Bloody weekend with Dillinger, Salome and Duluth's Central Hillside

By Jim Heffernan

Let me tell you about my violent weekend.

First, I saw the movie “Public Enemies.” It’s interesting – all about the life and death of 1930s bank robber and killer John Dillinger.

Particularly interesting to me were the final scenes, when the FBI assassinated Dillinger as he left the Biograph Theater in Chicago after viewing a movie. On a visit when I was about 12, an uncle who lived in Chicago pointed the theater out to me as we drove past it. It made quite an impression on me, one that has lasted to this day.

The movie, starring Johnny Depp as Dillinger, portrays the outlaw’s demise very well, with the Biograph marquee looking like I remember it when I saw the theater some 17 years after Dillinger was killed there. Dillinger walks out of the theater with the two women who accompanied him, one of whom had betrayed him, moves down the street on a warm summer night, and a host of waiting FBI agents fills him full of lead.

They were as merciless as Dillinger and other members of his gang were portrayed as they roved around the Midwest robbing banks and breaking out of jails, sometimes killing innocent people in the process. There are a lot of dead bodies in “Public Enemies,” some of them crooks, some of them lawmen, some innocent bystanders. Violence galore. Blood galore.

And there’s torture to boot as the lawmen attempt to get captured crooks to reveal Dillinger’s whereabouts.

I have become increasingly disenchanted with so much violence in movies and on TV. One place you can usually avoid it is in church, which I attended the Sunday after seeing “Public Enemies” on Saturday night. But I was not to avoid more violence that weekend – not even in church.

The day’s gospel was from the New Testament book of Mark in which the story of the demise of John the Baptist – not to be confused with John the Dillinger -- is described in rather gory detail in the translation employed by the modern church.

It tells the tale of King Herod who marries his brother’s wife (well, ex-wife) and is criticized by John the Baptist for doing so. This inspires the enmity of Herod’s new wife, whose daughter Salome dances the dance of seven veils, which so inspires Herod he offers her half his kingdom or any other wish she might have. Salome discusses this with her mother, who tells her to ask for the severed head of John the Baptist on a platter.

So they decapitate John and deliver up his head, a scene portrayed in several movies – Rita Hayworth made a seductive Salome -- and even in opera.

Gruesome. So gruesome, in fact, that the minister apologized to the parents of young children in the congregation for preaching on this text. Of course, there’s as much violence in the Bible as there was in America 75-plus years ago (let’s not forget the St. Valentine’s Day massacre -- or maybe we should), and continues everywhere today.

Safe at home on Sunday night, we heard about a shooting in Duluth’s Central Hillside that we learned the next day resulted in the death of one man – bullet in the head – and injury to another – bullet in the thigh.

By then I was so inured to the weekend’s violence that I didn’t bat an eye.

More about Enger Tower Birthday...

Refer to my post of June 16 when I wished Enger Tower a Happy Birthday. As you recall I was hiking around Enger Park by pure chance on the very day of Enger Tower's 70th anniversary. As I climbed the tower, I came across the commemorative plaque noting the tower's dedication 70 years ago that very day. Check out a recent post on the Perfect Duluth Day blog to see an old Enger Tower dedication button someone found. It pictures Crown Prince Olav V and Princess Martha of Norway who participated in the dedication festivities. Interesting connections to this 70 year old famous Duluth landmark!

Vacation rental horror stories...

We rented three adjoining cabins on a Wisconsin Lake with our adult kids and their families a couple of weeks ago. The lake was gorgeous and our accommodations were very nice. We had a wonderful summer week with all the family. A few years ago, my wife and I traveled to the Canadian Rockies by car and ended up with some very nice places to stay. One motel on the way, however, was a different story. While the surface looked great in a Canadian motel where we stopped for the night (it was one with a major brand name), the "under the surface" was bug infested, including the beds. We ended up calling the management before midnight, getting our money back and headed to a very clean and nice motel down the street. Vacation rentals can be iffy. Just to make you feel better, you can read a fun account of "Summer House Horrors: On a Private Lake in Maine, No One Can Hear You Scream" in yesterday's NY Times. Yikes!

