Drink to the Marche du Nain Rouge

I closed Happy Nowruz and happy 15th birthday to Crazy Eddie's Motie News by telling my readers to "Stay tuned for Marche du Nain Rouge as the Sunday entertainment feature." Without any further ado, I'm sharing CBS Detroit reporting on last year's event, This Midtown Detroit parade honors the city's culture and mythology.

Since 2010, the Marche du Nain Rouge has drawn thousands of people to Midtown Detroit each year in a vibrant celebration of community.

I started this blog in 2011, but it took me until 2013 to begin covering the Marche du Nain Rouge. That written, I've been blogging about it long enough that I can say I'm an early adopter.

This year's parade has just stepped off and Pure Michigan is promoting it in Marche du Nain Rouge Parade.

A festival where creativity wins and the evil spirits are chased away.

I can imagine the after parties. That way, I don't have to attend!

Both of these videos assume some knowledge of the Nain Rouge. I'm sharing Halloween Cocktails 2025: The Lore of the Nain Rouge both to get my new readers up to speed and because I can't resist a good, or at least competent, cocktail recipe video that includes supernatural lore.

Happy Halloween, friends! The lore we are bringing you this wonderful Halloween weekend is based around a Detroit legend known as the Nain Rouge...

I wonder if any of today's after parties are serving one or more of these drinks. Whether or not, drink responsibly!

That's a wrap for today's post. I might observe World Water Day late, or skip it until next year. Stay tuned to find out.

Not So Pure Michigan on Flint Water Crisis

Full-sized image here.
In the spirt of Not So Pure Michigan on Detroit's Bankruptcy, it's time for some gallows humor about the Flint Water Crisis from John Kerfoot, who I call "Not so Pure Michigan"--Pure Michigan: Flint.

spoof of the Pure Michigan commercials, by John Kerfoot, highlighting Flint, Michigan.

For more of Kerfoot's work, click here, here, and here.

I'm starting work on two articles for Examiner.com.  If I get them done, I'll post links to them tonight.

Fantasy and reality of snow days in Michigan

The second paragraph of Mid-storm update on Ion in Detroit read:

Then, at 6 PM, my workplace closed, along with dozens of other schools.  As the Detroit News describes the situation, there will be "no school from Lincoln Park to Clarkston, Ann Arbor to Utica and Lincoln Park to Grosse Pointe."  Snow Day!

Time to post the fantasy and reality of snow days in Michigan like I did in First major snowfall and it's already late January.  For the fantasy, I present Pure Michigan's Snow Days.

Remember snow day when the schools were closed and the day was wide open? The first step into fresh powder was like stepping into a new world.

Now the reality from John Kerfoot of Not So Pure Michigan: Pure Michigan: Snow Days.


If this looks familiar, then you read to the end of Hercules leaves behind a snow day.  If you did, you should also remember my punchline.

At least we got more than five inches, and I got a snow day.  Vacation extended until tomorrow!

What do you expect?  I'm an environmentalist; I recycle!

Ted Nugent shoots mouth off about Pure Michigan ads

Ted Nugent, stochastic terrorist and scary musical clown from Detroit managed to get into the news again today by ripping the Pure Michigan ad campaign.

Michigan-born rocker Ted Nugent struck a nerve today when he savaged the popular Pure Michigan tourism campaign and criticized Holland’s Tulip Time Festival in a radio interview.

Nugent said during a telephone interview on the Lansing-based syndicated program “Michigan’s Big Show starring Michael Patrick Shiels” that liberalism and political correctness prevent Pure Michigan officials from highlighting in its ads what he said are the state’s biggest draws — hunting and fishing.

“How dare the Pure Michigan campaign not mention any of that because some Hash Bash hippie in charge of Michigan’s promotional campaigns is afraid to put a dead salmon, or a dead grouse, or a dead deer on the tourist brochure; but will put paragliding and tulip festivals on that brochure when no one is going to come to Michigan to go hang gliding or to go to the tulip festival?” Nugent asked.

In addition to there being no "Hash Bash hippies" running the Pure Michigan campaign, Nugent is wrong about there being no videos about hunting and fishing.

“We certainly have a hunting and fishing effort,” [spokeswoman Michelle Begnoche] said.

The agency launched a digital ad campaign focused on hunting and fishing last fall and has a TV ad focused on fishing that is part of its national campaign, Begnoche said.

