GauthamCity

Cit Pat on Sparton

Jackson Amtrak Station

Greetings to my new readers courtesy of Ta-Nehisi. It feels good to be writing on here again, I've included a few of my older posts below but hopefully I'll be posting regularly starting today. Just a couple days after I wrote on the significance of Jackson losing companies like Sparton Corp, the Citizen Patriot ran a great editorial on Sparton's importance to the community:

In an "American Century" of innovation, ingenuity and mass production, there should be little doubt that Jackson's own Sparton Corp. represented the best that our country had to offer.

Sparton was the first to develop an electric automotive horn, the first to make an all-electric radio. It made products that helped the military defend our country during the Cold War. [link]

I highly recommend you check out the full editorial, which ran in Sunday's paper.

Back from the Dead

I'll be re-launching this blog next week, but in the meantime I'll be part of the team filling in for Ta-Nehisi Coates over at The Atlantic. Please check out my first post on the craziness that is Monica Conyers.

Stache Rules Everything Around Me

Happy New Year's, folks. I know it's been a while, but to be quite honest you have no right to complain about the lack of production, all three of you reading out there.

The NYT has an article today on how hipsters and various other assorted white dudes have recently re-discovered the moustache, inspired by the examples of Jason Giambi and the dude who played Sean Penn's boyfriend in Milk.

To my eyes this reads like another case of Dubious Causation Syndrome, a rare disease that most commonly occurs in the pages of the NYT's Style section. An earnest and erudite graduate of some expensive Northeastern college notices a trend among the unwashed mashes teaming the streets of Williamsburg; as deadlines approach, research is done and images are Googled.

The next thing you know, seemingly unconnected cultural phenomena have been tied together with beautiful prose and we learn that Brooklynites drinking Pabst and wearing flannel shirts is really a symptom of the lasting cultural impact of Sometimes a Great Notion.

Personally, I don't buy it. There are plenty of good reasons to grow a 'stache, but I don't think most of the men that do are inspired by washed-up juicers or movie characters (unless the character in question is Bill the Butcher). ikyrf8xegn The only exception is probably this guy:

 

Detroit newspapers scale back home delivery

The announcement today that the Detroit News and Free Press will be reducing home delivery to Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays next year means Detroit will soon be the largest city in America without home delivery of a daily newspaper.

As anyone who follows this blog knows, I read the Free Press online almost every day and I pick up a copy whenever I'm back in Michigan. While the paper will still be sold at newsstands seven days a week, the new version will be stripped down. It would be foolish to think this is anything less than a first step; mark my words, these two papers will likely stop printing on at least a couple days a week within the next five years.

It's a pity because when I was a kid growing up in Michigan and first considered becoming a journalist, the Detroit Free Press seemed liked the ideal destination. I used to read our local Gannett paper cover to cover every day, but getting a copy of the Free Press seemed like a treat. Back then it was still filled with solid reporters, who held dream jobs like trashing the Lions, opining on the latest model from the Big Three or eviscerating the inept city government. I somehow always thought I might end up at the paper myself in some fashion.

Today I'm forced to accept that odds are neither of these papers will exist in their present form in a few years. While I enjoy reading the news online, it somehow lacks the authority of newsprint. It's tragic to think in the future there will be no more front pages to perfectly capture the times; that a screenshot will have to suffice. Technology is a wonderful thing, but like many others there is only so much time I can spend staring at a screen. Unfortunately for people in Detroit, that will soon be the only option.

I think Sheed is interested in coaching

The Pistons won their opening game last night against the Pacers, but the most notable part is how they won: by playing ten guys 14 minutes or more and starting Amir Johnson at power forward. If you want to know more, check out DBB which provides discussion and analysis of almost every aspect of the Stones.

More interesting to me was the roster preview put together by the Detroit News, which gave information and a little insight into the character of each of our 15 players. While others certainly gave good answers, as usual no one could top Sheed in the quotable department. It's a contract year for our main man and it looks like he's already angling for his next job: coaching basketball.

Can you imagine Sheed as a basketball coach? Now, first of all, let me say that I would love it if Sheed was my coach. He is extremely intelligent and has one of the highest basketball IQs out there.

With that being said, when one thinks of Sheed authority and discipline are not exactly the first two words that come to mind. While Sheed might be excellent at teaching the finer points of help defense or establishing post position, he would also give "working the refs" a whole new meaning.

This is why I miss Roy Williams

So Halloween is a couple days away and yours truly has yet to come up with a costume or a plan for the evening. Regardless of where I end up, chances are no one there will have a costume that can touch that of former Lion and current Cowboy receiver Roy Williams, who showed up to the Lions' charity party on Monday to help support former teammate Mike Furrey. From MLive:

Williams came dressed as former Lions running back Tatum Bell, who made national headlines two months ago when he was accused of pilfering the travel bags of Detroit running back Rudi Johnson. Williams was wearing a bellhop uniform with a big name tag that said "T. Bell.''

Williams was also wearing boxer shorts on the outside of his pants and it said "Rudi'' on the front and "Johnson 32'' on the back. Williams said he informed Bell what he was going to do, via text message, and got the running back's approval. [link]

For those of you who didn't catch the reference, I submit some background. Basically, Rudi Johnson gets cut by the Bengals in August and former Lions GM Matt Millen calls him to see if he is desperate enough to come play for the Lions. Johnson is unsure, having wasted his entire career to that point on the Bengals, so he calls old buddy and Lions RB Tatum Bell to see what he thinks. Bell presumably endorses the move, since Johnson ends up signing with the Leos after meeting with Millen. That's when the situation gets twisted.