WobblyReport

Holiday tunes emerged and bloomed in our part of the world, this year as ev’ry in collective mem’ry. Festive music is as unifying and dividing as any ritual practice. In our own lives we might find ourselves on one or the other side of mirthful-musical enjoyment or annoyance, at any sung given time.  O holy night, so few opportunities to start a sentence thusly. Last Christmas was probably it for most. I don’t want a lot for Christmas except to let it snow, let it snow.  Would referring to a list be cheating? Yes, better to draw these from the surrounding air and to dive deep into reminiscences. It was a Sunday this year when the first bars of Mariah Carey’s seminal classic drifted through our household. A neighbor girl sang them through our daughter’s toy karaoke machine.  Last Christmas, I heard the Wham! song enough. The very next day, I heard it again. This year, what do I hear? A Jimmy Eat World cover from 2001 I had no idea existed despite having bought their long...

Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year are three of four of our national holidays established in 1870, along with Independence Day. Christmas and New Year both fall on a Wednesday this year, which will make life interesting for a couple of weeks, with students excused from classes and businesses operating on holiday hours. Oh and happy Thanksgiving, belated, good tidings to all in the days and nights coming, especially during holidays and celebrations. Christmas is coming up fast. Lots to do, oh, lots to do. Has everything been arranged? Is all in place? Down the corn stalks and harvest a young conifer tree or resurrect a facsimile from the basement like me. Decorating and undecorating will be a continual process unto and through the New Year, till straggling adornments have hung so auld long syne that neighbors begin to call in wellness checks. Old Man Winter came in on the heels of November and revived the northern Midwest’s annual, first-snow derby out on various county roads and stat...

When was the last time you tried something new—I mean really new? The tried and true remain a foundation of daily living but the will to step out on a limb is vital, both for the individual spirit and the health of our species. How else could we have discovered milk can be preserved by dipping frogs in it? No, seriously, look it up. Trying new things is dangerous and fun. It’s all belly laughs and broken ribs. Sorry, that’s just the mid-rift crisis talking.  I return periodically to the Analects of Confucius, who had his own, respected forebears. The Master said, at 15 I set my heart upon learning At 30, I had planted my feet firm upon the ground. At 40, I no longer suffered from perplexities. At 50, I knew what were the biddings of heaven. At 60, I heard them with docile ears. At 70, I could follow the dictates of my own heart; for what I desired no longer overstepped the boundaries of right. The joys and obligations of liberty lie in both ritual and experiment. Danger and fun att...

A lure came in the mail, not unlike the sweepstakes of yesteryear, to the addressee “or current resident” (somewhat insultingly). But here were three pull-tab tickets, tantalizingly hot-glued to a glossy flyer with images of cash and prizes and happy winners with big grins and even bigger novelty checks, the flyer gleaming on top of a daily pile of post. Obviously this was no one’s first rodeo. But times are tough and everybody’s feeling the squeeze, so the slimmest of chances can inspire a swing for the fences. After pulling the tabs and reading print that gets finer every year, the odds that the three matching truck images and all-caps, red text that said “WINNER” would pay seemed to be about one in one and a half million. But as a very unwise Lloyd Christmas once exclaimed to an incredulous Mary Swanson: “you’re telling me there’s a chance?” So on Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, I kissed my wife for luck and drove to a nearby Chevrolet dealership, 99.9998% sure that I would never, ever re...

Section 315 of the Federal Communications Act of 1934 is intended to give equal time to candidates on media broadcast channels. If a media broadcaster gives air time to a candidate, they must also give an equal amount of time to an opponent of that candidate, upon request. Except. Bona fide news coverage is exempt. On one hand, this would seem to protect freedom of the press. After all, if one candidate shows up in a public place and a media outlet captures the event, this should not oblige the media outlet to give time to an opponent with a campaign advertisement. But a real consequence of this policy has been a distinct narrowing of our political discourse throughout the nation. To understand how, we can look at a few case studies in one particular realm of media broadcast programming: televised political debates. Without attempting any exhaustive analysis of how the rules have evolved, let’s just look at fairly recent history. In 2008, for example, then-presidential candidate Denni...

