Northern Express - April 19, 2021

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NORTHERN MICHIGAN’S WEEKLY • april 19 - april 25, 2021 • Vol. 31 No. 16

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Northern Express Weekly • april 19, 2021 • 1

2 • april 19, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly

letters Our simple rules: Keep your letter to 300 words or less, send no more than one per month, include your name/address/ phone number, and agree to allow us to edit. That’s it.

Email info@northernexpress.com and hit send!

responsible news organizations do when they discover that they have made an error.

Irresponsible news organizations and individuals use actions like that to claim, as Charlie M. did, that the entire conversation was fabricated. It wasn’t.

As Dan B. pointed out in his original letter, you can go listen to the recorded conversation yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Jeff B., Elmwood Township

Check the Facts In a letter to the editor in the April 12 issue, Charlie M. of Topinabee stated the Trump phone call [to Georgia Election Investigator Francis Watson] that I referenced in my recent “Trump Mob Boss” letter was “100% fake.” He claimed “the Washington Post even admitted it and has retracted.” He then said, “So don’t jump to conclusions next time.”

In fact, my letter is 100 percent true and accurate. I listened to the recording of Trump’s phone call and transcribed Trump’s words. I did not get this from any news report. I listened to the Trump call over and over again, phrase by phrase, broken sentence by broken sentence, and wrote every word Trump said. I even recommended that the readers find the recording on the web to listen for themselves.

Another fact: The Washington Post did not retract their article; they corrected two statements within it and followed up quickly with a correction. It reads, in part: “Trump did not tell the investigator to ‘find the fraud’ or say she would be ‘a national hero’ if she did so. Instead, Trump urged the investigator to scrutinize ballots in Fulton County, Ga., asserting she would find ‘dishonesty’ there. He also told her that she had ‘the most important job in the country’ right now.

If you check my transcript you will see that I correctly stated what Trump said.

Now, about jumping to conclusions, Charlie M. That is exactly what you did by your willful ignorance. Willful ignorance is “a decision in bad faith to avoid becoming informed about something so as to avoid having to make undesirable decisions that such information might prompt.”

Dan B., West Bloomfield I Second That Emotion Charlie M.’s letter in the April 12 issue of Northern Express wrongly asserted that the phone call Donald Trump made to Georgia Election Investigator Francis Watson was “100% fake.”

Audio of the entire conversation was released by the Georgia Secretary of State and is available online. Dan B. referenced that online recording in his March 12 letter. All the quotes in his letter are accurate. Unbiased individuals listening to that conversation would likely come to the same conclusions Dan did: The president of the United States was putting pressure on a Georgia election official to find evidence to support his claims of widespread voter fraud.

What was inaccurate was a Washington Post story published before the audio recording was released. The Washington Post published a correction to the original story when they discovered that two quotes they had published were inaccurate. That’s what

Living Wages Reduces Poverty The federal minimum wage today stands at $7.25 an hour, unchanged since 2009 despite rising prices and rising nominal wages of other workers. Without Congressional action each year, the minimum wage has stagnated. About 38 percent of the increase in income inequality can be traced to decline in real income for the bottom 10 percent of wage earners who rely on a minimal wage. As compared to the typical worker’s income, the minimal wage represented 58 percent of median (middle) income in 2009 and 47 percent in 2020.

The minimum wage in the United States covers less than 10 percent of the workforce. When minimum wages rise, it directly increases the wages of those lowpaid workers. It also indirectly increases the wages of many of the workers who earn above minimum wage but still fall within the bottom 25 percent of wage earners, leaving the middle- or median-income distribution unaffected.

To reduce income inequality, the minimum wage needs to be on par with typical hourly wages so as not to increasingly fall behind the typical wage. By connecting the minimum wage to the typical wage means the same proportion of workers will earn the minimum wage year after year while the minimum wage rises. What’s more, because a minimum wage increase will not alter the share of workers earning the minimum wage, this would only require employers to raise wages for roughly the same proportion of their employees each year.

Calculating minimum hourly wage to 60 percent of the current median wage ($19.33 — using 2019 numbers due to effect of the virus in 2020), the minimum wage would be $12.00, or $24,000 a year. Given that the poverty level for a family household of four is $26,200 such a change would significantly reduce poverty.

Ronald M., Petoskey Pot & Kettle Mary Keyes Rogers’ guest opinion article in the April 5 edition focuses on trust and how trust is a key component of happiness — especially trust in news sources and government. She mentions how Michigan ranks very low in many factors, and that The Center for Public Integrity has given the Michigan legislature an “F” in government transparency. Then she describes actions of the legislature as purely political maneuvers.

She conveniently omits the fact that in the very same report, the Center also gives F’s to the executive and judicial branches of Michigan’s government; not just the legislative.

So is Ms. Rogers to be trusted? Selectively

presenting incomplete data to further your own opinion does not improve the trust situation.

Mike H., Midland Huzzah!

Good (not fake) news for the climate: The Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act, H.R. 2307 has been reintroduced in Congress. This Act will help lead the country to a net-zero emissions of carbon by 2050 by putting a tax on carbon, with all proceeds returned to the citizens. But it is critical that it is implemented now. We have an administration that is supportive, but we need Congress to get on board as well.

Call your member of Congress today and urge them to co-sponsor this legislation.

Let’s continue to celebrate the direction this country is taking on climate change but remember that the time to act is now.

George R., Petoskey Trim the Bases There is nothing natural about a country maintaining an enormous system of military bases in other nations. Can the United States free itself from endless recurring war?

De-escalating or de-imperializing won’t be easy. There is an intricate world-wide system of security pacts built around the U.S. armed forces. There are cadres of civil servants and military strategists who are used to making war. And there are huge defense contractors with lobbying power!

None of these will go away easily.

Identifying the link between bases and war, however, may be simple and possible.

The U.S. overseas base inventory is 30,000 installations on 2,000 sites developed by the end of World War II. Overseas bases cost taxpayers more than $70 billion annually.

With their propensity to encourage war, cutting back on the number of overseas bases would likely reduce military costs, an enormous $1.25 trillion annual military bill.

The amount the U.S. has spent on its post-9/11 wars could have funded healthcare to adults, plus two years of Head Start for every one of the 13 million children living in poverty in the United States, as well as public college scholarships for 28 million students, two decades of healthcare for 1 million veterans, and 10 years of salaries for 4 million people working in clean energy jobs.

Did you know that bin Laden wrote “Letter to America” in response to his September 11, 2001, action of flying planes into the Pentagon — a military base — and the World Trade Center? “Your forces occupy our countries, you spread your military bases throughout them; you corrupt our lands, and you besiege our sanctuaries,” he wrote. Thank you to Donald Vine, “The United States of War,” University of California Press.

Nancy A.G., Frankfort Correction In the April 12 issue’s “Salvage Stars” article, we mistakenly referred to the Traverse Citybased Antiquities Warehouse as Antiquities Market. We apologize for any confusion this might have caused.

CONTENTS features Eat, Drink, Rub..............................................10

Chris Bohjalian..........................................12 TC Marijuana Permits...................................14 Buzzkill..........................................................15 Benedict........................................................16

columns & stuff Top Ten........................................................5

Spectator/Stephen Tuttle...............................6 High Notes (sponsored content)......................7 Opinion..........................................................8 Weird............................................................9 Dates........................................................18 Advice.....................................................21 Crossword..................................................21 Astrology.....................................................22 Classifieds...............................................22

Northern Express Weekly is published by Eyes Only Media, LLC. Publisher: Luke Haase PO Box 4020 Traverse City, Michigan 49685 Phone: (231) 947-8787 Fax: 947-2425 email: info@northernexpress.com www.northernexpress.com Executive Editor: Lynda Twardowski Wheatley Finance & Distribution Manager: Brian Crouch Sales: Kathleen Johnson, Lisa Gillespie, Kaitlyn Nance, Michele Young, Randy Sills, Todd Norris, Jill Hayes For ad sales in Petoskey, Harbor Springs, Boyne & Charlevoix, call (231) 838-6948 Creative Director: Kyra Poehlman Distribution: Dave Anderson, Linda Szarkowski, Sarah Rodery, Randy Sills, Roger Racine Matt Ritter, Gary Twardowski Listings Editor: Jamie Kauffold Reporter: Patrick Sullivan Contributors: Amy Alkon, Rob Brezsny Ross Boissoneau, Eric Cox, Jennifer Hodges, Michael Phillips, Steve Tuttle, Anna Faller, Craig Manning, Janice Binkert Copyright 2020, all rights reserved. Distribution: 36,000 copies at 600+ locations weekly. Northern Express Weekly is free of charge, but no person may take more than one copy of each weekly issue without written permission of Northern Express Weekly. Reproduction of all content without permission of the publisher is prohibited.

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Northern Express Weekly • april 19, 2021 • 3

this week’s

top ten NCMC Names New Dean of Nursing North Central Michigan College’s much lauded — and in-demand — nursing program announced last week that it has a new leader. Brent LaFaive has been named as dean of Nursing and Allied Health. LaFaive, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and two master’s degrees, in nursing and health administration, has taught for North Central as an adjunct nursing instructor since 2015.

The new role doesn’t come without significant pressure to continue growing the program’s size and reputation; in January 2021, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing named North Central’s two-year nursing program No. 1 in the state, a ranking based on the percentage of May 2020 nursing graduates who passed the NCLEXRN® examination in Michigan, including those from four-year universities. North Central Michigan College offers 11 allied health programs, including EMS/paramedic, surgical technology, medical billing and coding, and certified nurse aide.

2 bottoms up

Dr. J. Terps’ Cannabis-Infused Tropicana Cookies

While we normally don’t profile a beverage you can’t yet get your hands on, it is our cannabis issue, so we feel obligated to showcase a few on the horizon. First, some context: On Jan. 4, Michigan’s Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA) formally issued its long-awaited “Process to Obtain Agency Approval for Production of MarijuanaInfused Beverages,” which set the rules for new submission guidelines, product testing, and other requirements companies would have to meet in order to produce THCinfused beverages. So far, the state hasn’t approved one, but several are in the works.

Northern Express reported in Oct. 2019 that Short’s Brewing had partnered with Green Peak Innovations to not only create Soft Parade-flavored gummies but also begin experimenting with the development of Short’s-style lemonade and teas enhanced with THC. (Michigan law prohibits the infusion of THC into beer, wine, and liquor products.)

Another one to watch for? Dr. J. Terps’ cannabis-infused Tropicana Cookies Orange Soda. Obviously, we haven’t yet been able to sample this THC-infused treat, but if Dr. J. Terps’ first-place win for its CBD-infused Orange Soda at the 2020 Michigan Harvest Cup is any indication, we suspect it’ll be one worth trying when state-approved THC bevs are expected to be ready for sale, in licensed marijuana shops only, early this summer.

4 • april 19, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly

Honk if You Jeep the Mac As of press time, the deep treads of the Jeep the Mac event are digging in and sticking to plans to party Up North April 23–25. These plans entail what looks to be more than 100 Jeeps crossing the Mackinac Bridge together, ferrying over to Drummond Island for a poker run, taking part in a Midnight Moose Run, joining a Rock Garden Challenge, and doing some trail-riding, meet and greets, and many other events Jeep enthusiasts love. Barring any sudden changes pandemic-related in restrictions, registered Jeeps will begin staging at Little Bear Arena in St. Ignace between 10am and 2pm, then leave for the bridge crossing at 3pm. Whether you want to jump in your jeep to join the party (pre-register at stignace.com) or simply want to head north to gape at the most models of parading jeeps that you’ve ever seen, it’s a heck of a way to jumpstart spring.

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Hey, watch it!

Surviving the White Gaze

Rebecca Carroll, who is of mixed race, had a pictureperfect childhood. At least, it appeared that way. Adopted in infancy by progressive white parents, Rebecca, whose birth father was Black, was raised in rural New Hampshire. Her community, however, was mostly white. This bereavement of Rebecca’s own “Blackness,” combined with years of quiet racism, climaxes in the form of her identity crisis, which her birth mother, a narcissist, only inflames. As her world slowly expands to include Black culture, Rebecca must reevaluate everything she thought she knew, both about the world and her place within it. From acclaimed writer and cultural critic Rebecca Carroll comes “Surviving the White Gaze.” A searing exploration of racial identity in modern America, Carroll’s debut memoir is as tense as it is timely.

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Voice Your Opinion on Michigan’s Climate Solutions This Earth Day

With all the hubbub about 4/20 (aka 420, aka April 4), the annual celebration of cannabis consumption and culture, it’s easy to forget good ol’ 4/22, the annual celebration of a far less counterculture universe, Earth. Thankfully, the state’s Office of Climate and Energy is here to remind us with a unique opportunity to celebrate.

You can share your insights about how Michigan might move toward carbon neutrality by 2050. The office has scheduled two online listening sessions, one at 10:30am on Earth Day, April 22; the second at 6pm May 5. Find links to join either session at the Michigan.gov/Climate web page.

Although all members of the public may make a comment at the session, those who wish to speak up first should send an email to EGLE-ClimateSolutions@Michigan.gov, listing in the subject line “Public Comment Request,” the session date you prefer, and your name. All speakers will be given three minutes.

Stuff we love

The Indomitable Debi Bair

Plans for the first-ever Copemish 420 Cup, a two-day medical marijuana event scheduled to kick off April 17, went up in smoke due to permitting issues just weeks before lighting up Cleon Township.