Jim Heffernan on Facebook...

Hi everyone,

It's me again. I'm Jim's wife and loyal supporter, Voula. (No..it's not Blanche, really!) I help him with the technical part of his blog and he has all the fun writing in it. But once in a while I peep in to say hi and to keep you up to date with things. While Jim is not involved with Facebook, he has authorized my setting up a Fan Page on it for him. I succumbed to that social networking web system earlier this year when I wanted to see pictures of our nephew's new born child, born on the same day as our youngest grandchild. And the rest is history. In case you're one of those Facebook people too, please note the new button added to this blog on the sidebar to notify you and help you get connected to Jim Heffernan's Facebook Fan Page. For those of you not connected to Facebook, that's really OK; you're probably out there healthfully involved in real life!

Hope to see you on Saturday at Northern Lights Books in Duluth's Canal Park for Jim's book signing. I am going to watch Jim carefully that day to be sure he has worn more than his boxer shorts! (Refer to his most recent post explaining that comment.)

Voula Heffernan

Book signing in boxer shorts is a dream event...

"I’m at the bookstore, seated at the signing table, wearing only my boxer shorts and...."

I’ll be at Duluth’s Northern Lights Books on Canal Park Drive signing copies of my book, Cooler Near the Lake: Fifty-two Favorites from Thirty-four Years of Deadlines from 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday (July 11), come rain or come shine.

So, come on down, rain or shine. I’ll be glad to personally inscribe a copy of the book for you.

Last month, well-known author David Sedaris signed books at Northern Lights and hundreds of people showed up – so many that, because it rained, those who couldn’t fit into the building were housed on buses in the parking lot and entertained by guitar-strumming performers.

Maybe reading news accounts of the Sedaris signing at Northern Lights prompted this dream the other night, late in a restless sleep:

I’m at the bookstore, seated at the signing table, wearing only my boxer shorts (as often happens in dreams). Outside a moose ambles by, chased by Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska who announced she will resign this month. Al Franken shows up with Mayor Don Ness and they do a soft-shoe routine on the sidewalk out front (after Palin and the moose pass by).

Because the day is “Cooler Near the Lake” (sorry), and it is shiveringly cold, a tent loaned by Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey is erected in the parking lot were overflow crowds are entertained by an elephant playing Brahms. Or was it Grieg? Dreams fade fast in the morning.

Author Sedaris thought he had a big response.

Unfortunately – no, actually fortunately – my Saturday signing will be a much quieter event than the one in the dream, or even Sedaris’ event. I’ll be there, fully clothed, with bells on. Not sure they’ll ring.

Minnesota's odd politics...

"In Minnesota, there is a kind of populist approach that is less progressive than a reflex, a notion that politics belongs to citizens, and politicians only rent their positions."

By David Carr (Independence Day: Al Franken and the Odd Politics of Minnesota, NY Times, published July 4, 2009)

Former Minnesotan and NY Times journalist, David Carr, highlights Al Franken's Independence Day as the new senator from Minnesota and spins a most interesting commentary on the odd politics of Minnesota. We in Minnesota have higher than average turnout at the voting polls and we don't elect just any ordinary politicians either.

No matter the color of your political persuasion, you'll enjoy Carr's commentary about our state's odd history of politics. Click HERE to read his writing appearing in today's NY Times.

Two degrees of separation from Jacko

by Jim Heffernan

Because I interviewed many celebrities in my years working at the Duluth newspaper, my degrees of separation from uncounted luminaries from show business to politics are very short.

But two degrees from Michael Jackson? I never expected that.

Interviewing the likes of Hubert Humphrey and Walter Mondale, on the political side, and Jack Benny and Gregory Peck on the showbiz side (among many, many others), leaves you with just a degree of separation or so from just about everybody anybody’s ever heard of, including presidents of the United States. I even had journalistic contact with one of The Flying Wallendas, from the circus world.

None of this is to drop names or boast. When you work for a newspaper – especially covering arts and entertainment – it comes with the territory.

