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Tennis anyone?  Join us! Youth, adults, seniors, beginners, intermediates, advanced -- All are welcome at the upcoming Tennis Block Party!

The Northfield Tennis Association (NTA) is sponsoring a "Tennis Block Party" at the Northfield High School Courts on Saturday, May 17, 2008, from 10:30 a.m. to Noon.

Tennis players of ALL ages and abilities are invited! Bring your racket and be ready to have some fun on the courts. If you haven't played in a while, just stop by - we'll have rackets available to use.

Phil Lundin, head men's track and field coach at the University of Minnesota, has been named head men's cross country and track and field coach at St. Olaf. Lundin, a four-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, will begin his new job this summer.

Lundin ("lun-DEEN"), a four-time Big Ten Coach of the Year, will finish the spring season at Minnesota before taking the reins at St. Olaf this summer. He will replace Bill Thornton, who is retiring after nearly four decades of service at St. Olaf.

"I'm looking forward to the challenge -- one that is more than coaching," says Lundin, a graduate of Augsburg College. "I'm excited to get back to my roots."

Submitted by Suzie Nakasian

(Photos taken by Pat O'Loughlin at the Northfield Earth Day Contra Dance last Saturday, April 26.)

• Click here to see the gallery
• Click here to see the slideshow

The dance was generously underwitten by Carleton's SOPE (Students Organized for the Protection of the Environment) in collaboration with the St. Olaf Environmental Coalition and the Northfield Community Contra Dance Association. The dance was held in Carleton's "Great Space", Sayles Hill Campus Center, and was attended by about 180 people - they were moving - I couldn't count. The room was packed. Music was provided by Contratopia and the dance was led by dance "caller" Robin Nelson of Minneapolis.

A good time was had by all...including the band, as evidenced in the attached photos.

Note: the next opportunity to contra dance in Northfield will be the June Moon Community Dance, part of the NDDC's upcoming Taste of Northfield Celebration on Bridge Square on June 19. The June Moon Dance will proudly feature Northfield's Over and Back Band and include swing dancing, waltzes and contra dances led by dance "caller" Beau Farmer.

From the Strib:

For at least a day, Faribault, Minn., convenience store clerks Jared Gustafson and Kim Bourn were among an elite handful of Rice County residents.

When it came to who might have won this weekend's $180.1 million Powerball jackpot ticket, sold somewhere in the southeastern Minnesota county, they were considered in the know by curious customers and reporters.

Okay, fess up. Did you win $180 million dollars this weekend? I was in the Kwik Trip tonight and they were claiming that they had sold it...

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) will visit St. Olaf College on Saturday, May 3, to participate in a discussion with faculty and students on climate change initiatives in Congress and on the nation's campuses. A panel of faculty members and students will share information on research and grassroots educational activities taking place at St. Olaf.

The forum will be held from 1-2 p.m. in Christiansen Hall of Music, Urness Recital Hall. It is free and open to the public.

Read more at stolaf.edu ...

Veteran political strategist and Democratic super delegate Donna Brazile will speak at St. Olaf Tuesday, April 29, at 7 p.m. in the Lion's Pause student club on the lower level of Buntrock Commons. The event is free and open to the public. The St. Olaf Political Awareness Committee is sponsoring the event.

Appointed as a Democratic super delegate in 1998 by Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Dick Gephardt, Brazile is one of the 796 super delegates to this year's Democratic National Convention. During her lecture she will talk about her political experiences and the role of super delegates in the nomination process.

Read more at stolaf.edu ...

Toxic substances arising from technological developments have significantly impacted our world during the past century. As part of the 10th annual Honors Day Science Symposium this Friday, May 2, three environmental experts from across the country will come together at St. Olaf College to consider what it means to thrive in a "toxic" world. Their lectures will be streamed online. All Science Symposium events are free and open to the public.

Each of the three experts will examine the impacts of toxic waste from a different perspective. Warren P. Porter, professor of zoology and environmental toxology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will kick off the symposium by addressing the health effects of pesticides. Porter's research focuses on how environmental contaminants affect the nervous, endocrine and immune systems, as well as developmental processes. His lecture will begin at 2:15 p.m. Friday.

