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By Griff Wigley, on March 29, 2012, 6:57 am
    
Construction of a building has begun adjacent to the wind turbine at St. Olaf.
Hint #1: it has nothing to do with the turbine.
Hint #2: the wood under the tarp is an indicator.
Update 3/31: Here’s a photo of the Arnold Flaten Art Barn, which I’ve grabbed from a Jan. 2011 Northfield News story, which they got from a story in St. Olaf Magazine.
By Griff Wigley, on March 28, 2012, 7:03 am
   
St. Olaf Professor Todd Nichol is another one of the early morning regulars at GBM. A couple weeks ago, he barged into my corner office to inform me about the 2nd Annual Grand Old Time Spring Dance coming up this Friday night in the Lion’s Pause at Buntrock Commons. He’s one of the faculty advisors for the The Runestones accordion club that will be performing at the dance and last week, I attended one of their practice sessions.
The Runestones is a come-when-you-can, just for fun student group of accordion players. We play mostly Nordic tunes, but you never know what we’ll do next. Think fusion. If you’ve never heard Cajun Norwegian or Country Western Danish, you are missing something.
KYMN’s Paula Granquist featured the group on her ArtZany! radio show last week. Terri Lindgren wrote in her blog post:
A dance for everybody! A time to dance the polka, the waltz, and the schottische. Brief lessons will be given throughout the evening. Free. Open to the public. Families with children welcome. Refreshments and parking available.
The guy taking my photo in the left photo above with Todd? Evan Thomas-Richards, an Ole working with the AmCon group that I blogged about back in Nov. Dang paparazzi.
Here’s a 38-second video clip of The Runestones practicing:
By Griff Wigley, on March 14, 2012, 8:43 am
 I came arrived too late for last night’s Condom Olympics in the Lion’s Pause at St. Olaf’s Buntrock Commons.
I was hoping to get photos of the condom relay race but only managed a photo of the sign.
What are the Condom Olympics?
Back by popular demand, the Wellness Center is hosting a team-based competition that tests students’ knowledge of sexual health, reproductive anatomy, and STI statistics.
It all culminates in an intense relay race to properly put on a condom while wearing ‘beer goggles.’
Come and bring your friends!
The wording of that last sentence is an invitation to the bravest of LoGro’s punsters.
By Griff Wigley, on January 13, 2012, 11:15 am
I got this email yesterday from Geoff Swanson, Assistant Director at St. Olaf’s Office of Student Activities. He showed up for the photo this morning at my corner GBM office where he used to work when he was a student.
 Hi Griff, I’m just sending a shameless plug for Second City’s performance here at St. Olaf tomorrow (Friday, the 13th) in the Lion’s Pause at St. Olaf. This is the show’s touring improv group and the event should be a riot.
Show starts at 8pm (doors at 7:45) and general admission to the public is $5 each. For more details people can contact myself or follow this link.
Description:
The Second City is always original, daring, and hilarious. Based in Chicago this comedy club’s alumni list is a veritable "Who’s Who" of comedy including Bill Murray, John & Jim Belushi, Steve Carell, George Wendt, Tina Fey, Tim Meadows, Joan Rivers, John Candy, Bonnie Hunt, Stephen Colbert, Chris Farley, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Jack McBrayer, Jason Sudeikis and so many more. Don’t miss what is sure to be a hilarious hour of improve-based sketch comedy as five of Second City’s touring comedians take the Pause Mane Stage!
See The Second City web site for more.
By Griff Wigley, on November 26, 2011, 11:19 pm
 
I saw this ‘Ask an Atheist’ discussion panel poster while walking through St. Olaf’s Buntrock Commons a couple weeks ago, so I went. It was sponsored by a student organization named SANRA – St. Olaf Agnostics, Non-Religious, and Atheists, which:
aims to represent the non-religious students on campus. As an organization at a Lutheran college, it is important to provide the opportunity for secular students to engage in open-minded conversation and form relationships with students of similar belief systems. SANRA will create dialogue about secular thought, help grow a strong and visible non-religious community, and develop a safe and accepting environment for secular students on campus. Members of SANRA will spread awareness about non-religion, serve the wider community, and work to dispel myths about non-religious stereotypes.