Let’s dispense with history lessons and focus on the here and now. Are you scheduled and expected to work on Monday, Sept. 2? If so, will you receive bonus pay for it? Too many of us will answer ‘yes’ and then ‘no.’ In part this is because the United States is the only one of 38 member-countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development not to require paid leave of any kind. In a 2007 policy report, researchers Rebecca Ray and John Schmitt conclude that “the United States is in a class of its own with respect to statutory guarantees of paid time off: it is the no-vacation nation.” Most employers offer some amount of paid holiday, sick and personal leave. Indeed, media coverage on the subject tends relentlessly to emphasize this fact. Ray and Schmitt observed, however, that “one in four U.S. workers has no paid leave or public holidays at all.” What’s more, the lower the wage, the higher the ratio. That means the less money we make, the less chance we have any paid t...

County fairs have wrapped up for the most part around the region. They are a great opportunity for the community to come together, to highlight achievements and provide windows into one another’s lives. The fair has an element of torture for some. I don’t mean the anticipation of its approach or the anxiety that some fungus will spoil a prize pumpkin. I mean an annually renewed realization that one has been irreversibly ear-wormed. A 2008 article in the Northern Express explains how an advertisement for the Northwest Michigan Fair spread like wildfire (‘went viral,’ in newspeak) in the late 1980s. The very creative television advertisement included a jingle that was also frequently, for years, rebroadcast over FM radio. The fair, once held right in the heart of Traverse City, was relocated 5 miles south of town in the early 1970s. The relocation and growth of other summer events in the area led to flagging fair attendance and troubled finances. Rick Coates, then a newly hired fair ma...

Many states in our country ask about political party affiliation when a person registers to vote. Michigan does not because primary elections are open, meaning voters who have not declared a party affiliation are allowed to participate. In the U.S., primary elections are contests that determine who will appear on the ballot in a general election; general elections determine who takes office. But leave aside voting and elections for a moment. What is party affiliation? We might define it the way that polling organizations measure and report it. The Pew Research Center, for example, asks respondents a single question at the end of its surveys. The question is, “In politics today, do you consider yourself a Republican, Democrat or Independent?” Pew’s article, “ Party Affiliation: What it is and What it Isn’t ,” goes on to explain the reasoning behind measuring party affiliation this way. “This question is not intended to measure how respondents are registered, how they have voted in the p...

Rifle River State Recreation Area On runs, sentences... Rifle River State Recreation Area is massive. A full circuit of the area’s trail system would require the stamina of an ultra-runner or a sturdy, single-track-ready bicycle. A quick glance at the trail map and distance intervals between numbered locations reveals as much. Perhaps more revealingly, the worker who greeted me at the park’s main entrance on my first visit May 12 seemed unaccustomed to runners looking for the best parking area near a trailhead. “Are you looking for hills?” That sounded great, I said. The normal day-use lot was closed for maintenance, they said, but the lot near the Devoe Lake boat launch would suffice. Navigational challenges and anxieties at RRSRA are unlike trail systems that overlap or abut vast tracts of state land, or those complicated by plethoras of interior side-trails and intersections. Instead, long segments of trail open into sprawling camping and gathering spaces and parking lots. On a f...

The new job duties include an opinion column every three weeks. This was successfully pitched as first in a series. Ogemaw Hills Pathway On runs, sentences... A good recreational trail keeps one on one’s toes; lulls, perhaps, a wanderer into a sense of detached familiarity but just as easily immerses a traveler in the present moment and place. The way is clear one instant, inviting, but later on cluttered with debris and uncertain, merging and diverging with old fire roads and off-road vehicle paths, offering shortcuts and side-routes and extensions. A signpost’s map has fallen off or was never installed. A natural sense of direction disorients under the canopy, after a series of switchbacks that prevent erosion and confuse the hapless. Ogemaw Hills Pathway is a most suitable environment to experience the great outdoors—physical space for psychic journeys, explorations of nature and self. The pathway’s winding trails and interconnecting nodes branch out forming a network fit to fulfill...

Rube launches Senate campaign By the Committee to Elect Douglas P. Marsh The Committee to Elect Douglas P. Marsh announced today that journalist Douglas P. Marsh is seeking the Green Party ’s nomination in the race for the United States Senate in Michigan. Sitting Senator Debbie Stabenow announced early last year that she is retiring from politics and will not seek reelection. “I anticipate a fair contest in which policy positions and personal integrity are the primary deciding factors for voters,” said Marsh. Third party and independent candidates have won fewer than one percent of Senatorial races in the past century. Contenders for nominations within the Republican and Democratic parties include billionaire heir Peter Meijer and Central Intelligence Agency veteran Elissa Slotkin, respectively. Marsh was unfazed. “People are sure to vote their wallets and consciences this time,” he said. “I’m the only candidate who is serious about getting Medicare for All at home and perma...

