Post # 97  August 26, 2024

Quote for the day: The story of how the Upper Peninsula finally became a part of Michigan must have made the angels weep. And doubtless also giggle. John Voelker in the "Forward" to "They Left Their Mark" by Joh S. Burt. 1985.

Reviews

Needs More Burritos by Ben Schulz

Leo was destined to be a dedicated, hopelessly addicted super fan of the Detroit Lions. He was born on December 29, 1957 the last time the Lions won a championship. His parents named him Leo, for lion of course, and his father was taking him to Lions home games almost before he was out of diapers. The Lions became the be all and end all of his life. He did poor in school, graduated nearly illiterate, poor at math, and without the slightest vocation skills. As he grows older his life spirals downward but year after year he somehow manages season tickets plus alcoholism and drug addiction on income from bagging groceries at Krogers. His life becomes a metaphor for more than half a century of disappointment and failure by the Lions. 

In spite of the above paragraph this is a lapel grabbing novel that pulls readers in and keeps them turning pages until the inspiring conclusion. Leo narrates his story and he has a singular, engaging, and surprising voice. It is off-beat, often humorous, poetic, has a penchant for lists, and readers can often feel a musical beat or cadence in the prose. Leo tells his story a decade per chapter. The narrative captures the cultural feel of each decade through the popular music, movies, and the demand for drugs. Leo of course reviews the Lions' record in each decade and his abysmal personal finances that go from bad to worse. Leo also describes the slow crumbling and destruction of Detroit decade by decade from a native's point of view. 

This is the kind of guy you don't know, don't see, don't understand, and at first don't know why you're caught up in his life. Well because he's a kid who flunked Spanish in high school but is proud he remembers taco means taco. More importantly it is watching Leo take one last, slim, and final chance at redemption. 

Needs More Burritos by Ben Schulz. Palmetto Publishing, 2024,226p., $14.99. 

Off the Hook Too!: Off-Beat Reporter's Tales from Michigan's U.P. by Nancy Besonen

If at times you just don't always understand life then you need to read Nancy Besonen. Granted, reading this collection of her weekly columns in the L'Anse Sentinel isn't going to help you understand life or life's conundrums any better. But Besonen is a sharp-eyed observer of life and its absurdities and she is going to make you laugh at the often loose grip we have when dealing with life's perplexities.  

Besonen is consistently perceptive, refreshing, inspired, honest, and makes me laugh. She gave up candy for Lent when it was suggested by a nun when she was a youngster. She writes, "There's a reason those women wear black." And like most of us she admits, "There is a time and place for eating healthier. I have no idea when or where that is... ." And then there's my favorite. She notes that if Ben Franklin had his way the turkey would be the national bird not the bald eagle. If Ben had been successful Besonen writes, "when our new president stepped off Air Force One we could have proudly honored him/her with a big resounding: The Turkey has landed."

The nearly one hundred columns cover a lot of ground from cell phones, ice fishing, and fake news to Barbie dolls, thieving deer and everything in between. Many are Yooper inspired but no translation is needed. Until I was lucky enough to be handed a Nancy Besonen book I'd never read a newspaper column that is often the equal to an observational stand up comic's material and is just as funny.

Off the Hook Too! Off-Beat Reporter's Tales from Michigan's U.P. by Nancy Besonen. Modern History Press, 2024, 168p., $21.95.

Wilderness, Water  & Rust: A Journey Toward Great Lakes Resilience by Jane E. Elder

This is an autobiography of an environmentalist who has spent her life striving to save our shrinking wilderness areas and the Great Lakes from pollution, invasive species, and overuse. Readers quickly learn her life story is inseparable from her environmental work spanning half a century. As a result the reader gets to know a remarkable woman. Secondly, it only takes a few pages to realize the reader is in the hands of a  remarkably fine writer.

