6 An Indiana Jones Adventure

It’s our Histories & Mysteries issue, and what could bring those two things together more perfectly than an Indiana Jones-themed escape room? The Cadillac Wexford Public Library is hosting the adventure for kids ages 8 to 12 on Saturday, March 25, from 11am to 3pm. (That includes four one-hour sessions for the escape room starting 11am, 12pm, 1pm, and 2pm.) The promo for the event welcomes attendees to “use your wits to avoid becoming another adventurer lost to the wild.” No word on whether there will be holy grails, ancient evil, or Indiana’s dreaded snakes… you’ll just have to grab your fedora, leather jacket, and boots to find out! The escape room experience is free to attend, but sign-up is required. To register, call (231) 775-6541 and ask for the Children’s Room. Find more details at cadillaclibrary.org/Calendar/events, and attend the event at 411 S. Lake St. in Cadillac.

Stuff We Love: Electric Ferry Service

Mackinac Island ferries cruise back and forth across the Straits dozens of times per day in the high season, carrying as many as 16,500 visitors to and fro. In a diesel ferry’s lifetime, all those trips equate to thousands of tons of fuel and emissions. The Mackinac Island Ferry Company (MIFC, previously known as Star Line) is taking steps to go greener with help from a $3 million grant from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). MIFC will be replacing two 1988 diesel engines with electric motors on one of their ferries, The Chippewa, part of a multi-year pilot project for the eventual electrification of nearly 30 ferries. Per EGLE, the shift to electric will reduce “greenhouse gas emissions by 14,152 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents and 887 metric tons of nitrogen oxides over the boat’s lifetime.” For more information, visit michigan.gov/egle and navigate to their Fuel Transportation Program page.

What’s Your Favorite Meal in NoMi?

Northern Express is gearing up for our Spring Restaurant Guide, and that means it’s time to feature five more amazing local dishes in our 2023 edition of Northern Michigan’s Most Iconic Eats. Each year, we gather recommendations from foodies and readers about the best eats in the area. We’ve covered the White Cheddar Ale Soup at North Peak, the Petaled Brussels Sprouts at Corner Bistro, the Dry Aged Tomahawk Ribeye at Vernales, the Chubby Mary at The Cove, and the Chicken Pot Pie at amical—just to name a few. Where should we go next, and what should we eat? Tell us about the best meal in your town by dropping us a line at info@northernexpress.com. We’ll be taking recommendations through April 1 for restaurants in our 13-county coverage area: Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie, Antrim, Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Kalkaska, Crawford, Antrim, Otsego, Charlevoix, Emmet, and Cheboygan. Bon appétit!

bottoms up 45 North Vineyard’s Foodie Flight

What tops the perfect local wine flight? How about one that comes with snacks? Through March, 45 North Vineyard & Winery is joining forces with The Cheese Lady (Traverse City) to curate the ultimate wine-and-cheese tasting as part of their monthly Foodie Flight, and we can’t think of anything cheddar! The series begins with 45 Red—that’s a softly-oaked Merlot and Cab Franc blend—paired with a creamy English cheddar, followed by the offdry Red Barn Red with a nutty Spanish Mahon. The decadent, port-style Northpor+ (aged for three years in whiskey barrels) rounds out the trio along with a tangy blueberry Stilton. Mix and match morsels and sips as you please, but be sure to start your sample in order to get the biggest bang for your bite. Enjoy each month’s Foodie Flight ($22) at 45 North Vineyard and Winery (8580 E. Horn Rd., Lake Leelanau). Psst—ice cream is on deck for August! (231) 271-1188, fortyfivenorth.com

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle

California is about to approve the payment of reparations to people who can prove they are the descendants of slaves. This might be a good time to look at slavery’s ugly history.

As long as there has been recorded history, there have been references to slavery, starting with the earliest city-states of Mesopotamia around 6800 BCE, a staggering 8,800+ years ago. We know those slaves were captured enemies forced to work and refusal to do so was usually met with execution.

Jump ahead a few thousand years to 2575 BCE and the Egyptians became one of the altogether, has an extremely interesting connection on both sides of the issue. While 1526 saw the first African slaves on North American soil, it was also, not coincidentally, the year of the first slave revolt. Then, in 1539, Hernando de Soto defeated Timucuan warriors in Florida, and when they refused to be enslaved, he ordered the execution of 200 people in the first recorded massacre of indigenous North Americans by European explorers. On the other hand, in 1687, Florida became the first place to emancipate escaped slaves, and, in 1735, Florida became home to the first settlement of free Blacks. There is more than enough history there to earliest civilizations to go in search of slaves, sending armies up the Nile to capture and enslave victims for their massive building projects. The common thread of most early slavery, both in Europe and what is now Central and South America, was whatever side had the misfortune of losing a battle or a war was likely to be enslaved or simply killed. It was a scourge that infected even so-called advanced societies; the city-state of Athens used as many as 30,000 slaves in around 550 BCE, mostly captured in warfare or piracy on the Mediterranean, though some were obtained through trade. Human beings had become a commodity to be traded for grain or livestock or sold for cash.

