June 2, 2009

Lexicon update

I moved to Duluth in September 2006. Almost a year ago, I wrote a post about words and phrases that seemed unique to Duluth and/or the region. At that point, most seemed pretty odd to me; none had entered my vocabulary.

But I realized this week that at some point in the past few months, I’ve started regularly using one of those language quirks – adding “the” before road names. As in, “Oh, yeah, I saw that house, too – out there on the Rice Lake Road.”

It’s interesting how something little like that really makes you feel grounded in a place.

Questionable signs

I suppose this eatery’s name in Fayetteville, Tenn., which I recently passed through, belongs in the hall of name fame, along with Kum ‘n’ Go, Pump and Munch, Kwikee Mart, and the rest. I’m not even sure posting this public signage clears the PDD standards.road-trip-1-253

The ratings experiment is over

For two weeks, Perfect Duluth Day experimented with rating systems for posts (five-star system and thumbs up/down). As you might have already noticed, the ratings have now been removed.

An initial poll showed readers either thought this was a great idea or terrible idea. (The results were pretty evenly split, but slightly leaned in favor of great idea). In practice, however, the ratings didn’t prove useful and interest in them quickly plummeted. In the end, only a handful of people bothered with them.

So now they are gone, perhaps to return another day when a better system can be figured out, or perhaps never to be considered again (except maybe in the comments to this post).

Big Top songwriting contest

bigtopcelebrationof-song

Heads up to local musicians:

Big Top Chautauqua is holding another songwriting competition. The long version of the details is on the “Celebration of Song” page of www.BigTop.org (scroll about halfway down the page).

The short version is, you submit two original songs by June 19. Finalists perform on the Big Top stage August 27 and have a shot at airplay on Tent Show Radio, a $100 cash prize and a chance to play a two-song set opening for Suzanne Vega.

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