A Michigan Thing

12/24/2025

All about Snowy Owls in Michigan and beyond

12/23/2025

Seasons Greetings! 🎄 🌎 💐

12/23/2025

Traverse City exists because of location, timing, and reinvention. Long before settlers, the Odawa and Ojibwe used the bay seasonally for fishing and travel. French voyageurs followed in the 1700s, naming the area for the way they traversed Grand Traverse Bay. In 1852, the U.S. established a small military post to secure the region. The post failed. The settlement didn’t.

Then came lumber. By the late 1800s, Traverse City was a full-on timber town—mills, railroads, and aggressive clear-cutting. The forests fell fast, and when the boom ended, many towns vanished. Traverse City didn’t. The land pivoted to fruit farming, and the climate proved perfect for cherries, locking in an identity that still defines the region. Railroads brought tourists. Cars brought more. What started as survival turned
into much more.

Most towns built on logging collapsed when the trees were gone. Traverse City reinvented itself twice and never lost its footing.

Geography does the heavy lifting. Grand Traverse Bay splits the land and softens the climate, creating one of the best fruit-growing regions in the Midwest. That’s why cherries, apples, and grapes thrive here—and why this is legitimate wine country.

Add freshwater, hills, and long light-filled summers, and you get a place that feels coastal without an ocean.

Culture seals it. Traverse City punches above its weight in food, music, and film (the Traverse City Film Festival put it on a national map), while still functioning as a working town with marinas, farms, and year-round residents. It’s outdoorsy but not remote, polished but not fully detached from its roots.

Bottom line: Traverse City isn’t special because it’s cute. It’s special because it’s productive, scenic, and resilient—a place that keeps finding new ways to matter without losing why it existed in the first place.

12/23/2025

12/23/2025

DK Metcalf suspension voids $45M in guarantees, gives Steelers future financial out

Metcalf's money did not vanish, but his safety net did.

12/22/2025

Ottawa County’s drinking laws are shaped less by state control and more by deep local temperance culture. Michigan went dry early (1918), repealed Prohibition fast (1933), and handed real power to local governments through “local option” laws. Ottawa County used that power aggressively.

For decades after Prohibition ended, alcohol was legal under state law but restricted or outright banned in parts of the county by local vote. Zeeland became the clearest example: it remained effectively dry for nearly a century, legalizing alcohol sales only in 2006 and holding onto a Sunday alcohol ban until 2025 — long after most of Michigan moved on. Nearby Hudsonville didn’t repeal its dry status until 2007, making it the last dry city in the state.

Today, Ottawa County follows Michigan liquor law, but its history explains why alcohol access lagged here longer than almost anywhere else — not by accident, but by choice.

12/22/2025

Thanks &NFC Trash talk. You nailed it.

12/22/2025

Metcalf hits a fan in the stands, and it’s caught on camera. Not a word from the NFL.

***Update ***
2 game suspension!
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/47393000/steelers-dk-metcalf-suspended-two-games-fan-altercation

12/22/2025

Cold plunging in Michigan comes from necessity and tradition, not trends. Indigenous practices, Finnish sauna culture, and generations of Great Lakes workers all used cold water for resilience and recovery long before it had a name. The hot–cold cycle, especially sauna followed by icy water, became common in the Upper Peninsula and along the lakes.

People plunge in Lake Superior, Lake Michigan, Lake Huron, inland lakes and rivers, and increasingly in backyard tubs or stock tanks. Open water here is serious — cold temps, currents, and ice make it unforgiving.

Training matters. Beginners start with short exposures, focus on breath control, enter slowly, limit time, rewarm immediately, and avoid alcohol or solo plunges. Longer isn’t better — consistency and control are.

The benefits are real but not magical: improved mood, stress tolerance, recovery, and inflammation response. In Michigan, the draw is as much mental toughness as physical health. Done right, it builds resilience. Done wrong, it’s dangerous.

This doesn’t appeal to me in the slightest, but feel free to find a local group to get started! Safety first! Please consult your doctor first.

12/22/2025

Tell me how you feel about the Lions loss to Pittsburgh
24 Lions
29 Steelers

12/21/2025

It's halftime 10-10
What do you think of that Steelers TD?

12/21/2025

I swear,
TeSlaa can catch anything!
Touchdown!