Censorship

Our hotel room in Clare had a hot tub. Read the first and third lines of the directions carefully.

I'm no expert on education but literacy in this country gets worse and worse. Mrs. C and I are deputies of the Language Police and this sort of thing make us crazy. The worst and most common problem is using an apostrophe to form a plural, like "two apple's for a dollar."  You see it everywhere and it's not just the US. It is as common in the UK and Canada.     

You Say It's Your Birthday

Today's theme song.

Ellie turns four on August 20. Audrey turns two on August 30. We had an early joint party for both of them. The cake was simple but the girls didn't care. Nothing better than kids and birthday cake.  

Home tonight. Our flight out of Lansing, Michigan, isn't until mid afternoon. We hear that there is a small but pleasant zoo in the state's capital city. More little person entertainment.

Water Sports

It was a bit of a surprise but Ellie turned out to be the more contemplative of the girls this weekend, while her younger cousin Audrey was the crazy-happy kid. After a dip in our hotel pool this morning and nap time, we went to Sanford Lake Park near Midland, MI. Son Andy, Audrey's father, brought along his paddle board. The stunt below was deliberate, not accidental.           

Read This

Found in the Discovery Museum in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. (Find the mountain. Just go and try. Report back.) It's the big town in the region, 16 miles from Clare, 26,000 people plus a peak of 20,000 students at Central Michigan University. This is a book that should be in every home. 

The museum is an educational playground for younger children. We were impressed. Ellie and Audrey were delighted.  Son Andy's feet do stick out.    

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Let's Eat

Hedonism simplified. Get your life in order. I suppose it's a matter of taste and priorities, but some people might ask for seconds and never make it any further. My father, who was in commercial sugar business, would have approved.

The location is Clare, Michigan's famous Cops & Doughnuts. It's heaven for those with a sweet tooth and a nightmare for endocrinologists and dentists.   

Happy Trails

There is a wonderful trail system around Clare, just the thing for walking off the effects of the slab of meat seen yesterday. I assume Andy's tee shirt is from some bar and restaurant and is meant to be ironic, if a little obscure.

I really need new local material but it's supposed to start pouring later today and continue for days. There must be something to shoot in that.     

Chef Andy

As you may have guessed from yesterday's post, I am rather hard up for material. Missed some local events last weekend like Earth Day and the March For Science. The forecast is for storms all this weekend so I'm scraping.

My son, Andy, is getting into the small town lifestyle. He has this big electric meat smoker gizmo. There was a visit to the local meat market which resulted in the purchase of an 11 pound  / 5 kg pork shoulder. He brined it for five days, then slow cooked it in the smoker for nine hours, keeping an eye on both the air and meat temperature.

Finally it was done. An artist must carefully check the quality of his work.        

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

So I'm walking down the driveway at Andy's house in Michigan and see this written in chalk. Something like the following conversation takes place:

Me: What's that?

Andy: Oh, c'mon. You know.

Me: Sorry, never laid eyes on it.

Andy: It's Euler's equation, the most beautiful equation in math.

Me: ????   

So I looked it up, which didn't help very much. See here and here.  

One mathematician said it is "like a Shakespearean sonnet that captures the very essence of love, or a painting that brings out the beauty of the human form that is far more than just skin deep, Euler's equation reaches down into the very depths of existence".

And another stated that the identity "is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don't know what it means, but we have proved it, and therefore we know it must be the truth."

I totally don't get it. Nice to know that in some ways my kid is smarter than the old man.

Roz's Diner

The next town south of Clare is the tiny hamlet of Rosebush. It's closer to the big town in the region, Mt. Pleasant (which is as flat as Chicago), population 26,000 and home of Central Michigan State University. Roz's Diner, although very unpretentious from the outside, has a quality of food that is quite remarkable. Mrs. C loved her lamburger with feta, sourced from a local farm. I had chicken shawarma in a pita, completely unexpected in the rural Up North (although, this being America, served with fries).

Sitting in a lounge in Chicago's O'Hare airport as I write this. We'll be back in Clare in August with Emily and Madeleine.     

Small Town Cinema

The Ideal Theater on McEwan Avenue, the main drag of Clare, Michigan. The place has small town peace with a certain degree of sophistication. It has a couple of art galleries and quite a few good restaurants. Walmart considered building here and later decided against it, much to the benefit of the local quality of life. And, of course, the renown Cops & Doughnuts, which may find its way back here on theme day.       

The Michigan Division

Hello again from Clare, Michigan, where son Andy, his wife Claire and little granddaughter Audrey live. Claire grew up here and her parents still live in town. Audrey is 20 months old. (Andy can speak for himself.) It's a big change from their former home in Chicago. Blood pressure tends to run lower here.

This Clare - Claire thing is confusing. Clalre was born elsewhere in Michigan and her family moved to Clare when she was young. Clare is named for County Clare in Ireland, where my father's family comes from. Lots of knots.

