Amid all the merriment (and eating and drinking) that accompanies the holidays, I experienced a bracing dose of reality this last week that reminded me of something that we'll all be facing sooner or later.Death.Sorry to be so depressing, and that's not my intention. Rather, it's my hope that we can all take a healthy look ... Continue Reading
Two Edged Sword
It's hard to imagine a more horrific story--a husband and wife arguing violently, then the husband pulling a knife, stabbing his wife to death, then killing himself---all this while the children were in the house.The Forsyth Police Department has declared Monday's tragedy in Sawyer a homicide-suicide.The trauma for the five ... Continue Reading
Winter Arrives
I woke up Sunday morning to ten inches of fluffy snow on the ground in our front yard. Welcome to Winter, 2010, finally.Normally, I would have been thrilled with the gorgeous transformation of our landscape, but it was tempered by my concern about the official unveiling/book-signing of "Portrait of a Peninsula" that ... Continue Reading
Portrait of a Peninsula Unveiled
Sunday, December 5th is the official unveiling of "Portrait of a Peninsula". We'll have a get-together and book-signing at the Landmark Inn, downstairs in the lobby from 3-6 pm.Paul Grant, the longtime Marquette painter, is of course, the big attraction. His patrons have been asking him for years to put together a book of ... Continue Reading
New book due out soon
It's titled, "Portrait of a Peninsula" and it'll be unveiled in a few more weeks on Sunday, December 5th.The book is a collaboration between me and the artist Paul Grant, featuring more than 80 of his paintings over the last 4o years, accompanied by text written by me. It's a celebration of Paul's paintings and of the Upper ... Continue Reading
The Monstrosity on Ridge Street
It was one of the most dispiriting experiences I've had since I moved to the U.P. more than six years ago.The Marquette City Board of Zoning Appeals Thursday evening overruled an earlier Planning Commission decision, and voted to approve the construction of a butt-ugly six-story building next to the graceful Citadel ... Continue Reading
Agreement, at Last
In what has to be the most toxically partisan political campaign of the last few decades, we finally found some cross-partisan agreement in the First Congressional District debate that TV6 aired earlier this week.The unifying issue, interestingly enough, was the war in Afghanistan. Six candidates--Republican Dan Benishek, ... Continue Reading
David versus Goliath
It hasn't gotten a lot of attention yet, but there's an interesting dynamic building within the business communities of Marquette County.And although both sides in this dynamic are trying to play down any possible conflict, the potential for conflict is certainly there.I'm talking about the re-emergence of the Greater ... Continue Reading
A Family Without a Country
At TV6, we're currently chronicling the struggles of an 11 person Hmong family in Munising, the Yangs. They've lived in this country for about 20 years, they're well established in Munising with a family restaurant, the Golden Heart, and they want to stay, but six of them are constantly at risk of being deported and being ... Continue Reading
Up With Local
It's sometimes hard to determine whether we're witnessing a profound national trend or just strictly a local phenomenon.I'm speaking of the push we're seeing here in the Upper Peninsula to "grow local" and to "buy local". Two events last weekend spotlighted the movement: the first, held at the Upper Peninsula Children's ... Continue Reading