Editorial: Up North and Personal

Up North and Personal

By: Ken DeLaat

Well, here we are. A new name for a new column in a new venue.
After spending a decade and a half spouting opinions, spinning tales and splashing a bit of nonsense in print a decision has been made to relocate to a more technologically transmitted medium.
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If you are one of the literally dozens of folks who have read my column over the years (not including the relatives I was able to coerce into giving it a peek) there perhaps needs to be no introduction. You might be familiar with the ongoing obsession with solitary shoes abandoned alongside our...

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 nation’s highways (what does it mean?), the passion held for the Detroit Baseball Club known affectionately as “The Tig’s”, and an enduring affinity for road-trips, ice cream, and the four substantially good-looking, incredibly intelligent, extremely well-mannered and downright likeable grandchildren I share with my lifetime spousal companion Lil.

If you’re a new reader, perhaps one who has discovered N3 via word of facebook (which has replaced word of mouth) or stumbled across it while looking for something else like houseboat rentals or bean soup recipes, let’s use this time to get acquainted.

Having penned upwards in the area of 6-700 weekly pieces of predominantly preposterous perceptions, reactionary rants, and often obtuse opinions, describing what might be showing up in this little corner of Near North Now is no easy task. Subject matter is often vague and varied and always accompanied by a little alliteration and all too frequent parentheses.
There are, however, some duly noted tendencies to be found.

There exists a bit of a curmudgeonly characteristic to these writings, a condition born out of a natural cynicism and nurtured by the aging process that has landed me knee deep into the sexagenarian subdivision of my existence.
And yet it is hoped this petulant personae continues to be tempered by the abundance of wonderfully intriguing people who populate our area and the wealth of captivating stories to be told within our region and beyond.

This space generally doesn’t spread a lot of love toward the denizens of those bastions of bulls--- known as Lansing and D.C. I mean, granted, the bar for these folks is set pretty low in terms of anything other than self-preservation, but the doings in these cities have continued to disappoint even the lowest of expectations held and I remain persistently flabbergasted at how incompetent incumbents continue to thrive in our capitals and capitols despite significant shortcomings when it comes to job performance.

Thus, there will occur the occasional vitriolic venom vented in the direction of those who have hitched their star to a political profession.

While N3 is committed to focusing on local folks, local places and local goings-on this space might wander a bit from time to time visiting subjects and ideas that prove to be of some interest and intrigue.

At the very least this space will undoubtedly reveal how the world around us is experienced from what is perhaps an atypical vantage point (if one is to believe the opinions of way too many so-called ‘friends’).

If you’re a long-time reader, welcome to our new enterprise I hope you like what we’ve rolled out and will stick around to see us grow.
As to those who are among the uninitiated, well, thanks for coming by and prepare to be introduced to the people who seem to make recurring appearances in these pages. There is my aforementioned lifetime spousal companion the perpetually patient Lil , my friend Tim who always says he’s not my friend but really is, my significantly older siblings and various other folks who seem to find their way into this column from time to time.

Years ago while checking out a novel from one of my favorite library clerks, a woman who seldom seemed to smile and often barely acknowledged me when I tried to make conversation, had just dutifully stamped the due date into the book I was destined to be late in returning (possibly part of her social detachment).

She looked up and, again with no discernable smile, said “I like your column. Your humor is so self deprecating.”

“Well, I guess it helps to have such ample material,” I replied.
She paused a moment to consider my response then handed me the book and said,” Yes. I imagine it does.”

“Oh, and you owe $1.45 owed in fines.”
Ahhh fame.

Ken DeLaat is a free lance writer with a wandering mind, an inquisitive nature and what has been described as questionable clothing tastes. His thoughts have been found in local newspapers, online magazines, and, when personal discipline eludes him, forever embedded in the pages of social media.




















Note: In addition to an addiction to alliteration you may notice a penchant for periodic parentheses partiality. Oh, and a tendency toward episodic digression Please bear with me on this.