A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
In part 2 of this series exploring controversy in DCI, we take a close look at the Boston Crusaders, and specifically the time they decided to call out DCI to their faces... some would say at the cost of competitive success!
I am quite familiar with "Napoleon's" proposals. I wrote for Drum Corps Worldfrom 1996 to 2008 and wrote twoarticles about them. One led directly to the other and the outcome disgusted me. Both also led to the G7 proposal, so I wasn't surprised it elicited such a public backlash. CNN even reported on it! "Napoleon" wanted more mainstream media attention for the activity and he got it, twice. He should have been more careful what he wished for.
We're about to change the rules.
Animal Farm — A Cautionary Tail. Takes over theaters May 1, 2026.
...
Starring Seth Rogen, Gaten Matarazzo, Steve Buscemi, Glenn Close, Laverne Cox, Kieran Culkin, Woody Harrelson, Jim Parsons, Andy Serkis, Kathleen Turner & Iman Vellani
Perfect timing!
Follow over the jump for last year's top posts featuring drum corps, nearly all of which were also top posts on Facebook.
Seth takes a closer look at Fox News abruptly cutting ties with Tucker Carlson less than a week after a massive settlement over the Dominion Voting Systems defamation suit.
Tucker Carlson’s reign as the top rated primetime host in cable news came to an abrupt and embarrassing end some say when Fox announced that the two had “agreed to part ways” and thanked him for his service to the network on Monday. Tucker Carlson has officially achieved something that some say no one else in the media industry can claim: being let go by all three major cable news networks. Joy Reid and her panel discuss.
On the one hand, Carlson being let go by all three cable news channels deserves a recycled meme.
On the other, the comparison of Carlson to Father Coughlin reminds me that I have never mentioned him here, but I have elsewhere. An entry from my LiveJournal included his church.
National Shrine of the Little Flower, Royal Oak, Michigan
Our last Michigan destination, the National Shrine of the Little Flower, boasts a rich yet complicated history in the metropolitan Detroit area. Located at the northwest corner of Twelve Mile and Woodward Avenue, the instantly recognizable structure and its fascinating history are well worth a look.
This is an absolutely stunning structure and it lies almost halfway between the other two houses of worship in this article. However, its history is inextricably tied up with Father Coughlin, a forerunner of Rush Limbaugh who was a notorious radio demagogue, fascist sympathizer, and anti-Semite. I can never see the building and have a completely appreciative reaction.
I moved down the street from it the next year, which I mentioned in a comment to Down the Memory Hole at Kunstler's blog in 2014.
“The whole story vanished from the news media like the legendary D.B. Cooper — anyone remember him?”
There used to be a bar named after him just a mile away from me. I saw that and smiled that some criminal from the 1970s who got away with a backpack full of money was still remembered. This year, they changed the name of the place. It’s now “The Pour House.” I think they have an idea of what’s coming. We’re all headed to the pour (poor) house.
By the way, a mile in the other direction is Father Coughlin’s old church. If you remember Father Coughlin, he was the spiritual ancestor of Rush Limbaugh. To this day, the friends of mine who claim to be psychic get the chills when they drive by the building.
Impaler, with friends like you, the legacy of Father Coughlin hardly needs enemies.
As for my not being able to tell conservatives apart, I was a Republican for 22 years. I have lots of practice distinguishing the varieties of people on the American Right.
I've since moved away from the National Shrine (now Basilica) of the Little Flower and stopped reading and commenting at Kunstler's blog. I don't miss either, just like I won't miss Carlson. Good riddance!
I blog very little about beauty pageants, here or elsewhere. I've only mentioned the phrase "beauty pageant" once on this blog in a passage I quoted in 'Divergent' and other teen dystopias, which means that I didn't even write it. I did write about Miss USA in Univision to Trump: "You're Fired!" That was in the context of Donald Trump's offensive comments that I covered in Trump is Penguin for President. Other than that, nothing. I have to go back six years to a LiveJournal entry to read something from me about beauty pageants and their contestants.*
That written, this year's Miss Michigan has moved me to blog about her here. I'll let her speak for herself in Day with Miss Michigan 2016 from MLive.
