I don't think many Michigan residents call themselves "wolverines" anymore, except for that college football team I told you about. The name I hear most often is "Michiganders", I suppose because a gander is a male goose, and we have lots of wild geese around here. We call the people who go south for the winter "snowbirds", and they are mostly retired people who split their year between Michigan and Florida. The correct name for a real snowbird is "snow bunting", a sparrow like bird with white wings. They don't live around here, but we see them passing through on their spring and fall migrations.
Our winter snow is actually a big tourist draw. We have skiing, both downhill and cross country, and lots of snowmobile activity. The downhill skiing is not nearly as good as it is out West, but it's closer to home for people from Down Below. We have lots of public forest land that is crisscrossed with trails that can be used for snowmobiling and cross country skiing, which they don't have Down Below. When we get a mild winter like the last one, the shopkeepers cry about it because they count on the winter visitors to fill the gap between deer season and summer.
I think the Illinois and Indiana borders were adjusted to give both states a bit of lake frontage. Michigan and Wisconsin never missed it because we still have plenty. At the time, the U.P was considered a poor trade for Toledo, but most Michiganders today will tell you that we got the better part of that deal.
Lake Superior is the highest of the Great Lakes, Lakes Michigan and Huron are close to being equal in elevation, and it's all down hill from there. Saint Mary's River connects Superior to Huron at Sault Ste. Marie, which means "Saint Mary's Falls" in French. It's not really a waterfall, more like a rapids. The Sault Locks gets ships past it, with enough flow left over to generate electricity for the whole city. There are also some floodgates that can be opened and closed to regulate the levels of both Superior and Huron. When we are in a low lake level cycle, like we just came out of, the people on Huron accuse the people on Superior of hogging more than their share of the water and, during a high cycle, just the opposite. There are no control structures between Lakes Michigan and Huron, but there is a stiff current running under the Mackinac Bridge that is prone to reversing itself, sometimes in a matter of hours. The water from all three lakes flows down through Lakes Erie and Ontario to the St. Lawrence River, and thence to the Atlantic Ocean. Niagara Falls is in there somewhere, I think between Lakes Erie and Ontario.
Crayfish sometimes live in underground water when it's close to the surface, and they dig holes in the ground to get to it. You have probably seen crayfish holes in your life, but didn't know what you were looking at. The old timers certainly knew about them, for it was a sure sign that there was water to be found by digging a shallow hole yourself or, if you were in a hurry, sticking a hollow reed down a crayfish hole for a quick drink. I don't know what kind of diseases you could get that way, but those old timers were a tough and fearless breed indeed.
"Http" stands for "hyper text transfer protocol", and "www" stands for "world wide web". I don't know what the "://" strands for, but I'm sure it means something to the computers. You only need the "http://" if you know the URL and want to go directly to a site without searching for it. The "www" has absolutely no function anymore. If you type it in, your computer has been trained to disregard it.
I don't know why Americans aren't more interested in third parties. I think we are the only country in the world with a two party system. Actually it's not really a system, it's just a social custom. People will tell you that you're wasting your vote because your third party can't win. They can't win because nobody votes for them, and nobody votes for them because they can't win. Isn't that what they call "circular logic"?
No comments:
Post a Comment