Ye Olde Train Station...

Hackfest92-Wolverine/IndianRiver

Who's having the best time at this gathering?  Clearly Michelle.

And the Most Perfectly-Posed Award goes to... Matty.

Most distracted? Amira.  Most determined not to smile?  Maggie.

Alas, there will be no more HackFests at Ye Old Train Station...

we sold it a few years back.  It now serves as a canoe, kayak, and

tube livery, catering to the annual influx of tourists (AKA,

 "Fudgies - Northern Michigan has lots of fudge shops).

  C'est la vie!

Marion Maidens...

From the HackFests' Past pile...

HackFest 2004, Gettysburg, PA - While countless thousands of Civil War

victims lie mouldering in their graves around them, these four cousins

 enjoy an uneasy chuckle together.  HackFest '04, organized by His

Eminency, Commissioner Emeritas W. O. Marion, is widely

 considered to be the most educational of our annual gatherings,

 though it did provoke weeks of nightmares (many involving

 Confederate General A.P. Hill) in some of the more

 impressionable attendees.

Scary dude:  Ambrose Powell Hill

The hits just keep on coming...

Delicate Steve's patriarch and publicist passed this along... Click HERE.

The ultimate example of making the best of a heartbreaking situation...

This video is veers on being an SNL skit...but it's not. 
It's about a couple and their 19-year-olds twins.  Oh, make
that conjoined twins.

Click right HERE.

Happy Fadder's Day...

The Marion-Stagg betrothal, June 15, 1986, Saline, MI

The Birthday Boy...

Mary Ella and Matt, 1985

The utterly exhausted mother, staring blankly ahead at the

TV she was too tired to even turn on.  The newborn son,

 now several weeks old, as content as they come, already

 dreaming of Titleist golf  balls arcing majestically onto

 the green, baby bottles full of National Bo, and his next

 jar of Gerber creamed oysters.

Ahhh...those halcyon days of babydom/young motherhood --

well worth looking back on and cherishing on this of all days. 

Happy Birthday Matty!

A Milestone Year...

Char, Rose, Linda

We'll always remember 2011 as bittersweet...It's the year that Rose

passed away; it's also, simultaneously, the year that Linda Wirth

 would have turned 60 and it's the 10th anniversary of her death. And

finally, it's the year that Joel and Char are tying the proverbial knot.

That momentous event is coming up on July 3rd in Key West.  

So take a moment and remember Rose and Linda and think happy

thoughts about the soon-to-be-betrothed....  

Vote Early and Vote Often...

D.S. Himself

NPR's All Songs Considered is soliciting voters for its

"Best Music of the Year (So Far)" feature.  Click HERE and

cast your ballot for our boy Delicate Steve.

THAT MEANS YOU.

The Way He Were…

The Birthday Boy Himself, showing how he used to celebrate
 surviving another year:  by  attempting to drain a bottomless keg.
 (As always, the keg won – then, in those good old MAD-less, DD-less days,
 Mikey drove Himself home, closing one eye and squinting with the
 other to bring some clarity to the road ahead.)

Tonight, however -- responsible, reflective, old -- he’ll cut to
 the chase and just stay home.  A couple of glasses of merlot
 with Donna’s Special Dinner,  maybe a cigar out back with Casey,
then an ice-cold Yeungling to grip  while nodding off in the 5^th inning
 of the Yankees’ game.  Now THAT’s the mature way to celebrate.

All the Best on your Big Day, Mikey J!

Who ARE these people?!?

Found this vintage shot buried our old desktop computer in the

basement (welcome back to Windows 98!) that I was relegated to

until I finally sprang for my brand new, shiny new Toshiba laptop

in the wake of the sad demise of my trusty Dell machine.

   We were gathered in A2 in honor of Rose Julia who had graced

 our presence on her annual visit, circa 2001-2. 

If memory serves me correctly, one of us is photoshopped in.  Try

to pick that person out.  Also, clearly, it was football season, as I

am wearing my beloved Michigan sweatshirt (which I wore ONLY

during football season until I gifted it to RJ a few years ago and which

HE now wears only during football season -- and when cleaning the

family toilets in the off season, if the Wolverines have a shitty year).

  Note young buck Logan holding onto that football for dear life.

Factoid:  The aforementioned sweatshirt is now more than 30 years old.

We all know the bad Donald. Here's the good one...

Cox Classic Commish MJ reminds us that The Donald,

as meatheaded as he is these days, was at one time a vocal

Friend of Steve. 

Click right here HERE. 

Note: Look for Hitchcockian appearance
 of  the Commissioner Himself at the start
 of the video....

A sad farewell...

The Gray Fox

Another great Tiger from the 1968 World Series winners has

gone down swinging.  Click HERE for more.

The Second Coming (of George Dubya, that is)...

Click Here:  Sarah's take on Paul


Then Click Here:  Classic W

Just plain depressing...

POOP SCOOPING IN JACKSON

We will scoop your pets poop so you don't have to! Discounts for seniors

 and military. Now offering a free initial cleanup! Call today for a poo free

 yard. www.jacksonpoopscoopers.com... 517-879-1776

Yeah. Right.

We have our 2009 Volvo for sale on craigslist...
which means we have to deal with knuckleheads
like this, so ironically named Samantha Trust (wink, wink)...

samantha trust to me
show details 6:52 PM (14 hours ago)

Hi there, Thank you for getting back to me.Can you assure me that the
vehicle is in good state and that i will not be disappointed with it
and I'm ready to pay your asking price.To be honest, i wanted to buy
this for my father as a surprise birthday gift,he has being there for
me and doesn,t deserve something less but the issue is I'm a marine
contractor and i just got a contract which i am doing presently and
The contract is strictly no call,due to the lack of reception on the sea
area,,But I'm able to access email anytime as we will make use of
laptop so my only quickest payment option is PayPal as i can send
money via PayPal anytime.Moreso i choose paypal for this transaction
cause i want to avoid the scams going down on the internet this days,and
want the both party to be on a safe side cause paypal security measure is
unbeatable.SinceI'm requesting this transaction to be done via PayPal, i will be
responsible for all the pay pal fee/charges on this transaction and if
you don't have an account with paypal, its pretty easy, safe and
secured to open one. Just log on to http://www.paypal.com/. I hope we can make
the purchase as fast as possible? I have a mover that will come for it
once payment clears and they will be handling the title for me.So i
look forward to hear from you soon.
Many thanks.
--
Wanna purchase it,could you kindly tell me more?????????

A tale of two cities...

The Colesseum, Rome, built circa 80 AD

(and still going strong)

Tiger Stadium, Detroit, 1912-1999 AD

 RIP