The recently crowned 2016 Miss Michigan, Arianna Quan talks with MLive reporter Brandon Champion at the Holiday Inn on Sunday, June 19, 2016 in Muskegon, Mich.
Her multicultural heritage is also a point of pride. As Miss Michigan, Quan will advocate for her platform, "Being American: Immigration & Citizenship Education," in an effort to help Americans realize the true diverse dream that is the United States of America.
"During this election year I realized how important it was for immigrants and naturalized citizens especially to speak out about their experiences in this country," she said. "We are so diverse and it's so important for all of us to embrace that. That's why my platform is what it is and hopefully going to Miss America in this election year I can raise awareness about what it means to be an American."
Her timing is pretty good, too. Since June is Immigrant Heritage Month and July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Both month-long initiatives should provide plenty of opportunities for Quan to speak on issues that have affected her directly.
My name is Arianna Quan and I am currently attending the College for Creative Studies in Detroit studying Transportation Design. When I am not drawing cars or using power tools I am out and about promoting my platform through the Miss America Organization; Being American: Immigration and Citizenship Education.
As the first Asian-American Miss Michigan and to be a naturalized citizen, I find it absolutely imperative to speak out on subject matters that so many immigrants and foreign born citizens face in our ever polarizing society. Obstacles like sexual assault, mental health, gender inequality and beyond are ubiquitous yet exacerbated from the marginalized perspective of a minority. As this election year has revealed some sobering and enlightening perspectives, the time is now to step forward as a first generation American and encourage fellow foreign and US born citizens to engage and learn from one another.
Along with my personal cause I am a strong supporter for MAO’s national platform: promoting women in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. With the automotive industry in serious need of young ladies, I aim to use my education as an extension and focus while talking about STEM and the arts to young girls.
A beauty pageant contestant promoting progressive causes and STEM education for women. I support all of this, so I support her. Good luck in Atlantic City, Miss Michigan! I'll be rooting for you this September!
[S]ometime during the first week of classes in January 1990, I got my first email account at the University of Michigan. In lieu of a longer post, I have two things to say. First, time flies. Second, can any of you top that?
That week is now 25 years in the past, so I've spent the past quarter-century, which is most of my adult life, on the Internet. At the time, I was one of about 1% of the U.S. population using the Internet, as the follow graph shows.
That graph only goes to 2010. Here's one that continues up to the end of last year.
The good news is that the percentage of American adults using the Internet is at an all-time high. The bad news is that a weak economy was able to slow that growth down and even reverse it. The recession of 2008-2009 caused participation among all Americans to decline and the housing bust stalled growth of participation among adults even before that. Only after the recession ended did the percentage of Americans increase again and only during the past couple of years was it able to reach new highs. That does not bode well for internet access during the next recession.
I have more to say about my experience as an early adopter of the Internet. Stay tuned for a planned Throwback Thursday or Flashback Friday entry about that. Also stay tuned for my Sunday entertainment entry.
The big event of the blogging year is here, the anniversary of the original Nablopomo. I'm going to be a good environmentalist and recycle what I wrote in Nablopomo for November: No theme, just blog.
There is no theme this month other than blogging for blogging's sake. That written, there is an announcement.
Every November, thousands of bloggers make this commitment to post daily. But it's about much more than posting; it's about community, connection and our shared craft. Those are all values worthy of a monthlong public celebration. So let's get into all the sparkly details! ... NaBloPoMo happens every month, but due to its proximity to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), November tends to be the "official" month, and it is unofficially HUGE.
This sentence, which was repeated in the email and at this year's announcement at the website, is why I'm saying this month's theme is "Huge," even though there officially is no theme beyond blogging for blogging's sake.