I tend to think in terms of my degrees of separation from well-known people, especially when they die. Like, I wonder if Gregory Peck knew Gale Storm, who died this week. I wonder if anybody under 50 even knows OF Gale Storm. I can’t forge any definite degrees of separation with Gale Storm.

I learned shortly after he died, though, that I came a lot closer to Michael Jackson than I would have expected. The day after the entertainer died, National Public Radio interviewed a journalist named Brian Monroe who, it was said, conducted the last one-on-one interview Jackson ever gave.

Monroe interviewed Jackson over two days in 2007, and on the radio offered several interesting insights into the human side of Jackson – a side that didn’t show up much in the publicity surrounding the entertainer.

So where do I come in? Monroe, whom the moderator identified as former editorial director of Jet and Ebony magazines, is also a former news executive for the former Knight-Ridder, which formerly owned the Duluth News Tribune. (The older you get, the more the word “former” creeps into your lexicon.)

As a Knight-Ridder executive at its San Jose, Calif., headquarters, Monroe used to visit the Duluth newspaper two or three times a year. I spoke with him several times. When Knight-Ridder disbanded, he went to work for Jet/Ebony, and while there he interviewed Jackson.

So what’s that for me, two degrees of separation from Jackson? Of course, the concept of degrees of separation puts everyone on earth just six degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon, the actor.

Wish I could say that about Canadian Bacon, the artery clogger.

One week later...

I'm back from a week of summer vacation spent at a cabin on a beautiful lake an hour away from home. Our whole family–adult kids, grandkids and my wife and I–all vacationed together. We have two adult children, their spouses and five grandchildren ranging in age from four to 9 months. (All are boys, except for the oldest–the lone girl in the family–and two are twin boys. By the way, we'll have grandchild number six ready to join this group in November.) We rented three adjoining cabins built in the 20's. Their vintage and rustic spirit was beautifully preserved and some modern conveniences added to help us all stay sane. We had a great time and couldn't have had better weather. The beach was nice and shallow for little ones and they spent most of each day in the water or else running around in the big cabin and just having a blast. The adults shared the cooking and we all shared tasks. It was nice family time and helped us all to clear the brain and enjoy nature. I recommend it to everyone. A lot has happened since I left this computer...Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett and more. Stay tuned....

Northern Lights Book Signing...

Come on down to Duluth's Canal Park by beautiful Lake Superior on Saturday, July 11. I'll be at Northern Lights Books and Gifts signing books from 2-3 pm. Tell your friends and stop by...and, of course, buy a book! Yes, Northern Lights is the very same bookseller that recently hosted the Duluth stopping point for the David Sedaris National Book Tour.

It's shameless promoting, I know... but I have all these books to sell. My book, Cooler Near the Lake, is for sale in all the area book stores and gift shops and on line through Adventure Publication and Amazon. You can even buy the book by contacting me! (See my web site by clicking on the book cover located on this blog.) The book retails for just $14.95 and is filled with a special selection of 52 of my Duluth News Tribune columns printed over 34 years.

I've divided the book into sections covering life in the northland (The Lake Effect), my own unique perspectives (Outrageous Nonsense), serious thoughts on life (Slices of Life), northern ethnic humor (The Ethnic Editor), famous people visiting Duluth (The Rich and Famous Collide With Duluth) and philosophical and fun perspectives while looking back in time (Through the Rearview Mirror). It's the kind of book you can give as a gift, read yourself or have conveniently situated in a favorite reading room.

I'm taking a bit of vacation time next week... but stay tuned, I'll be back soon!

Dear Abby and the Old Maid From Duluth Limerick...

As I was rummaging around in a box of old newspaper columns, I came across a letter from Dear Abby. Are you a follower of Dear Abby? Abby is the name of the syndicated advice columnist appearing in newspapers all over the country. Some of you are old enough to remember the originator of that column–the mother of the current Abby, Pauline Phillips. The senior Phillips penned the name Abigail Van Buren and began writing her very successful column in 1956. After she died, her daughter took over–and the rest is history.