But determined organizer Debi Bair — the woman behind Camp Happy Trees, a cannabis-friendly campground she’d hoped but was ultimately unable to open last summer, again due to permitting issues — has persevered. As we went to press Friday, April 16, she was fully permitted and ready to host the first-ever Caregiver Connection Cup on Saturday, April 17 and Sunday, April 18, in Interlochen, with many of the same features she had intended for the Copemish iteration: a medical tent, live bands, industry leaders and patients speaking about the benefits of Cannabis, and opportunity for medical marijuana patients and caregivers to come together. Missed it? Wait a while. Bair told Northern Express that more is in store for next year.

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Join — or Host! — a Tree Planting Party ReLeaf Michigan, a statewide non-profit tree organization, is teaming up with several local groups to host two local tree-planting parties to honor this year’s Arbor Day. It’s putting out the call for volunteers to help plant 15 new trees at Northwestern Michigan College, in Traverse City on the big day itself, Friday, April 30, or to help plant 20 in Northport’s Haserot Park on Saturday, May 1. (Both events run from 8:45am to noon.) Interested volunteers are asked to sign up, as a family or a COVID-safe team of 3 or 4 people, at www.releafmichigan. org/RSVP. Can’t make those events? You can find others — or even request a planting in your community — at www.releafmichigan.org/events.html.

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Despite what the few flurries last week might suggest, baseball season is here. Who cares that Comerica Park is only letting 8,000 or so fans inside the stadium for games? Twenty percent capacity is better than none, and in these wild (Mid)West days of Michigan’s resurging pandemic, we’ll root for any effort to keep people safe while allowing a taste of good oldGreyscale: fashioned normalcy (even if our state is batting well below .200 on preventing spread.)

K 100% / K 75% Underdogs or not, we felt like big winners during a recent dash into Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shop when we caught sight of something that made the return of baseball season even sweeter: Big League Chew.

Forgive us if we missed the memo, but we had assumed these tobacco-styled pouches of shredded bubble gum we loved as kids had left the field when the real tobacco industry took a big hit in the Master Settlement Agreement of the ’90s. In fact, this “chew” has only gotten better. We splurged on a packet of Wild Pitch Watermelon.

The gum was just as stringy as we remember but in its modern melon form, so much sweeter.

It hit our aged and now-arrogant tastebuds with a shock of pure sugar, wholly adulterated with corn syrup, aspartame, fake colorants, and a couple of chemical additives we still can’t pronounce. In an ever-spinning world that seems primed to pitch right off its axis for the last year, we can’t help but feel reassured that even in this season of change, some things — for better or worse — remain the same. Find your comforting classic candy at Rocket Fizz Soda Pop & Candy Shop at 111 E. Front St., Traverse City. (231) 421-1033

Northern Express Weekly • april 19, 2021 • 5

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by Stephen Tuttle Tucked away in the southeast corner of Cuba is a natural harbor wedged between hilly terrain. Called Guantanamo Bay — guantanamo means “land between two rivers” in Taino, the language of indigenous Taino people — we leased it from the Cubans in 1900, and the arrangement was codified in a 1903 treaty.

They made it illegal to house any GTMO detainee in an any U.S. prison, pretty much negating any trial on U.S. soil. Not content with that silliness, they also made it next to impossible to transfer detainees anywhere by stripping away all funding for such transfers, even for those who haven’t been accused of or charged with any wrongdoing.

It is home to our Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, the oldest such “overseas” base in our inventory. It’s about 45 square miles and tucked beneath mountains, an enclave separated geologically from most of the rest of the island. The more than century-old treaty is still valid, and we pay Cuba just more than $4,000 annually, a paltry sum for truly prime property. It should be noted the Cuban government has been trying to remove us from their island ever since their revolution of 1959, to no avail thus far.

In addition to the stains on our morality and erasure of much of our Constitution, this dentention center comes at a price.

By the time all the costs associated with running the GTMO detention camp are tallied, we’re spending somewhere north of $500 million annually. That’s about $13 million per prisoner, which makes it the most expensive prison on the planet and perhaps in history.

To be sure, none of those tried in the U.S.have been masterminds of much of anything. But we could have at least given a real hearing, in the U.S. and under our laws, to those GTMO detainees we’ve accused of nothing.

Guantanamo Bay is also the site of our infamous detention camp, a military prison for “enemy combatants” and other terrorism suspects since 2002. It’s where we’ve sent what we considered the worst of our captured enemies away from the prying eyes of the American media and all their questions and Freedom of Information requests, away from our rule of law, away from the rights of the accused, away even from the basic rights accorded prisoners of war by the Geneva Convention.

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6 • april 19, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly

We could have simply charged and tried them here in the U.S., where we’ve had no

It’s where, by our own admission, we regularly tortured prisoners. It’s where we held military tribunals in which the defendants were not allowed counsel and, in some cases, weren’t even allowed to see or hear the evidence against them.

We claimed that trying some prisoners, like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, in U.S. courtrooms could lead to more acts of terrorism. So we cleverly claimed Mohammed and other captives were enemy combatants entitled to no rights at all.

According to the Department of Defense, about 780 prisoners have processed through GTMO. Some 731 have been released and returned to their countries of origin, or to some country that would accept them; nine prisoners have died in custody.

Of the 40 still there, 11 have been charged with war crimes, and three have been cleared for release but remain in custody.

The other 26? They have been charged with no crime, have had no hearings, will not be prosecuted, but, for reasons not revealed, have not been cleared for release.

President Obama tried to close the GTMO prison, but the hawks of both parties in Congress quickly made that impossible.

problem conducting plenty of terrorism trials without any hint of retaliation. All of it a lot cheaper, too; the cost of housing a typical federal prisoner is about $35,000 annually as opposed to GTMO’s $13 million.

In fact, we’ve tried 969 terrorism defendants here since 9/11, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). We have about a 99 percent conviction rate, mostly for “material support” of terrorism, and mostly — about 36 percent — fools caught in FBI stings.

More than 500 of those convicted have already been released from custody, most with no follow-up supervision or surveillance. It would suggest we didn’t find them to be much of a threat. About 360 charged with terrorist activities are still in custody, including 69 awaiting trial.

To be sure, none of those tried in the U.S. have been masterminds of much of anything. But we could have at least given a real hearing, in the U.S. and under our laws, to those GTMO detainees we’ve accused of nothing. You’d think they’d at least deserve to know why they’re still being held.

An extralegal prison that included torture and the complete deprivation of what we’d consider basic rights was all the rage in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. But it was wrong then, has been wrong for the last 19 years, and continues to be both wrong and ludicrously expensive.

It’s past time we shuttered the prison at GTMO, distributed those convicted of actual crimes to federal prisons, released or gave hearings to those accused of nothing, and pledged to avoid falling into this darkness again.

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42 420: a pseudo-national holiday for marijuana enthusiasts, the cannabis industry’s own Super Bowl, and probably the world’s worstkept secret code for getting high. So where did it come from? What does it mean? How did it start? Leave it to your friends at Dunegrass to shed some light on every cannabis user’s favorite day of the year.

The origins of 420 are as disputed as the best growing techniques.

Like stories around the bonfire, tales of 420’s provenance have been pontificated upon around smoking circles for years. What most agree upon is that a group of high school students in California used to meet up to burn down after each school day. The designated meet-up time those Cali kids made famous: 4:20 pm.

Whoever those unnamed students were and whatever year it happened remains in dispute, but the legend of their afternoon ritual caught fire, so to speak, making its way across the mountains, mesas, and plains of America to Michigan, where it’s still embraced and honored by smokers statewide. Here in 2021, we’re lucky enough to have recreational cannabis safely legalized for use by ofage marijuana enthusiasts — and out of reach for the still-developing brains of the underaged, for whom a few campus tokes might also risk a police record.

In northern Michigan, you might say we’re luckiest of all. Our version of 420 can find us happily lighting up on the shore of a Great Lake, deep in a forest, on the edge of a dune, or kicked back on the bank of a local river. The culmination of this daily opportunity to slow down and burn down is its upcoming annual pinnacle: 4:20pm April 20.

This spring, it seems all of us — cannabis enthusiasts and nonenthusiasts alike — have more than usual to hope for and celebrate.

So wherever you find yourself in northern Michigan at 4:20 4/20, we welcome you to raise a joint — or whatever your preference — to inhale, exhale, and savor the moment with all of us, whatever that moment means to you.

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Northern Express Weekly • april 19, 2021 • 7

THE DIY LABOTOMY

opinion

by Isiah Smith Jr. “Did you read the review in The New Yorker of the new Philip Roth biography?” I asked my well-read conservative cousin. (Yes, Black conservatives do exist!)

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“No,” he responded. “I don’t read The New Yorker; too liberal.”

“But Roth is the world’s greatest writer to never have won the Nobel Prize for literature,” I responded. “The New Yorker, first published in 1925, publishes rigorously fact-checked articles. It also sets the highest intellectual literacy standards.”

“Sure. For liberal Democrats.”

A revelatory moment, this. With echoes of the illuminating words of Alan Lightman, MIT physicist: “In a lifetime, most people travel no farther than 500 from home.”

Lightman’s reference to geographical distance, I believe, applies equally to the geography of the mind. A brain constrained by repetitive notions, repetitive activities, and limited social contacts is a brain that never leaves home.

These limitations have serious consequences for optimum brain functioning. Such limited contacts and associations mean never traveling very far mentally from one’s origins.

Vast territories of cognitive territory remain unexplored, and callow fetish for the comfort of the familiar sets in.

This is spiritual lobotomy: the blanket refusal to embrace the limitless possibilities of human richness. It occurs when we allow others to think for us, decide whom we associate with, what we believe.

Bulgarian-born American writer Maria Popova suggests, “Who we are and who we become is in large part the combinatorial product of the people and ideas we surround ourselves with — what William Gibson so memorably termed our personal micro-culture. The more different those people are from us, the more they expand the echo chamber of our own mind, the more layered and beautiful the symphony of the spirit becomes.”

A mind limited to only familiar things negatively impacts the frontal lobes! Mental activity circumscribed by a “tribe’s” way of thinking, destroys independent thought and critical thinking. Radicalism becomes the new righteousness.

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Asking “What would my tribe (or political party, religion, philosophy, family of origin, culture, etc.) say, think, or do,” impairs the part of one’s brain that’s responsible for reasoning, critical thinking, and decisionmaking is compromised. Beyond the old bromide “use it or lose it,” there’s scientific support for this argument.

According to cognitive psychologists, the frontal lobe, which is located behind the forehead, is responsible for planning, organization, logical thinking, reasoning, and managing emotions — collectively

referred to as “executive functions.” The Barclay Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale is a psychometric scale that screens for problems in this area. It focuses primarily on gross disorders that affect an individual’s ability to get things done, such as work, study, and getting along with others. If not maintained, executive functioning erodes and becomes weak and unreliable.

A recent study published in the medical journal Pain discusses “neglect-like symptoms” that occur following a stroke.

The patient loses the ability to move a part of the body because of damage to a region of the brain that controls that body part. This weakness cannot be explained by muscular deficits. Rather, the deficit occurs because a specific region in the brain has been damaged. The patient has to relearn the ability to move, walk or, sometimes even, talk. If the deficits set is left untreated, it becomes permanent.

The part of the brain that governs those physical activities atrophies.

If we blindly follow our tribe and embrace the idea that the tribe’s leaders and members are infallible, our frontal lobes malfunction and our executive functioning gets weaker.

The Jan. 6 insurrection was probably the direct consequence of its participants’ malfunctioning frontal lobes.

This spiritual lobotomy is different from a medical lobotomy, a form of psychosurgery.

That procedure used an icepick to sever connections in the brain’s prefrontal cortex as a way of treating presumed mental disorders. This procedure was done at the expense of a person’s personality and intellect and often reduced the complexity of psychic life. The patient typically lost spontaneity, responsiveness, self-awareness, and self-control, becoming emotionally blunted and intellectually restricted.

Something similar happens when one comes under the sway of a radical group philosophy that teaches that everyone outside the tribe is an enemy — or worse — evil and a traitor.

That’s because the human brain is wired to conform and eschews conflict and debate. Our brain would rather wrap itself in the comfort of like-mindedness. That’s not a bad thing if you surround yourself with open-minded people — people who believe in equality, fair play, and respect for the humanity of others.

This desire for agreement and consensus makes it difficult to reject clearly irrational actions and ideas. Thus, if the tribe becomes agitated, angry, and violent, we join happily in the fray.

Unlike physical lobotomies, spiritual lobotomies are reversible. How? An old joke asks, “How many psychologists does it take to change a lightbulb?” Answer: “Only one — but it takes a long time, and the bulb has to want to change.”

Isiah Smith, Jr. is a retired government attorney.

Government in Action Most citizens of Brussels, Belgium, have never seen the Palace of Justice, the largest courthouse in the world, without construction scaffolding surrounding it, as renovations on the facade of the iconic building have been mired in red tape and bureaucratic incompetence for most of 40 years, according to The Bulletin.

In mid-March, construction crews finally started work, but not on the building; they arrived to shore up the scaffolding, which has grown outdated and dangerous over so much time. Officials assert this will allow outside renovations to finally commence and predict the scaffolding will come down by 2030.

Belgians, however, are skeptical.