Back to my entry from last year.
Think of it as one big blogging party meant to give you enough energy, ideas and inspiration to supercharge your blogging mojo and carry you through the next 12 months. We do our part to keep the energy going by celebrating the big crowd by highlighting posts and handing out prizes.
It's as simple as this: post daily on your own blog. That's it. You can get fancy and cross-post your blog posts onto the NaBloPoMo site for more exposure. If you need daily inspiration, bookmark the NaBloPoMo prompts page for November, which already has all the prompts for the month posted so you can plan ahead. ... So grab a cup of coffee, crack your knuckles, and let's get writing! Oh, but sign up for November's NaBloPoMo before you get lost in your own blog.
I think I miscounted. I may not have posted anything about Nablopomo in November 2010, but I blogged every day that month, so I retroactively proclaim that I participated. That means that this is now the seventh November I participated in Nablopomo and the sixth anniversary of my first doing so. Time still flies.
Follow over the link for the email and announcement at the website for this month.
Yes, you read that correctly--I wish you all a happy Wester! What is Wester? Well, it's the mirror image of Easter, which is celebrated on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox. Therefore, Wester is the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Autumnal Equinox, which is today (or tomorrow if you're in the Rocky Mountain, Pacific, and Alaskan/Hawaiian Time Zones of North America). In the northern states of the U.S. and the southern parts of the Canadian Provinces, it is usually one of the last days of pleasant weather before the full chill of Autumn descends. As such, it's a good excuse to enjoy summer activities outdoors one last time.
Although I'm probably the first person to wish any of you Wester (correct me if I'm wrong, as I'd like more documentation), I did not come up with the idea. It originated in Berkeley, California, during the 1980s, and the message was brought to Michigan by my colleague Tim Pearce. Tim invited me to a Wester party in 1991 and explained the holiday to me. The party was a blast, and I've been eternally grateful to him for introducing me to the concept. Therefore, I am sharing this meme with you.
My teaching has informed my blogging throughout the past three years and vice versa, but according to the top twenty entries of the past year compared to the year before, the interaction between the two seems to be having more of an influence. First, Student worksheets for the second and third year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News listed assignments I have written for films I show my classes. Now, a series of entries from the past year contain stories I tell to my students as well as items I have later incorporated into my lectures.
I have a reply of sorts to last week’s passage about the “the millions of unemployed Ford F-110 owners drinking themselves into an incipient political fury,” who are presumably living in the country. I lived in rural and exurban ares for eleven years and I have more harrowing tales of criminality and depravity from life in the country than all the years I lived in the city (this includes the inner suburbs of Detroit as well as Los Angeles). I had enough of the country and moved back into the city three years ago. I feel much safer.
Last week, science confirmed my impressions by showing that people are less likely to die of violence of all kinds in urban than in rural areas. I have a video summarizing that research as well as my first hand tales of life in the country at Crazy Eddie’s Motie News.
As I wrote in the original entry, which was itself a quote from my LiveJournal:
When I tell my students from Detroit about all that, they're appalled. All of it as as bad as anything that happens there, and some of it is worse.
Four years after first writing that, my students are still amazed, and I still feel safer four miles away from Detroit than I did in rural Lenawee County and exurban Washtenaw County. As for the point of the story, it's not that the city is better than you think while the country is worse, although that comes across to my students, it's that even the worst neighbors can be useful at times--and I had some terrible neighbors out in the country.
Stephen Kunselman with his daughters Sophia and Sabrina
The Michigan Daily's endorsement of Stephen Kunselman and other candidates for City Council was the top story about local elections held during 2013.
The five most shared stories about Washtenaw County Elections for 2013 all looked ahead to 2014. Here are the politicians running for federal and state office to watch next year based on the Facebook likes of the readers.
