Tulip City Dispatch

  Right away, opening the bottle, I'm hit with an aroma that reminds me of childhood; Play Doh and grocery store bulk candy.  As I take a sip and roll it around in my mouth, I'm hit with a heavy sweetness - similar to Pepsi Vanilla, but with a cloying nature...and as I drink it, I still  get that Play Doh aroma on the nose.  As I've continued to drink and the beverage has warmed up a bit, the cola flavor has subsided and the Peep flavor has become more prominent - little science content:  The carbonation in a soda actually tricks your brain into thinking it's got a very slightly bitter taste...that's why sparkling water tastes  different than still water; that's why Nitro Pepsi (and nitro beers) taste different than their carbonated counterpart.  So, as this bottle of Pepsi x Peeps (Peepsi from here on out) warms up and gets flat, the flavor is going to change. Pepsi has often played with flavors - so this Peepsi is nothing new in the grand scheme of things.  In

 Once again, I busted out the ol' PVC cutter and chopped up some golf balls!  I've accrued a small assortment of golf balls over the last year, so in preparation for the 2023 golf season, I thought I'd share my findings with Teh Intarnetz! Comparing 3 of the "Poor Man's ProV1" ball - top is a Cut Grey, middle is a Top Flite Gamer, bottom is a Kirkland Supreme V2.  Of these 3, the Top Flite Gamer works best for me.  The Kirkland feels really good to hit in the middle of the season (warm temps, dry weather, etc.), but many an Internet Forumite have talked about how spinny Kirklands are. These are a couple golf course finds - top is a Srixon Softfeel, bottom is a Precept Powerdrive.  Notice the 2-piece construction, which is pretty typical for a golf ball that sells for less than $20 a dozen (not that that's a bad thing by any means, it's just not something that's seen on tour-level balls) More 2-piece balls - top/orange is a Wilson Ultra 50, bottom/b

 The 2023 West Michigan Golf Show has come and gone.  This is my 4th year attending, so I've become accustomed to the regular booths and vendors - Maple Hill has the biggest booth in the show, Treetops Resort has their Hole In One challenge , etc. The 2022 show left me with an email inbox full of spam, so this year, I created an alternate email account specifically for golf spam.  Trouble is, in 2023, they rolled out a feature at every booth wherein you'd scan your ticker (pre-loaded with your email address) in order to enter their contests and giveaways, so my golf spam email address was moot. Speaking of, in years past, I walked out with a bag full of trinkets - ball markers, tees, stickers, coupons, etc.  The 2023 show seemed a little low on swag.  In fact, it felt like there were fewer vendors overall. There was one guy who had spent time at the PGA Trade Show in Florida who brought a bunch of PGA merch and pre-production balls up to sell...In 2022, I bought a bunch of Brid

 I've just learned about this yesterday - despite living here and vacationing near the festival nearly my entire life  I've remained totally unaware of a radical feminist music festival in the woods of Oceana County, Michigan.  I'm just some boring cishet dude, so I hope I can do this story justice (even though it's not my story to tell). From the woods about a half hour north of the Electric Forest Festival , the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival ran from 1976 to 2015.  The whole event was supposed to be built, staffed, run, and attended by women.  From their website , "The Festival takes place on 650 acres of remote Michigan woodlands, with options ranging from a solitary deep-woods camping experience to a fireside urban site with neighbors from around the globe." The entire Womyn's Music Festival is rooted in the womyn-born womyn movement , and as such, is a branch of second-wave radical feminism that is exlusionary of trans individuals.  Trans-excl