For most, the birth of a new year means a new beginning, a positive outlook. We leave the old year behind (good riddance) and look toward a bright future. We make plans, create new goals and reevaluate where we are and where we’re headed. For the majority of 2020, where we were was home and (for some) where we were headed was “to work.” We all wanted to get away … but couldn’t. Our trips and vacations were canceled, pastimes and gatherings limited and, although the pandemic continues, the new year brings hope for a return to normalcy. Who’s to say we won’t be able to visit a distant shore or exotic climate in summer or later?
Both a holiday treat and staple Christmas decoration, the candy cane is synonymous with falling snow, colorful lights, beaming kids and good, ol’ fashioned yuletide cheer. The candy cane is the No. 1 selling non-chocolate candy during the month of the December (and has been since it began being mass produced in the 1950s) with 90 percent of annual sales made between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The Mott Community College Campus has a guardian. Standing in front of Mott’s Ballenger Fieldhouse, a 600-pound, six-foot tall bronze bear statue keeps constant vigil over the campus and its students.
This year, it’s been just one thing after another. It feels as if we’ve been relentlessly bombarded with tragedy, challenges, negativity and fear. Every exhalation is a sigh and every new headline a headache. Feeling overwhelmed? It’s okay to take a break from time to time. If you need to relax and unwind, then Saturday, August 15 is your day – because nothing comes before your inner peace on National Relaxation Day.
In 1852, in the northwestern region of the Mitten, a Presbyterian missionary named Peter Dougherty went against the advice of the local inhabitants and planted the first cherry orchard on the Old Mission Peninsula in Grand Traverse Bay. To everyone’s surprise, his stone fruit crop flourished and soon thereafter, cherry trees dotted the land. The first commercial orchard was Ridgewood Farm near the Dougherty property and the first processing facility was built by the Traverse City Canning Company.
The poem above is one of the most beloved and well-known haikus in all of Japan written by Matsuo Basho, a master of the artform. The Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that reflects the relationship of nature and the Zen mind of the human condition. Haikus were created by Zen Buddhist monks and typically contain a total of 17 syllables shared between three lines of text. The English version of the Haiku systematically employs a 5-7-5 syllable line allocation. For example, the Haiku above has often been reworked in the 5-7-5 format to be:
On the north coast of Northern Ireland, in the County Atrim, sits the Giant’s Causeway. This wonder of nature is built of almost 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the tops of which are reminiscent of a cobblestone path. Almost 83 miles north on the Scottish Isle of Staffa lies Fingal’s Cave, the opening of which has the same geological formation. The areas are so uniquely similar that it is easy to envision a bridge of basalt connecting one point to another. If a bridge existed, who could have created such an intricate piece of architecture? Giants, of course.
Since 1839, when John Carter – a barber – walked down Saginaw Street, Black citizens have been an important and influential piece of Flint’s great history. They have changed the city for the better in the realms of education, commerce, health and Civil Rights, and continue to do so. They fought for much-deserved recognition and fair treatment, changing the entire country in the process. In honor of Black History Month, My City Magazine has compiled a list to recognize the African-Americans who have led the way to become the first of their own in the city.
We all know the lyrics. We all know the melody. We know the man who sang it, way back when. Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” is perhaps the most iconic Christmas song of all time. It is also the greatest selling single recording of all time according to the Guinness Book of World Records (over 50,000,000 copies). It wasn’t the first Christmas song, but it did help to launch a whole array of notable yuletide tunes. The only Christmas single that has even come close to the impact of “White Christmas” is Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song.” Strangely enough, the song wasn’t exactly written to be a hit single. It was written for a movie and initially conceived as a joke, at that.
One of Genesee County’s most notable roads is Hammerberg, which runs from the iconic block on 12th to Miller (and from Neithercut Elementary to Lincoln Park). The road was named in the early 1950s in honor of Owen Francis Patrick Hammerberg of Flint.
“Alas! Neither by day nor by night knew I the blessing of Rest any more! During the former, the creature left me no moment alone; and, in the latter, I started, hourly, from dreams of unutterable fear, to find the hot breath of the thing upon my face, and its vast weight – an incarnate Night-Mare that I had no power to shake off – incumbent eternally upon my heart!” – from “The Black Cat” by Edgar Alan Poe