Pauline Phillips, the then Dear Abby, wrote to me in 1992 to thank me for allowing her to reprint part of a column I wrote in response to a spin she had in her column with limericks and the Old Maid From Duluth limerick. She followed up the hype by reprinting part of my writing in her column. Abby shocked my wife one afternoon when she called my home trying to reach me for permission to use my column. Abby did a lot of TV and radio and her voice was very unique and quite well known. She announced herself on the phone by saying, "Hello this is Dear Abby." My wife thought she was someone playing a trick at first...but she was legit.

You can read that old Dear Abby newspaper column printed in newspapers across the nation by clicking HERE and you'll also witness my outrageous claim to fame in the advice world. The current Dear Abby maintains a web site and continues writing her advice column in newspapers everywhere.

Happy Birthday Enger Tower...

By Jim Heffernan

With some time to kill Monday, June 15, I stopped by Duluth’s Enger Park just to look around. It’s lovely and, of course, dominated by Enger Tower, offering 360-degree vistas of most of Duluth from a commanding height.

I used to play in and around the tower as a child. We lived below it, perhaps a mile away in the West End. It made a wonderful battlement if we were playing “Ivanhoe” or Knights of the Round Table.

It had been years since I climbed the several-story tower (I forget how many), so I decided to trudge up its many steps on this visit. At my age, you never know how much longer you’ll be able to do it.

At the base of the stairs, I recognized a brass dedication plaque I hadn’t read in a long time, a tribute to Duluth “merchant prince” Bert Enger, who donated the land atop the hill, including the golf course named for him, and the tower and nearby park.

The plaque’s message ends with the words: “Dedicated by Crown Prince Olav V of Norway, June 15, 1939.”

I was there on the 70th anniversary of the tower’s dedication.

I know a little something about that dedication, having read old newspaper accounts of it (I was born three months later), and, with the help of Wikipedia as a refresher, here are some facts about the occasion.

When he came to Duluth in 1939, Crown Prince Olav V was heir to the Norwegian throne. He was accompanied by his wife, Princess Martha. The couple were the parents of Harald, then 2 years old, the current king of Norway known as King Harald V. Harald’s father and Duluth’s guest on that day in 1939 ascended to the throne in 1957 and ruled until his death at age 87 in 1991, after which Harald assumed the crown.

Just two-and-a-half months after the royal couple dedicated Enger Tower, World War II broke out in Europe when Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1. The German occupation of Norway was soon to follow and the royal family had to flee. Crown Prince Olav joined the government in exile in England, but his wife, Princess Martha, and her children -- Harold, the heir apparent, and two daughters -- came to America and for a time resided at the White House as guests of President Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor.

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin gives a full a account of this in her book, “No Ordinary Time.” There were those who believed that President Roosevelt was enamored of Princess Martha, and all that that implies. Princess Martha died in 1954.

Anyway, Wikipedia bore out what I thought I knew about the dedicators of Enger Tower. The stone tower has withstood a lot of Noreasters in 70 years, and silently presided over much local and national history.

Cheney and blood in the water...

By Jim Heffernan

When blood ran in Lake Superior’s water...
CIA Director Leon Panetta is saying in an upcoming New Yorker article that he thinks former Vice President Dick Cheney’s criticism of the Obama administration’s approach to terrorism almost suggests “he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point,” wire services reported over the weekend.

Panetta told the New Yorker that Cheney “smells some blood in the water” on the issue of national security.

It reminded me of another time somebody from Washington smelled blood in the water – right here in Duluth.

It was during Paul Wellstone’s first run for the U.S. Senate, facing incumbent Republican Rudy Boschwitz, a race Wellstone won. During the campaign, the Duluth newspaper’s editorial board, of which I was part, had scheduled an interview with Boschwitz as part of the endorsement process.

About an hour before the Boschwitz interview was to begin, conservative Washington pundit Roland Evans showed up in my office unannounced and asked if he could sit in on the interview. Evans, who has since died, was part of the Evans and (Robert) Novak team on CNN, and also wrote a syndicated column.

I asked Evans what he was doing in Duluth, and why he wanted to sit in on the Boschwitz interview. His answer: “Blood in the water.”

It doesn’t take those Washington sharks long to sense blood in the water.