The quality of the discussion was impressive, both the questions from the 30+ students in the audience and the answers from/conversation among the 7 student panelists. Props to SANRA and St. Olaf.
By Griff Wigley, on November 5, 2011, 7:54 am
 I met with two St. Olaf students yesterday, Casey Groskreutz (Madison, WI) and Zaq Baker (Eden Prairie, MN).
They’re taking the American Conversations Program (AmCon) and this year, according to Nate Jacobi, Associate Director, Civic Engagement:
 … we have begun to build in an experiential component to the program. The students’ experiential work is designed to help them better engage with the community beyond St. Olaf’s boundaries and to explore the many dimensions of a key theme in American life.
In this case, students will explore the historical, ethical and political dimensions of citizenship in both their academic and experiential learning.
AmCon has the students paired up with engaged/active Northfield area citizens and I guess I’m one. Other "American Conversations Community Partners" participating: Beth Berry, David Bly, Ray Cox, Dennis Dempsey, Sandi Gerdes, Bonnie Jean Flom, Erin Mayberry, Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, Kari Nelson, Rhonda Pownell, Susan Sanderson, Jessica Peterson White, Erica Zweifel.
What’s planned? Eric Fure-Slocum, Assistant Professor of History, says:
 During the fall semester, we expect that students will meet and conduct interviews with community members.
In the spring, the American Conversations students will collaborate with a digital photography class to create photo/audio essays that will be used by the League of Women Voters to encourage informed and lively participation in public and civic life.
See the American Conversations Program web page for more, as well as an article in the 2009 issue of the St. Olaf Magazine about the program titled What Makes America America? which is where I got "sitizens vs. citizens" for the title of this blog post.
By Griff Wigley, on October 16, 2011, 7:11 pm
 
Today was Abby Benson’s last day at Goodbye Blue Monday where she’s worked for over three years. Proprietors Dan Riggins and Katherine Dominguez along with several of her co-workers gave her a little send-off this morning. The 2011 St. Olaf grad is also known to the Northfield community for her work with STOGROW and the SEEDS Farms (see this Relish.com article about her). She’s heading to Portland, OR for a life of quiet desperation productive and satisfying experience doing who-knows-what.
I know her dad, Marty Benson, from playing racquetball and her mom, Jean Callister-Benson from way back when she worked at the Y in Faribault. As parents, they are reportedly thrilled that they no longer have Abby’s expensive mouth to feed proud that Abby’s launching her life as a full-fledged adult.
By Griff Wigley, on October 13, 2011, 11:55 pm
 
When I was up at St. Olaf’s Buntrock Commons a couple weeks ago for the Eat Local Challenge, I noticed a big NDDC poster outside of The Lion’s Pause with the headline: Locate your business in downtown Northfield.
NDDC Executive Director Ross Currier published an Oct. 3 blog post that explains. An excerpt:
One of the new initiatives that this group developed was alumni entrepreneur recruitment. In addition to promoting downtown Northfield as a marketplace, we wanted to promote it as a business location, particularly to the graduates of Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges. We introduced the concept for the first time at this year’s Homecoming Weekends.
I knew this poster was in the works because back in early August, Ross had asked me to contribute photos for it and they needed one additional: a photo of creative class types working in a coffeehouse.
 All month long, I kept watching for a good photo op from my early morning corner office at GBM but it never quite came together.
So on Aug. 29, noticing that I had the raw material for a photo, I asked the laptop users to switch tables. I then asked Nancy Amerman who was sitting with a group of runners to sit at my laptop for the photo. Perfecto.
It should be noted that Nancy felt no shame over helping to perpetuate this fraud, whereas at least I felt conflicted. And yet she calls herself a Christian. Go figure.