She's not kidding.  I found six videos with fishing in their titles on Pure Michigan's YouTube channel, six more that mention fishing in their descriptions, and one that mentions both hunting and fishing.  That's way too many to embed.  Instead, I'll just post the one that Old Motormouth should have seen just sitting in his living room and watching TV this month.

Gone Fishing in Michigan | Pure Michigan
Published on Apr 6, 2012

When heading off to do something we love, "Gone Fishing" means many things - biking, golfing, boating and more.

That may have been too subtle for Motormouth's taste.  Instead, he may have had something more like this John Kerfoot parody that was posted today.

Pure Michigan: Hunting

spoof of the Pure Michigan ads, by John Kerfoot, highlighting Hunting

Well, except for its pointing out what a coward and clown Nugent is.

Hat/tip to Eric B. at Michigan Liberal for pointing me to this story.

Crossposted to Daily Kos and Michigan Liberal.

Pure Michigan sells the sizzle about Michigan wines, while MSU sells the steak

Two videos about Michigan's wines crossed my YouTube feeds last Monday. The first came from Pure Michigan, and it sold the attractions of Michigan's wines to tourists and other consumers. As I pointed out in the subject line, it sold the sizzle.

Wineries | A Pure Michigan Summer

With more than 100 wineries nestled among 15,000 acres of scenic vineyards, Michigan truly is wine country. Paired with fresh, local ingredients found in local cuisine, a Pure Michigan wine tasting trip is something you can't find anywhere else.

The second came from Michigan State University, and it was more substantive, selling the steak about the state's wine industry, as well as Michigan State's role in helping develop it.

Cultivating an industry—from vine to wine

Michigan is becoming an internationally recognized wine-producing region with help from Michigan State University, which has played a pivotal role in all aspects of the industry's growth. Michigan wineries draw more than 800,000 visitors annually and pump $300 million into the state's economy.

That's an impressive number of tourists, a figure that the Pure Michigan ad hopes to at least maintain and possibly increase.

For more from MSU on the subject, I quote Michigan wineries raise a toast to 2012, the press release accompanying the second video. It relays two interesting facts about how last year's unseasonably warm March weather, followed by a cold snap and then record heat and drought, not only didn't hurt the grape crop, but actually helped it.

Last March, temperatures spiked to 80 degrees. The bitter-cold weather that followed wiped out much of the state’s fruit crops. The one exception ­– wine grapes.

Michigan has already established itself as a wine destination, and 2012 will certainly further the state’s premier status, said Paolo Sabbatini, Michigan State University assistant professor of viticulture.

“The quality of grapes last year was exceptional, perfect ripening conditions of the fruit allowed several grape varieties to perfectly express all their varietal characteristics,” he said. “Much of the fruit harvested last year will produce reserve-quality wine.”

Surprisingly, one of the biggest contributors to earning the coveted reserve status, bestowed to only the best wines, was the drought. Since wine grapes bud later than most fruit, they avoided the damage caused by the April freeze. March’s early warm spell, however, did give them an early start. The longer growing season, combined with the hot and dry summer, gave the grapes more time to fully ripen to levels that are pivotal for the production of quality wines.

“The early drought was actually beneficial to the vines; it reduced berry size and canopy growth – two factors that are fundamentally important for fruit quality. Reduced berry size concentrates flavor and aromas and vine growth was reduced, improving canopy microclimate and overall efficiency,” Sabbatini said. “Grapes in southwest Michigan experienced a season quite similar to those in California’s Napa Valley for heat accumulation or growing degree days.”

Looks like Michigan's wine industry might actually be helped by climate change. Fancy that.

First major snowfall and it's already late January

The first major snowfall of the winter is coming today. As the Detroit Free Press reports: Snow expected across metro Detroit as deep freeze blankets area. The odd part is that this didn't happen until a full month after the official start of winter. It's been a very mild winter so far, which is exactly what one would expect if the planet is warming, along with 2011 being the ninth warmest year on record (so far), having a record 14 billion dollar disasters, and record precipitation in Detroit and other Michigan and Ohio cities. Still, a couple of months that I didn't have to shovel snow or drive on slick roads makes for a small silver lining in the cloud of climate change.

In honor of the event, I present two videos about winter in Michigan. First, the fantasy.




Now, the reality.




Welcome to Michigan. If you don't like the weather, wait 10 minutes. It will change.