Building the Party In a recent opinion column , small business ownership expert Mary Keyes Rogers adeptly diagnoses several problems in our United States political systems. She homes in particularly on our country’s two major political parties, the Republicans and Democrats, and elected leaders, referring to some iconic household names. 1 Rogers wisely recognizes, too, that our two-party system is not going away any time soon, no matter how divorced both of the parties have become from the will of the people. A third party cannot coexist with the other two major parties under our country’s predominant election rules (see Duverger’s Law ) and this system carries the inertia of our nation’s entire history to this point. 2 Relatedly, she recites Pew research indicating around a third of Americans hold negative views of both major parties. Yet more to this point, we know that more than half of eligible voters regularly do not vote in any given U.S. election. Keen to problems, Rogers is n...

Listen to Michigan has crafted a simple message with an easy ask: turn in an “uncommitted” ballot on Tuesday to demand a ceasefire in Gaza from the incumbent U.S. president. That’s a great tactic for those committed to working within the Democratic Party for change. But how does it fit strategically for those outside the Democratic Party? Per Michigan election law and electoral developments to date, resident voters may choose from one or the other major U.S. political parties in this Sunday’s presidential primary election. Both primaries are run on the same ballot, which makes more sense than printing two ballots for each voter and then throwing half of them away, even if it leads to some confused voters invalidating their ballots by voting for a candidate from each party. Minor parties select candidates to run in the general election through a nominating convention, but their members can still vote in Michigan’s primaries, as can unaffiliated and independent voters. Theoretically...

Having left town for the holidays, I only became aware of this incident by arriving early at a Jan. 2 meeting of county commissioners and overhearing one of the commissioners mention it. At the office, the editor said they had heard about it and that it was sad. Dog bites woman through vehicle window The Wild Blueberry Breakfast and Bakery is a popular morning meetup location for many locals. Dawn Nelson, 81, formerly chair of the Mackinac County Board of Commissioners as well as  county assessor, was seriously injured by a dog in the parking lot of the Wild Blueberry Breakfast and Bakery on the morning of Dec. 24. Nelson (photo courtesy St. Ignace Police) [removed per request of family member] Nelson sustained injuries to her hand and face, including partial loss of her nose, when she approached the side of her son’s vehicle and was attacked through an open window by Heff, a 6-year-old, male, pit bull mix. Nicholas Nelson, 38, reported to police that his father had pet the dog thr...

Let us return, dear readers, to an episode from the Saturday before Halloween last year. After running  a  race and submitting a short article  about  the event, I learned that on e  participant had not survived  the time trial . I  raised the subject  at the office but was not encouraged to pursue it.  My notes were destroyed but I’ve taken bits from  the  original article in addition to memories and subsequent investigations. A fine way to die on a fine day to die Reluctantly crouched at the starting line... We must begin with a full disclosure that our narrator was himself a participant in the Great Turtle Trail Run on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, finishing the half-marathon race 52nd in a field of 570 and 7th out of 23 competitors in the same age*sex bracket. It was nothing short of a glorious return to form after a 20-year hiatus from competitive running. Ian Torchia (photo from free online gallery ) The half-marathon winner, a 32...

Unpublished without explanation by my former editor. Commissioners approve 2024 budget The amount of money in Mackinac County's general fund has held steady for the past decade, ranging from $4.3 to $5.1 million. Budget shortfalls have been projected but unrealized. (Data source: Mackinac County Treasurer's Office) The board of commissioners for Mackinac County approved a proposed budget for 2024 at their last meeting of the year Thursday, Dec. 28. The budget shows balanced expenditures and revenues at a figure of $9.34 million with an anticipated general fund balance of $4.22 million. “The county’s in good shape financially,” said Mike Patrick, board chair. “The budget’s better than it was last year. There’s a lot of money coming in after the first of the year.” The county is expecting expenditures of $9,339,956 in 2024, which would lead to an $834,074 revenue shortfall, balanced by an offset taken from the general fund. But treasurer Jennifer Goudreau said large projected bud...