By Griff Wigley, on September 28, 2011, 10:26 am
By Griff Wigley, on June 1, 2011, 10:29 pm
By Griff Wigley, on April 2, 2011, 7:02 am
  A college club hockey game at Northfield’s ice arena was the scene of an ugly incident a month ago involving Carleton and St. Olaf students, both players and spectators. I just found out about it this week when a LoGro reader alerted me.
Having behaved badly at times during my college days at St. Thomas, I’m not quick to make a big deal over college kids doing stupid or offensive stuff. But this was over the top.
As far as I know, there have been no public statements about this incident from the administrations of either St. Olaf or Carleton.
Here’s what’s been reported:
Manitou Messenger news: Club hockey team brawls with rival Carls; Team injures referee, prompting police intervention
Spectators howled and jeered as game play took a violent turn in the St. Olaf versus Carleton club hockey game on Friday, March 4 at the Northfield Ice Arena. The stands were packed with students, predominantly Oles, many of whom began the evening shouting profanities and other negative cheers, including the standard “Carleton sucks!”
The St. Olaf players were just as rambunctious as the fans. “St. Olaf had about as many penalty minutes as they had game minutes,” spectator Thomas Hegland ’13 said. When the crowd threw soda cans and bottles onto the ice, St. Olaf was penalized, and additional bottles and cans along with zamboni tires were thrown onto the ice in retaliation.
Manitou Messenger editorial: Club hockey brawl triggers shame and stitches
After several minutes the fight finally ended, leaving gear strewn across the ice. There were drops of blood from a referee, who had been “seriously injured,” as the St. Olaf student announcer stated over the loud speaker. The referee attempted to pull players apart. As he skated to the bench the fight left a deep sense of shame and disappointment in me.
Not only did I feel shame because of the fight, but also because of the cheers of “F— you, Carleton,” “F— you, Olaf,” “ugly b—-es,” etc., and because of the constant throwing of trash onto the ice. I was even more surprised that one of the St. Olaf students on the bench threw tires onto the ice and then walked out of the arena.
There were several other incidents that weren’t in the articles. I have no idea what happened in the St. Olaf locker rooms, but I do know that one of the Carleton players asked the police to watch the Carleton locker room, because St. Olaf fans were lined up outside the locker room when they went back in between periods. My friend’s stick and gloves were stolen when he was in the bathroom. I don’t know what happened in the Ole locker rooms, but I’m sure it wasn’t exactly peaceful either.
Lastly – the fight was ugly and intense. In addition to the players, several spectators actually jumped over the glass onto the ice so that they could join the fight – it was ridiculous. I have no idea who hit the ref, but both schools were equally at fault and it was really startling. I wasn’t aware that the game was called a draw, but it doesn’t surprise me.
In short, it was an ugly game. There were a lot of drunk fans from both schools, and the tensions elevated really quickly. I don’t expect another Carleton-St. Olaf game for a while.
Naturally, the game was called a draw and the police spent hours afterwords clearing up the brawls OUTSIDE the arena.
The Northfield police report for March 4 only says:
Event Number: LNO110304002932
Date/Time Incident: 03/4/2011 9: 7: 9 PM
Type: L/EXTRA PATROL
Address: 12XX BOLLENBACHER DR
Disposition: ADVISED OR ASSISTED
This 2008 Carletonian article tells the story of local police ticketing students for alcohol consumption at club hockey games: Strong Northfield police presence at recent Chiefs game
The question may remain unsolvable. For the more immediate future, one of the written-up students suggested that the school warn students if there is knowledge of likely increased police activity. “I think the school really made a faux pas in this circumstance,” said the student. “A heads-up could have gone a long way… the school knows that students go to the hockey games inebriated.”
By Elizabeth Kallestad, on February 7, 2011, 9:50 pm
The Cannon River Watershed Partnership and St. Olaf College will be hosting a screening of the much publicized film Troubled Waters: A Mississippi River Story produced by the University of Minnesota Bell Museum of Natural History.
This film traces the development of America’s bountiful heartland and its effect on the legendary river. Through beautiful photography and inspiring narrative, the film offers solutions to the river’s troubles through fresh ideas and concrete solutions.