After dinner at their home we took a dessert walk to renowned Cops & Doughnuts, where this picture was taken against a black linoleum floor.

Still Low On Material So How About Some Bikers?

Maybe I can find some time to shoot this weekend (the Lou's version of the World Naked Bike Ride is Saturday night) but for today I gotta scrape up something from Michigan again.

 

I get motorcycles in a way, and then again I don't. Big adrenaline rush, wind all over your body, the immediate, physical sense of speed and motion. And then there's the old bad joke. Question: what's another term for motorcycle rider? Answer: organ donor. As some of you know, I represent people on disability cases and I've had a lot of clients who got seriously messed up on these things. And I only see the ones who survive. No airbags, just pavement, walls, poles and other vehicles.

 

Younger riders are on the small screaming machines, sometimes weaving recklessly through traffic. The old, big (you know what I mean) guys ride Harleys. Part of the uniform is often leather vests or jackets sewn over with patches. What can I say? This is a multi-cultural society.                

Audrey Anyday

One of the main reasons for our trip to Michigan was to see our younger grandchild, Audrey, 10 months old. The family is now far away enough from us that visits will be less frequent. (Jack has a bigger problem.) The hotel where we stayed had a big indoor pool, mostly empty during the day. Son Andy, his wife, Claire and the kid came over to use it. 

The child, of course, is impossibly cute. We hope to see them again at Thanksgiving. We'll meet up in Kansas City and then drive west to see Mrs. C's mom, who will be 98 that week.             

Cops & Doughnuts - 2

Another look at Cops & Doughnuts in Clare. A large room next to the bakery contains a shop with a dizzying variety of C&D merchandise. (And it's open 24/7! Who needs a hat with a police badge and a doughnut on it at 3 in the morning?) That's where we met Ryno (third photo), one of the nine founding policemen. His name is actually Greg Rynearson and he is retired from the force, giving all his time to promoting dental business in central Michigan. When we went back for breakfast a couple of days later, we ran into another co-founder, Jeremy McGraw. He's still on duty. On the street, not at the fryer.

The room on the other size of the bakery holds the Traffic Stop Diner, seen in the last pic. Mrs. C is talking to two of the locals, Fern and Bill, who go there every single day. When no one came to the counter to take our orders, Bill went in the back and pulled out the cook to do it. The couple call themselves ambassadors but I'm not sure if it is for the shop or the town. Maybe both. Like everyone in Clare, they are amazingly friendly.

By the way, I found a web page that purports to explain the American meme of police and doughnuts. Not sure whether to believe it but you can read it here.                

Cops & Doughnuts - 1

Clare, Michigan's most famous institution is Cops & Doughnuts. The location had housed the city's bakery since 1896. Several years ago it was on the verge of going out of business. All nine members of the town's police department bought it and turned it into what you see here. The baked goods are fabulous (lots of things besides doughnuts), the theme is cute and it has become immensely popular. Other locations have opened in Michigan and Indiana.

There is an adjacent diner and a shop selling all sorts of cutsie-poo themed merchandise. More about that and the cop-owners tomorrow.             

Fourth of July in Harrison, Michigan - 2

Patriotism on display on our national holiday, from a stars and stripes golf cart to a kid playing Captain America. However, there is something about an Imperial Storm Trooper waving the flag that's very uncomfortable.                

Fourth of July in Harrison, Michigan - 1

The big Fourth of July parade in this area is in Harrison, the next town north of Clare. Pure small-town Americana. This year's theme was super heroes.

Everyone here is so friendly. People strike up a conversation just because you are standing there. The man above and his family participated in the parade, riding a fancy truck promoting his auto detailing business. Mrs. C, a noted member of the language police, pointed out the spelling error on his shirt. Well, his brother printed it, he said. We avoided discussing politics.          

Plan B Was Okay

Turns out there was some misunderstanding about yesterday morning's event. Clare's little airport has a fly-in/drive-in pancake breakfast around the forth of July. No plane rides but 75 to 100 single engine aircraft, mostly old and some just strange, stop in for a $7 breakfast of pancakes (as stated), cheesy potatoes, ham, eggs and coffee. People ate at picnic tables in a hangar. And everyone got complimentary treats from Cops & Donuts, more about which soon.

After breakfast we drove way up north to Traverse City, where the National Cherry Festival was in progress. I guess they grow 'em up there. It was packed. Nowhere to park close enough with a baby in a stroller. Visitors swarmed across the main road, oblivious to traffic and signals, at times reminding me of migrating herds of bison. So we drove straight out of town.

The alternate destination was Leland, Michigan, even farther north. It's a cute village that lives off summer tourism (it must be brutal in the winter). There is a nice sand beach along the northern reaches of Lake Michigan. Audrey got her Great Lakes baptism.