The Passing Parade Authorities in Sri Lanka arrested Caroline Jurie, the reigning Mrs. World, after she snatched the crown from the head of Pushpika De Silva as she was crowned Mrs. Sri Lanka on national television on April 4, allegedly injuring her. Jurie, the 2019 Mrs. Sri Lanka, claimed De Silva was a divorced woman, which made her ineligible to win the pageant, but organizers confirmed De Silva is only separated, and she has been re-crowned. The new queen reported on Facebook that she went to the hospital to be treated for head injuries after the incident, and police spokesman Ajith Rohana told the BBC Jurie was charged with “simple hurt and criminal cause.” Pageant director Chandimal Jayasinghe said, “It was a disgrace how Caroline Jurie behaved on the stage.”

All in the Family At a wedding in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province in China on March 31, the groom’s mother noticed a birthmark on the bride’s hand that was similar to one belonging to her long-lost daughter. When asked, the bride’s parents admitted they had found her as a baby by the side of the road and taken her to live with them as their own -- a secret they had never told. The Daily Star reported that upon hearing of the connection, the bride burst into tears, saying the moment was “happier than the wedding day itself.” Bonus: The groom was also adopted, so their marriage could proceed as planned.

Job of a Researcher Scientists studying ticks at A.T. Still University in Kirksville, Missouri, have enlisted the help of the Missouri Department of Conservation in asking the public to refrain from killing any ticks they pick off themselves and mail them to the university instead.

Conservation department spokesman Francis Skalicky told KY3-TV that, while 14 species of ticks live in Missouri, “we’re trying to find out ... the prevalence of species and more information on the diseases they are carrying.” He asks people to put ticks in a zip-close bag with a damp paper towel before sending them in for study.

Causing a Stink Police in Phoenix are searching for whoever dumped hundreds of carp and gizzard shad along a road on the north side of the city on April 4, KPHO-TV reported.

Arizona Game and Fish said the estimated 1,000 pounds of fish were dumped along with trash left over from a spearfishing tournament at nearby Lake Pleasant. “It’s pretty gross,” said motorist Karen Rowe. “I mean fish in the middle of the desert, so it’s quite shocking.”

Authorities said those responsible could be charged with criminal littering.

Sweet Revenge Concord, North Carolina, police say they have not determined a motive for an April 2 incident in which Lacy Cordell Gentry, 32, allegedly drove his car through the front doors of the Walmart he had recently been fired from, destroying displays but avoiding injuring any shoppers. “If you take a car through a Walmart, there’s going to be a lot of damage,” one officer told local media. The New York Daily News reported that Gentry was taken into custody and faces multiple charges.

Lost and Found Cybill Moore of Weatherford, Texas, was puzzled by the large basket of men’s dirty laundry left on her front porch, along with a bag of laundry soap and dryer sheets, on March 26. Assuming there’d been a mix-up, she left it on the porch for a day and posted on social media sites to find the owner, with no luck, she told the Weatherford Democrat, so she finally just washed, dried and folded the clothes. That’s when a strange man showed up at the door saying he meant to drop the laundry four houses down, where he pays a woman to clean his clothes. Moore said he was shocked that she had laundered the items for him, and now, “A lot of people have joked about dropping off their clothes for me, since I’m doing ‘community laundry,’” Disturbing the Peace Neighbors around a new luxury condo tower in Brooklyn, New York, are up in arms, and up at night, because of the persistent, shrill whistle they say is coming from the building, reported NBC New York. The city has been inundated with complaints. “It almost sounds like the subway screeching, but it’s constant, and it usually happens late at night,” Chris Valentini said of the noise. A representative of the developer told neighbors the sound originates from wind whipping around the new metal balconies. “This is not uncommon in new buildings,” he said, “and we will resolve it.”

Noted Ayanna Williams of Houston achieved a Guinness World Record for the longest fingernails grown by a woman in 2017, when her nails measured 19 feet. In early April, Williams visited a dermatology clinic in Fort Worth to have the nails cut off -- her first trim since the 1990s -- but not before measuring them again: 24 feet, a length that required a manicure lasting several days, using three to four bottles of nail polish, CNN reported.

“With or without my nails, I will still be the queen,” Williams said. The nails were preserved and will be on display at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum in Orlando, Florida.

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On April 5, Don Muchow, 59, of Plano, Texas, completed the 2,761-mile journey he began on Feb. 1, 2020, running from Disneyland in California to Walt Disney World in Florida, to raise awareness of Type 1 diabetes, which he has. He originally planned to complete his Mouse-to-Mouse run in a little over three months, The Orange County Register reported, but COVID-19 changed that, and while Muchow still completed the run in about 90 days, those days were spread out over 14 months as he adjusted for the pandemic. “I never considered quitting even once,” Muchow said. “I want every single person with Type 1 diabetes to see that we can still dream big.”

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Northern Express Weekly • april 19, 2021 • 9

Eat, Drink, Rub 5 cannabis-infused products we tried and loved By and as told to Lynda Wheatley Progress, thy name is marijuana.

Despite what for any other industry would be serious stumbling blocks — major disruptions in global supply chain management due to the pandemic and, uh, the not-soconvenient refusal of some governments to legalize sale of cannabis — has hardly registered as a hiccup for the world’s legal marijuana market.

According to a market analysis report released last month by Grandview Research, a U.S.- and India-based market research firm that serves Fortune 500 companies and academic institutions around the globe, legal marijuana is one of the fastest-growing markets in the world: In 2020, it was valued at $24.6 billion — and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 14.3 percent between 2021 and 2028.

Although progressive policies and indigenous-cultivation startups in places like Australia, the U.K., Germany, Israel, Croatia, Poland, Columbia, and the Netherlands are contributing to the global growth, the region driving it hardest and fastest is North America, with a 2020 revenue share of 91.1 percent.

With so much money and potential in this here continent’s hills, cannabis-related startups, research and development, and manufacturing sectors are flourishing — and users are reaping the benefits.

Long gone are the days of needle-sized joints of shake, or funky-tasting brownies containing indeterminate loads of THC (or other mystery substances). Tech, government, and assorted weed-business visionaries have come together at this moment in history to deliver a breadth of reliably measured and seriously tasty (and even some tasteless) cannabis products, crafted to deliver specific kinds of highs.

Equally reliably, Northern Express is sharing picks for five locally sold recreational products some of our staff and associates have tried and favored enough to buy again. In no particular order:

Lume Cannabis Co. Move Gummies

“As a 40-something mom of two energetic kids under age six, with a demanding professional job, I tend to avoid indica strains, which are more for relaxation and better sleep.

I don’t really have a problem slowing down; I do have a problem finding enough energy to rev up to clean my house, work in the yard, play with my kids, prep meals for the week, etc. I’ve bought these Move [sativa strain] gummies several times, in several flavors, and I have loved them all.

They lift my mood and feel motivating — like everything is more fun (even the Groundhog Day repetition of “Mom, watch me! Mom, watch this! Mom, now look!”).

Exercise and, specifically, yoga feel extra good. I’m more patient and engaged with my kids but not spacey or slow like you get after a couple glasses of wine, and not agitated or jittery like I get with too much coffee.

One drawback: These are said to give you focus, but I don’t find that so. When I take one, I do feel like the hamster wheel in my brain slows down, and I’m able to be much more present and enjoying the moment I’m in, but the idea-germination and mojo to move and play tends to dominate, so I can’t imagine sitting down to write an article or study, for instance. But again, that could be just me. Last thing: All flavors I’ve tried taste exceptionally good — not “weedy” at all — so even though they come in a childproof tin, I keep them in a locked box in my closet. I believe if a kid got a hold of these gummies, they would eat more than one.”

A single tin of 20 gummies containing 5mg THC each, $22. Purchased at Lume in Honor. www.lume.com.

10 • april 19, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly

KIVA Confections Terra Peppermint Pattie Bites Detroit Fudge Company Barracuda Bar “I like to think of myself as a bit of ganga guru, and in the edibles department, I’d pretty much recommend anything made by Kiva. If I had to pick one, I’d probably go with their Peppermint Pattie Bites. They’re only one gram of sugar each, but the [milk] chocolate is actually really good, and the peppermint doesn’t taste fake. They also have no aftertaste, which I think is usually a big ask for any chocolate-cannabis edibles, and not all manufacturers nail it.

Actually, another one that really does chocolate well is Detroit Fudge Company — their [Dark Chocolate] Barracuda Bar [made with 65 percent high-quality Belgian chocolate] is insanely rich and smooth and something I would eat even if it didn’t have THC in it. I’m going to pack a bar to make grown-up S’mores on a backpacking trip some friends and I are planning this summer.

What I love most about the Peppermint Bites, though, is the chill vibe they give me.

They’re actually my Sunday morning ritual. Just one gives a good body and brain buzz but in a really mellow way. They’re perfect for relaxing with some music, a cup of tea or coffee, and thinking about the week ahead without getting me anxious about all I have to get done at work. The best part is that there’s no afternoon hangover, so I sleep great and am clear and ready to roll Monday morning. I recommend them over a Bloody Mary any day.”

Terra Peppermint Pattie bites, $20 per tin of 20 5mg pieces, purchased at Dunegrass, Manistee. dunegrass.co. Detroit Fudge Company Dark Chocolate Barracuda Bar, currently on sale for $15.90, for a single hybrid-strain bar of 20 5mg pieces, available at Riverside Provisioning, Grayling or Kalkaska. www.rsmeds.com

Fluresh

Michigan Organic Rub

Organic Lemon “I’m an old retired guy who likes to work in the yard and sometimes I overdo it. I have bad knees, a bad hip, sciatica — even my elbows hurt. I’ve been smoking [marijuana] since the ’60s, but I quit smoking cigarettes almost 20 years ago. After some heart trouble a few years ago, I was honest with my nurse about still smoking marijuana, and she recommended I quit smoking it or at least try edibles instead. I ended up going with this cream [MI Organic Rub]. It smells a hell of a lot better than the drugstore stuff I was using, and it isn’t greasy. I take a little ibuprofen, spread a little cream on where I’m hurting at the end of my day, and it really helps with the aches and pains, especially on my knees and hip. To be honest, this is the only cannabis cream I’ve tried, but I like it so much that I’ve stuck with it.”

Michigan Organic Rub (shown here in Lemon scent; several other scents available) is an all-organic cannabis-infused balm that contains 300mg THC and 300mg CBD. $55. Purchased at Pincanna in Kalkaska. Pincanna.com

Chill Out Fast-Acting Drink Enhancer “I prefer edibles because I don’t smoke, and I like knowing exactly how much THC from which strain I’m getting, where it’s sourced, etc.

I think legalization has been amazing for people who like or need to make informed choices about what’s going in their bodies. What I don’t like about edibles is that they can take up to an hour or so to kick in. When I’m stressed or aggravated after a 10-hour day on the phone and in meetings, I don’t want to wait another hour after I get home to relax. It sounds high maintenance, but seriously, that’s exactly why happy hour exists for drinkers, right?

My favorite is this Fluresh Chill Out droplet stuff I found in Benzonia. I put half a teaspoon in my favorite after-work “cocktail” — usually a flavored soda water “spiked” with a splash of juice — and I swear that within 15 minutes, literally just a few sips, I feel calmer and relaxed, like I literally unplugged myself from the day.

I’m a runner with a lot of weird food allergies and very diet conscious. I love that I don’t have to eat sugary, high-calorie candy or cocktails to get that feeling. This is low-calorie, vegan, and has no gluten or dairy, which I can’t have. It tastes like nothing in my drink.

I haven’t tried the Good Vibes version, but I plan to because I have social anxiety, and I’m hoping that might help when I socialize. For now, Chill Out is my go-to for when I just want to be home, quiet, and totally Zen before bed.

Highly recomended.”

Fluresh Drink Enhancers, $20 each, contain about 20 half-teaspoon squeezes (about 5mg THC each) per bottle. Purchased at Lake & Leaf Cannabis Co. in Benzonia. lakeandleafcannabis.com

Northern Express Weekly • april 19, 2021 • 11

SNEAK PEEK: Chris Bohjalian to Talk with Locals Before Next Novel Drops Free Writers Series event with bestselling author April 29

By Anna Faller Award-winning author Chris Bohjalian is one of those people who was born to write.

A schoolroom hobby-turned-carefullyhoned craft, Bohjalian credits his earliest compositions for his attraction to the darker side of life would come to define his future stories.

“They were about things like disembodied hands emerging from wishing wells and sibling rivalry on the school safety patrol,” says Bohjalian. “One ends, “The dripping stopped and the vultures had their meal.”

Safe to say his plots and characters have gained complexity — but his love for exploring the shadows hasn’t. “Even at nine, dread was what propelled my work, it seems,” he says.

A whopping 22 books and two plays later, Bohjalian has yet to meet an idea he couldn’t turn into a book. And he hopes he never does. Now a veteran novelist of nearly three decades, it’s his bent for authenticity that sets Bohjalian apart.

“So much of what we do as writers is pretty basic: cause and effect,” he says.

“If this happens to a character, what will he or she do? It has to make sense.” Of course, authenticity also means sometimes bending the rules; but bad decisions often make for good writing. “Can you imagine a world in which characters only made good decisions in novels?” says Bohjalian.

“There would be no “Anna Karenina” or “The Secret History.”

There also would be no “Hour of the Witch.” Set in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1662, Bohjalian’s latest novel marks his fourth foray into historical fiction. But, as with much of his previous work, the actual story came second to its characters. “I don’t really choose a topic because it’s in the zeitgeist,” says Bohjalian. “I choose a topic because the premise appeals to me.”