It would be nice if we could say slavery is behind us, but it still exists in many forms in many locations. According to the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery produced by the International Labor Organization, there are some 50 million people worldwide in some form of slavery today.

And those enslaved were not always what we would call minorities today. Native Britons were enslaved by conquering Anglo-Saxon marauders in around 500 CE. Within another 500 years, slavery, often as a result of debt, was commonplace in rural communities in England.

It wasn’t until 1444 that Portuguese traders brought the first large cargo of West African slaves to England, the beginning of more race-specific slavery. Unfortunately, slave traders found eager partners in African tribal leaders willing to sell those they had captured in battles. Some African clan and tribal leaders actually went on raids to specifically capture humans they could sell to the slave traders.

And nobody was inclined to do much to stop what had become a growing business of human trafficking. There isn’t even much evidence many thought it was wrong, and the practice was easily exported to the New World.

In 1526, Spanish explorer Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon brought as many as 100 African slaves to what is now Florida long before their infamous importation to Virginia.

Florida, whose politicians would rather their children ignore slavery and racism share with public school children.

We also should remember slavery was not just a phenomenon of the South, though it would eventually become that. In 1641, Massachusetts became the first colony to legalize slavery. In fact, slavery was legal in all 13 colonies; 41 of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence and 10 of our first 12 presidents were all slave owners. (Only John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, did not own slaves.) Between 1526 and 1866, more than 10 million African slaves were sent to the United States, most of whom had been captured in battle, kidnapped, or were in debt.

As the horrors of the Civil War neared, most northern states had outlawed slavery altogether, but the entire economy of the South was slave-dependent. By 1860, Virginia, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina all had more than 400,000 slaves. It would be nice if we could say slavery is behind us, but it still exists in many forms in many locations. According to the Global Estimates of Modern Slavery produced by the International Labor Organization, there are some 50 million people worldwide in some form of slavery today. Most are captured in border skirmishes, victims of kidnapping, indentured servants, or in forced marriages.

California’s Reparations Task Force plans to address our slavery history with the most American of solutions—money. Black Californians who can prove they are descendants of slaves might receive a onetime payment of as much as $360,000. The overall price tag on such a program would be around $640 billion.

It’s not clear how that will improve schools, neighborhoods, jobs, or do anything to reverse the bigotry that still exists. We aren’t going to buy our way out of racism or the leftover stench of slavery no matter how much we spend.

Cannabis: What’s in a Name?

It’s been known as pot, weed, grass, ganja, dope, reefer, and Mary Jane, but its most common names are cannabis or marijuana. When it comes to the right name, the history of this plant may get a little hazy. The centuries-old etymology of cannabis and marijuana/marihuana is hard to decipher to provide the exact origins of the terms we use today.

From 1910 to 1920, the United States saw tens of thousands of Mexicans immigrating to the southwest in the wake of the Mexican Civil War. The influx of immigration escalated anti-Mexican immigrant sentiment and a campaign of “reefer madness” among white Americans, fueled by the commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry Anslinger. His campaign against cannabis led to the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, under which the importation, cultivation, possession, and/or distribution of marijuana were regulated.

Anslinger’s propaganda campaigns created racist narratives, implying those who smoked marijuana were of an inferior race and were more likely to engage in sexual promiscuity and violence. By adopting the Spanish word “marihuana,” rather than the already widely-used “cannabis,” Anslinger and other prohibition supporters were intentionally connecting the use of marijuana by brown and black people to fabricated dangerous effects of the drug.

The recent push to use “cannabis” instead of “marijuana” has been prevalent in today’s modern industry. As the number of states legalizing marijuana increases, the debate on marijuana’s racially-charged etymology becomes more and more prevalent.

However, there is still some argument that changing the terminology to “cannabis” isn’t scientifically correct. “Cannabis” or “cannabis sativa L.” refers to the entire plant, and it consists of different strains. One strain, hemp, is the non-psychoactive variety of the plant. Hemp is used in making commercial and industrial products like rope, clothing, shoes, food, paper, or natural pain relief. Marijuana refers to the psychoactive strain of cannabis that contains THC. In other words, it’s the strain that people smoke.

Whatever name you use, it’s a good idea to understand where the word came from. If you’re not sure how you want to refer to reefer, check out your nearest Dunegrass location to help you decide.

Wait What?