As 2013 comes to a close, it's time to look back on the top stories from the past year. Based on the number of Facebook shares, five stories stood out, all of which share a common theme, looking ahead to 2014.
All of them were also about elections for federal or state office, such as Senator, U.S. Representative, Governor, even University of Michigan Regent. No county or municipal candidates or issues broke into the five most liked list for 2013.
Three more tied for sixth. Two of those were also about next year's elections, while one managed to be the most popular article about local elections actually held in 2013. This last got an honorable mention in this year's countdown.
Here are the five most shared stories on Facebook along with an honorable mention.
In addition to the two commonalities I mentioned in the article, four of the articles (1-3 and 5) are good for Democrats, while only #4 is good for a Republican. May that be a sign of things to come.
Now, I shall close out my calendar year here the way I did in the article.
I had such a good time putting together A conversation with The Archdruid for the Solstice that I decided to do it again on Christmas while I was in Chicago. It helped that John Michael Greer revisted the points in The Fate of Civil Religion that I excerpted in The Archdruid on Objectivism as civil antireligion, a comparison of Objectivism and Satanism.* This time, he made an explicit comparison between Objectivism and Satanism and pointed out the implications for the Republican Party. I couldn't resist, even on vacation.
Follow over the jump for the relevant passages from A Christmas Speculation, my response with side commentary, and Greer's reply to me.
Young Indiana Jones and T.E. Lawrence in "Young Indiana Jones." More here.
I wasn't finished with news about the historical world with Health news from archeology and history. I have two news items about a real archeologist named Lawrence and an actress named Lawrence who might play a fictional archeologist, both of which have appeared in my Overnight News Digests on Daily Kos. Not only are they connected by their surnames, but the character she might play has met the real archeologist and adventurer, as seen in the photo above.
First, the real archeologist from Biblical Archaeology: Lawrence of Arabia as Archaeologist Read Stephen E. Tabachnick's full article on the archaeological life of T.E. Lawrence as it was published in Biblical Archaeology Review
Stephen E. Tabachnick
12/18/2013
Most people picture T.E. Lawrence as the dashing leader dressed in white and gold Arab robes portrayed by Peter O’Toole in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia. While the real Lawrence was not exactly like the character in the David Lean film—he never deliberately burned his finger with a match or said he enjoyed killing people, for instance—he was, nevertheless, one of the most colorful figures to emerge from World War I.
With more movies likely to come from Disney, why not take the unexpected route?
By Kevin P. Sullivan (@KPSull)
Dec 9 2013 12:45 PM EST 9,431
But combing through the current roster of young stars that could carry both a beloved franchise and the weight of the roguish leading role, there aren't many better options than Jennifer Lawrence.
The choice would certainly take heat from the comments sections of movie blogs, but a pick as surprising as Lawrence would work in two ways. Recasting the Indiana Jones would make headlines, but casting a woman would be news-of-the-year material.
Why shouldn't it be Jennifer Lawrence, though? Sure, it's unlikely she'd take the part, since she publicly expressed her hesitance to star in franchises when discussing her choice to star in "The Hunger Games," but the personality is spot on. Indiana Jones is confident and cool, but often sarcastic and prone to anger when frustrated, something that we've seen Lawrence do in her films with David O. Russell. And Disney knows that she can lead a film to box-office glory, thanks to the strong performance of "Catching Fire."
Personally, I'd put this in the realm of Will Al Jazeera America hire Keith Olbermann? That was a good fantasy, but I acknowledged it wasn't likely to happen. Current TV republished that blog post. That was the good news. The bad news was that they did so under Comedy. Oh, well. At least they noticed.
There is no theme this month other than blogging for blogging's sake. That written, there is an announcement.
