Kudos in the New Year
We're starting off 2025 with a few local kudos.
The U.P. Publishers & Authors Association this week announced its 6th annual UP Notable Books List. Partnering again with the Crystal Falls District Community Library, many of the authors will be featured on its UP Notable Book Club in the coming weeks. The list was initiated by UPPAA Notable Books Chairman Mikel Classen of Sault Ste. Marie in 2019 as a response to the lack of representation of U.P. writers in other Michigan state literary circles. Mikel said then, “Traditionally, recognition of Michigan books has been dominated by the university presses downstate and we would like to take this opportunity to highlight literature that focuses closer to home for us.”
Once again, the UPPAA consulted with regional booksellers, book reviewers, writers and publishers to winnow down the notable books to just 10. Those are:
1. To Be Marquette, a novel by Sharon Dilworth
2. Animals Out-There W-I-L-D: A Bestiary in English and ASL Gloss by Raymond Luczak
3. Make It Go in the Snow: People and Ideas in the History of Snowmobiles by Larry Jorgensen
4. Limpy's Adult Lexicon: Raw, Politically Incorrect, Improper & Unexpurgated As Overheard & Noodled by Joseph Heywood
5. Memories of a Mackinac Island Native: Life on the Island from 1940s to 2020s by Tom Chambers
6. How to Hike the North Country Trail: Not Quite a Guide by Joan H. Young
7. The Story of Journey: The Great Horned Owl by Carol L. Schultz
8. The Last Huck, a novel by J.D. Austin
9. Ellie and the Midwest Goodbye by Nikki Mitchell
10. Michigan Indian Boarding School Survivors Speak Out: A Narrative Historyby Sharon Marie Brunner
The other kudos came to the documentary film "Bad River" that chronicles the Wisconsin-based Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe and its ongoing fight for sovereignty, including its current battle against Enbridge Line 5. In October, the film received accolades from the Critics Choice Association when it was nominated for Best Political Documentary 2024, Best Narration 2024 and Best Historical Documentary 2024. (The winning awards were announced in November.) It also has won Best Documentary Film 2024 from the environmental medial association (ema).
Among supporters of the film have been actors Leonardo DiCaprio, Jason Momoa, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo and Edward Norton (co-narrator on the documentary along with Quannah ChasingHorse), who have promoted the film with posts of the "Bad River" trailer on Instagram. The photo of the jingle dress dancers seen here are from the film.
A side note: A nationally released film with a local tie, "A Complete Unknown" about a slice of Bob Dylan's early career, received three Critics Choice nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor (Timothée Chalamet) and Best Supporting Actor (Edward Norton). Those feature film awards will be announced on Jan. 12.
50 Years Gone, But Not Forgotten
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on Nov. 10, 1975, and there will no doubt be many commemorations of the loss of the ship and its 29 crew members around the shores of Lake Superior.
This past Wednesday, Jan. 1, Superior Mayor Jim Paine made a formal declaration of 2025 as "The Year of the Fitz," acknowledging that it left on its ill-fated last journey from Superior and that many of the crew had ties there. The announcement was made in the Cedar Lounge, which is helping on a special campaign by the Friends of the Fitz. Charlie Parr, who is performing Wednesdays in January there, posed here with the mayor, who is holding the proclamation.
Next Saturday (Jan. 11), the community is invited to the Superior Public Library at noon to kick off a year of remembrance events, including the Friends of the Fitz fund-raising for a Wisconsin Historical Society marker to note Superior as the freighter's last port of call. The marker would be placed on Barker's Island.
Community groups and members are encouraged to plan their own remembrances, from book club readings, to speaker programs to art or classroom projects. A generous donation by the president of the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center Board of Directors has been made to match all donations supporting the historical marker installation will be matched for 90 days after the free Jan. 11 event.
LSSU's Banished Words for 2025 (or Just Wishful Thinking …)
The annual New Year tradition – Banished Words – gathered by Lake Superior State University calls out words and terms that need a time-out in 2025 after being overused in 2024 (at least according to the votes). The tradition dates back to 1976, when former LSSU Public Relations Director Bill Rabe and his colleagues came up with the first “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness”.
Says current LSSU President Dr. David Travis, “Words matter! Old habits can be hard to break and we’re happy to serve as a resource for the court of public opinion on what should continue to be part of the English language and what needs to be put to rest."
What made the word "naughty" list for 2025?
Cringe • Game Changer • Era • Dropped (as in introduced, released, etc.) • IYKYK (If You Know, You Know) • Sorry Not Sorry • Skibidi (aka cool, dumb, bad or really no explanation at all) • 100% • Utilize (we've always preferred "use") • Period.
Read more about the words and the votes (including for 2026 already) here. So there you have the list, period, end of story.
Rockin' … and Blockin' … the Road
TBNewsWatch.com reported earlier this week that a rock slide on Monday temporarily closed down the Trans-Canada Highway between Rossport and the Pays Plat First Nation. The slide apparently happened about 1:30 a.m. across both lanes of traffic. The highway is already reopened. Read the full story here.
Save the Dates for the Tall-masted Ships
We don’t have a lot of information yet except for the dates …
Festival of Sail Lake Superior organizer Craig Samborski tells us the fest – and the ships – will be in Duluth July 10-13, and they will be able to tie up by the DECC in Duluth. (The seawall repairs are scheduled to be completed before Grandma's Marathon on June 21.) Early numbers indicate that we'll see at least 10 ships “including several ships that have never been to Duluth before,” says Craig. The festival vessels often make stops along the route from Sault Ste. Marie to Duluth, so watch for updates in your communities. Two ships planning to make the trip – though only from Bayfield to Duluth – are Abbey Road and Zeeto (in the photo here during an earlier fest in Duluth) from Lake Superior Tall Ships. They will do sail-aways during the festival.