Still, he maintains that his craft relies

on character. “I view my books as far more character-driven than plot-driven,” Bohjalian says. “Even those novels that some people call thrillers are pretty slow burns.”

As for his signature, unforeseeable endings, Bohjalian is often just as surprised as his readers. “I have no idea where my books are going,” he says. “I begin with a vague premise and run with it. Now that premise has a character.”

In this case, that character is Mary Deerfield. A 24-year-old transplant to the puritanical New World, Mary has spent the last five years chained to the bars of an unhappy marriage. Her husband Thomas, a local milling magnate, is as influential as he is aggressive — and Mary is his favorite subject.

From there, says Bohjalian, “The premise was pretty simple: strong, young woman has had enough in 1662 Boston — and, because it is 1662 Boston, all hell breaks loose when she tries to break free from her abusive husband.” (And by hell breaking loose, he means burning women alive as retribution for the crime of witchcraft.)

So, what sparked this pursuit of patriarchal hypocrisy? For one, the notion wasn’t really new — at least, not for Bohjalian. In fact, he was actively seeking a similar story when he happened upon that of Nanny Naylor. “I came across a reference in the records of Boston’s Court of Assistants,” he says. “In 1672, [she] successfully sued her husband for divorce on the grounds of cruelty. And I was off and running.”

Add to Naylor’s personal tale, the years of misconception surrounding witchcraft’s wicked history, and Bohjalian was ready to set the record straight. “When we think of New England’s history of hanging people for witchcraft,” says Bohjalian, “we beeline straight to Salem in 1692. But, the first real witch hunt was Hartford in 1662 — 30 years before Salem.”

Of course, a time period set so far in

12 • april 19, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly

the past isn’t without a few obvious snags.

Unlike much of his other historical writing, interviews for the book were simply impossible. “Two of the previous three [historical novels] were set in the Second World War,” says Bohjalian, “and so I was able to interview people who were present in those moments.” But what he lacked in word-of-mouth, Bohjalian made up for with the written record.

“The Puritans were avid diarists,” he says.

“They were constantly analyzing their lives to try and assess whether they were saved or damned. So, there were plenty of [written] resources to help me transport my readers back to 1662 Boston.”

Despite its century-ago setting, “Hour of the Witch” is as timeless as it is timely. “Yes, [it’s] set in 1662,” says Bohjalian, “but I doubt my readers will miss the irony when one of the men on Boston’s Court of Assistants calls Mary Deerfield “a nasty woman.” Spoiler: We didn’t.

Political preoccupations aside, “Hour of the Witch” is a manifesto for the fiercest of femmes. Stuffed to the spine with compelling 21st-century topics — domestic abuse and divorce, for example — Bohjalian’s Boston naturally plays ball with contemporary feminism. “One of the things a lot of the women executed as witches had in common was that they were smart, opinionated, and seen as outsiders,” he says. “I want my readers to see the parallels between our world then and now.”

About the Event

Guest Host Christal Frost

Born and raised in northern Michigan, Christal Frost first emerged on the local radio scene in 2007. Now a veteran broadcast persona, Frost is co-presenter of Today’s Country Music WTCM’s “Mike and Christal in the Morning,” as well as host of NewsTalk 580 WTCM’s “The Christal Frost Show.”

Frost also hosts “The Foodie Scene,” an online program focusing on area eats, and travel program “Road Trippin.” In addition to her broadcast career, Frost is co-founder of the CherryT Ball Drop, as well as an active member of local community groups, including Parallel 45 Theatre and the Traverse Bay Children’s Advocacy Center.

New York Times bestselling author Chris Bohjalian will join the National Writers Series for a free, virtual event at 7pm Thursday, April 29, to discuss his newest novel, “The Hour of the Witch.” The book will be available on May 4 and is available for preorder at Horizon Books with a 20% NWS discount. Guest host for the event is northern Michigan native and local radio personality Christal Frost. Register for the event at nationalwritersseries.org.

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Northern Express Weekly • april 19,4/15/21 202111:38• AM 13

Traverse City Marijuana Permits A Legal Catch-22

By Craig Manning A “death sentence.” That’s what Traverse City’s medical marijuana establishments are calling the City of Traverse City’s stalled progress toward allowing the sale of recreational cannabis.

The businesses, which have largely banded together as the “Traverse City Cannabis Coalition,” recently launched a petition and a campaign under the hashtag of #LetUsSell. They claim that, without recreational licenses, their businesses “will likely start to fail by summer 2021.”

But litigation is slowing the process of bringing recreational weed to Traverse City, while some critics say the area’s medical establishments are just trying to circumvent a merit-based system the city put in place.

The Traverse City Cannabis Coalition includes 10 of the 12 medical marijuana establishments licensed to operate within the City of Traverse City. Their petition notes that they have collectively “invested $20 million into [their] businesses while hiring 120+ people for good-paying, in-demand jobs,” and claims that each store is turning away “50-100 customers looking for safe adult-use products” every day. The Coalition also says Traverse City is leaving substantial tax revenue on the table — over $330,000 already — by not being up and running with adult-use retail.

Last August, city commissioners approved a set of rules to allow the licensure of recreational dispensaries.

Those rules, initially intended to take effect August 27, would have allowed up to four recreational dispensaries within city limits.

Permits were set to be distributed through a 79-point merit-based system, with factors such as business experience, land use, and infrastructure taken to account. The scoring rubric would award extra points for businesses already operating as licensed medical marijuana dispensaries locally but would not guarantee any of those businesses a license.

The system also opened the door for businesses without existing medical marijuana presence in Traverse City to

apply for and potentially win one of the recreational permits.

The Traverse City Cannabis Coalition suggests that the city’s rules constitute an “illegal approach” under Michigan law, noting that “TC is the only place in Michigan that won’t let its existing medical cannabis retailers also sell recreational products.” It’s true that other communities have set such a precedent, but state courts have yet to clarify whether Michigan law requires that existing medical dispensaries be grandfathered in as licensed recreational sellers.

The debate could be headed for a courtroom. The city is in litigation with multiple businesses over its handling of medical and recreational marijuana licensing so far, including a trio of entities — House of Dank, Skymint, and PUFF Cannabis Company — that operate medical dispensaries in town. The plaintiffs are asking the city to expand its allotment for recreational permits and revamp its scoring rubric for awarding those permits, among other demands. In the meantime, City Clerk Benjamin Marentette says the city is barred by court injunction from granting any recreational permits (Marentette declined to comment further).

One business waiting in the wings to compete for a recreational permit is Fresh Coast LLC. Founded by Traverse City resident Nick Piedmonte, Fresh Coast has opened dispensaries in Manistee and Big Rapids under the brand name “Dunegrass,” with a third to open in Cadillac this month.

Fresh Coast initially sought a license to operate a medical dispensary in Traverse City but was not among the 13 businesses picked via the city’s lottery selection process in 2019. Now the company is closely following the rollout of Traverse City’s recreational rules, in hopes of competing against the existing medical establishments to land one of the allotted permits.

Piedmonte sees the lawsuits against the city as an attempt by the medical dispensaries to gain an unfair competitive advantage.

“All I want is a chance to compete for an adult-use license in my hometown, on a

14 • april 19, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly

level playing field,” Piedmonte says. “If [the medical dispensaries] want to sell, settle the lawsuits and let the process move forward.

My sense is that some of the litigants are just very concerned that they can’t rack up enough points in the scoring system that Traverse City rolled out. And because of that, they’re going to throw something against the wall to see if they can tip over the apple cart.”

One of the core arguments of the litigation is that the city’s scoring rubric would actually give the unfair competitive advantage to businesses like Fresh Coast, which don’t already operate in Traverse City.

For instance, per the rubric, a business earns extra points for offering residential housing units on its upper floors. Most existing medical dispensaries in Traverse City do not have upper floors and can’t earn those points. New businesses aiming to enter the market could simply choose sites with full knowledge of the rubric — a privilege existing medical establishments didn’t have because they chose locations long before the rubric existed.

According to Mike Corcoran, Fresh Coast’s general counsel and a member of the cannabis section of the State Bar of Michigan, the city might be in trouble even if it does decide to grant recreational licenses to all 12 existing medical dispensaries — particularly if that decision comes at the exclusion of other outside players. Michigan’s medical marijuana law, he says, doesn’t allow for the distribution of recreational permits on a lottery system. Since the existing medical establishments in town were licensed by lottery drawing, Corcoran suggests the city could have a new legal liability on its hands if it didn’t open the process up to outside businesses and give them a fair shot at all recreational permits.

“I don’t know that there’s a lot of incentive for [Traverse City] to go back and try to redraft this ordinance again, because how are you going to please everyone?” Corcoran asks. “If you please [Traverse City’s existing medical dispensaries], you’re going to have companies like Fresh Coast, and they’re

Caption for all pics: Olswell, Lighthouse, Skymint, and Cloud Cannabis are four of the 12 dispensaries awarded licenses to sell medical, but not recreational, marijuana in Traverse City.

But after the city decided in summer 2020 that it would use a 79-point merit-based system to permit four establishments (and not necessarily four of the existing 12) to sell recreational marijuana, ten of the city’s operating medical dispensaries formed the Traverse City Cannabis Coalition. They believe the city’s newest set of rules is not only an “illegal approach” to Michigan’s marijuana laws but also inhibiting their ability to stay in business and leaving hundreds of thousands of tax dollars — which could otherwise stay in Traverse City — on the table as locals and tourists continue to go outside the city to purchase recreational marijuana products.

going to be upset because we should all have a level playing field in trying to get whatever number of permits the city is going to allow.”

For now, John McLeod, co-founder of Cloud Cannabis, says the city is leaving its 12 existing marijuana businesses in a perilous position. In addition to its store in Traverse City, Cloud operates two other dispensaries in Michigan — one in Muskegon, one in Ann Arbor, both licensed to sell recreational weed — and McLeod says both are thriving.

In Traverse City, without the ability to sell adult-use product, the situation is dramatically different.

“The majority of us are losing money every day we’re open,” McLeod says of Traverse City’s shops. “But we have to be open to keep our licensure, so we’re kind of in this Catch-22 situation.”

The problem, McLeod continues, is that the existence of recreational marijuana retail in Michigan is quickly rendering medical marijuana dispensaries obsolete. With adult-use available, fewer people are going through the process of getting their medical marijuana cards. Traverse City’s scoring rubric and four-license limit for recreational marijuana, McLeod concludes, would unfairly “choose winners” — either from or outside of the city’s existing cannabis retail scene — thus dooming any dispensaries unable to win a permit.

“It can’t work,” McLeod says of the medical-only marijuana business model.

“Ultimately, whenever the market matures in Michigan, however the chips lie, there will be no medicinal shops, period. They won’t exist.”

Buzzkill

Some not-so-euphoric stats on the state of the state since legalization In 2008, Michigan voters approved the use of medical cannabis by residents with certain health conditions. A decade later, we voted to approve its use by all adults, for any reason.

What happened between those two dates is the focus of a comprehensive 2020 report the University of Michigan Injury Prevention Center compiled from original research and official sources.

The report documents everything from who’s using cannabis in the state for medical and recreational purposes, to downstream effects, including motor vehicle crashes, emergency department visits, and criminal justice cases. It aims to provide a baseline for future studies on the impact of statelevel recreational cannabis legalization that occurred in late 2018, and to inform future policies and public health messaging. Some

key observations of the report: • One in nine Michiganders report using cannabis at least once in the last month, a percentage that increased 60% over a 14year period • About 3 percent of all state residents hold a medical cannabis card, nearly all of them for chronic pain • Medical cannabis led to net revenue for the state of $5 million to $7 million a year • One in 30 pregnant Michigan women reported using cannabis; the percentages were higher among those with the lowest incomes and education levels, potentially reflecting disparities • The percentage of fatal motor vehicle crashes in Michigan that involve cannabis is increasing, even as the total rate of fatal crashes decreases. Among drivers tested for cannabis after such crashes, the percent that

were positive more than tripled between 2004 and 2017, when 23.4% of tested drivers in fatal crashes had cannabis in their bloodstream at the time of the crash.

• 1.5% of Michiganders experience symptoms of cannabis use disorder • Emergency department visits and hospitalizations related to cannabis poisoning increased recently, with older teens and young adults accounting for a disproportionate share of cases • Cannabis-related misdemeanors and felonies accounted for nearly 4% of convictions in the state’s criminal justice system, about half of which occurred at the same time as other felony convictions To compile the report, a team headed

by Injury Prevention Center faculty Kipling Bohnert, Ph.D. and Erin Bonar, Ph.D., worked with two state agencies — the

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs — and the federal Michigan High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area coalition. The report was funded by the IPC’s core funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The researchers also note key areas where more data needs to be generated and shared, including broader biological testing for cannabis among drivers in motor vehicle crashes, additional study of vaping of substances derived from cannabis, workplace issues, societal costs, and access to cannabis use disorder treatment.

Interested in checking it out before deciding whether you want to partake, quit or cut back? Find the report at michmed.org/ cannabisreport and decide for yourself.

Courtesy of University of Michigan

Northern Express Weekly • april 19, 2021 • 15

BENEDICT

Breakfast worth rising — and shining — for in Traverse City

By Janice Binkert No matter the weather, Traverse City’s newest breakfast and lunch restaurant, Benedict, radiates a welcome as warm as the sun with its light-filled, bright yellowflecked interior and the smiles (recognizable even behind masks) of its owner, Leslie Elsen, and her friendly staff.

