Tilt-A-Whirl

 #3. Minnesota is BIG. Today was my introduction to MN-08, the top-right quadrant of the state. It's a tossup, a Swing Left key district, and the day after tomorrow’s primary we’ll know who our candidate is. Today, nobody knows.

Started the day driving to North Branch, where I rendezvoused with our super-duper research coordinator for an overview.

Then a long drive to Duluth, passing the Rural School Museum and it’s already-amazing tree heavy with apples for teachers.

In a disused retail store in Duluth’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, I met with a DFL organizer to ask, basically, what they need. Swing Left’s novel strength is that we’ve got lots of people (like me!) who are engaged in a race that’s not their home district. “Data entry?” he asked. “Well, I think I’ve got at least two professional *analysts*. And I think we have some data entry prospects in good time zones, so you can scan your canvass results at the end of the day and have your database updates done overnight.

The big anxiety here is that we'll break apart or break down. The Russian trolls may work on both: they did in 2016, and the local organizer was fairly sure that he's got some of them back this year, too.

Then a visit to Canal Park, which Fallows & Fallows describe beautifully in OUR TOWNS, and a visit with the son of a an old colleague during the Years of xil, someone I lost saw 30 years back.

Then on to Chisholm, MN (too far!) for its county fair, which had some lovely ponies. There was a Tilt-A-Whirl, too; I didn't get on it lest my shirt get caught. And so to bed