April 25, 2010 by Amy Elliott Bragg
In which Henry Ford tells me to take it easy for a while
This weekend I had a dream that I found an old safe in some empty house. When I cracked it (somehow), I found a bunch of Henry Ford’s old papers and letters (including his high school diploma?) as well as several original documents relating to Anthony Wayne.
So … so … dweeby.
I clearly need to clear my head of local history a little. Luckily for my freelance roster, unfortunately for dorky blogging, I am working through a few tight deadlines this week and next (with a vacation to Milwaukee, my heart’s other home, in between). We’ll be around, but posts will be shorter, sweeter and possibly farther between for a spell. The Facebook page should be hopping, though. (And we’ve been ONE follower short of 100 for like a week! Come ON!)
Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest that have captured our fancy of late:
No one needs to tell you to visit Sweet Juniper, right? But recently Jim has been writing a lot about this dog cart he built, and his chronicle of their jaunts around town has really been yanking my heart. I love it. You should read about it.
Perfect Laughter, Detroit’s best art blog, featured one of my dad’s old Opening Day photos in their Starred series.
I heard a rumor on Twitter that Matt Novak of Paleo-Future, a terrific blog about visions of the future that never came to pass, will be on All Things Considered tomorrow. I am hoping that telling you this will help me remember to tune in when 4 pm rolls around tomorrow.
(EDIT: Forgot to mention that, in a counter-intuitive move that just thrills me, Paleo-Future is starting a real, hold-it-in-your hand magazine. You can pre-order the first issue here.)
On Saturday, the fiancé and I old-person’d out and stayed in to watch How the States Got Their Shapes on the History Channel. It was endearing and smart. Today we were totally insufferable at brunch where we yammered on to our helpless dining companion about the skinny part of Idaho, the Oklahoma panhandle, the Mason Dixon line, the diagonal line on Nevada’s western border, Fort Blunder on the Canadian border and OF COURSE, The Toledo War. (Don Faber, who wrote this book, was a guest on the show. And charming.) We would highly recommend you watch this so that the next time I try to assault you at the bar with the story of the lost state of Deseret, you can just say “Yeah, I know Amy, I already saw that.” It’s based on a book by the same name.
And this article about mammoths, mastodons and the 18th-century American “fossil craze” — and how it reflected European attitudes about North American “degeneracy,” and how American archaeologists, artists, science lovers and hobbyists shot back — was a good read in April’s Smithsonian Magazine, which I tend to keep on my night stand for a month at a time, planning to read it before bed. I never really read before bed, so I have no idea why I do this.
In between deadlines, I’m hoping to spend some time getting back on track with blog research and planning, so if there’s anything you’re curious about, history-wise, in and around magnificent Detroit, please do get in touch.