Actually, the cheerful decorative touches of yellow at Benedict (yes, the name has everything to do with Eggs Benedict) are not emulating the sun, but rather the yolk of an egg. The idea for Benedict — Elsen’s dream, really — started to take shape just over five years ago. “It stemmed from my love for the pace and energy of the breakfast scene, combined with a passion for baking and several years’ experience in the coffee industry,” she said. I wanted to upscale the classics and offer seasonal specials that were both comforting and interesting – something simple yet memorable.”

CHANGING COURSE Like many young people, Elsen left home after high school for college — in this case, the University of Michigan, where she earned a degree in communications and international studies. Positions in PR, accounting, and project management followed over the next several years, but her heart lay elsewhere. Eventually, she ended up going in a totally different direction.

“I began taking cooking classes and weekend and evening jobs in the food industry, including bakeries and small restaurants, as well as hosting pop-ups and catering desserts for weddings,” she said.

“I immersed myself in everything I could related to the culinary field. You could find

me in my free time reading cookbooks front to back or testing recipes to find the best possible version of what I was trying to achieve.” She even started writing a food blog, which, however, in her words, turned out to be “a very unsuccessful exercise.”

In early 2019, Elsen and her husband welcomed their first child, a daughter, but rather than putting her dream on hold, she forged ahead with it. “I knew that I wanted to set the example for both her and myself that if there is something you are passionate about, you can make it your career,” she said. “What better time than now? And though we were living in Grand Rapids at the time, having grown up here in Traverse City, I knew that I wanted Benedict to call this town home, so I began searching for properties and continuing to fine-tune my business plan and aesthetic vision.”

Less than a year later, with her ninemonth-old in tow, she began to build Benedict into what it is today. “I had always envisioned a space that felt small, cozy and neighborhood friendly,” Elsen explained.

She thought she had found it at Benedict’s first location on Union Street, which made its debut in December 2019. “But just three months later, in March 2020, COVID caused us to pause and reflect on the way we would adapt our operations going forward into high season,” she recalled.

Doing so turned out to have been a wise move, since Benedict’s appeal soon proved to be well beyond Elsen’s predictions. “We saw an incredible demand in summer, from locals and regulars alike, and quickly realized that our space, while adorable, was not scalable,” she said. “I knew that the only way to grow and increase our impact was to find a new location that allowed for that.”

16 • april 19, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly

Then, unexpectedly, just a few months into fall, a new, larger home for Benedict became available on Lake Avenue, when its former tenant, Patisserie Amie, moved to the vacant Franklin building on Front Street.

But it couldn’t have come at a busier time in Elsen’s life. “It was my intention to stay on Union Street for another year, but when the opportunity came up, in spite of the fact that I was five months pregnant, I could not turn it down,” she said. “I certainly didn’t plan for all of these huge life changes to happen at the same time!”

PREPARING FOR (RE-)LAUNCH Making the decision to relocate was challenging in and of itself, but Elsen soon realized that a lot of modifications and improvements to the interior also had to take place before Benedict could move in. “We repainted the walls and ceiling, refinished the floors, and collaborated with our landlord to re-envision the bar area. Overall, we wanted the ambiance to be bright, cheery, and include a clean, modern vibe, with those pops of ‘egg yolk yellow.’ We also created a separate yet cohesive space near our pastry case, away from the main dining area, for those who just want to grab a drink and a pastry and do some computer work or read, or those who want a more private meeting space. We completely gutted the kitchen as well and started fresh.”

While all of these renovations were going on, Elsen was working on further developing the Benedict menu (which she continues to do). “We don’t have a formal ‘chef ’ role here,” she said. “It’s a collaborative effort between me and our incredible crew. We all work towards the same goal and contribute to making our food delicious and our kitchen

more streamlined.” Scratch cooking is a matter of course at Benedict, including many items that are made in-house, e.g. bacon and Canadian bacon, biscuits, pastries, herb mayonnaise, sauces, dressings, and other condiments. “The house-made biscuits are some of my favorite things on the menu, along with our scones,” said Elsen. “Both are made fresh, and highlight the lamination process of ‘butter, flour, butter, flour’ to get that nice rise and layers.”

Other ingredients for Benedict’s menu are sourced locally and seasonally as much as possible. “You won’t find asparagus on our menu in December or ramps in October,” said Elsen. “About 80 percent of the items we buy come from a local farm or vendor, because we want support our local community just as they continue to support us.” (A continually updating list of Benedict’s vendor partners can be found on the restaurant’s website.)

EGGS-CENTRIC Not surprisingly, most of Benedict’s menu items incorporate eggs in some form.

The Biscuit Sandwich (soft scrambled egg, white cheddar, microgreens and house herb mayo, served with home fries) and the Northerner Benedict (biscuit, thick-cut bacon, tomato-cherry jam, poached eggs, and hollandaise) are two especially popular specialties, along with the Bread Pudding of the Day (a classic custard base highlighting whatever current ingredient inspires the kitchen; a recent version featured lemon custard with lemon curd and meringue).

The Seasonal Hash (currently with carrots, parsnips, potatoes, goat cheese, microgreens, and two eggs any way, served with choice of toast) and the Quiche of the Day (also

incorporating ingredients that rotate with the seasons, served with a side salad) are also customer favorites.

Meal-size salads include Farro and Greens (farro, microgreens, goat cheese, fresh herbs and dried cherries, with cider vinaigrette) and Roasted Carrot Arugula (roasted carrots, arugula, candied pepita seeds, feta cheese and microgreens, tossed in a creamy tahini-poppyseed dressing – a poached egg can be added for a minimal charge).

Being a mother herself, Elsen made sure to offer kid-sized breakfast choices on Benedict’s menu: the Mini Standard (one scrambled egg with bacon or sausage, toast and a side of fruit) or the Short Stack (two pancakes with a side of fruit). Children can also order from the regular or a la carte menu of course.

To accompany breakfast or lunch, the menu lists a host of beverages, from batch coffee and tea to juice, soda, chai, or hot chocolate, as well as a selection of the most popular espresso drinks (think espresso, cappuccino, latte, cortado, macchiato, mocha). Elsen is in the process of obtaining a liquor license, too, and plans to have a small, curated drink menu, with many of the spirits coming from Iron Fish Distillery.

“Among other things, we will have Bloody Marys with a house-smoked celery-salt rim and house bacon, as well as mimosas,” she noted. “For the latter, we will be introducing a Benedict Bubble Board, including four types of juice and a bottle of bubbly to share and build your own mimosa.”

WORK-LIFE BALANCE Though one might wonder how Elsen could possibly fit anything else into her busy days, she is hatching (pun definitely intended!) even more future plans for Benedict. “Our goals include expanding our pastry program and becoming more and more involved with the local community,” she said. “This past year was just odd, with COVID, but we’d like to use this new space as a fresh beginning with those initiatives.

We would also like to start with small goals, such as a community herb garden and little library near our entrance, perhaps with some additional waiting space, especially for

families with crazy kiddos like mine.”

Elsen acknowledges that the past couple of years have been a whirlwind for her, but looking back, she said she wouldn’t change anything about the decisions she made and where she is today. “My kids keep me grounded and remind me of my purpose,” she said. “It’s so easy to get caught up in every little detail or spend hours at the restaurant moving things around, but there is a time to say, ‘I’ve done enough. I’ve tried my best.

Time to go home.’ I love the work that I do and what I have built with Benedict, and my hope is that my kids will see that you can chase your dreams, work hard, and still be home to tuck them in. Trust me, there is lots of dirty laundry and many meals eaten over the sink at my household, so that is life now, but I’m cool with it.”

Judging from the unsolicited comments made by Elsen’s brigade at Benedict, it’s obvious that they appreciate her very personal and down-to-earth management style and admire her talents and strengths.

As for her, it’s a simple case of valuing her employees and looking out for them: “As a mom, and an extremely empathetic person, I want all of them to feel like Benedict is a safe space, and I understand the need for work-life balance, both for them and for me. We all have lives and things we are dealing with outside work, especially this crazy past year.

“My goal for Benedict has always

been to have it be a business that strives to support local farmers, that is active in the local community, and that provides a workplace where everyone can feel comfortable, supported and seen. And now that we are starting again with room to spread our wings, hopefully we can make an even greater impact on my wonderful hometown.”

Benedict is located at 237 Lake Avenue in Traverse City. Dine-in or take-out (online ordering) available. Curbside pickup upon request. Open Wednesday-Sunday from 8am to 2pm (closed Mondays and Tuesdays).

Outdoor patio, weather permitting. For more information, call (231) 421-1000, visit benedicttc.com, or check them out on Facebook or Instagram.

Northern Express Weekly • april 19, 2021 • 17

apr saturday 17 - -

SPRING BIRD WALK: 9-11am, Grass River Natural Area, Bellaire. You will learn to ID birds by sight & sound, as well as how to log observations online using the eBird webpage or app. Bring binoculars, or borrow some from the Grass River Center. Register. $5/person. grassriver.org

---------------------FAIR HOUSING BOOK READING SERIES: Saturdays, 2pm, April 17-24, Old Town Playhouse, TC. Aspire North Realtors will present readings of “When Chocolate Milk Moved In”; “Same, Same But Different Too”; & “Strictly No Elephants.” On the final Saturday, April 24, Old Town Playhouse’s new Theatre for Young Audiences troupe will present a staged performance of “When Chocolate Milk Moved In.” oldtownplayhouse.com

---------------------BOOK SALE: 10am-4pm, Helena Township Community Center, Alden. Sponsored by Friends of the Alden District Library. Available items: books, audio books, DVDs, music CDs, puzzles. 231-331-4318.

---------------------MODEL RAILROAD ZOOM MEETING: 10am-1pm. National Model Railroad Association North Central Region Division 2 Monthly Zoom Meeting. Includes a presentation on model railroading & a show & tell. For login & password contact: superintendent.nmra.ncr. div2@gmail.com. Free.

---------------------CRYSTAL CLASSIC: Noon, Betsie Valley Golf Course, Crystal Mountain. A four-person scramble that includes 18 holes of golf with cart, two beverage tickets & food. Reserve your spot. $65/person. crystalmountain.com/ event/crystal-classic

---------------------A MUSICAL JOURNEY: 6-9pm, Great Lakes Center for the Arts, Bay Harbor. Take a Journey with the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, as they celebrate 20 years of world class performances. This concert highlights memorable moments from past concerts, & features founder & Co-Artistic Director Robert Pattengale, Ph.D., as well as other founding musicians & Young Artist Competition Alumni. PreConcert talk at 6pm by GLCO Music Director Libor Ondras. $0-$50. mynorthtickets.com/ events/a-musical-journey-part-2-4-17-2021

apr 18

sunday

EARTH DAY WEEK ACTIVITIES: 10am-4pm, Grass River Natural Area, Bellaire.

The children’s book, “Do Fairies Bring the Spring?” will be read aloud several times in preparation for a fairy themed craft & a trip to the Fairy Garden.

Supplies will also be available to make paper bag kites. grassriver.org

----------------------

SLOW ROLL WITH CUPPA JOE: Noon. Celebrate Cuppa Joe’s new store with a bike ride with Norte. Start at Norte’s Wheelhouse, TC, roll to Cuppa Joe Eastside (off of Four Mile), & finish at Stone Hound Brewing Co. You can also meet at Cuppa Joe for a shorter ride around 12:30pm. elgruponorte.org/theme_ event/slow-roll/?mc_cid=39c383e7fe&mc_ eid=df24b9efb4

---------------------10TH ANNUAL YOUNG PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL: 1:30pm. Virtual event. Enjoy six original one act plays written by regional high school students who have been matched with national mentors. This staged reading is available via the City Opera House YouTube Channel. Free. youtube.com/channel/UCBaT8OPRbmrJEHPdOaHODqg

apr 19

monday

ARTS FOR ALL AMAZING APRIL AUCTION: Bid on helicopter tours, boat rides, local art & massages. Bidding begins on Mon., April 19 (12:15am) & ends on Sun., April 25 (11:45pm) via 32Auctions.com All funds raised will be put toward the scholarship fund as well as summer programming. In addition Real Estate One Charitable Foundation will match all funds raised at 50%. 32Auctions.com/ArtsForAll

april

17-25 send your dates to: events@traverseticker.com

---------------------INTERNATIONAL SPEAKERS SERIES: 2:30pm. Borneo Wild!: Join Emily Meyerson on her journey through Malaysian Borneo.