The Exmoor Squirrel Project, a conservation endeavor in the United Kingdom aimed at saving the native red squirrel, has proposed that people set live traps for the non-native grey squirrel and that restaurants serve its meat, the BBC reported on Feb. 28. "Our woodlands, landscape and the biodiversity isn't set up to deal with the behaviors of the grey," said the group's manager, Kerry Hosegood. "We're going to introduce them to restaurants in the Exmoor area because they actually make for good eating," she added. "This isn't something that we like to do ... just target greys ... It's a very serious project." She said the grey squirrels have caused about 40 million pounds' worth of damage to trees annually.

Suspicions Confirmed

Madison County (Illinois) coroner Steve Nonn solved a nearly year-old mystery on March 2 when he released the results of an autopsy on Richard Maedge of Troy, Illinois. Maedge's wife, Jennifer, had reported him missing in late April last year after he failed to come home from work, KTVI-TV reported. His car, wallet and keys were at the house, but she couldn't find him. Police searched the house, which they described as a "hoarder home," but did not locate him. In fact, they searched twice, as Jennifer was also looking for the source of a "sewerlike" odor in the dwelling. Finally, on Dec. 11, as Jennifer pulled out Christmas decorations from a concealed storage space, she discovered Richard's mummified body. The coroner ruled that Maedge hanged himself and that there was no foul play in his death.

News You Can Use

Mushrooms have been in the news a lot lately, but you probably didn't know that Texas has a state mushroom: the Devil's Cigar or Texas Star. KXAN-TV reported that the Lone Star State's designated fungi is ultrarare, growing only on decomposing cedar elm or oak tree stumps and roots in the U.S. and Japan. It comes out of the earth in a cylindrical shape, then "will open up into a three- to eightpointed star," said Angel Schatz of the Central Texas Mycological Society. That's when it releases its spores and sometimes hisses. "It is a very cool mushroom to have as our state mushroom," Schatz said.

Awesome!

Kansans take their tornado sirens seriously, so it was no surprise that on March 4 in the Wichita suburb of Park City, a ribbon-cutting ceremony took place to mark the reinstallation of the city's oldest Thunderbolt siren, KSNW-TV reported. The sirens are remnants of the Cold War, and four of them are still in service in Sedgwick County. "About a year ago, we took them down, had them refurbished, and put them back up in our system," explained Jonathan Marr, deputy director for Sedgwick County Emergency Management. The feted siren had been in use for 70 years.

It's Come to This

Tattoo artist Dean Gunther of Manchester, United Kingdom, has made one man's body goals come true: He's inked a ripped six-pack on the man's torso, freeing the man from eating right and exercising more, the Daily Mail reported on March 6. "He decided that by getting a six-pack tattoo, he will always look summer-ready while still being able to enjoy beer and good food," Gunther said of his customer. The artistic tat took two days to complete.

Compelling Explanation

At a preliminary hearing in San Francisco Superior Court on March 6, police officers offered testimony about a Feb. 1 incident in which Dmitri Mishin fired a replica gun inside a synagogue, The San Francisco Standard reported. As officers interrogated Mishin, he explained that the shooting was an act of prayer he was giving for his neighbor's bird. Mishin, who pleaded not guilty, told officers he lives on a submarine and talks with North Korean and Japanese leaders, and that weapons found in his home were movie props. After the shooting at the synagogue, he waved goodbye and left. Unsurprisingly, this isn't Mishin's first run-in with the law; his mother testified that he suffers from mental illness. The hearing was ongoing.

Pick on Somebody Your Own Size

David Jimenez, 65, of Maui, Hawaii, was arrested on March 6 for "pursuing a humpback whale," CBS News reported. Jimenez, who calls himself Dolphin Dave, was allegedly harassing the whale and dolphins in Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park, where he was snorkeling. Jimenez was unrepentant, though: He told officers "he's not going to stop swimming with whales and dolphins 'because it's magical and others do much worse things.'" Humpback whales are protected under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act.

Bright Idea

In China, women modeling lingerie for online retailers violates the country's rules about spreading obscene material, Insider reported on March 1. Instead, underwear companies are hiring men to model the clothing -- and it's working out better than you might think. "The guy wears it better than the girl," one online commenter posted. Others argue that the restrictions are "depriving women of job opportunities." "We don't really have a choice," said one business owner, Mr. Xu. "The designs can't be modeled by our female colleagues, so we will use our male colleagues to model it."

It's Good To Have a Hobby

You missed it again. Key West, Florida's annual Conch Shell Blowing Contest took place on March 4, with Carol Whiteley of Ontario, Canada, winning the women's division and Brian Cardis of Macon, Georgia, taking the men's top prize. Entrants of all ages were judged on quality, novelty, duration and loudness, the Associated Press reported. Michael and Georgann Wachter from Avon Lake, Ohio, impressed the audience with a shell and vocal duet of Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog." Whiteley said she toots her shell to celebrate sunsets at her riverside home. Time to start practicing for next year!