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In another life, Mike is the founder of Lost Voices, a nonprofit group founded to bring creative writing and roots music programs to incarcerated and at-risk kids. He was recently named USA Today Kindness Community Hero for this work.
Olympics Update - Ice Dancing Medals and Plenty Of Spandex
Tonight I caught the finals in Olympic Ice Dancing. This sport has been evolving greatly over the past twenty years, to the point where these days there are a lot more creative costumes and routines and a lot fewer guys in greasy ponytails. I always make sure to watch for the quality of the side-by-side twizzles. The announcer told me to.
Two of the Ice Dance pairs are University of Michigan students. Meryl Davis and Charlie White went into the free dance with a good chance of winning a gold medal. Charlie recently said that about the only thing that could top a Michigan football game would be winning a medal at the Olympics.
The other couple, Emily Samuelson and Evan Bates (Evan is also a native Ann Arborite) never had a realistic shot at a top three finish, but they looked great and turned in a personal best. It kind of makes you wonder if the U of M should consider a establishing Department of Feathers and Sequins.
Winter Olympics, NASCAR, and Red Wings: the Perfect Valentine's Day
This weekend my wife and I are enjoying a Perfect Storm of Really Cool Stuff.
On Friday the 2010 Winter Olympics* kicked off in Vancouver, British Columbia. There was a terrific Opening Ceremony highlighted by some teams marching in with hundreds of happy skiers and skaters waving at the crowd, while other teams were made up of a single athlete carrying a flag and followed by fifteen old bald government guys.
Fight The Chill - Fire Up The Grill
For Michiganites, January means different things to different people. For some, it means tuning up the skis and heading to a resort for a few days of carefree fun, frolic, and compound fractures. For others, it's off to Florida to bask under a cloudy sky on a 45 degree day, then send smug postcards to the people they work with back home.
But for most of us, it means walking up an icy driveway from the mailbox with our Stupid Winter Hats perched on our heads and skidding past the back door on one heel, clutching a handful of smug postcards from our coworkers in one hand and doing the "windmill prayer" (Oh God, Oh God, Oh God...) with the other.
Snow Days
As some of you know, I have a pretty cool day job at a small library. One of the best things about this job is that when the local schools shut down for bad weather, the library shuts down too.
I get Snow Days!
This means that any time there's a chance of snow on a "school night," I turn into an eight-year-old. I monitor every available weather forecast. I scan the western skies. I subscribe to a 24-hour online school closing advisory service. And then, of course, I do my "Snow Dance."
For those of you who live in Southern California, on Mars, or anywhere else Snow Days never happen, the Snow Dance is a highly personal ritual that can take many forms. My own version of the Snow Dance is performed as follows:
2010 - The Year In Preview
OK, we've got 2009 behind us. Once again it's time for me to dust off the Ouija Board, lay out the Tarot Cards, gaze at the coffee grounds (I'm not too crazy about tea), get into the old Rum & Eggnog, and let you all in on what's going to happen in the coming year.
January: The University of Michigan football team fails to play in a bowl game for the second year in a row, after 33 straight postseason appearances. Dedicated U of M fans take up a collection to buy second-year head coach Rich Rodriguez a one-way bus ticket to West Virginia. Dedicated West Virginia University fans chip in and buy him a ticket back to Ann Arbor.
