Michigan

 

          Good evening, 919 Gang.

 

MICHAEL BURGE writes:

Happy 28^th anniversary to Carl and Sharon Larsen. Carl mentioned my son in his post, for his recommendation of Bluebeard, a restaurant in Indianapolis. The restaurant derives its name from the title of a novel by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who was born and raised in Indianapolis. My son Russell is a professor of East Asian studies at Indiana University and lives in Indianapolis, so we have occasion to visit there. We’ve grown fond of the city, and not just for Bluebeard restaurant.

That was a roundabout way to back into a lede, as I’m sure you eagle eyed writers have figured out by now. This past spring my wife and I flew to Indianapolis to meet with Russell and drive north to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. As a scholar of East Asian history, my son has traveled all over the world and has lived in Seoul, one of the world's great cities, but he had never been to Michigan. This seemed an omission crying out for correction.

It’s not as if my wife Kathie and I have deep roots in Michigan. I was born in Brooklyn, for crying out loud, and Kathie was born and raised in San Diego. But we had traveled to the Upper Peninsula previously, and there is nothing quite like it elsewhere in the country. It stretches for roughly three hundred miles from a town called Ironwood on the west to Sault Ste. Marie on the east, where mighty iron ore freighters shimmy through the Soo Locks, which connect Lakes Superior and Huron. The U.P., as locals call it, is heavily wooded and laced with rivers and streams. Waterfalls are seemingly everywhere, with roadside signs tempting you to follow this or that narrow road to this or that cascading stream. And because the Upper Peninsula is framed by Lake Superior on the north and Lake Michigan on the south, a gorgeous shoreline is never far away.

          Perhaps what lures us most to the U.P. is its northern shore, which extends 917 miles along Lake Superior. I compare my first experience with Lake Superior with my first encounter with the Pacific Ocean. The Pacific is unimaginable until you stand on its edge and are struck dumb by its overpowering blue vastness. Lake Superior has a similar effect. It is a freshwater lake, but so vast you can’t see the opposite shore, and so powerful that waves sweep its rocky coast. Standing in the face of such a force, it becomes understandable how this body of water can swallow ships whole.

          The Ojibwa name for Superior is gitchi-gami, which was turned into Gitche Gumee by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his epic poem, "The Song of Hiawatha," and which is also the name Gordon Lightfoot used in his song, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald." The giant ore freighter went down in November 1975 only 15 miles short of Whitefish Bay, a watery vestibule for eastbound ships seeking to make their way to the Soo Locks. Had the Fitzgerald made it to this  refuge between the main part of the lake and the locks, it might have survived the massive storm and deprived us of Lightfoot’s haunting song. But it didn’t, going down in Canadian waters north of Whitefish Point. 

          Whitefish Point is a storied cape that juts into Superior and ends on a wind-blasted beach. Lake Superior has claimed so many vessels in the waters that extend between Whitefish Point and Grand Marais, a distance of 80 miles, that this part of the lake is known as The Graveyard of the Great Lakes. An estimated 200 vessels have gone down here — so many that there is now a Whitefish Point Underwater Preserve, formed to prevent unauthorized scavenging of sunken vessels. The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point honors the hundreds of sailors whose lives have been claimed along with their vessels by the Great Lakes’ tempestuous waters. If you have any interest in the Edmund Fitzgerald and Great Lakes shipping, this has to be on your bucket list.

          During our visit we were fortunate to have good weather and calm waters, which enabled us to venture out onto Lake Superior. The shoreline between Grand Marais and Munising is home to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, which is accessible by boat for about six months out of the year. These sandstone cliffs rise as high as 200 feet over the lake in some places, and erosion has scoured out caves, arches and jagged rock formations along the shore’s most colorful 13 miles. Here and there a waterfall tumbles into the lake. The cliff rocks are veined with different minerals, streaking the cliffs with bands of red, blue, magenta, and yellow — nearly the entire rainbow. I could go on, but I'll let my pictures do the talking for me.

 

 Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

 

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore

 

Rocks National Lakeshore

 

Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point

 

Eastward bound freighter as it leaves the Soo Locks

 

Land's end at Whitefish Point

 

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DENNIS CORBRAN writes:

I think I know where the use of “on accident” comes from. Think of its opposite “on purpose.” Why do most of us use “by” with accident, but “on” with purpose? It’s probably just people looking for consistency. English grammar has more “rules" than most people can remember, so they improvise. I’ve just learned to roll with it.

 

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          MICHEKE DAVUS writes:

I am moving!  Been in this small, 9-unit building in Normal Heights for 32 years.  Fantastic neighbors!  Wonderful previous owner.  Lousy new owners!  Moving to a senior citizen facility near Balboa Park.  271 sq feet studio!  Have to get rid of 98% of my stuff, cooking stuff, portable washer and dryer (you do not need dedicated outlets to use them), really nice furniture!  

          Had a vehicle accident a few days ago.  Black BMW SUV hit my car on the right front!  At this point parts of the body of the car are dropping onto my parking space!  Getting it towed tomorrow to the Toyota dealer.  AAA insurance has determined I was not at fault!!!  That means I do not have to pay the deductible!!!  Finally, a break!!!

 

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          KATHY RODONDI writes:

Jack: An interesting story from SFGATE today about AI and online news, wanted to share it with fellow 919ers.

