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On Woolly Bear Caterpillars and Michiganders
It takes a lot of work to survive winter. It takes a lot of gear, a lot of preparations. Buying salt for the driveway, buying kitty litter for our trunks. Making sure there’s blankets and flashlights and bottled water in the car in case we’re stuck in a drift or the car won’t start when it’s below freezing.
St. Louis’ Wealthy “King of the Hobos”
“By the hoboes, for the hoboes, of the hoboes.”
A Tale of Two Newspapers
Both cities were even large enough for two daily newspapers – even if only briefly. [...]
Pink Piano
Crayons were my birthright. Crayons were in my blood. The blood of family lore matched American Crayon’s most powerful primary red crayon in every box. Crayons sent me down the road to adulthood.
Exiles Living in a Church
It certainly isn’t cool, or edgy, or funny–the things people say about what it must be like to live in a church. It’s relentless.
Trent Reznor’s Conflicted Rust Belt Legacy
Trent Reznor never mentioned the Johnstown Flood in his interviews on MTV, though he would’ve learned about it the same way any other Rust Belt boy does...He never mentioned that he was a rich boy surrounded by a world his ancestors got tricked into helping destroy.
Pheasants of Detroit
Because of its abundant open space, Detroit has a thriving ring-necked pheasant population. But what does coming development mean for this iconic bird and its future in the Motor City?
Stories Told Around a Campfire (That No Longer Exists)
Maybe that’s not enough of a story for some people to understand (or celebrate) the hunting instinct. What I know is my family has depended on it, right alongside the understory and the herds.
In Pittsburgh, Local Journalism Is Worth the Fight
Having two major news sources in the city owned by notoriously anti-worker management can’t be good. For local journalism to be good, local journalism jobs need to be good.
Painting the Past on the Ohio River
You can put your finger on a map and trace it down the Ohio River. From Steubenville to Paducah, it’s nearly a thousand miles, an artery pumping through the heart of America.
James Purdy’s Outrages Against the Establishment
Purdy’s harshest words were consistently aimed at the literary apparatus that he felt was inherently unable to appreciate his formally deliberate but thematically audacious fiction.
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