Double Flee A

over the line!

Although the entire year has felt like a celebration, today the lovely wife and I will venture forth to celebrate even more enthusiastically than usual our first anniversary in the salubrious air of Duluth, America's most underrated city.

Duluth is essentially the polar opposite of Las Vegas.

In Vegas one looks around and tries to comprehend how all this crazy bullshit got to the middle of the desert. What will become of this place? Why did we come here? Even with five thousand people a day moving in and construction cranes at every point on the horizon, abandonment seems to be close at hand.

But at the edge of the world's largest body of fresh water, abandonment and vacuity couldn't be a more foreign concept. Duluth's story is not the mythology of supply, but supply itself. A long look at the lake (and every look out at the lake becomes a long one) and it's as if everything's going to be all right. There are no fabulous prizes and flashing lights, rather, Duluth is like an old dog that's seen many dinner guests come and go from its master's house, who will look at you only briefly and then resume snoozing. Duluth is the bulwark of my peace of mind, a place where I sense America's slipping consciousness catches and holds fast. To stand on the lake shore is to take the pulse of reality.

Sorry, I get carried away sometimes. Now that I've done that horrible thing to you, I've got to get out of here. I'll be back Monday.

posted by dale @ 10:56 AM