Every November, thousands of bloggers make this commitment to post daily. But it's about much more than posting; it's about community, connection and our shared craft. Those are all values worthy of a monthlong public celebration. So let's get into all the sparkly details! ... NaBloPoMo happens every month, but due to its proximity to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), November tends to be the "official" month, and it is unofficially HUGE. Think of it as one big blogging party meant to give you enough energy, ideas and inspiration to supercharge your blogging mojo and carry you through the next 12 months. We do our part to keep the energy going by celebrating the big crowd by highlighting posts and handing out prizes.
It's as simple as this: post daily on your own blog. That's it. You can get fancy and cross-post your blog posts onto the NaBloPoMo site for more exposure. If you need daily inspiration, bookmark the NaBloPoMo prompts page for November, which already has all the prompts for the month posted so you can plan ahead. ... So grab a cup of coffee, crack your knuckles, and let's get writing! Oh, but sign up for November's NaBloPoMo before you get lost in your own blog.
In Science confirms my opinion of life in the country, I described the worst incidents during my eleven years in the country that convinced me that life in the country was dangerous. It turns out that I had realized that I belonged back in the city in December 2005 and wrote about it in my LiveJournal. Here's I'm mismatched with my place of residence, which describes where I should live based on a meme from OKCupid.
For almost 2 years, I figured that I lived too far out in the country and that I should move into the city to be closer to my jobs and have access to services, like regular trash pick up, that I don't have out here. With no trash pickup, I have to be very diligent about sorting my waste into burnables, recyclables, compostables...and stuff that I have to sneak into trash cans in the city. Bleah, that's a pain. I've had enough of living in the country. I'll miss the lake and wildlife, but it's just not practical anymore. I started fixing up my house and finally put it on the market this June. So far, I've had no takers. This coming week, I'll have to decide whether to relist my house and, if so, should I list it with the same realtor. I probably will. It turns out that the fellow who assigns judging positions for the marching band circuit works there. I want to keep him happy, as I really enjoy judging.
The relevant test on OKCupid (below) also shows that I'm mismatched with my residence. In fact, I'm so mismatched that I'm at the other end of the spectrum. My current house is best described by that classification as a secluded hideaway--a cottage on a lake, the most rural of all settings. The test thinks I would be happiest in a rowhouse in a city, the second most urban setting. Well, a condo near good shopping and public transportation would be nice, but I don't think I'm going to move to Detroit to renovate a rowhouse. It would be as bad as keeping this place maintained, and I don't have the time for that, either!
Rowhouse 'Hood You scored 28 out of 40 on urban-rural and 25 out of 40 land intensity.
People know you as: The Bohemian Gentrifier Quote: "That crack house just needed a little paint."
Your score indicates that you are a city-dweller of the old-school. You like a dense, finely grained neighborhood with restaurants, churches and brothels all on the same block. Although you've never spoken to him personally, you know that guy Eddie down the street is a pimp and you're sure to tell your lame suburban friends about him at every opportunity, just to freak them out.
The bad news is that as more and more people like you move into your neighborhood it gradually becomes less cool and more expensive. Enjoy things while you can, because in 5 years you're going to have to move to the next 'hood uptown.
Examples of places you should live: Baltimore, Philadelphia
Follow over the jump for the description of the kind of neighborhood where I ended up moving to, after four years in a small town.
Three years ago, I wrote about the lowlights of my experience living in the country on my LiveJournal. I'll quote it in full over the jump, but the executive summary was that I thought life there was even riskier than life in the city and I had had enough of it. Now, Discovery News confirms my opinion in City Vs. Country- Which is Safer?
You'd think peaceful country living would do wonders for your health. No pollution, less violence, seems like the obvious way to go, right? But it isn't so cut and dry. Trace looks at risks, and life saving benefits of each.
My car's odometer rolled over another 1,000 miles today, this time to 217,000 miles.* The last update noted that I rolled over 216,000 miles on April 19, 2013. That's 61 days ago. That means I drove 16.4 miles per day and 500.0 miles/month. That's much higher than last month.**
Right on schedule, my car's odometer turned over 216,000 miles yesterday afternoon. That means I drove 1,000 miles in 84 days for an average of 11.90 miles/day and 363.1 miles/month since January 25, 2013, an decrease of 0.15 miles/day and 4.4 miles/month over the 12.05 miles/day and 367.5 miles/month I drove between November and January.