Her early work was in the promoting the development of wilderness areas and parks. She worked to create Pictured Rocks and Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shores as well as the Sylvain Wilderness Area in the western U.P. The author's love of wilderness is felt on nearly every page. You wish you could have accompanied her as she recounts hiking Pictured Rocks and Sleeping Bear Dunes. She also has a fine sense of humor. When visiting Sylvain Wilderness she and another environmental activist were sitting at a picnic table when they heard a chainsaw. They walked over to where the man was cutting down trees that might endanger a camping area. Elder told the man a chainsaw is out of place in a wilderness area. He replied so is a picnic table. 

The author spent a good part of her career working to raising the awareness of the toxic pollution of the Great Lakes and the danger of invasive species. In an angry, detailed, and fact-filled chapter on mercury and other contaminants found in the Great Lakes it almost seems as if humans are hell-bent on making our world unlivable. It's nearly unbelievable, but harmful and dangerous toxins have been found in the largest inland lake on Isle Royale, which means there is no escaping them.

This is an important and timely book and the subtitle fore shadows the hope of recovering the nearsighted poisoning of our world. In addition to science and renewal the author offers hope for the future based the wonders of our world and natures restorative power. It seems fitting to end the review with two quotes from the book. First is from the author standing on Pictured Rocks. "Our enjoyment comes from feeling part of this place, the rhythm of the seasons and even the deep time written in the history of the sandstone cliffs....These are riches that never show up on a bank statement or a gross national product index." The last from Congressman Dale Kildee after walking another wilderness area on a Michigan shoreline. "When you think of it, wilderness is the mind of God expressed."

Wilderness, Water & Rust: A Journey Toward Great Lakes Resilience by Jane E. Elder. Michigan State University Press, 2024, 311p., $39.95.

Silent Springs the Panther: Historic Accounts of Michigan Big Cat Attacks by Aaron J. Vesselenak

I found this book absolutely fascinating for a number of reasons. First of all I was surprised at the number of actual attacks on humans by panthers, mountain lions, cougars, or whatever you wish to call them, in Michigan over the course of Michigan's history. The author's extensive and careful research documents roughly two dozen attacks on humans occurred from the 1820s to the present. And only of few of those resulted in death.  I was also surprised that cougar attacks occurred within less than 10 miles from where I live. Granted the attacks happened more than a 150 years ago but it leaves me with a new sense of local history and a reminder that my house sits on what was once was wilderness. 

The author taps first person accounts and local newspaper reports to effectively capture the suddenness and ferocity of an attack by a mountain lion. The author includes descriptions of similar attacks by the big cat that occurred in other states in order to document the typical behavior of an attack and uses the out-of-state reports because so few attacks have taken place here. Veselenak also describes mountain lion behavior and the many times a cat will chase prey with no intention of eating it, but just out of curiosity. He also estimates that for every panther seen by a human, hundreds if not thousands have quietly observed humans without their ever knowing it. 

The last mountain lion in Michigan was supposedly killed in 1906. The author's thorough research documents countless sightings over the years to positively refute that claim. Until recently the DNR refused to acknowledge that mountain lions inhabited the state. They went so far as to claim a photograph of a mountain lion taken in the lower peninsula was a hoax. When a DNR official saw a cougar in Alcoma County the agency had to back track. This book conclusively presents evidence that mountain lions are here and probably were never extinct in the state. 

The only confirmed cougar in the lower peninsula is a photograph of one taken in Clinton County. If a cougar has made it that far south they must be present further north. Just weeks ago my son-in-law was driving home from their cottage near Bellaire when he saw a mountain lion run out of the woods, streak across the road, and disappear in another stand of woods. He described a mountain lion to a T. When he saw the mountain lion on the cover of this book he acknowledged that's exactly what he saw south of Torch Lake and just a couple of miles south of M-72. Of course my son-in-law's sighting made this book a very special reading experience.  But there's no doubt that anyone who opens this book will find it both fascinating and gripping.

Silent Springs the Panther: Historic Accounts of Michigan Big Cat Attacks by Aaron J. Veselenak. Mission Point Press, 2024, 137p., 17.95.