The Blogging Experience

I must sincerely apologize for not having any content for this week. I strive to get new posts up every Wednesday on the site, then I'll use Instagram throughout the week for small things that pop up, and I'll use Twitter to communicate and interact with journalists and other community members in Holland.

The reason I haven't gotten a new article up this week is simple: I didn't have time to put in any research. I've still got a backlog of topics to cover, but I simply ran out of time. It came to my attention that this blog had minimal presence on Google and other search engines - that just won't do. So, most of my efforts over the past seven days have been aimed at increasing my online presence. I know for a fact that I've had success getting the site itself indexed by Google, which is cool, and I think I've got some things in the works with Google itself...This whole thing is brand new to me, and I have no idea how to operate SEO and web presence, so I'm learning as I go.

With that, I'll start hitting the books again and get some quality content up for my 3 readers next week!

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Junk Food Review: Chocolatey Payday.

I saw an ad on my Instagram page for a chocolate-covered Payday bar. Jokingly, I took a screenshot, and posted it on my stories asking the question "Isn't this just a Baby Ruth?" A friend responded by saying that no, a Baby Ruth is peanuts surrounding caramel and chocolate-flavored nougat; the chocolate-covered Payday is peanuts in caramel-flavored nougat, dipped in chocolate. Now, candy bars are made from a few common ingredients: Chocolate, peanuts, nougat, and caramel. Chocolate and nougat is something like a 3 Musketeers. Chocolate, nougat, and caramel is something like a Milky Way. All 4 makes a Snickers bar. Chocolate and Peanuts is a Mr. Goodbar. Chocolate and caramel is either a Caramello or a type of Milky Way. Peanuts and caramel (no chocolate) is a Payday. And, chocolate, peanuts, and caramel led to the confusion that took me down the road to writing this article in the first place. I did what any sane person w...

The Eddie Bentz Bank Robbery

Prohibition is one of the most storied periods in American history. Urban myths and legends abound nationwide, with tales of folk heroes like Al Capone, Babyface Nelson, and John Dillinger. Tall tales are woven around organized crime, wild bootleggers, underground saloons, and well-dressed gangsters. There's something uniquely American about the DIY ethos of taking matters into your own hands, making illegal alcohol, and selling it through clandestine channels; stickin' it to the man like those in the illegal alcohol industry did. These stories are immortalized in movies like The Road To Perdition and Public Enemies, as well as TV series like HBO's Boardwalk Empire and, well, PBS's Prohibition. Many lakeshore towns in Western Michigan have tales of organized crime and bootlegging. Easy access to Lake Michigan meant that bootleggers had easy access to boat routes, safely out of reach of authorities. Booze was funneled in from Canada, then taken by boat to cities all aro...

What's The Deal With Charlie's Dump?

Charlie's Dump, the Georgetown Soccer Bowl, and Rosewood Park all describe the same common area in Jenison, Michigan, at the northeast corner of 20th Ave. and Rosewood St. It's, simply put, a giant pit surrounded by residential subdivisions (and lately, a nice playground). It was our local sledding hill. It was where we'd go in the winters. Every year, it seemed, one kid would come to school with a broken arm. There were low-key "gangs" that would push and shove you if you went down the wrong side of the 4-sided structure. And, late at nights, the bad kids (you know, the ones who would smoke cigarettes underneath the Rush Creek bridge on 12th Ave. or ride BMX bikes behind the Pizza Hut on Baldwin) would tip over the port-a-potties and push them down the hill. Starting at the rim and going down the hill, there's a bump about halfway down that served as a launch ramp for kids on sleds. The really cool kids could manipulate their sleds mid-air, doi...

Tulip City Dispatch

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