This is the most I've driven in a month since October 2010, when I drove 630 miles/month and was still posting these updates to LiveJournal.
Now I'm trying to figure out how I drove 4.5 more miles/day and 132.5 miles/month more than I drove last month. Part of it is that I have been driving a couple miles per workday to get food as the cafe where I teach closed down for the summer in the middle of the last week of June, but that's only about 50 miles at most. It also was something I was doing last year at this time when I was only driving 10.3 miles/day and 311.4 miles/month and actually decrease my driving since the May 2012 update. That doesn't work. There were also days that I drove to the store instead of walking because of rain and thunderstorms. There was also a relatively long trip to a meeting that was not part of my regular schedule. Still, I'm surprised all that added up to more than 100 miles.
Looks like my mileage is increasing while the total miles driven is staying flat. Then again, this chart only goes up to April. I'll have to wait until September to see how the past two months of driving added to the total.
*Note that this is the update for my car. My wife's car is within a few score miles of rolling over 85,000 miles, 1,000 miles more than the vehicle had in December 2012. Expect a report for her car later this month.
**These numbers are wildly off. I forgot an entire month of days. As I calculated in the correction to this entry, the real numbers are 12.35 miles/day and 376.5 miles/month. Those numbers I can believe!
The fifth most read entry of the second full year of the blog is FBI declares ICP and Juggalos a gang; ICP sues posted on August 10, 2012 with 496 views by March 21st of this year according to the secondary counter. For a description of what prompted my entry, watch this video by Artisan News Service that they posted the day after I composed my entry.
Insane Clown Posse members Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope have arranged for legal counsel for any member of their fan club, called Juggalos, who have had their rights violated in reference to the FBI mistakenly calling their fans a gang, also calling for Lady Gaga and her Little Monsters to be looked into.
Speaking of disappointment in the state of our national decline, one of Jim's favorite tropes is to deride the tackiness of working class youth, mocking their tattoos, slovely dress, poor physical shape, and general stupidity, and wishing that someone would come along and whip them into shape. The most read story of the week ended up being about exactly that, although in a very perverse way. Late last year, the FBI declared that the fans of the Insane Clown Posse were a "hybrid gang." After several months of their fans being busted and sentenced as gang members, along with loss of merchandise sales as stores like Hot Topic refuse to sell "gang apparel," ICP has had enough. They're establishing a legal aide service for their fans and planning to sue the FBI to get the designation removed. Detroit represent!
If one reads between the lines, promoting the entry at Kunstler's blog had very little to do with its success. Instead, that was driven by web search, as Bing lists "ICP Sues FBI,"
"Juggalos FBI," and "Juggalo a Gang" as the first, second, and fourth most associated search terms for my blog. Today alone, the entry got six hits from Google search. In fact, there was enough traffic that the entry briefly made the ten most viewed list according to the primary counter.
I also crossposted the entry, which both drew in some more readers and garnered comments on the crossposts, which made up for no comments left at the original. Over at unfunny_fandom on JournalFen, it got 56 comments. The best response ended up being the tag created for the entry: clown gangs: not just for gotham. The crosspost at ontd_political on LiveJournal received 37. My favorite at both entries was "Fucking gangs, how do they work?" On the other hand, it garnered only two at Michigan Liberal, one of which was "ICP is still around?" Lame.
ICP wasn't the only Michigan musical act that got in trouble for alleged criminal activity last year. Ted Nugent, stochastic terrorist, posted on April 20, 2012, with 224 page views, enough for 16th most popular during the second year of the blog, and 2 comments, described how the Motor City Madman shot off his mouth and got a visit from the Secret Service for his trouble. Lucky for him, he landed on the right side of the "shouting fire in a crowded theater" line.
