- Bob Jensen, President, Maplewood Area Historical Society
- The abandoned building at 1375 Frost Avenue is probably the oldest building in Maplewood. It was constructed in 1879 near the north end of Lake Phalen “to hold elections and transact all business connected with the town” (New Canada Township). The town government was led by three supervisors who were elected every year and most of the business in early years was to create and maintain roads and bridges. As the population grew, a more central location was needed and the building was moved to the south side of Frost Avenue in 1900.
- Space opera (Wikipedia)
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and social advancements (or lack thereof) in faster-than-light travel, futuristic weapons, and sophisticated technology, on a backdrop of galactic empires and interstellar wars with fictional aliens, often in fictional galaxies. The term does not refer to opera music, but instead originally referred to the melodrama, scope, and formulaic stories of operas, much as used in “horse opera”, a 1930s phrase for a clichéd and formulaic Western film, and “soap opera”, a melodramatic domestic drama. Space operas emerged in the 1930s and continue to be produced in literature, film, comics, television, video games and board games.