As the Cannon River is a contributor to the Mississippi River, its problems are our problems. Join us for this screening and thoughtful discussion after the film. The event is free and open to the public.
February 10, 2011, 7 PM – 9 PM; St. Olaf College, Regents Hall – Room 310.
By Griff Wigley, on December 27, 2010, 8:42 am
Kids of all ages were crashing and burning while sledding on Old Main Hill at St. Olaf yesterday afternoon.
See the album of 18 photos, the large slideshow (recommended), or this small slideshow:
By Griff Wigley, on July 14, 2010, 3:29 pm
I got this photo via email from Stephanie Schmidt, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies & Biology at St. Olaf:
 I took this from one of our teaching labs on the 4th floor of Regents Hall. We watched it come down and go back up a few times, but never saw it actually touch the ground from our point of view.
KYMN has photos blogged here.
Strib at 3:12 pm: Tornadoes reported near Lakeville and Northfield
Update 4:30: Photos by Richard Goerwitz, taken at the Computing & Mathematics Center at Carleton:
 
By Griff Wigley, on April 27, 2010, 8:28 am
 Spring Brook (also known as Rice Creek) “is the only trout stream in Rice County, and is an uncommon resource type in southern Minnesota” according to the Northfield Natural Resource Inventory (NRI) commissioned by the City of Northfield in 2005.
Kathleen Doran-Norton, member of the Bridgewater Township Board of Supervisors, forwarded the email below and photo (above) to me yesterday. She didn’t say so but I’m guessing she’s got Thursday’s Business and Industrial Park planning open house in mind since Spring Brook/Rice Creek flows through the southern edge of the “south site” on West Armstrong Rd. in Bridgewater Township. Kathleen wrote:
Continue reading A Spring Brook treasure photographed; good timing
By Griff Wigley, on March 22, 2010, 7:54 am
 Robbie and I were in Willie’s Shoe Repair on Saturday when proprietor Randy Malecha showed us his latest creation: a leather belt for the upcoming production of the Stephen Sondheim play, Assassins, at St. Olaf.
Tickets go on sale today. From the Wikipedia entry on Assassins:
From an electric chair Zangara sings his refusal to be afraid and that he hadn’t cared who he killed as long as it was one of the men who control the money. Peeved that as an "American Nothing" he has no photographers at his execution, Zangara is electrocuted.
Randy let us take the belt home for a while so that we could…
By Griff Wigley, on February 25, 2010, 7:49 am
  Golf course architect Paul Miller (Paul Miller Design Inc) stopped by my morning office at GBM last week with the poster of Saturday’s Singing for Haiti fundraiser at The Grand Event Center.
Paul has been involved in peace and justice work in Haiti for over a decade and is the founder of the Haiti Justice Alliance of Northfield which is hosting the event. Money raised will go to the What If? Foundation, Feed My Starving Children, and Partners in Health.
Musical groups performing include The Brothers Frantzich, founders of Feed Them With Music; Carleton bluegrass band, Porch Collective; St. Olaf psychedelic/blues/jam band Archaic Revival; and Northfield High School‘s Madrigals.
Local sponsors include Carleton College, St. Olaf College, Labor Arbitration Institute, Schmitz, Ophaug, and Dowd, LLP, Buzz Salon, and Paul Miller Design Inc.
For more info, see 1) Carleton College’s Haiti Relief Gateway; 2) last week’s Nfld News article, Concert to benefit Haitians; 3) Jane McWilliams’ blog post on Northfield.org.
You can get tickets at Mary Rossing’s Present Perfect store on Division or at the door at the Grand on Saturday.
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Arts & Culture, Civic Orgs, Volunteerism 
and Dowd, Carleton College, Feed My Starving Children, Feed Them With Music, Grand Event Center, Haiti Justice Alliance of Northfield, Haiti Relief Gateway, Labor Arbitration Institute, Madrigals, Ophaug, Partners in Health, Paul Miller, Paul Miller Design Inc, Porch Collective, Schmitz, Singing for Haiti, St. Olaf College, The Brothers Frantzich, What If? Foundation 
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