Excuse the absence earlier. That silly column I wrote blotted out the sun for a couple days. On Monday I was toiling away at something else when my doorbell rang. On the front porch was a reporter from the local Fox affiliate, who wanted to interview me about it.
“Me? That column?” I asked, astounded.
“My news director says it’s a talker.”
I welcomed her in. I mean, I’m not going to turn a reporter away. But when she started asking questions, it became clear that she thought I’d dropped a policy brief on the mayor’s desk, complete with suggested GPS coordinates for sinking the Boblo boat, not a whimsical column chiding Detroit for its constant backward-looking gaze. I closed the door behind her thinking, I’m gonna look like an idiot, and I expect I did, although I haven’t watched the piece yet, and won’t. My takeaway is this: No one knows how to read anymore. For a while now, I’ve been wincing at how upset people get over headlines, knowing how many of them are likely written by interns or the web staff or whoever, some of whom may not even reside in the same city where the story was generated. But given how many people read no further, maybe it’s more important. Apparently there’s an entire Reddit thread of people who think I literally want to scuttle a precious childhood memory. I don’t! It’s a metaphor, folks. We covered that in seventh-grade English.
But lots of people liked it, so that’s cool.
Oh, and I haven’t told you the best part: I was invited to be on the Mitch Albom show. HAHAHAHAHAHA. I had to lifeguard during the time they wanted me, so I declined. I don’t think the producer is clued in to my online claim to fame.
But now it’s Wednesday, and as editors have been saying for millennia, what do you have coming for tomorrow? In these parts, a possible snowstorm. Nothing insane, but three inches will announce winter pretty emphatically, and it’d be wise to get the snowblower gassed up and in the front of the garage, where it will swap places with the lawn mower.
So I guess that’s what’s coming for tomorrow. Snow. And probably the erection of the Nall-Derringer Co-Prosperity Sphere Christmas tree.
In bloggage, don’t have much, but news is breaking that the CEO of UnitedHealthcare was shot to death this morning in Manhattan. Police are calling it a targeted attack, so: very interesting. As always, more will be revealed. Refrain from jumping to conclusions. And I’ll see you later this week.
alex said on December 4, 2024 at 11:12 am
I watched the clip, Nancy, and I thought you came off great. It ended with your comment about the train station: “Repurpose the past, don’t relive it.”
We’re not supposed to be getting slammed with snow here, just arctic cold.
Donald Trump said he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue with impunity. Wondering if the UHC CEO might have been on his enemies list.
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Dexter Friend said on December 4, 2024 at 11:27 am
I was hoping that cockeyed early plan to convert Tiger Stadium to townhouses and boutiques would materialize, but I knew it would take more miracles than Detroit had. I accepted the demolition. However, I still mourn, along with other elderly people, the demolition of the stadium I grew up attending a few, then many games as I aged through the decades, Comiskey Park, 35th and Shields, Chicago. It closed in 1990; I went to many games that season, and I fucking hate that replacement concrete thing called GRF. Now the Sox are contemplating a beautiful lakefront stadium with out-views of the Loop. The artists’ conceptions are stunning. But it’s Chicago, and I may not make it due to time constraints. You know.
And well, after Comerica Park appeared and the pols and architects couldn’t save the “Old Girl” at Michigan and Trumbull, and demolition was imminent, actual tears may have been minimal, but throat choking and heartfelt sadness did abound amongst the sentimentalists sort of like the real hardcore Tiger fanatics from yore, not so much to me, whose baseball heart belonged on The South Side, on 35th.
And damn it, again…I really miss being able to stick a few coins into a newsbox and take out a News after I had already gotten a Freep.
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Icarus said on December 4, 2024 at 11:58 am
One thing I regret I never did in Chicago was to attend a Cubs game and then jump on the Red Line to see a Sox game that same day. Apparently, this is a thing.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2024/05/24/photos-lets-watch-two-baseball-fans-ride-the-rails-for-the-red-line-doubleheader/
https://blockclubchicago.org/2024/06/20/how-some-diehard-cubs-sox-fans-conquered-a-red-line-doubleheader-in-90-degree-heat/
It would have been easier to do in the 90s or even 00s.
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tajalli said on December 4, 2024 at 12:06 pm
Alex, my first thought was “And so the assassinations begin.”
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Dexter Friend said on December 4, 2024 at 12:16 pm
That certainly was a brazen murder in front of The Hilton. Killer ran, jumped on a bicycle and disappeared. As of 5 minutes ago, he’s still in the wind.