35 publishers sue OpenAI, Microsoft for training ChatGPT with their content

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/openai-newspaper-lawsuit-22322605.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=share-by-email&utm_medium=email

Publishers representing over 400 newspapers in the U.S. say they were "robbed."

 

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REBER:  Catching up on birthdays: Hapoy Birthday June 30  to Mitch Weinstock and elly Murphy and July 1 to July 1 to Gordon Murray

 

No. 67

 

          Good evening, 919 Gaang

 

ALAN MILLER writes:

Re. Carl Larsen's  anniversary note post, Rosemary and I celebrated our 67th wedding anniversary June 28th as well. We dined at one of our favorite bistros in Napa. The previous week we spent several days in Michigan and Illinois. We toured with Obama Presidential Library June 20 without a securing an advance ticket, thanks to the graciousness of a couple of volunteers. They were charmed by several things, such as our being seasoned citizens from California, our forthcoming wedding anniversary, that we had made phone calls for him in 2008. The clincher, however, was that I was a military veteran who served during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962. 

          Suffice it to say we were grateful for experience the impressive museum. Having been to the JFK, Nixon and Reagan libraries, we were mesmerized by the many exhibits to include the President Obama's moving eulogy to those who were slain at the Charleston S.C. church. Another highlight was the Oval Office replica, where we had our picture taken at his desk. The staff and volunteers were outstanding in their kindness and professionalism. Make it a point to visit this splendid structure. You will not only be impressed, but discover it to be inspirational.

 

Anniversary

 

          Good evening, 919 Gang

 

CARL LARSEN writes:

A belated welcome back, Jack. Just in time for Sharon’s and my 28th anniversary today (June 28).

What  an adventure it has been for us, especially this year.

We’re just now recovering from a cruise to Norway in March to experience the Northern Lights, a Good Friday pilgrimage to London’s Royal Albert Hall to hear Handel’s Messiah performed (as it is each year) by an orchestra and nearly 200 singers (we’re going back next year).
>> Close behind was a trip to Chicago for my 60th high school reunion on the University of Chicago campus and a chip shot away from the just opened Obama Presidential Library. On that trip, we squeezed in lunch with Glenda Winders and her husband Phil Allen at Blackbeard’s in Indianapolis, a farm-to-table restaurant suggested by Mike Burge through his son, a professor, in Indy.

Then, it was off to The Netherlands from San Diego for a two-week trip threatened by the Iran war and uncertain weather. That was a family outing for five - including Sharon’s brother, sister-in-law and niece, 15. A lot of heavy lifting was required to make that trip work, but it was a great success.

The highlight was Sharon’s  and my return to the Anne Frank House, which Sharon wanted her niece to experience. The tickets were difficult to get, requiring a six-week advance purchase by Internet at 1 am San Diego time. There are no walk-up tickets.

We returned two weeks ago much more versed in the Dutch Masters: Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and particularly Vermeer, whose genius was undiscovered until the 1800s. in Amsterdam, we were in Rembrandt’s house surveying his studio and were incredulous to learn that he went bankrupt. (Always a starving artist!)

Now about Sharon. She’s pretty close to the girl next door.
>> An established U-T freelancer, she literally plopped down in the seat next to me at the U-T, waiting to meet with assistant editor Liz Poppens, who conveniently wasn’t around.

I introduced myself as the Home section editor, but it took awhile for our relationship to bloom. Later we found her father and mother lived a few doors down in Encinitas from my sister and brother-in-law. Another coincidence.

Meanwhile, Sharon wrote the Home section story she often cites as to how we met.

It was a cover piece on why low-flow toilets, mandated by law, often didn’t work. You may remember those years when a party plunger for guests was de rigueur in the toilet when entertaining.

For her story, she queried the head of the plumbers’ union in Chicago and found out many of the standard old toilets were now in use in Tijuana.

The toilet conversion  became a national political issue, so Sharon’s story, besides winning local acclaim, ended up in the pages of the Congressional Record.

As a bonus, she wrote a sidebar for Home on a local company that made waterless urinals. How romantic!

From there she went on to write a piece I commissioned on how the GOP Convention held here in 1996 could benefit from feng-shui, the hot Asian design practice popular with decorators.

For that one, she enlisted the help of a local feng-shui expert, Dr. Tan, who examined preparations at the convention center. He said the  GOP needed to change a few things for a successful convention. I guess Bob Dole didn’t  pay attention.

That was my effort to get the Home section involved in the big convention. I feared I’d hear from higher-ups on that one, but nothing happened. Still it was highly unconventional.

Later, we began to date. But after the third date I told her she no longer could free lance for me because of ethical considerations (dating the boss).

I think she was a little disappointed.

But I’m always flushed when anniversary time comes around. And we still have a plunger at the ready as a reminder of our 28 years.

 

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BILL CALLAAN writes:

In the on accident/by accident debate why not just say accidentally? A pet peeve of mine is how “gone missing” has crept into everyday media lingo. Passive and inaccurate. Someone disappeared, vanished, was kidnapped, is lost during a hike, cruise, vacation or whatever.

The Vancouver postings are spot on. My wife is from that Canadian gem. She fled the clouds and rain for college in California. We married in Vancouver and visit it regularly to see relatives. Enormous, beautiful, multi-cultural city with a dazzling array of restaurants and a frustrating network of crowded streets and avenues.