Minnesota author Marya Hornbacher will read and discuss her new book, Madness: a Bipolar Life, at St. Olaf College Wednesday, April 30, at 7 p.m. in the Kings' Dining Room of Buntrock Commons. Following the discussion she also will be available for a book signing.

Hornbacher's new book describes her battle with bipolar disorder, which remained misdiagnosed by doctors until she was 23. Madness depicts her struggle to cope with a disease that has afflicted her with extreme mood swings and led to self mutilation and eating disorders, among other problems.

Read the rest of the story at stolaf.edu.

St. Olaf Professor of Sociology Samiha Sidhom Peterson will deliver the address during this year's Honors Day celebration Friday, May 2, beginning at 10:10 a.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel. The event recognizes St. Olaf students who have a cumulative grade point average of 3.3 or above (on a 4.0 scale), students receiving special honors and senior students who are members of honor societies.

The 40-minute event, which is open to the public and which will be streamed live and archived online, will begin with a procession of faculty in academic regalia. After the event, scholarship donors and their student recipients will have the opportunity to meet one another during a special luncheon.

For the rest of the story, visit stolaf.edu.

Alan Rubenstein, a Senior Consultant to the President's Council on Bioethics, will discuss "Human Dignity and Bioethics in Three Keys" on Wednesday, May 14 at 7:30 p.m. in Gould Library at Carleton College. The public is invited to attend. Rubenstein researches issues in U.S. domestic policy related to biotechnology and social changes in the practice of medicine. He is the principal author of the Council's forthcoming report to the U.S. President and Congress regarding the legal determination of death.

Northfield native and St. Olaf College alumna Siri Hustvedt will read from and sign her new book, The Sorrows of An American, at St. Olaf Friday, April 25, at 4 p.m. in Buntrock Commons, Viking Theater.

The narrator of Hustvedt's fourth novel, a New York psychoanalyst, returns to Minnesota to sort through his recently deceased father's papers. The story grows to look at the immigrant experience and the "ghosts" that can haunt families for generations. A Publishers Weekly starred review notes that the book continues "with grace and aplomb, [Hustvedt's] exploration of family connectedness, loss, grief and art."

St. Olaf College will honor French computer scientist Jean-Marie Laborde with an honorary degree during a convocation ceremony Thursday, April 24, at 11 a.m. in Boe Memorial Chapel. Laborde also will present a lecture on dynamic geometry Tuesday, April 22, at 1:30 p.m. in room 282 of the Science Center.

Both events are free and open to the public. The convocation will be streamed live and archived online.

The YMCA is proud to announce the 2008 Healthy Kids Day Volunteer award goes to Melanie Matson and the HOPE Center of Faribault. This award is given to honor the true spirit and talent of volunteers by recognizing the individual and their organization that have made a significant commitment and contribution to deliver--once again--a successful Healthy Kids Day.

The less-than-Spring-like weather did not hold back over 1,000 kids and their parents from participating in the celebration of health on Saturday morning (April 12) at the Northfield Middle school.

Just weeks after a trio of top three finishes at the NCAA's, including his second straight national title in the 200 Individual Medley, St. Olaf junior Nelson Westby met another career milestone on Saturday when he qualified for the U.S. Olympic Trials with his 1:03.9 swim in the 100 Meter Breaststroke at the Ohio State Grand Prix Invitational in Columbus, Ohio.

Westby is one of about 50 that will qualify in the 100 Breast for the Trials, which will run in July in Omaha, Neb.

Read the rest of the story at stolaf.edu.

It another week in Northfield, here in the early parts of April. The sun is shining, grass is growing, kids are outside plaSorry, I thought I could cut and paste from last year. The weather has varied from lousy to horrible this week, with rain, freezing rain, slush, and snow falling from the sky. Someone told me that they saw the sun earlier this week, but I'm not sure I believe them. We may go straight from winter to June's summer this year, I think.

Enough with this moaning and groaning, on with TWINB!...