She will share her experience of the culture, unique flora & fauna, landscapes & delicious food. Register. Held via Zoom. ncmclifelonglearning.com/event-4251945/Registration

----------------------

PETOSKEY CHAMBER HOSTS VIRTUAL JOB FAIR: 5-7pm. Targeting high school students looking for summer employment. Held via Remo. Free. petoskeychamber.com

---------------------NATURE TRIVIA NIGHT: 7pm. Held via Zoom with teams of 2-6 players. grassriver.org

apr 20

tuesday

ARTS FOR ALL AMAZING APRIL AUCTION: (See Mon., April 19)

--------------

THE VOTERS REJECTED GERRYMANDERING: REDRAWING THE MAP: Noon. The League of Women Voters of the Grand Traverse Area will present Donna Hornberger & Margaret Leary who will cover the basics of redistricting, how & why the process was changed, & what is happening with redistricting in Michigan now. This broadcast can be viewed on the Traverse Area Community Media Facebook page, on Zoom at https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86353509609, or on Community TV Channel 189 (with Spectrum cable). lwvgta.org

apr 21

wednesday

ARTS FOR ALL AMAZING APRIL AUCTION: (See Mon., April 19)

--------------

NORTHWEST MICHIGAN WORKS! VIRTUAL HIRING EVENT: 11am. Featuring over 25 employers & hundreds of jobs. Free. nwm.org/VirtualHiring

----------------------

PETOSKEY CHAMBER HOSTS VIRTUAL BUSINESS AFTER HOURS: 5:30-7pm. Held via Remo. Register. Free. petoskeychamber.com

---------------------EARTH DAY WEEK ACTIVITIES: 7pm. Grass River Natural Area will show the short film “The Arrowhead Traverse” via Zoom. Afterwards will be an online discussion. grassriver.org

apr 22

thursday

ARTS FOR ALL AMAZING APRIL AUCTION: (See Mon., April 19)

--------------

EARTH DAY WEEK ACTIVITIES: 6am. Grass River Natural Area, Bellaire.

The Big Nature Sit. Staff & up to 10 registrants will head out before dawn & experience the earth waking up. Each person will find a space on the boardwalk to sit quietly & observe the sights & sounds of nature coming to life. grassriver.org

---------------------WEBSITE SOLUTIONS FOR NON-EXPERTS: 10am-noon, Otsego Grand Event Center, Gaylord. Presented by Elizabeth Singler. Look what web platforms are right for

18 • april 19, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly

Run through the Pere Marquette Forest on a variety of single track and two track trails during the Traverse City Trail Run Festival, Fri. and Sat., April 23-24. A two-person 10K Relay takes place Fri. (registration is closed for this event). A 5K, 10K Run, 25K Run and 50K Run happen Sat., beginning at Timber Ridge RV & Recreation Resort, TC, with the earliest event starting at 8am. You can also participate in any of Saturday’s races virtually.

Prices increase after April 22. runsignup.com/Race/MI/TraverseCity/TraverseCityTrailRunningFestival your business, website terminology, & how you can increase business with an internet presence. Register. $20. gaylordchamber. com/events/details/website-solutions-for-nonexperts-4845

---------------------RAPTORS REVEALED: 4pm. Hosted by Mackinac Straits Raptor Watch. Josh Haas, owner of Hawks on the Wing, from Delton, Michigan, will present “Hawks on the Wing: Identifying Hawks on the Wing.” Haas will make the presentation with videos he took of birds in flight. Free. Register. mackinacraptorwatch.org/events/#RaptorsRevealed

---------------------HISTORY OF HARBOR SPRINGS PART II: 7pm. Online presentation by Beth Wemigwase.

It will cover the history of Harbor Springs from 1900-1980. Register. Free. ncmclifelonglearning.com/event-4212857

----------------------

NWS PRESENTS: AN EVENING WITH CHRIS BOHJALIAN: 7pm. The National Writers Series presents a virtual evening of conversation with author Chris Bohjalian. Bohjalian is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of 21 books. His work has been translated into 35 languages & three times been made into movies. His 2018 novel, “The Flight Attendant,” debuted as a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, & National Indiebound Bestseller. The discussion will be about his newest book, “Hour of the Witch,” which tells the twisting story of a young Puritan wife, Mary Deerfield, who petitions for divorce from her abusive husband — only to end up on trial for witchcraft. Free (donations accepted). nationalwritersseries. org/upcoming-events

---------------------VIRTUAL TOWN HALL ON REDISTRICTING PROCESS: 7pm. The League of Women Voters of Leelanau County & Traverse Area Community Media are holding a virtual town hall event to educate Michigan voters on the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting

Commission’s process in drawing new legislative & congressional maps for federal & state house representatives & the state senate.

LWVLeelanau.org

---------------------WALLOON LAKE READS: THE NICK ADAMS STORIES: 7pm. A virtual discussion of “War” with Peter Hays, author & Professor Emeritus of English - UC Davis. Must register in advance.

Free. walloonlakemi.com/grab-a-book-and-joinwalloon-lake-reads-the-nick-adams-stories

apr 23

friday

ARTS FOR ALL AMAZING APRIL AUCTION: (See Mon., April 19)

--------------

VIRTUAL COFFEE @ TEN: 10am. Join in a conversation with Raymond Gaynor, whose exhibit, “A Lands Conservancy,” is featured at Crooked Tree Arts Center, Petoskey. Register. crookedtree. org/event/ctac-petoskey-ctac-traverse-cityctac-online/virtual-coffeeten-raymond-gaynor

---------------------GLEN LAKE RESTAURANT WEEK: April 23 May 1. Held in the greater Glen Arbor area. Enjoy an array of menu options “from French Fries to French Cuisine” with these confirmed participants: Art’s Tavern, Blu, Cherry Public House, La Becasse and Western Avenue Grill. Look for a special 3 course, prix-fixe Restaurant Week Menu (dinner & some offering lunch) to range in price point from $25-$35. facebook.com/eatglenarbor

---------------------WINFLUENCE INFORMATION SERIES WHAT IS THE NORTHERN MICHIGAN CHAMBER ALLIANCE?: 11am. Featuring Kirstie Sieloff, director of government relations, Northern Michigan Chamber Alliance. Virtual event. Register. Free. petoskeychamber.com

---------------------TC TRAIL RUNNING FESTIVAL: 6:30pm.

4050 Hammond Rd. East, TC. Today fea-

tures the 10K Relay. $75; prices increases after April 22 (registration for Friday’s event is CLOSED). runsignup.com/Race/MI/TraverseCity/TraverseCityTrailRunningFestival

---------------------EARTH DAY WEEK ACTIVITIES: 7:30pm, Grass River Natural Area, Bellaire. Take a dusky walk with a naturalist to listen for frogs & owls. Register. grassriver.org

apr 24 Sat., April 17)

saturday

ARTS FOR ALL AMAZING APRIL AUCTION: (See Mon., April 19)

--------------

FAIR HOUSING BOOK READING SERIES: (See

---------------------GREAT LAKES CLEANUP: Watershed Center’s cleanups along the Grand Traverse Bay shoreline include do-it-yourself contactless cleanups from April 24 - May 2. Trash collection kits will be provided. gtbay.org/events/great-lakes-cleanup

---------------------TC TRAIL RUNNING FESTIVAL: 8am, 4050 Hammond Rd. East, TC. Today features the 5K ($40), 10K Run ($50), 25K Run ($70), & 50K Run ($80). Prices increase after April 22.

All distances can also be done virtually ($45). runsignup.com/Race/MI/TraverseCity/TraverseCityTrailRunningFestival

---------------------EARTH DAY WEEK ACTIVITIES: 10am-4pm, Grass River Natural Area, Bellaire. GRNA will have Michigan wildflower seeds to plant along the entrance road. grassriver.org

---------------------TART TRAILS SPRING WORK BEE: 10amnoon. TART Trails is hosting work bees at various locations along the trail network. Sign up solo or grab your friends, family & coworkers for a feel good morning on the trails. If you have light tools, feel free to bring them along with anything else you think may be useful. A TART Trails staff member or ambassador will lead each work bee. Please register ahead of time. Questions: kate@traversetrails.org, 231.941.4300. traversetrails.org/event/tart-trails-spring-work-bee

---------------------GLEN LAKE RESTAURANT WEEK: (See Fri., April 23)

---------------------BIGS’ ANNUAL WINE EVENT: 6pm. A select group of ten champions across the area will host a private party in their home to celebrate & advocate the work of Big Brothers Big Sisters. These intimate gatherings will feature culinary delights from The Boathouse Restaurant & Sorellina, providing entertainment, specialty wines & more. cbo.io/bidapp/index.php?slug=bigs

apr 25

sunday

ARTS FOR ALL AMAZING APRIL AUCTION: (See Mon., April 19)

--------------

GREAT LAKES CLEANUP: (See Sat., April 24)

---------------------GLEN LAKE RESTAURANT WEEK: (See Fri., April 23)

---------------------ART ON THE TART WALK: Noon. Starting at the Boardman Trailhead by Oryana, you will walk & view the Art on the TART ending at Hull Park with an activity being led by Traverse Area District Library. Register. $5. artsforallnmi.org

----------------------

BIGS’ ANNUAL WINE EVENT: Noon. Enjoy Bigs’ Bubbles & Brunch. Stroll the dining room of Sorellina, visit each of the epicurean stations featuring classic & specialty brunch cuisine prepared by Sorellina’s Executive Chef Josh Vinocur, & enjoy more than 25 champagnes & sparkling wines. All funds raised through the sale of tickets to the Brunch will be matched 50% by the Real Estate One Charitable Foundation. cbo. io/bidapp/index.php?slug=bigs

ongoing

ACCEPTING BOAT AUCTION DONATIONS: Maritime Heritage Alliance is now accepting donations of watercraft & nautical gear for the upcoming June 5th Boat Auction & Garage Sale. Call to schedule: 946-2647 or visit online. maritimeheritagealliance.org/ annual-boat-auction

---------------------PURSES WITH A PURPOSE: The Michigan State Police Gaylord Post is gathering NEW purses & toiletry bags filled with comfort items to benefit The Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan & be distributed to survivors of sexual assault. Donations accepted through April. Donate at: Gaylord Post Lobby, 563 S. Otsego Ave., Gaylord; any prosecutor’s office in Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan & Emmet counties. Hours: 8am-4pm, Mon. Fri. 517-749-4527.

---------------------PEEPERS PROGRAM: Tuesdays, 10-11am, April 20 – May 18. Boardman River Nature Center, outside, TC. Presented by the Grand Traverse Conservation District. For ages 3-5.

Includes stories, crafts, music & discovery activities. Pre-register. natureiscalling.org/events

---------------------FANTASTIC FRIDAYS: Fridays, 7am, April 23 – June 18. A weekly celebration of students walking & rolling to school in northern Michigan. They are fun community actions to encourage elementary & middle school students to actively move themselves to school. Park & Stroll option: Do you live too far from school to walk or bike? Or, maybe you don’t have a safe route to school from home? You can still participate. These routes allow you to park a short distance from your school & walk or roll the rest. elgruponorte.org/fridays

---------------------MSU SCIENCE FESTIVAL: A free celebration of the many ways science, technology, engineering, art, & mathematics (STEAM) touch our everyday lives & shape our future. Runs through April. sciencefestival.msu.edu

---------------------FREE RIDES: The Otsego County Bus System offers free rides to COVID-19 vaccination appointments. They also provide free delivery of meals from the Food Pantry. Call 989732-6224.

---------------------ESSAY CONTEST: The Economic Club of Traverse City is accepting entries for its annual essay contest. This year’s essay question is: Should the government, at any level, spend taxpayer dollars for early childhood (birth to kindergarten) programs? Discuss the costs & benefits to society of such programs as Head Start, early child development, home visitation, nutrition counseling, etc. First place award is $1,500; second place is $1,000. The contest is open to all high school juniors & seniors in the five-county Grand Traverse region.

Deadline to enter is May 1. Essays should be a minimum of 750 words; maximum 1,000 words. tceconclub.com/traverse-city-econclub-essay-contest

---------------------ICEMAN COMETH VIRTUAL TRAINING CHALLENGE: Ride 500, 1,000, or 3,000 miles to prepare for the 2021 Bell’s Iceman Cometh Challenge presented by Trek. Each distance will have its own exclusive Strava Club for tips & support, with all entrants eligible for prizes each month. Runs March 5 - Oct. 30. Registration ends Sept. 30. $25. registericeman. com/Race/Events/MI/TraverseCity/IcemanCo methChallenge#eventGroup-7424

---------------------DISABILITY NETWORK MEN’S GROUP: ZOOM MEETINGS: Mondays, 10am through April. disabilitynetwork.org/events

----------------------

DISABILITY NETWORK PEER ADVOCACY GROUP: ZOOM MEETINGS: Held on Thursdays at 2pm through April. disabilitynetwork. org/events

---------------------DISABILITY NETWORK WOMEN’S GROUP, SHARING HERSTORY: ZOOM MEETINGS:

Mondays, 11am through April. disabilitynetwork.org/events

art

COMEONCOMEONCOMEON: Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts, Manistee. Jef Bourgeau’s canvases are “big, blunt, clumsy fragments of color and rumpled, spinning geometrics.” Runs April 23 - May 21. Open Fridays from 4-6pm & Saturdays from 12-3pm. ci.ovationtix.com/35295/production/1044645

---------------------EXHIBIT: DREAM TO REALITY: Charlevoix Circle of Arts. Exhibit runs April 23 - May 29.

