Back down to earth with new job,
Farms resident told her firing story

Far from the glamour of the Oscar telecast Sunday night were men and women watching at home across the nation, rooting for “Up in the Air” to win a few awards. These were the real-life victims of downsizing featured in the George Clooney film, about a man who makes his living doing the dirty work bosses are too cowardly to do – firing people.

One of them was Erin Welsh-Krengel from Grosse Pointe Farms. Welsh-Krengel, 31, was happily toiling as a media planner for an advertising agency which served General Motors when the gurus at the one-time auto giant pulled the plug on her brand.

She planned to watch the Oscars with a few friends, but also plans to be at the Woods branch of the library March 16 at 7 p.m. for a special screening. read more...

Do new Pointe businesses herald
an economic spring? Let's hope so

A restaurant of the year award, a new grill in the Park, a coney island cafe called Drummy Dogs across from South High School, an alliance of entrepreneurs in the City and a new magazine for the Pointes – all could be signs of an economic spring at the end of a long, cold winter.

Hour Detroit magazine’s designation of the Dirty Dog Café as the Restaurant of the Year for 2010 gives us two such recognized eateries within 100 yards of each other on the Hill in the Farms, the Hill Seafood and Chop House being the other.

Hour’s writer Christopher Cook said this about the magazine’s choice this year:
“Chef Andre Neimanis’ cooking … exemplifies [Nat] Adderley’s aphorism — ‘Son,  jazz is knowing all the rules of music so that you can know how to break them without breaking the music.’"

Neimanis "knows how to break them. And he does so exquisitely to achieve his American bistro menu – taking traditional American dishes, breaking them down and rebuilding them by adding a culinary riff here and there and spinning them forward.”
  read more...

Raise a glass and say 'Scholes,'
for an unsung All-American

Before Clarke Currie Scholes died, he made arrangements for his friends to get together and have a party at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial.

You may remember him over the past four decades as a tall, rugged-looking, white-haired man who took part in Grosse Pointe Theatre productions. In many ways they were his family. 

The man whose name sounds like a Swedish drinking toast died of heart failure at Henry Ford Hospital Feb. 5 with little media note.

The passing of the five-time All-American and three time NCAA swimming champion, who is enshrined in three Halls of Fame, was reported by Tim Staudt, a sports anchor for WILX Television in Lansing. 

“Clarke Scholes, a 1952 Olympic gold medalist, an MSU athletics Hall of Famer, died Friday in Detroit. Scholes, who had heart problems, was 78. (He was 79.)  He won the 100-meter freestyle in Helsinki in a then-Olympic-record time of 57.4 seconds.  He won five NCAA swim titles for Michigan State from 1950-52 and two years ago was enshrined in the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame.  He went on to become a manufacturer’s rep after his college days.” read more...

A quilt trip to the Ford House
launches new memories for guests

Since Kathleen Mullins took over as president of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in the Shores, the lovely 87-acre site has been abuzz with new activities, a new mission statement and a new strategic plan.

All were evident in the latest show at the activities center, where a talented calligrapher and an amazing quilting artist have combined their works. The exhibit kicked off with a reception for the two artists — Suzanne Marshall and Eleanor Winters — and drew quilters and quilting fans from across the metro area.

They call the show “Pieced Together — Inspirations in Collages and Quilts,” and it is free and open to the public Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Wayne State professors, city officials, retired newspaper executives, attorneys and others mingled during the opening reception, while Mullins jokingly worried that someone might baptize the new carpet with red wine. read more...

On the lookout for local lions,
and a tireless booster moves on

If you travel to +42 degrees, 23.216 and -082 degrees, 53.863, you’ll find a couple of statuary lions. In fact they are the lions flanking the entrance to the Grosse Pointe War Memorial. They recently joined hundreds of other lion statues featured on Waymarking.com.

If you take a picture of yourself with the Alger House lions, you can post it on the site, which is devoted to noting points of interest, historical and otherwise, around the globe. One category is lions, 614 of them scattered across 25 pages. The Alger House lions made the list Jan. 28.

You have to wonder who collects this stuff, organizes and posts it with pictures on websites. Other lions that have made the list include a lion drinking fountain in Lufkin, Texas, the Mitty Monarch in front of Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose, Calif., and a couple of lions in front of a fire station in San Jose, Costa Rica. Oh, and a pair of Lions Club lions at Joe Adamo Memorial Park in South Porcupine, Ontario. read more...

