Fastball Flakes - They're Grrrreat!!

For a limited time you can purchase Justin Verlander's Fastball Flakes at a Meijer store in the Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Kalamazoo areas. 100% of the proceeds go to the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center in Detroit and to the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. Not in any of those markets listed above? Order online at www.plbsports.com where they even have a "Fastball Flakes" t-shirt ($15) or t-shirt and cereal combo ($18) available if you want more than just the standard 2-pack of Fastball Flakes cereal ($10).

I wonder if our local Meijer has any? Otherwise it looks like a Kalamazoo road trip is in my future :).

Two Michigan towns make list of 50 Scary Halloween City Names

The National Association of Realtors has compiled a list of the Top 50 Scary Halloween City Names and Michigan is home to two of them. Coming in at Number 23 is Hell (no surprise this made the list) and Number 2 is Bad Axe. I've always loved the name - Bad Axe. I vividly remember it when I was in my 8th grade Michigan History class and we had to memorize all of the Michigan counties and county seats. Bad Axe is the county seat for Huron county by the way. Honorable Mention for the list (in my opinion anyway) would be the following:

Crow Island (The Birds anyone?) Devils Elbow Erie Mohawk Rattle Run (picturing hordes of skeletons noisily chasing villagers) Salem Skookum Sleepy Hollow Witch Lake Wolf Crossing

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Lost Detroit - footage from the Belle Isle Children's Zoo circa 1968

I was reading this article in the Chicago Reader about Detroit being the "Wild Wild Midwest" and there was a link to a blog, Sweet Juniper! I am SO going back to this blog to read more of the posts as this post led me to the video below of the Belle Isle Children's Zoo from 1968. The zoo was later redone in 1980 to create a more natural environmental habitat for the animals. For those who don't know, the Belle Isle Zoo was closed back in 2002 courtesy of disgraced former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick.

2009 Banished Words List

Once again, Lake Superior State University has delivered their annual Banished Words List. With 2008 being an election year there were a plethora of words available to choose for the 2009 list.

• Green - as in "green" technology, etc.
• Carbon Footprint or Carbon Offsetting
• Maverick
• First Dude
• Bailout
• Wall Street/Main Street
• Monkey - I guess it's popular to add "monkey" to a word for amusement, I missed out on this one evidently.
• <3 - resembles a heart so you can use even less effort to say "I love you"
• Icon or Iconic
• Game Changer
• Staycation - it's like a vacation only you don't go anywhere - ugh.
• Desperate Search
• Not So Much
• Winner of Five Nominations - as in Academy Awards, etc.
• It's That Time of Year Again

Submit your nomination for the 2010 list. Read all of the comments and leave comments for this list at www.lssu.edu/banished.

Perfect attendance for 13 years gets Constantine grad a new car

Andria Baker made a deal with her dad when she was in the 4th grade. She saw in the paper that an area senior with perfect attendance got a new car when he graduated because he had perfect attendance all through school. She had perfect attendance up to that point and made the deal with her dad, Tim. Tim Baker made good on the deal and Andria received the new car at her graduation party. Factoring in snow days, she went to school for 2,516 days during her 13 year stint at Constantine Public Schools.

Just for some perspective on the numbers - Baseball Hall of Famer Cal Ripken made headlines when he broke Lou Gehrig's record and played in 2,632 straight games over sixteen seasons.

From someone who did not have perfect attendance throughout their entire public school career this just boggles my mind. It's an incredible feat and it's pretty cool that she got a car out of the deal.

Kudos, Andria! :D

Read the article at the Sturgis Journal

Amusing notes from the Escanaba police log

I have been a big fan of police logs since the time I was attending Western Michigan University. There are multiple instances of hiliarity on a college campus every week. Once a week or so (usually on Mondays) I take a look at the postings from the Escanaba police log as printed by the Daily Press. You can usually find all sorts of interesting happenings in a police log and today's was no exception.

Here are the ones that stood out:

10:50 a.m. Altered script, 2500 block of 1st Avenue North - Was the fancy lettering on a sign altered? Perhaps script was shorthand for prescription which would make sense.

1:03 p.m. Unwanted text massages, 200 block of North 12th Street - Now, I don't claim to know everything about technology, but I never realized you could receive a text massage.

1:47 p.m. E-mail threat, 400 block of 1st Avenue South - We can call the cops when we receive spam? Who knew? ;)

11:30 p.m. Man trying to get hit by car, 1900 block of 5th Avenue South - To increase your odds of winning a game of chicken with a motorized vehicle it is wise to make sure that you, too, are in a motorized vehicle.