Not open on Sundays. This exhibit explores the path through the mythological illustrations & writing of Charlevoix artist Kim Richelle. charlevoixcircle.org/exhibits-2021

---------------------PRINTMAKING: Jordan River Arts Council, East Jordan. Exhibit runs through May 1. Gallery is open Saturdays & Sundays from 1-4pm or by appointment made through the JRAC. Email: jordanriverarts@gmail.com. jordanriverarts.com

---------------------“DON’T MISS THE BOAT”: Harbor Springs History Museum. Presented by the Harbor Springs Area Historical Society. This exhibit highlights the historic ferries of Little Traverse Bay & features original watercolors & giclees by local artist William Talmadge Hall. Runs through the summer of 2021. Hours: Tues.Sat., 11am-3pm. harborspringshistory.org/ history-museum-exhibits

---------------------“DREAM TO REALITY: EXPLORING WHAT WE BELIEVE AND WHY”: Charlevoix Circle of Arts, April 23 - May 29. This exhibit explores the path to why we believe what we believe through the mythological illustrations & writing of Charlevoix artist Kim Richelle. An opening reception will be held on Fri., April 23 from 5-7pm featuring an artist discussion & book signing. charlevoixcircle.org

----------------------

Y TUESDA TRIVIA TIO A P ON THE PM 7-9

TO-GO OR DERS AVAILABL E 231-2524157

Sun-Thurs Noon-10pm Fri/Sat Noon-11pm (kitchen open noon-9pm) closed Wednesdays

DRINK SPECIALS (3-6 Monday-Friday): $2 well drinks, $2 domestic drafts, $2.50 domestic bottles, $5 Hornitos margarita DAILY FOOD SPECIALS (3-6pm): Monday - $1 chips/salsa Tuesday - $1 enchiladas Thursday - $5 hot pretzels w/ beer cheese Friday - $5 fried veggies (cauliflower or mushrooms)

ent Fri 23rd - The Pocket tertainm Patio en -9:30) 0 Sat 24th - TC Knuckleheads (6:3

221 E State St. downtown TC

HAPPY HOUR DRINK SPECIALS Tues - 4-8pm: The Pocket Mon March 16- $5 martinis, $5 domestic beer pitcher, $10 craft beer pitcher.

FROM 9pm-1am:OPEN-6PM Kung Fu Rodeo

Hours Mon-Thurs 2pm-11pm in the can night - $1 domestic, Wed - Get itFri-Sun $3 craft-noon-11pm w/DJ JR drinks TuesThurs April -$2 20thoff-Open -allOpen Micand Comedy $2 Labatt drafts w/DJ Ricky T

Wed April 21st - Skin

Fri March$220domestic - Bucketsdrafts of Beer& $3 starting at $8 (2-8pm) craft drafts Happy Hour: The Chris Michels Band Then: The Isaac Ryder Band

from 7:30-11pm.

Sat March 21 - The Isaac Ryder Band (No Covers)

Fri & Sat April 23rd & 24th SundayCD March 22 party Biomassive release KARAOKE ( 10pm-2am) Sun April 25th - Karaoke

941-1930 downtown TC check us out at unionstreetstationtc.net

100 DAYS OF CREATIVE EMPOWERMENT: Held every Mon. through May 3 from 5:307pm. A live online class. Register. Each week a local artist will share their skills to ignite your creativity. Engage in painting, iPhone photography, comic book creation & more. gaylordarts.org

---------------------MELONIE STEFFES EXHIBIT: Higher Art Gallery, TC. HART welcomes local artist Melonie Steffes in her second solo exhibit with eight new oil paintings. “Undomesticating - Leaving Behind the Things of Man.” Show is open online in the virtual shop as well as in person during gallery hours. higherartgallery.com

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CROOKED TREE ARTS CENTER, PETOSKEY: - A LAND’S CONSERVANCY: RECLAIMING NATURE: Runs April 19 – June 1. Over the past year, Harbor Springs photographer Raymond Gaynor has been documenting the Little Traverse Conservancy’s Offield Family Viewlands. Gaynor’s images capture the way nature conserves itself through a process of growth & rebirth. crookedtree.org/event/ctacpetoskey/lands-conservancy-reclaiming-nature-raymond-gaynor - GREAT: REFLECTIONS ON THE GREAT LAKES: This exhibition asks Great Lakesarea artists to share original works of art that reflect on the theme “Great.” Juried by artist Susan Moran. Runs through June 1. crookedtree.org/event/ctac-petoskey/greatreflections-great-lakes - YOUNG @ ART: Youth Art Show 2021 CTACPetoskey (Online). Runs through June 11. See the creative work of young artists working in the Char-Em ISD region. Over 1800 submissions are included. crookedtree.org/event/ ctac-petoskey-ctac-online/young-art-youthart-show-2021-ctac-petoskey-online-0 - “KIDS ON COMMUNITY”: Youth artists were invited to submit artwork in response to the theme of “Community.” Fun, thoughtful & creative interpretations by Michigan youth (grades 3 - 12) are included in this online

Northern Express Weekly • april 19, 2021 • 19

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image gallery. Runs through June 30, 2021. crookedtree.org/event/ctac-petoskey-ctac-online/kids-community-online-exhibit - THE COLLECTIVE IMPULSE - ONLINE EXHIBIT: Runs through Aug. Featuring the work of artists Ruth Bardenstein, Jean Buescher & Susan Moran. The three artists met in Ann Arbor &, over time, have nurtured both personal & creative connections. They regularly share & critique one another’s work & together visit gallery & museum exhibitions. The exhibition was hosted at the Crooked Tree Arts Center - Petoskey from Sept. 21 through Dec. 18, 2020. This online publication shares work from the exhibition. crookedtree.org/event/ctac-petoskey-ctac-traverse-city-ctac-online/collective-impulse-online - CTAC’S 19TH ANNUAL YOUNG WRITERS EXPOSITION: CALL FOR YOUNG WRITERS: Elementary, middle & high school students who attend schools served by the Char-Em ISD (or home school students in Charlevoix or Emmet counties) may submit one work of poetry, prose, or one of each. Winning writers of all age groups receive a medal, journal, & McLean & Eakin Booksellers gift card, while also having their work published in the digital Petoskey News-Review. Middle & high school winning writers receive monetary prizes as well. All first place writers get their work printed in the upcoming edition of the Walloon Writers Review.

The Little Traverse Literary Guild will give two $500 “Best in Show” awards – the HannaRenkes/Jan Smith Literary Award – to high school students for poetry & prose. Work must be submitted online by a parent or teacher between April 6-19 at 5 pm. The submission page is located under Teacher Resources on the Petoskey portion of CTAC’s website. Winning writers will be announced May 7 via CTAC’s social media pages.

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CROOKED TREE ARTS CENTER, TC: - “STAY SAFE” MASKS EXHIBIT: Over 200 paper mache masks will be on display. This is extended from the Ramsdell Regional Center for the Arts in Manistee. Since launching in the fall last year during the quarantine, over 1,000 high school students, families & individuals from the Grand Traverse area & nationally have now decorated masks in this growing public art project. It will run April 1-18. Open from 11am-4pm Tuesdays through Fridays, & 10am-2pm on Saturdays. crookedtree.org - YOUTH ART EXHIBITION 2021 (VIRTUAL & IN-PERSON): The Crooked Tree Arts Center is celebrating the work of K-12 art students & educators in the Grand Traverse region. Artwork selected for an award will be on display at Crooked Tree Arts Center, TC, April 1-17 during gallery hours. crookedtree. org/event/ctac-petoskey-ctac-traverse-cityctac-online/youth-art-virtual-and-person-exhibit-traverse

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20 • april 19, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly

DENNOS MUSEUM CENTER, NMC, TC: - BLOW UP II: INFLATABLE CONTEMPORARY ART: Runs through May 16. This exhibit explores the imaginative ways that air is used as a tool to create large-scale sculptures. The artists translate everyday materials and imagery into larger-than-life, yet nearly lighter-than-air art. Curated by Carrie Lederer & organized by Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, CA. - NMC ART DEPARTMENT JURIED STUDENT ART SHOW: View 30 artworks by local students selected for the show in honor of the museum’s 30th anniversary. View NMC fine arts students’ work from April 5-15 & high school student art from April 17-29. The High School Virtual Reception will be held on Thurs., April 22 at 5:30pm. dennosmuseum.org

---------------------GLEN ARBOR ARTS CENTER, GLEN ARBOR: - MANITOU MUSIC POSTER COMPETITION - CALL FOR ENTRY: The Glen Arbor Arts Center is accepting submissions of original paintings for its 2022 Manitou Music poster competition.

The deadline for online submissions is Sept.

16. Open to all current GAAC members. Each year, the GAAC selects an original painting for this limited edition poster. It is sold through the

GAAC & at selected shops & art galleries in Leelanau County. glenarborart.org/artist-opportunities/manitou-music-poster-competition - CLOTHESLINE EXHIBIT CALL-FOR-ENTRIES: The Glen Arbor Arts Center is moving art outdoors. The Clothesline Exhibit, July 24 – Aug. 27, is an open-air exhibition of small work. This year’s theme, Wild Friends, challenges makers of all skills to create an unframed painting, drawing, photograph or collage on a single, 5” x 7” sheet of paper around this theme. Each work will be placed in a sealed plastic envelope & pinned to a clothesline in front of the GAAC building at 6031 S. Lake St., Glen Arbor. The Clothesline Exhibition may be viewed 24/7, rain or shine.

For info on submitting an entry to the Clothesline Exhibit, go to GlenArborArt.org/ARTISTS. Deadline for submissions is July 6. 231-3346112. glenarborart.org/artists/calls-for-entry/ clothesline-exhibit-call-for-entries - EXHIBIT: JOAN RICHMOND | PAPER + SCISSORS + GLUE = NEW COLLAGES: Held in Lobby Gallery. An exhibition of 12 new works is on display through April 22. Richmond is more widely known for her distinctive, spare gouache paintings depicting land- & waterscapes. This exhibit includes more than 60 pieces she created during COVID-19 isolation. The GAAC is open Mon. through Sat., 11am–2pm. GlenArborArt.org - CALL-FOR-ENTRIES: EVERYDAY OBJECTS EXHIBITION: Runs Aug. 27 – Oct. 28.

Online applications for this juried show may be submitted through July 15. It is open to 2D & 3D objects in a wide variety of media. The GAAC is open Mon. through Sat., 11am–2pm. glenarborart.org/artists/calls-for-entry/everyday-objects-prospectus - MEMBERS CREATE EXHIBITION: On display: 41 works in both 2D & 3D by northern Michigan artists & beyond. The online version of the exhibition is also available for viewing. Business hours: 11am–2pm, Mon. through Sat. glenarborart.org/events/exhibit2021-members-create

---------------------OLIVER ART CENTER, FRANKFORT: - ANNUAL REGIONAL STUDENT EXHIBITION: Runs through May 7. oliverartcenterfrankfort.org/gallery-gift-shop/exhibition-calendar - CALL FOR ART: LITTLE FREE ART GALLERIES: Oliver Art Center will have Little Free Art Galleries in three places: Oliver Art Center, Century 21 Northland, & Benzie Shores District Library, all in Frankfort. Volunteers make art on a small scale & place in the gallery. Visitors may view the art, take the art, leave their own art, or make a monetary contribution via oliverart.org. Frankfort’s Little Free Art Galleries will be installed & ready for art & visitors May 1. Oliver Art Center is currently accepting art for the galleries. oliverartcenterfrankfort.org

Deadline for Dates information is Tuesday for the following week.

the ADViCE GOddESS Needle In A Bae Stack

Q

: I am a 31-year-old woman, and I can’t figure out why I’m having such a hard time finding a man. I am attractive (in good shape and considered pretty); have a master’s degree; am successful in a competitive business; and I love to read and talk about news, history, and ideas. I have wonderful friends; I’ve worked hard to resolve my issues; and I do my best to be a kind person.

I just want my match: someone who’s smart, highly educated, equally successful or more so, attractive (tall — at least 6-foot-1 — and masculine), passionate, well-read, and a good person. What’s wrong with me that, even with online dating, I rarely find men even in the ballpark of what I want?

— Miserable

A

: Grocery shopping’s easy when your list has generic items — “beer,” “chips,” and “cheese” — and not “cheese from free-range Albanian yaks raised by monks, whispering positive affirmations to them as they graze”: “You are loved, loving, and lovable, and you manifest perfect health by making smart choices.”

You’re looking for “that special someone,” not “that random anydude.” You’ve developed yourself (advanced degree, cool job, and smartgirl interests), which sharply narrows the pool of equally achieving men you have to choose from. Being a woman likely adds another layer of difficulty, through “hypergamy.” This is the strong evolved female motivation to “marry up” — or at least date partners of a higher socioeconomic status (the guy in the corner office over the corner barber).

Women, in general, are the vastly choosier sex in the mating market — in online dating and beyond. This aligns with evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers’ 1972 theory of “parental investment.” Trivers predicted that the members of a species — typically the lady ones — who have the greatest possible costs from having sex (pregnancy and offspring to provide for) would be the most selective in choosing partners.

Countless scientific findings -- across species — support Trivers’ theory, including recent research delving into the ratio of heterosexual male versus female “super-likes” on Tinder.

(A super-like — by swiping up on a profile — unlike a simple swipe-right “like,” triggers an automatic notification to the up-swiped person.) Belgian economics doctoral

BY Amy Alkon candidate Brecht Neyt, with his adviser, Stijn Baert, found that women on Tinder superliked only 4.5% of the men’s profiles, while men super-liked 61.9% of the women’s. This is effectively digital beer goggles -- worn by a big chunk of the straight male population.

And recall hypergamy, women’s preference for partners of higher status: a sign a man’s likely to have continuing access to resources to provide for any children. Neyt found women liked profiles of men with a master’s degree 91% more often (over those with a bachelor’s), while men liked women with a master’s only 8% more often.