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Dave said on December 4, 2024 at 12:25 pm
Why did the reporter or someone need to put in, “Who’s from Ohio”, as a shot at what does she know? At least, that’s the way I took it. You haven’t even lived in Ohio for what, about forty years now?
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alex said on December 4, 2024 at 12:42 pm
As for the Woodward Dream Cruise, I too wonder what the kids born in the ’80s-’90s are going to do with it. Cars from those decades were put together with spit and had zero style besides. I can’t see Chevy reprising the Citation or the Lumina for nostalgia’s sake.
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David C said on December 4, 2024 at 1:31 pm
The Woodward Dream Cruise should have true classics like the Renault Fuego that I owned. It’s the most interesting car I ever owned. The gearshift mount rusted out. One day I was driving home from a night class and tried to shift from 3rd to 4th gear. The lever pulled right out of the floor and I had to drive all the way home in 3rd gear. The Car Talk guys always said the French don’t do things like anyone else and more to the point nobody else does things like the French.
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jcburns said on December 4, 2024 at 1:45 pm
It was just nice to see some of your house in the background, Nancy.
Congrats to the Fox 2 staff for revealing you were, in fact, FROM OHIO. If there’s one way to invalidate everything you had to say–well, that appears to do the trick. (All the comments on the YouTube version of this story basically latch on to Nancy’s Ohioness, and boy, they don’t let go.)
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Linda said on December 4, 2024 at 2:37 pm
As a Detroit native, I agree a little but disagree a lot. Motown and muscle cars are not in the dust bin of history. They still impact, and are genuine contributions to, modern American culture. The Bob Lo boat? Not so much. It’s a nostalgia trip for old Detroiters. I am also dismayed at the disdain that old (mostly white) ex Detroiters have towards New Detroit. I see Detroit as a place with layers of history that should not simply be dismissed.
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Dexter Friend said on December 4, 2024 at 2:40 pm
My Chevy Citation was like a thousandth of a second from being my tomb. December 15, 1986, it was cut in half by a huge Chevrolet pickup driven by a legally blind old diabetic who I knew from years before at work. He blew a stop sign a mile from his house. Who does that? Anybody who may have been in the backseat would have been crushed. I ended up in an ambulance and a short hospital check-up.
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Jeff Gill said on December 4, 2024 at 3:35 pm
The problem with the health care exec killing is they now have (checks notes) 11 million suspects.
https://bsky.app/profile/samreisman.bsky.social/post/3lciythajw227
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Carolyn DiPaolo said on December 4, 2024 at 3:56 pm
Again, I step back in awe at the best 400 words I’ve read today.
And I’m an editor!
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Suzanne said on December 4, 2024 at 4:02 pm
Every social media post I have seen today anywhere about the United Health CEO being gunned down is full of comments that are along the lines of “Too bad, so sad, sucks to be him.” Almost no sympathy whatsoever.
Will it spur change? Not likely.
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David C said on December 4, 2024 at 4:24 pm
The only change will benefit executive security companies, not us.
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susan said on December 4, 2024 at 5:13 pm
Here’s a reason for a masked individual to lie in wait for a health insurance CEO to step out of a Hilton Hotel: https://www.asahq.org/about-asa/newsroom/news-releases/2024/11/anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-will-not-pay-complete-duration-of-anesthesia-for-surgical-procedures
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Sherri said on December 4, 2024 at 8:18 pm
David Niewart, long on this beat, writes about the identity politics that did impact the presidential race: white identity politics.
https://open.substack.com/pub/davidneiwert/p/identity-politics-indeed-cost-kamala?r=2h24&utm_medium=ios
Also, as I’ve been trying to rest and recover from back spasms today, I listened to this podcast about the leading Christian Nationalist in the US, Doug Wilson: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510381/extremely-american
One frustrating thing about the podcast was in the last bonus episode, there’s a panel discussion of Christian leaders opposed to Christian nationalism. One of the members of panel agreed that Christian nationalism is bad, but blamed “woke ideology” for its rise. Those poor conservatives never have any agency, always being forced into things by liberals.
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Jeff Gill said on December 4, 2024 at 8:21 pm
Gahhhh. I watched the clip: didn’t you move to Michigan OVER twenty years ago?
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Alan Stamm said on December 4, 2024 at 8:34 pm
The Albom show invite is a sitcom-like twist. Oh, the possibilities for subversive mirth, or at least a banger blog post, if only you hadn’t needed to be poolside.
As for that “entire Reddit thread,” I shoulda known better. Admired the column so much, I thought it would resonate even there . . . alas. Good intent, unwise venue.
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