Skip to main content

Tulip City Dispatch's 2024 Year In Review!

 The good:

  1. My top post (by page views) in 2024 was the review comparing Chocolate Payday to Baby Ruth.  Odd because I honestly forgot about writing that one.  And, I spent a LOT of time promoting other posts on various Discord servers and on BluSky.
  2. Speaking of BluSky, I've gotten consistently more hits from links on that site than I ever did from Instagram or from Twitter.  Give me a follow if you haven't already!  https://bsky.app/profile/tulipcitydispatch.bsky.social
  3. Got to meet a few Instagram followers in real life, which was kinda cool
  4. I've been hitting up bookstores a little more, and have acquired a few local history books that I hope to dive into
  5. Doeb's Pizza has really come into their own this year.  I always knew they had a lot of good potential, and they're absolutely hitting it on all cylinders
  6. I've recently discovered the deli/sandwich shop inside Ryke's Bakery and it's amazing.  There's high competition with Electric Hero for "Best Sandwich Shop Within Sight Of A Quality Carwash," and ironically, it's the same carwash.


The bad:

  1. I really need to revisit a few of my food articles - half of the pizza and burgers I rated don't exist anymore.  Goog's closed down during CoVid, then reopened a year later.  New Holland Brewing has redone their menu several times over since CoVid, and I cannot vouch for their burgers anymore.  Regarding pizza, one of the honorable mentions (CitySen) doesn't exist anymore, and I'd love to get something up regarding Doeb's Pizza.
  2. Speaking of pizza, Jet's has gone WAY downhill over the past 3-4 years.  Prices have gone up, they've changed cheese and sauce, and they stopped delivering to my house :(
  3. Speaking of prices, McAllister's Deli is quite pricey for what it is.
  4. Speaking of semi-gourmet sandwich shops, I miss Firehouse Subs :(

The ugly:

  1. Got my first hate email!  An account linked to a Boomer-adjacent TikTok account sent an email to me full of vulgarities and obscenities.
  2. Craft beer is in free fall - we've lost Hopland/Tulip City Brewstillery, Guardian, and Waypost locally, and dozens more breweries in the state of Michigan.  Production numbers have cratered.  What was once a glorious beacon of craft beer in West Michigan has now dulled to a dim flicker.
  3. This fuckin' guy.  Again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Merry Christmas from Tulip City!

I don't have a full article this week, but here's a little bit of trivia for you: While Holland is a predominantly Christian Reformed city, it was the early Methodists that sprung the Christmas spirit. While an 1867 Sunday School Christmas Program drew nearly 150 youngsters to Hope Church, it was several generations before the Reformed church allowed even Christmas trees into their sanctuaries, as Christmas trees were seen as Pagan symbols. Early Methodists adopted the 19th Century American spirit, and welcomed things like Christmas trees and even Santa Claus into their sanctuaries. I tried to determine exactly how long "several generations" were using Dr. Swierenga's book (and the sources he cites), but could not ascertain the exact time. It's almost certainly somewhere in the vicinity of 50 years (before the Christian Reformed Churches allowed 'pagan' Christmas symbols), which would put their allowing of such things into the early 20th century, but ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Cedar Swamp Village

Holland has only been a settled city for a little over 170 years. But, it's got a dense, unique history. I took an interest in local history during my college years at Northern Michigan University, and was able to take that interest back home after graduation. Recently, I began researching for this blog, and hanging out at the library, poring through the Local History section. I found an old, forboding looking book, entitled Memorials Of The Grand River Valley, flipped open to a seemingly random page, and read the passage "The Indian village, near the southeastern limits of the city,w as also a prominent landing-place. The log-houses, built by the Indians, were of great service to the newly arrived immigrants; and, as it appears, there never has been any trouble between the Red man and the Dutchman." This piqued my interest, as I live near the southeastern limits of Holland. Was there an Indian village in my own neighborhood that history forgot? Memorials ad...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Ghost Town in Hudsonville

When the term "ghost town" is brought up, one doesn't usually think of modern subdivisions and upper-middle class suburbs. The classic "ghost town" is usually applied to a town that was abandoned when a major industry dries up, leaving crumbling shells of buildings, maybe some artifacts, and nothing but memories.  You know the drill, overgrown storefronts, smashed windows, tumbleweeds, maybe a hobo or two. Briefly, there was an interurban rail system all around Western Michigan in the late 19 th and early 20 th century. I won't go into details, as the whole system is well-documented elsewhere, but the electric train systems allowed for the transportation of people all around the major metropolitan areas in West Michigan...Grand Rapids was a major hub, and they had lines going to Grandville, Jenison, and Hudsonville along Chicago Drive; south to Kalamazoo; and as it pertains to this story, to Holland and Saugatuck. The branch between Grand Rapids an...
Post a Comment
Read more