Unfortunately, there’s been a higher-ed “gender gap” for decades, with fewer men applying to and graduating from college. In 2003, for example, four-year colleges in the U.S. graduated 1.35 women for every dude who found his way out. As of 2013, women outpaced men in college enrollment 1.4 to 1, and the gap has continued to widen -- translating to an increasingly shrinking supply of those highly desired men with master’s degrees (or Ph.D.s).

This is a problem because evolved female emotions are your mate-choice watchdog, motivating you to go for high-status men and making you feel bad about dating a man who’s a kind but ambitionless slacker, or even one who’s just moderately achieving. (Male evolved psychology, on the other hand, works to ensure that men don’t shove aside hot, fertile 20-year-olds to go hit on that very attractive grandma with a lovely personality.)

In other words, you can’t just tell yourself you shouldn’t care about the job or education level a man has: make yourself be as hot for a successful plumber as you are for a successful lawyer. However, you could give your “list” of man minimums a hard look: see whether there are any you could live with cutting, thus increasing your pool of possibilities. For example, because height — tallness — is one of the strongest female preferences for male appearance, there’s probably an undertapped stock of sexy, successful, really good men who are on the shorter side: uh, “condensed, dark, and handsome.”

If you can’t scale back your standards, you should make peace with the likely outcome: You’ll probably continue to have a tough time finding the sort of man you want. Like other women looking for love who are high climbers on the career ladder, you might eventually come to the conclusion that you have two choices: a nice, loving, hardworking guy a few rungs below you or one of those body pillows that you draw a face on and name Ted.

“Jonesin” Crosswords "Well, Sorta" --partway there. by Matt Jones

ACROSS 1 “We’re calling with an urgent message about your car’s warranty,” e.g.

5 Creator of Pudd’nhead Wilson 10 “Right now” 13 Care Bear ___ 14 “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” band 15 Debtor’s letters 16 Hotel heiress who popularized “That’s hot” 18 Hurricane heading, sometimes 19 Affirmative vote 20 It may be doffed 21 Bad movie rating 23 Actress Seehorn of “Better Call Saul” 25 Torn ___ (athlete’s knee injury) 27 Crafty 28 Gear seen frequently in 1980s court matches 33 Districts 34 Organization 35 Australian outlaw Kelly 36 Satirical “Prize” given by the Annals of Improbable Research 39 Patty Hearst’s kidnappers, for short 42 Californie et Colorado 43 Septet plus one 45 He plays Thor 49 French islands 50 Truth, in Chinese philosophy 51 39-Down, for one 52 Roommate of Frylock and Master Shake on “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” 56 John’s “The Office” character 58 “Groove Is in the Heart” DJ/producer Towa ___ 59 Bud 60 Title for the Pope or the Dalai Lama 63 Rhinitis-treating M.D. 64 “Damn Yankees” composer Richard 65 Big name in thesauruses 66 Suffix meaning “sorta” (found in the theme answers) 67 Conditions’ partner 68 English horn’s cousin

DOWN 1 “Don’t move” 2 Lurched and swerved 3 Former White House press secretary Fleischer 4 Fit snugly 5 Ninja’s platform 6 Actor/blogger Wheaton 7 Choral voice range 8 Graphic representation 9 Not a bit 10 Cobbler’s container 11 Scrooge’s nephew 12 Search engine input 13 Austere 17 “Witness” actor Lukas 22 Bartering result 24 “SNL” alum Gasteyer 26 Millennium Falcon in 7,500 pieces, e.g.

29 “Lord, ___?” (Last Supper question) 30 NYSE trader 31 Anonymous Jane 32 Claus von ___ (“Reversal of Fortune” character) 37 Station’s supply 38 To the ___ degree 39 It’s played on a 10x10 board 40 “Hmmm ...”

41 One beyond belief?

42 Lead-in to “while” 44 Gear component 45 Disinfects 46 Wellness 47 University focuses 48 Garden store supply 49 Louvre Pyramid architect 53 “Beg pardon?”

54 Delegation member 55 High-end camera type 57 Artist Joan 61 Bottom of a pant leg 62 San Francisco’s ___ Hill

Northern Express Weekly • april 19, 2021 • 21

lOGY

APRIL 19 - APRIL 25

BY ROB BREZSNY

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Some traditional Buddhist monks sit on

city streets in Asia with a “begging bowl” in front of them. It’s a clay or iron container they use to solicit money and food from passers-by who want to support them. Contemporary American poet Mariannne Boruch regards the begging bowl as a metaphor that helps her generate new poems.

She adopts the attitude of the empty vessel, awaiting life’s instructions and inspiration to guide her creative inquiry. This enables her to “avoid too much self-obsession and navel-gazing” and be receptive—”with no agenda besides the usual wonder and puzzlement.” I recommend the begging bowl approach to you as you launch the next phase of your journey, Taurus.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): I love people who

inspire me to surprise myself. I’m appreciative when an ally provides me with a friendly shock that moves me to question my habitual ways of thinking or doing things. I feel lucky when a person I like offers a compassionate critique that nudges me out of a rut I’ve been in. Here’s a secret: I don’t always wait around passively hoping events like these will happen. Now and then I actively seek them out. I encourage them. I ask for them. In the coming weeks, Scorpio, I invite you to be like me in this regard.

breakfast. Organize your room. Clean your mirror and laptop.

Lie in the sunshine. Become the person you would ideally fall in love with. Walk with a straight posture. Stretch your body.

Challenge yourself to not judge or ridicule anyone for a whole day. Have a luxurious shower with your favorite music playing.

Remember your dreams. Fantasize about the life you would lead if failure didn’t exist.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Gemini-born

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) “Where did last year’s lessons go?” asks Gillian Welch in her song “I Dream a Highway.” Now I’m posing the same question to you—just in time for the Remember Last Year’s Lessons Phase of your cycle. In my astrological opinion, it’s crucial for you to recollect and ruminate deeply on the breakdowns and breakthroughs you experienced in 2020; on every spiritual emergency and spiritual emergence you weathered; on all the scary trials you endured and all the sacred trails you trod.

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) is today regarded as an innovative and influential painter. But his early years provided few hints that he would ultimately become renowned. As a teenager, he attended naval preparatory school, and later he joined the French navy. At age 23, he became a stockbroker.

Although he also began dabbling as a painter at that time, it wasn’t until the stock market crashed 11 years later that he made the decision to be a full-time painter. Is there a Gauguinlike turning point in your future, Gemini? If so, its early signs might show itself soon. It won’t be as dramatic or stressful as Gauguin’s, but I bet it will be quite galvinizing.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn

CANCER (June 21-July 22): A research team

painter Henri Matisse had a revolutionary influence on 20th-century art, in part because of his raucous use of color. Early in his career he belonged to the movement known as Fauvism, derived from the French term for “wild beasts.” During his final years, he invented a new genre very different from his previous work: large collages of brightly colored cut-out paper. The subject matter, according to critic Jed Perl, included “jungles, goddesses, oceans, and the heavens,” and “ravishing signs and symbols” extracted from the depths of “Matisse’s luminosity.” I offer him as a role model for you, Capricorn, because I think it’s a perfect time to be, as Perl describes Matisse, both “a hard-nosed problem-solver and a feverish dreamer.”

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “The guiding

motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, ‘Seek simplicity, but distrust it.’”

Aquarian philosopher Alfred North Whitehead wrote that, and now I’m proposing that you use it as your motto in the coming weeks, even if you’re not a natural philosopher. Why? Because I suspect you’ll thrive by uncomplicating your life. You’ll enhance your well-being if you put greater trust in your instinctual nature and avoid getting lost in convoluted thoughts. On the other hand, it’s important not to plunge so deeply into minimalism that you become shallow, careless, or unimaginative.

PISCES (Feb 19-March 20): In ancient Greek

comic theater, there was a stock character known as the eiron. He was a crafty underdog who outwitted and triumphed over boastful egotists by pretending to be naive. Might I interest you in borrowing from that technique in the coming weeks? I think you’re most likely to be successful if you approach victory indirectly or sideways—and don’t get bogged down trying to forcefully coax skeptics and resisters.

Be cagey, understated, and strategic, Pisces. Let everyone think they’re smart and strong if it helps ensure that your vision of how things should be will win out in the end.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Blogger Emma Elsworthy wrote her “Self-Care List.” I’ll tell you a few of her 57 action items, in hopes of inspiring you to create your own list. The coming weeks will be a perfect phase to upgrade your focus on doing what makes you feel healthy and holy. Here are Elsworthy’s ideas: Get in the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful

found that some people pray for things they are reasonably sure God wouldn’t approve of. In a sense, they’re trying to trick the Creator into giving them goodies they’re not supposed to get. Do you ever do that? Try to bamboozle life into offering you blessings you’re not sure you deserve? The coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to dare such ploys. I’m not guaranteeing you’ll succeed, but the chances are much better than usual that you will. The universe is pretty relaxed and generous toward you right now.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In 2013, the New

Zealand government decided to rectify the fact that its two main islands had never been assigned formal names. At that time, it gave both an English and Mãori-language moniker for each: North Island, or Te Ika-a-Mãui, and South Island, or Te Waipounamu. In the spirit of correcting for oversights and neglect, and in accordance with current astrological omens, is there any action you’d like to take to make yourself more official or professional or established? The coming weeks will be a favorable time to do so.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Author Grant

Morrison observes that our heads are “big enough to contain every god and devil there ever was. Big enough to hold the weight of oceans and the turning stars. Whole universes fit in there!” That’s why it’s so unfortunate, he says, if we fill up our “magical cabinet” with “little broken things, sad trinkets that we play with over and over.” In accordance with astrological potentials, Virgo, I exhort you to dispose of as many of those sad trinkets and little broken things as you can. Make lots of room to hold expansive visions and marvelous dreams and wondrous possibilities. It’s time to think bigger and feel wilder.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Libran author bell

hooks (who doesn’t capitalize her name) has a nuanced perspective on the nature of our pain. She writes, “Contrary to what we may have been taught, unnecessary and unchosen suffering wounds us, but need not scar us for life.”

She acknowledges that unnecessary and unchosen suffering does indeed “mark us.” But we have the power to reshape and transform how it marks us. I think her wisdom will be useful for you to wield in the coming weeks. You now have extra power to reshape and transform the marks of your old pain. You probably won’t make it disappear entirely, but you can find new ways to make it serve you, teach you, and ennoble you.

22 • april 19, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly

NORTHERN EXPRESS

CLAS SIFIE DS

OTHER

INTERLOCHEN SUMMER CAMP HOUSEKEEPER & CUSTODIANS $500 Bonus Opportunity Provide cleaning services for campus Valid Drivers Lic. pracilla.venhuizen@ interlochen.org ____________________________________________ CRAFT & VENDOR SHOW! Crafters & Vendors from all over MI coming together! May 22 from 11am-4pm. The Ellison Place - Gaylord. First 50 people thru the door will receive a FREE goodie bag! Register as “going” on the event page to be entered into a $50 VISA giveaway.

See event page for details. www.facebook.com/ events/3986763108011656 ____________________________________________ PAID JOB TRAINING FOR INDIVIDUALS 55 + POSITIONS WAITING TO BE FILLED. Paid job training for qualifying seniors age 55 and over.

Must be Unemployed, Seeking Work, and Meet Income Qualification. Earn while you job train part-time. For information contact the AARP Foundation SCSEP office, 231-252-4544, serving Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie, Manistee, Wexford and other Michigan counties. ____________________________________________ COMMERCIAL INCUBATOR-STYLE KITCHEN Space for Rent New on east side. Space for 1 or 2 shifts per week. kitchenrentaltc@gmail.com ____________________________________________ MEIJER IS NOW HIRING ALL POSITIONS Responsible for delivering remarkable customer service by providing customers with exceptional product knowledge, efficient service and a friendly attitude. jobs.meijer.com ____________________________________________ LOCAL QUALITY HUMIFIED COMPOST -KRULL’S Composting Builds soil 60+ years!

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If you enjoy recreation or retail, there may be a spot for you! Full & Part Time Available. https://crystalriveroutfitters.com/employmentopportunities/ ____________________________________________ CFO/CONTROLLER Ready to make a lasting and positive impact in one of Michigan’s most beautiful four-season towns? Goodwill Northern Michigan, headquartered in Traverse City, is seeking a new CFO/Controller to continue our work as a communityowned nonprofit working to support regional housing and food stability, as well as workforce development. We’re one of Northern Michigan’s largest nonprofits and largest employers, and our CFO/Controller is a thoughtful, forward-thinking, and skilled business leader. Applications will be accepted until 4.30.2021 https://www.goodwillnmi.org/ cfocontroller _________________________________________ MUSIC HARMONICA PLAYER looking for jump/swing blues band (847) 420-0112 ____________________________________________ INTERNSHIP - MUSIC INDUSTRY Music Industry veteran seeks ‘the like minded’ to create a start-up 231 392-6121 ____________________________________________ DAN’S AFFORDABLE HAULING: Will haul away junk, debris, misc. Estate, foreclosures, and clean ups. Free estimates. Call (231)6201370 or (231)499-8684 ____________________________________________ AFFORDABLE HANDYMAN AND CLEANUP: Need a spring cleanup? Then Mike’s your guy from cleaning out the basement to power washing the garage. Staining the deck or mowing the lawn.Cheaper than any contractor231-871-1028

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Northern Express Weekly • april 19, 2021 • 23

24 • april 19, 2021 • Northern Express Weekly