Al Franken as Answer Man goes to bat for Google Fiber Twin Ports...

By Jim Heffernan

Many people have inquired – well, one has – in utter confusion about this latest incarnation of “Answer Man” being used by the City of Duluth to promote the Twin Ports’ effort to become some super-duper fiberoptics global Google experimental headquarters, or something like that.

“I thought YOU were the Answer Man,” wrote the lone inquisitor.

I can see where there would be confusion. In the city’s current effort, U.S. Sen. Al Franken introduces a series Duluth-sponsored promotional ads from the mid-1980s in which he appeared as “Duluth Answer Man” in amusing skits answering goofy questions about Duluth. (click HERE)

This needs blog clarification if anything ever did. Yes, I was the Answer Man proxy for the Duluth News Tribune long before the then Duluth Convention and Tourist Trap Bureau (now Visit Duluth) produced Duluth Answer Man tourist promotion ads with then comedian Franken. (A whole lot of “thens” have transpired over the years.)

My Answer Man columns began running a good decade earlier and were printed in the paper several times a year for several years. I was Answer Man’s proxy because Answer Man was described as “really a woman” writing as a man. She answered the questions people were asking about the important issues of the day, most of which were of maximum unimportance to the human race or any other race you want to cite, including the Indianapolis 500 and the Belmont Stakes.

So, clearing up this mystery, yes, there was an Answer Man a long time ago in a kingdom far away and by the inland sea; long before Franken’s Duluth Answer Man reared up in the mid-80s and has been raised from the dead in 2010, a miracle of biblical proportions.

Thanks for asking, though.  

Note:  Al Franken gives the green light to use his Answer Man from the eighties to give our area a boost in the contest for Google Fiber Twin Ports. If you haven't seen it, here's the link to see the You Tube video:  Al Franken: On Google Fiber for Twin Ports   Also check out Googletwinports.com.

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.

My DNT letter to the editor today...

I just couldn't resist... so here's my letter to the editor, appearing in today's (April 21) Duluth News Tribune. 

"You wonder if the writer of the April 12 letter ("A comedian for the Senate? Is this a joke?"), the entire text of which was "Sen. Al Franken. Embarrassing," was equally embarrassed about Republican U.S. Rep. Sonny Bono, the TV comedian and singer; Republican Sen. George Murphy, who danced his way through many an MGM musical, and, of course, Republican President Ronald Reagan, star of many a fine Hollywood movie, not the least of which (really) was the comedy "Bedtime for Bonzo," co-starring a talented chimpanzee."
Originally appeared in the Duluth News Tribune on April 21, 2009