Tulip City Dispatch

I haven't written an academic paper since 2011, so it's quite a formidable task to gather sources, write citations, and assemble everything in a way that's easily digestible.  I've been poring over old papers I'd written, MLA style journals, and as many other sources I can find, but it's still tough.  The cool part is that I'm not bound by the expectations or schedule of a professor, but the flip side is that I have no specific rubric to adhere to.  I'm quickly understanding how Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcasts stretch to 8 hours or more:  It's not just the topic at hand, it's all of the events around the topic at hand, the hows and the whys, and the greater historical context that gives your readers (his listeners) the best understanding.  And, to reiterate my intro post, I'm simply looking for light, fun topics!  I have no desire to write volumes on World War I , like Carlin does.  I'm looking for something a little deeper th...

I was recently laid off from work, so I thought I'd start a blog to kill some time.  I wanted to highlight some of the oddities in Holland, Michigan.  Holland's a lakeside tourist town, so most of the more unusual aspects of town are already well-documented; the last remaining, fully functional, wooden windmill in the Western hemisphere, and the surrounding Dutch village, for example.  Wooden shoe factories and tulip farms; hell, even our annual Tulip Time festival make Holland unique, but I was looking for deep cuts, hidden spots, locals-only venues, and other truly weird stuff.  What I found was so much more than that. I started my search at the library, picking up and paging through assorted books in the Local History section.  I was expecting to find a collection of 10-foot tall bronze tulips in a billionaire's backyard, evidence that AC Van Raalte was cremated and his ashes mixed in the mortar at Pillar Church, or maybe that Mad Hatter from New Holland Br...