Dan Gilchrist The other day, the Minnesota Zoo announced the birth of a baby dolphin. The zoo is soliciting $25 sponsorships to help pay for the little calf’s all-fish diet. Once she’s weaned from her mother, she’ll eat up to 20 pounds of fish a day. Where will all that fish come from? Perhaps our thriving local … Read more
The sugar glider is an adorable, furry animal that measures about a foot in length—roughly half body and half tail. This expensive flying marsupial comes from the Australasian rainforest, and it’s suddenly become popular here and nationwide. The animal is named for its attraction to sweet tree fruits of the rainforest canopy, and its ability … Read more
For 23 years, Rick Lindsey has lived aboard a renovated World War II warship that he salvaged himself. Previous owners had stripped the ship of everything of value, including the deck planking and pilothouse. Eventually, it was abandoned in the St. Croix River. There the wooden hull lay, half submerged, until Lindsey found it one … Read more
Coming down the water, with a wide-open mouth of vibrating teeth, the milfoil harvester is a light blue paddle-wheeled contraption worthy of a Dr. Seuss rhyme. Or maybe it’s something Jules Verne would have moored at his lake cabin. The combine-like machine is a common sight on Twin Cities lakes, ever since the early 1990s … Read more
At the south end of Minneapolis-St. Paul International airport, adjacent to an east-west runway, there is a single row of parking spaces off Post Road. This provides a vantage point to watch planes landing and taking off. If the weather is nice, a few planespotters congregate here among the loitering limo drivers and couriers who … Read more
It’s been a year and a half since the passing of Mahlon Nickence, the best-known voice of WOJB-FM 88.9 in Reserve, WI. Since then, former program manager Dave Kellar has resumed hosting the Saturday honky-tonk show that brought Mahlon his notoriety. On Saturday nights, the station’s switchboard still lights up an hour before the show … Read more
Tom Dunlap owns the coolest slingshot I’ve ever seen. It’s mounted on the end of an eight-foot pole, and he can aim the whole apparatus like a crossbow. Amazingly, this is a professional tool, one he uses when he climbs and prunes trees. He also uses it for recreation, as he did the other day … Read more
The marine iguana, which is found only in the Galapagos archipelago, spends most of its time sunning itself on the volcanic rocks and sneezing. For nourishment, it dives in the sea and feeds on algae. Consequently, it has to rid its body of sea salt somehow. To do so, it expels a salty mist out … Read more