This past weekend's news brought an eerie, unwelcome sense of déjà vu. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago we read stories like the ones Kyle Porter filed for KARE11 and Paul Blume offered on FOX9, in which local families waited to hear the news from their families in an earthquake-ravaged nation? And there were also stories like the Star Tribune's first-person account of a Minnesotan who was on hand for the earthquake, describing its sudden violence and the leveling of houses in poor communities that followed?

Thankfully, Chile's earthquake brought nowhere near the devastation that Haiti's did; three weeks after that event, it still is very much in local headlines, with a tax relief bill designed to encourage donations to Haiti waiting to be finalized this week. In the meanwhile, a Minnesota chef who happened to be in Haiti during the earthquake has created a mix of spices to sell for charity; according to WCCO's Reg Chapman, he has given the seasoning the following tantalizing name: Haitian Love Rub.

But it isn't just the Chilean earthquake that feels a bit déjà vu-ish. According to the Associated Press, they're sandbagging in Moorhead in preparation for possible spring flooding, which recalls the awful Red River flooding of last March, captured in photographs on the Boston Globe's Big Picture blog. That's the unhappy way of things. Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret, as the ancients used to say; You can drive out nature with a pitchfork, but she always hurries back.

As an example, coyotes have started to adapt to city living, according to Kevin Giles of the Star Tribune. In Eagan alone, their were 47 incidents ("mostly sightings") last year. Giles interviews wildlife specialist Bryan Lueth, who says, "These animals inhabit cities in numbers we wouldn't previously believe." While there are no record of coyotes attacking humans in Minnesota, they have done so elsewhere, according to the story; should you spot one, leave it be.

And what is true of the natural world is likewise true of human nature. Let's take Prince, for instance. He was literally driven away with a pitchfork, in the sense that His Purple Majesty's Vikings fight song was gently mocked on the music site Pitchfork and more roughly mocked by locals, as the Strib's gossip columnist CJ reported.

Well, nature has returned, in the sense that Prince debuted a song on 89.3 The Current Friday. Apparently needing some encouragement, Prince loaded up the track with canned applause. It didn't help. The Pioneer Press's Ross Raihala called it an "overstuffed track" that "feels more like several unrelated fragments melded into one." City Pages' Andrea Swensson admitted that the song has its moments but otherwise described it as having "laughable, flat-out cheesy spots that kept us cringing throughout the song." Local scenester blog LOL/OMG rounded up a number of other reactions, which were, to put it mildly, mixed. Oh well, Prince; remember what the Romans once said: damnant quodnon intelligunt; they criticize what they do not understand. But, then, also remember this: castigat ridendo mores — we correct foolish things by laughing at them.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty's nature has returned, in the sense that he seems to have a natural inclination toward supporting John McCain, despite having been ditched at the prom, as it were, for Sarah Palin. McCain is somewhat out of favor now in far right circles, and Pawlenty seems to have been courting that demographic in his as-yet-undeclared run for president. But Pawlenty is backing McCain in his Senate bid anyway. Tom Scheck of Polinaut quotes Pawlenty as saying, "I believe he deserves re-election to the United States Senate as a Republican. So I'm going to stand on that principle. If that costs me, it costs me, but it's what I believe." Were this a movie, and were it playing at Block E, this would be the moment somebody would shout out "He don't love you!", but Pawlenty doesn't seem to be the once-burnt, twice-shy sort of a guy.

Downwtown Journal reminds us that Minneapolis Police Chief Tim Dolan is up for reappointment, and Brandt Williams of MPR summarizes Dolan's performance. The city's crime rate has dropped, and Dolan gets high points for an initiative to curb youth violence. But there's a split of opinions as to how Dolan deals with accusations of misconduct. The Police Federation accuses him of being "arbitrary and too harsh," while Dave Bicking of the Civilian Review Authority complains that "there is no discipline — or in a few cases, very, very weak discipline." To quote another ancient phrase: You just can't win for losing.

Speaking of which, America lost the gold in men's hockey to Canada Sunday, which strikes pretty close to home, because four members of the team were Minnesotans, as were the team's general manager and doctor. In one of the coincidences that seems to evidence a cruel design in fate, today is Canada Day at the Capitol, as Paul Walsh of the Star Tribune reports. We also lost the women's hockey gold to Canada. Thankfully, we probably can trust that the Canadian consul general won't spend the day gloating at the Capitol. It's just not in their nature.