former professor and dean Shelby Boardman last Saturday. It’s northeast of the Hill of Three Oaks, east of the rec center.

See the May 21 Carleton press release on the planned dedication of the memorial. Shelby’s wife, Jean, died a day after the dedication ceremony. Thanks to Jane McWilliams for sending me a photo of a photo of the Boardmans from the First UCC directory.

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