Congregational minister speaks on
the power of prayer (but not GPS)

On his way to lecture at the Grosse Pointe Ecumenical Men’s Breakfast recently, the Rev. Richard Yeager-Stiver decided to use his GPS unit to navigate to Memorial Church on the lakefront.

Luckily he didn’t let his new technology dictate his moves. His unit advised him to turn left, which would have put him in Lake St. Clair, so he ignored it. But then the computer-generated directions switched to: You are in the lake, turn right. You are in the lake, turn right.

Yeager-Stiver, who leads the Grosse Pointe Congregational Church in the Farms, arrived safely for his lecture to the men of all faiths who gather weekly to learn about other religions and hear a 20-minute spiritual message.

The minister talked about the power of prayer and its importance in these perilous times. As an illustration he cited an apocryphal story about a Baptist church that started a campaign of petitions and prayers to block a local bar from erecting a new building. The week before the grand opening, as the story goes, lightning struck the building and it burned to the ground. read more...

Calling all saints, for the giving season;
year-round, they improve lives

A few years back on All-Saints Sunday, the senior pastor at Grosse Pointe Memorial church asked from the pulpit, “Do any of you know any saints?”

The question was meant rhetorically, so he was taken aback when a faithful parishioner called out, “Sure,” and named Carol Marks of the Woods, the director of pastoral ministries at the church. The congregation obviously agreed with retired dentist Tom Singelyn because they applauded the choice.

Ms. Marks’ labor of love–and it certainly is that–-is to choogle around town on her motor scooter bringing cheer to the home- and hospital-bound. She does that with a 1,000-watt smile and a deep sense of caring for her fellow man.

The good news in this season of celebration is that Ms. Marks is not alone. read more...

'Peacemakers of the Year' set example
for service in retirement and life

It is a simple record of caring for others that could serve as an example for us all:

Eight trips to the Gulf Coast near New Orleans to help fix the catastrophic damage wreaked by Hurricane Katrina; a month at a Heifer International farm in Arkansas where they rented a house and labored by day; one a volunteer at Crossroads and Gleaners; the other works at Habitat for Humanity each day.

One is organizing and planning an international mission trip to Honduras next year and both were instrumental in getting the kitchen repainted at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit so the recipients of the Everyone Eats program could dine in fresh surroundings.

Jim and Mary Garlough of the Park are both retired teachers from the Grosse Pointe Public Schools system. Jim, who started his career as a football coach, ended it at South teaching Advanced Placement history courses. Mary, once the South choir director, ended her career a few yards from their home as a music teacher at Defer. read more...

'Goodfellows' brings back memories
of a scrappy underdog of a team

Rick Gosselin, who started as an altar boy at St. Ambrose, went on to cover 23 Super Bowls, write thousands of words about the National League Football and get inducted into a newspaper hall of fame.

But when he returned last week to St. Ambrose to tell the stories and anecdotes of St. Ambrose’ remarkable football teams of the 50’s and 60’s, he drew a crowd of football players and fans who weren’t there to hear stories from the Super Bowl press box. “I feel like I’ve come full circle,” the Dallas Morning News sportswriter said.

“Goodfellows: The Champions of St. Ambrose” is the story of the Cavaliers, a tiny Class C Catholic high school on the edge of the Grosse Pointes that didn’t have a football field or even a practice field; the coach’s office was a converted coal bin. Yet it won the Detroit Goodfellows championship in 1959 by beating public school giant Cooley High from across town. But “Goodfellows: The Champions of St. Ambrose” is more than that. read more...

'Goodfellows' bring back memories;
join in next week at St. Ambrose

Rick Gosselin is a storyteller. And if you didn’t grow up the Grosse Pointes in the 1950’s and ‘60’s or you weren’t a fanatic high school football fan, the story he will tell Wednesday (Oct. 21) at 7:30 p.m. in The Ark at St. Ambrose in the Park will amaze you.

It is the story of the St. Ambrose Cavaliers, a tiny Class C Catholic high school on the edge of the Grosse Pointes that didn’t have a football field or even a practice field; the coach’s office was a converted coal bin. Yet it won the Detroit Goodfellows championship in 1959 by beating public school giant Cooley High from across town. But “Goodfellows: The Champions of St. Ambrose” is more than that.

In the decade from 1957 to 1967 St. Ambrose High “produced 12 all-state football players, future National Football League players, future Big Ten and NFL coaches and Super Bowl champs.” read more...