Like the entry about ICP's legal troubles, this entry was crossposted, this time to Daily Kos, where it received much more attention, earning 484 views from registered users alone, 73 recommendations, 47 comments, 3 bookmarks, and a place on the Daily Kos rec list. It and me were also the target of a major diss by Jim Goad at Taki's Magazine.
A Daily Kos blogger who doesn’t think “Neon Vincent” is an idiotic pseudonym—or whose parents, the Vincents, didn’t think it was idiotic to name their child “Neon”—accused Nugent of “stochastic terrorism”—a new imaginary term apparently first imagined around the time of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting when the left was popping hemorrhoidal veins trying to imagine that right-wing rhetoricians are able to send out coded or subliminal or low-frequency messages that somehow cause psychotic lone wolves to shoot bubbly and kindhearted Democrats.
Hey, look, the established writer took the time to make fun of pseudonymous me. That's called "punching down" and I take it as a compliment. I also read up on Jim Goad's violent history and decided to take his writing much less seriously, along with filing it under "having the right enemies." In both cases, I consider his response a victory.
Both ICP and Ted Nugent might be insulted to be mentioned in the same breath, but I suspect ICP might be more so. After all, the lyrics of Fuck the World include "Fuck Ted Nugent." I can't find any evidence that Nugent has had anything to say about ICP.
First up, a link to an Associated Press article, so no quoting, that confirms what I've been saying since January; Twinkies and the other Hostess products are still valuable and someone will make them.
The good news is that there are 110 bidders. The bad news is that the incompetent executives who ran the company into the ground will be eligible for $1.8 million in bonuses if they meet their liquidation goals. Meanwhile, the 18,000 workers will still lose their jobs. Ugh, vultures.
Second, here's what I wrote about the Wixom Ford plant three years ago.
In its heyday a generation ago, the Ford Motor Co. assembly plant at the Wixom Road exit off I-96 employed 5,000 people. About two years after it shut down, the 320-acre site is coming back to life as the home of several government-subsidized manufacturers of alternative-energy products, such as solar panels and the batteries to store the sun power that such panels capture.
That doesn't mean 5,000 people will ever be working there again. But 3,000 is within the realm of possibility if the alternative-energy center grows as projected over the next several years. More important, though, the developments at Wixom and other projects now sprouting up around the state signal that Michigan is earnest about becoming a hub of alt-energy and related technology -- a field with a future.
It won't be the next auto industry. But it will be around -- and it's growing. Michigan cannot afford to be left back as global demand grows for energy from sources other than oil, driven by costs, conservation and concern about climate change. China, for example, is aggressively pursuing a plan to get 15% of its electricity from renewable sources, mostly wind, by 2020, and expects to spend $190 billion to do it.
Strip mall retail is a much different redevelopment prospect for the site than was envisioned three years ago, when then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm joined Executive Chairman Bill Ford to announce the possibility of a $725-million renewable energy park with as many as 4,300 new jobs.
That project was to be anchored by battery maker Xtreme Power of Austin, Texas, and California solar company Clairvoyant Energy. But those ambitious plans fell apart by spring 2011, when the two companies failed to obtain about $500 million in financing from the U.S. Energy Department.
Yes, you read that right, "strip mall retail." Instead of using all the property for a green industry, Ford is going to use some of the land for a big box store--more suburban sprawl, anyone?
The automaker's real estate arm is in talks with home improvement retailer Menards to purchase a 45-acre section of property close to I-96 off Wixom Road. The Wixom City Council recently agreed to Ford's request to split that parcel from the 317-acre site, in addition to sectioning off a landfill area at the back of the property.
