Maria Stuart's blog

**Editor's note: This piece repeatedly uses a sanitized version of a commonly used profanity.**

While going through a second interview with the Howell Public Schools Board of Education during a public meeting on Wednesday, superintendent candidate Ron Wilson used the word, “a--hole.”

Now, he used the word only when pressed to do so. And it wasn’t in the context of “Oh, (insert name here), I hear you’re an a--hole,” or, “Can you speak up, a--hole?"

This year, as most of us struggle with cutting costs and keeping our financial lives on track, the county’s librarians have come up with a fun Livingston Reads! program that’s full of comfort and joy.

Truly.

If anyone knows how tough times are these days, it’s Livingston County’s librarians. Business at the county’s libraries has never been better as people look to ride out the deep recession by taking advantage of the services offered throughout the community.

This is a photo of Canadians responding to the low number of Olympic medals they've received in Vancouver so far.

The photo is making the rounds on the Internet as the health care debate in Washington, D.C., drags on and on and on.

Wonder who'll have the last laugh, eh?

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As I watched the snow falling outside, my thoughts turned to big snowstorms of the past. I remembered the winter I was pregnant with my son, when it snowed a few inches every day for three weeks straight. We all moved slowly through the kind of hard, dreary winter days that send those with means on cruises to warmer climes, leaving those of us without dreaming of spring.  

Count me among those disappointed with the decision on the part of Howell Public Schools administrators to do away for this year with fifth-grade camp, the annual rite of passage for kids as they transition from elementary to middle school.

As we prepare for Livingston County’s version of “Snowmageddon,” think of a snow day at home as an opportunity to do something nice for yourself.

Baking from scratch is a wonderful snow day activity. As well as warming your home, the smell of freshly baking bread is one that just can’t be duplicated, and since you control the ingredients, you can be assured that the result is healthier than anything you’ll find at the supermarket.

Maybe you can go home again.

At least that’s how it felt today at Brunner’s, which opened in the Promenade Mall on Grand River Avenue just east of downtown Howell.

Or, is it more accurate to say, “reopened”?

It was Brunner’s several years ago before sisters Jeannie Karagiorgos and Sia Kupfer, as well as Karagiorgos’ husband, Angelo, sold the business to the owners of the Holiday Grill in 2006. As first reported on Livingstontalk.com, the Holiday Grill closed in December.

One of the most romantic gifts anyone’s ever given me is a copy of “Dashiell Hammett: Five Complete Novels.” The book contains nearly the sum of Hammett’s life’s work. The novels are: “Red Harvest,” “The Dain Curse,” “The Maltese Falcon,” “The Glass Key,” and “The Thin Man.”

There is one reason why Livingston County has long battled a reputation as a haven for racists, a place where minorities, especially blacks, should fear to tread: Bob Miles.

Miles, who died in 1992, was a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. He lived about 10 miles north of county-seat Howell on a 70-acre compound in Cohoctah Township called “The Mountain.” It was to that compound that white separatists, neo-Nazis and members of the Aryan Brotherhood swarmed from across the country for camaraderie, shared dreams of a whites-only world, and the burning of crosses.

SPOTLIGHT
The Livingston Arts Council announces its 2010 Acoustic Café schedule to help us all make it through the long cold winter:
Jan. 15 — Bob Milne, the ragtime piano virtuoso
Jan. 22 — Lance Sherwood and Mark Benson, local guys from Cohoctah Township who do keyboard and guitar covers
Jan. 29 — Jill Jack, a top-notch folk and rock singer
Feb. 5 — Jan Krist, a top Detroit area singer/songwriter