Update

Report: stuck boat still stuck

Happy stuck boat day everybody

we need a Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald about Amelia Earhart

this is important journalism

oh no

been a few coyotes at the cemetery lately

autocorrect for no reason I can fathom just added a little accent in the phrase "press reléase" and I'm keeping it that way

Heckled on my bike by a seemingly pro-bike driver to get IN the bike lane, sort of felt worse than the usual anti-bike variety of driver heckling

Getting back to trash history

me on my deathbed, on a Tuesday,

He was there… 😢

Haymarket Martyrs' Monument, Forest Home Cemetery, Forest Park, Illinois.

We only have another week of after-8 p.m. sunsets in Michigan, so I wrote (again) about why our sunsets are so late in the first place. How Eastern Time was won: open.substack.com/pub/littlede...

hell yeah, can’t wait to see this for myself one day

Look at my mom and dad’s beautiful ghost dog

Dad was just reminiscing about old Detroit TV shows. His favorite was TRAFFIC COURT, a show where actual cops and witnesses and a real traffic court judge (but actor defendants) re-enacted cases. There was also a similar JUVENILE COURT show. Incredible, detroitkidshow.com/traffic_cour...

I try not to use in-flight WiFi because there’s nothing better than reading a book on a plane but it turns out something that’s almost as good is a little Newspapers dot com joy ride

Current* conditions near Sturgeon Bay, WI:

Rewatching “Death Becomes Her” which was a big family classic growing up. Amazing that I was not allowed to watch “My Girl” (kid dies!) but this (reanimated corpses in service of beauty standards satire!) was fine

How is this carriage still for sale

Hello to this just-emerged cicada

I’ve been thinking about this carriage for weeks

Again, the garbage ... again. littledetroithistoryletter.substack.com/p/internatio...

Never not going to read a Colin Dickey story about a weird noise

Again, the garbage ... again. littledetroithistoryletter.substack.com/p/internatio...

my son just called me “older than a YouTuber’s dad”; unclear whether he meant this as a burn or a simple statement of fact

Photographs of early #Juneteenth celebrations across Texas and beyond: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/juneteenth-photographs #JuneteenthDay #juneteenth2021

Abandoned Michigan cemetery unearths history of segregation — even in death www.bridgemi.com/quality-life... via @bridgemi.com

"For politicians, supporting National History Day should be like kissing babies." I judged a local History Day contest this year and I couldn't agree with this more. (amazing photos here too!) www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/a...

I wrote about the garbage littledetroithistoryletter.substack.com/p/detroit-ga...

I had no idea

if you'd like to add a historic cemetery stroll to this itinerary you know who to call www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

When an elusive source finally gets back to me the day before my deadline

When insect fossils are this intact, just looking at them makes you go WHOA. Plus, preserved body structures reveal how their group evolved! In my latest for @cnn.com, I wrote about how a truly stunning cicada fossil from Germany's Messel Pit places singing cicadas in Europe earlier than expected 🧪

did some reporting on the impact of DOGE's cuts to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the court cases that are preserving the agency (for now), Trump's threats to slash federal arts spending, and the importance of IMLS to libraries and schools everywhere: slate.com/life/2025/05...

is this going to make me obsessed with local trash management history? it is, isn't it?

an even better antique Detroit headline than "what are we going to do about the river"

LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED, RIGHT *presses play on Kenneth Clark’s CIVILISATION* *Bach organ music blares*

Indigenous people have regained control of a sacred burial mound in Detroit. It's located at Historic Fort Wayne and dates back more than 1,000 years. "....This is truly what a government-to-government relationship should look like," said Tribal Chairperson Dorie Rios.

A flock of tundra swans flew over my house at dusk tonight and once I realized it wasn’t a bunch of puppies in distress it was one of the most beautiful natural sights of my life

Cutting room floor: In 1988, Alex Pollock pitched a Detroit-Windsor ferry project, describing it as a "dry run" for a gondola lift that would have reused the actual MART cars. (Detroit Free Press, June 3, 1988)

OK, here's why I've been reading so much about the MART: Several Detroiters were inspired by it and in the mid-1980s tried to adapt the concept to our international river border. One chapter in a whole 50-year gondola saga! littledetroithistoryletter.substack.com/p/detroit-wi...

After Decades, the Full African American Civil War Memorial Museum Is Finally Coming to DC www.washingtonian.com/2025/03/04/a... #blackhistorymonth #tellemwhatwedid

OK, here's why I've been reading so much about the MART: Several Detroiters were inspired by it and in the mid-1980s tried to adapt the concept to our international river border. One chapter in a whole 50-year gondola saga! littledetroithistoryletter.substack.com/p/detroit-wi...

Leave me alone

Took the kids roller skating today. This rink used to have a live organist

was very excited to hear about this research yesterday! love the detective work.

NO KINGS, ONLY TRAINS

I ❤️ Dan and I'm not afraid to say so on the record !