For what it's worth, while the article points out that this would be the 23rd Menards store in Michigan, it would be the first one in Metro Detroit. Menards' own store locator shows the nearest locations to be in Toledo, Jackson, Lansing, and Flint (actually Davison, but close enough). The store will have plenty of competition nearby, as there is already a Home Depot on the other side of the freeway and a Lowes one exit to the west, but I've seen Lowes and Home Depot right next to each other with enough business for both. As long as business as usual (BUA) continues, this is likely to be a viable proposition. Let's see how long BUA lasts, as these aren't BUA times.
Demolition has already begun, as this raw WXYZ video shows.
Ford tears down part of shuttered Wixom plant.
Not all hope for a green energy plant is lost, as the Free Press notes.
But a separate, high-tech prospect for the old plant could still be in the works. Last year, Townsend Energy Solutions of Hunt Valley, Md., proposed opening a manufacturing operation at Wixom for, among other things, producing energy-efficiency products for fuel-efficient vehicles. The project was forecast to create 36 jobs in its first year and perhaps 875 jobs over five years.
The Michigan Economic Growth Authority board approved multiple rounds of tax credits for the project: a $6.3-million tax credit and two, $10-million brownfield tax credits. These tax credits are only to be used for industrial purposes -- no retail.
No manufacturing, no tax credits. That should be enough incentive for a green energy factory to be built, even if it's only on part of the land.
I may have finished yesterday's entry with "Crazy Eddie the Motie says, "Welcome to 'Science Fiction Times.' Do we ever have a deal for you!", but I'm not done with the subject. Since I fully believe in reusing and recycling, including my writing, I'm turning the leftovers into another meal. Bon Appetit!
One continuing trend that Huddleston noted this year is that the holiday season once again arrived earlier than last. For example, Target aired its first holiday commercials two weeks before Halloween.
“Many stores installed their holiday departments well before Halloween costumes were marked down,” Huddleston said. “This is evidence of the cutthroat competition for the $586 billion in holiday sales.”
This has been a continuing trend over the decades. First, Christmas decorations and promotions didn't start until the day after Thanksgiving, which is why the Macy's Parade and its equivalents ended with Santa Claus. Next, they moved up until the day after Halloween. Now, the holiday shopping season starts even earlier than that, as I mentioned in my LiveJournal two years ago.
In the Green Oaks mall, there is a HomeGoods store, which was one of our favorite places to shop when we were living in the area--lots of bargains on things we enjoy having in our house. We returned to see if there any good buys. When we entered, one thing struck me immediately--how many items were already on sale for Halloween.
It's too soon--summer isn't even over yet! Labor Day is in a week! The kids aren't even back in school, so back to school sales aren't even over.
That wasn't all. Thanksgiving items were already out, too. Combined, the Halloween and Thanksgiving items covered 15-20% of the display space. I paced off the width and length of the store with the bulk of the items, estimated the dimensions of the store, computed the areas of both, and divided. I also managed to do this without anyone, including my wife, figuring out what I was doing. Yes, I'm a geek.
When I mentioned the Halloween items to the clerk, she said that she had seen stores with Christmas merchandise out already. Oh, brother. Looks like the retailers already think that Christmas will be the only thing that saves them this year, and it's only August.
As I wrote back then, I detected "the stink of retail desperation." That wasn't the only thing that bothered me about my experience.
The holiday goods on sale earlier than I'd ever seen them before weren't the most unnerving things I saw. This was.
Reassuring slogan, right? Not if you know its origin.
Keep Calm and Carry On was a poster produced by the British government in 1939 during the beginning of World War II, to raise the morale of the British public in the case of invasion. It was little known and never used. The poster was rediscovered in 2000 and has been re-issued by a number of private sector companies, and used as the decorative theme for a range of other products.
Knowing that history unsettled me. That I'd never seen the slogan on a physical object before just reinforced my unease. That a Google Image search for "keep calm and carry on" found so many items for sale makes me wonder what kind of times would make such a statement fashionable. Interesting ones, no doubt.
Keep calm and carry on.
Two years later, I still think this is good advice.
