A Michigan Thing

01/01/2026

01/01/2026

Do you remember Y2K?

Y2K in Michigan was a classic mix of quiet panic and Midwestern pragmatism. Utilities, banks, and automakers spent years testing systems; Detroit’s Big Three locked down factories, hospitals ran drills, and power companies prepped for worst-case scenarios. People stocked water and canned goods, some pulled cash, and everyone half-expected the lights to flicker when the clock hit midnight. Then… nothing major happened. The power stayed on, cars started, and Michigan woke up January 1, 2000 mostly relieved and a little embarrassed. In true Michigan fashion, it was a lot of preparation, a lot of common sense, and zero drama—followed by jokes about all that bottled water in the basement.

12/31/2025

This year marked a significant change in strategy for a Michigan Thing. We said goodbye to previous admins and used this time to reinvent our content. We hope you are enjoying our new direction. We are so thankful for every one of you!

Thank you for sharing your time with us. We wish you a very Happy New Year!

12/31/2025

Amen!

12/31/2025

If you are in a cold plunge group and you’re open to new members, please post below. Make sure everyone follows doctors advice. Thank you! There was a lot of interest after our post about it!

12/31/2025

Jared Goff's amazing 2025 stats.

By All-Pro Reels - https://www.flickr.com/photos/joeglo/52379080723/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=123777148

12/31/2025

Why do some forests in Michigan grow in rows?

12/30/2025

The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is one of the United States’ major encyclopedic art museums, founded in the late 19th century and today housed in a monumental Beaux-Arts building in Detroit that opened in 1927; it holds over 65,000 works from ancient to contemporary art across more than 100 galleries, including the celebrated Diego Rivera “Detroit Industry” murals, the first Van Gogh to enter an American museum, and one of the first dedicated African American art departments in a major museum.  A unique millage passed by voters in 2012 and renewed in 2020 provides stable public funding that supports operations and free admission for local residents, helping the DIA remain financially resilient.  During COVID it briefly closed like many cultural institutions and later reopened with safety measures in place. The DIA has been recognized nationally—including being named No. 1 art museum in the U.S. in USA Today readers’ choice awards—and continues to expand and reinterpret its galleries, such as newly centralized African American art spaces opening in 2025. 

I’ve been to art museums all over the country, the DIA was definitely the best. We have an absolutely world class art museum right in our backyard.

12/29/2025

Who remembers Suzanne Geha? She is a veteran television news anchor and journalist whose name became synonymous with local news in West Michigan after a decades-long career at WOOD-TV, the NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids. Born in 1952 in Detroit, she grew up around journalism and public affairs, influences that helped steer her toward broadcasting early on.

She comes from a family with deep journalism interest; her aunt was Helen Thomas, a legendary White House correspondent — an influence on her early career choice. 

Her heritage is Lebanese-American, and she grew up in a news-rich, intellectually engaged household.

She graduated from Western Michigan University, where she began building the skills that would define her career, then joined WOOD-TV in the early 1970s, at a time when women were still rare in prominent on-air roles. Geha briefly worked in Detroit at WXYZ-TV, gaining big-market experience, before returning to WOOD, where she became one of the first women to anchor primetime television news in West Michigan.

For more than 30 years, she anchored the station’s 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts, consistently helping those broadcasts rank among the most-watched in the market.

Her steady presence meant entire generations of viewers quite literally grew up with her delivering the news, weathering elections, crises, celebrations, and everyday life alongside them.

Professionally, she earned a reputation for credibility, calm authority, and a strong belief in journalism’s responsibility to inform the public accurately and without hype.

Personally, she became a familiar and trusted figure in the community, mentoring younger journalists, serving as a role model—especially for women entering broadcast news—and supporting local civic and media organizations through board service and advocacy. By the time she left WOOD-TV, Suzanne Geha wasn’t just a longtime anchor; she was part of the cultural fabric of West Michigan broadcasting community.

Wherever she is and whatever she is doing, we want her to know she had the trust of her audience and our appreciation.

12/29/2025

Michigan once had hundreds of covered bridges, but very few remain today because floods and modern road upgrades wiped most of them out over the decades. 

The main authentic historic survivors include Fallasburg Covered Bridge, Whites Covered Bridge, Langley Covered Bridge, and Ada Covered Bridge. Fallasburg, built in 1871, still carries traffic over the Flat River near Lowell and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Whites Covered Bridge near Smyrna was originally erected in the late 1860s and was rebuilt in 2020 after an arson fire destroyed the 19th-century original.  Langley Covered Bridge near Centreville, built in 1887, is Michigan’s longest covered bridge at about 282 ft and also carries road traffic.  The Ada Covered Bridge over the Thornapple River dates back to 1867; it has been restored after collapse and fire and is now open for pedestrians only. 

Aside from those historic spans, Michigan has a handful of modern or replica covered bridges that add scenic value but aren’t original 19th-century structures: the Holz-Brücke in Frankenmuth (built around 1980), bridge features along trails like the former Donald F. Nichols Covered Bridge (removed in 2023), and the Pierce Stocking Covered Bridge in Sleeping Bear Dunes, which was rebuilt in the 1980s after wildlife damage to earlier versions.

12/29/2025

White pine tea is loaded with vitamin C. Indigenous people avoided scurvy in the winter by making it.

How to make white pine tea.

Note: Make sure the tree is properly identified as a white pine. Other trees may be toxic.

12/29/2025

We are watching the forecast change a bit. Please defer to your local meteorologist and NWS for accuracy.

She is still a doozy. Go home, Michigan, you’re drunk.

This is a quick 7 pm EST update to show you all the snowfall yet to fall between now and 11 pm EST Monday evening, December 28th-29th, 2025.

To be honest, there hasn't been much change other than small refinements as the snow is just getting started. We did remove the 20-30" zone from the Keweenaw Peninsula, and reduced the original 1-3" zone to T-1" for parts of southeastern lower Michigan. The cold front stayed a little far south today, and as a result, has shown signs of pulling heavier snow totals south within the deformation zone. This means areas in far northern Lower Peninsula are now in the 10-20" range. We also upped pink from 6-10" to 6-12". Winds and snow combined will make travel impossible across much of the Upper Peninsula, and even along the Lake Michigan shoreline where winter storm warnings are in effect.

We will have a briefing for you soon, and arrival times for the beginning of the snow/lake effect as it moves in. Current time is 7:05 pm EST. Follow us here at Michigan Storm Chasers for all your Michigan weather updates.

-- Trusted Partner of the Day --
Rainbow Restoration | 616-583-1234, West Michigan residents call today!