Make Plans: Our unpredictable winter weather has been altering a few activities …
• The Gunflint Mail Run in northern Minnesota, scheduled for Jan. 10, has had to be postponed, probably until February. Say organizers in a post today: "Last week's rain took a toll on the race course and the current forecast holds little to no snow prior to January 11th. In order to pull off a safe and successful race we'd need to receive another foot of snow prior to race day and we're not confident that will happen."
• The John Beagrease Sled Dog Marathon, originally scheduled for Jan. 26, also has been postponed until Mar. 2 because of concerns about unsafe trail conditions, organizers announced today. This is the second consecutive year the 300-mile race has been affected by weather.
• In Superior, many public ice skating rinks are currently closed until colder weather – predicted for this week. The Billings Park Rink, however, reopened today.
Michigan
Saturday, Jan. 4: Bright Beginnings in downtown Marquette is the family fun way of kicking off 2025. The city of Marquette and the Upper Peninsula Children’s Museum welcome all to the Marquette Commons from 6-7 p.m. to discover Oscillation, an interactive public artwork that responds to your movements with colors and sounds that’s on display through Sunday, enjoy hot cocoa around community fire pits and a public art performance by the Lucid Fyre Bellators, starting at 6:30 p.m. Glowsticks will be provided by UPCM, but attendees are encouraged to bring their own glow gear to help light up the night.
Wednesday-Thursday, Jan. 8-9: Heikinpäivä, a celebration of winter with "Finn-spiration," is already underway in the Keweenaw Peninsula, and two events are coming up this week. On Wednesday at 2 p.m., the Nordic Film Series presents "The Happiest Country in the World: Finland,” at the Finnish American Heritage Center in Hancock. Donations appreciated. Next Thursday, from 6-8 p.m. enjoy a class for the Introduction to 5-string kantele, with Kay
Seppälä – *A Finnish American Folk School course. The official day for Heikinpäivä 2025 is Jan. 25 - save the date.
Minnesota
Sunday, Jan. 5: Glensheen in Duluth hosts its annual Community Day event with free entry to see the Christmas decorations in the estate the day before they come down. The self-guided, free tours are available 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 4: Saturday Morning at the Races keeps Twin Ports kids 14 and younger physically active despite the winter weather. The races start at 10 a.m. on Jan. 4, 18 and Feb. 1. Sites are wheelchair adaptable. This week's race is at the University of Minnesota Duluth (Ward Wells Fieldhouse). On Jan. 18, racers gather at The College of St. Scholastica (Burns Wellness Commons) and on Feb. 1 at the University of Wisconsin-Superior (Marcovich Wellness Center). Gifts each day of the races. Sign up online.
Tuesday, Jan. 7: The Ely Public Library presents singer-songwriter Dennis Warner for a warm, welcoming daytime concert for grown ups, starting at 10:30 a.m. He’s released 11 albums and authored the book Beads on One String, now in its ninth printing. This program is sponsored in whole or in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
Starts next Friday, Jan. 10-Feb. 2: Touted as "America's Coolest Shakespeare Festival" – and given the winter temps in Ely, that could be true –
The Great Northern Shakespeare Festival opens with Romeo & Juliet (Jan. 10-26), followed by Every Brilliant Thing (Jan. 16-31), New Works Staged Readings (Jan. 20 & 27) and Workshops and Classes (Jan. 11 & 25). Check out the full fest and sign up online.
Wisconsin
Friday, Jan. 3: Honest Dog Books in Bayfield hosts back-to-back fun events on Friday. It features a Tiny Bookstore Concert with Fiddler Molly MacGregor, 6-7 p.m. and then at 7 p.m., enjoy a showing of "fifteen," a coming-of-age story filmed entirely on Lake Superior South Shore by local director, writer and actor Kara Hakanson, who was awarded the the Loren Savitsky Young Filmmaker Award at the 2017 Big Water Film Festival.
Next Thursday, Jan. 9: The Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center in Superior launches its 2025 free Speaker Series with Carl Wahl, a 29-year veteran of the U.S. Secret Service. Carl will speak from 6:30-7:30 p.m. about how to determine if a bill is counterfeit and about the fourth largest counterfeit case in U.S. Secret Service history that occurred in Minnesota in 1995. Audience members are encouraged to bring their magnifying glasses for an "eyeballs on" experience.
Ontario
Sunday, Jan. 5: Community Arts & Heritage Education Project in Thunder Bay starts its Winter FunDays this week, 2-4 p.m., at Prince Arthur's Landing with an afternoon of skating, creativity, and fun for all ages. This week the Thunder Bay Figure Skating Club will teach the basics of skating; CAHEP offers a "Feathered Wings" craft activity in the Baggage Building Arts Centre; and you can meet the cast of Frozen Jr. thanks to All the DAZE productions.
Friday-Sunday, Jan. 2-5: Movie Mania-Holiday Edition at the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Center in Sault Ste. Marie ends this weekend with four films: "Chicken Little" (Friday); "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" (Saturday) and "Cats & Dogs" (Sunday). Craft Time before the films starts at 12:15 p.m. and the movies begin at 1 p.m.
Photo & graphic credits in order of appearance: BadRiverFilm.com; To Be Marquette novel; BadRiverFilm.com; Lake Superior State University; TBNewsWatch.com; Lake Superior Tall Ships; Spotlight, from left: City of Marquette/The Great Northern Shakespeare Festival/Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center/City of Thunder Bay