by
This post shares a Twitter exchange with a journalist who replied publicly, but wasn't being interviewed.
There's far more to like than dislike about a Michigan essay in The New York Times Magazine this Sunday.
Eric Spitznagel: "Fair or not, Devil's Night was part of my geographic identity." (Facebook photo)
Eric Spitznagel, a widely published Chicago freelancer and author who grew up in this state and visits each summer, says it has "everything that a person could reasonably want or need."
It has rock jewelry, perfect views of the aurora borealis, Mackinac Island fudge, winning college football teams, no toll roads, more than 120 lighthouses and endless beachfront property, stretched across a longer coastline than any state’s save for Alaska’s.
But the devil is in the details, particularly when one off-key detail treats Devil's Night as still a Detroit embarrassment.
"Detroit [is] the only U.S. city with an annual holiday dedicated to looting and fires," he claims in paragraph five of a 14-paragraph piece published two decades after that ugliness began receding into (ahem) the ashes of history.
Quick clicks at Wikipedia reach a Devil's Night page that shows why Spitznagel's spitball misses.
As a result of the [community] efforts, fires plunged to near-ordinary levels in the first decade of the 21st century. . . . 2015 saw the lowest recorded number of fires, with only 52 fires recorded and only 24 considered possibly arson.
Dusting off Devil's Night in 2017 for attempted cleverness is out of bounds, or should be, even for someone calling himself a smart ass and humorist.
So I call it out, gently at first because overall he delivers a snappy salute to "the state's many charms."
@ericspitznagel @NYTmag Nugent and Flint are in bounds. Not so that expired reference to "the only U.S. city with an annual holiday dedicated to looting and fires."
— Alan Stamm (@APStamm) April 21, 2017
The essayist engages with humor before doubling down with a phrase -- "fair or not" -- that's hardly a slam-dunk defense Here's our conversation in full, though not initially envisioned as content for a post:
@APStamm @NYTmag There's another city that celebrates Devil's Night now? Mazel tov!
— Eric Spitznagel (@ericspitznagel) April 21, 2017
@ericspitznagel @NYTmag 2/ And there never was looting. (Fires burned abandoned homes)
— Alan Stamm (@APStamm) April 21, 2017
I like your essay & regret you stooped for an unfair quip via old stereotype
@APStamm @NYTmag I hear you. But growing up in Michigan, this was part of our mythology. Fair or not, Devil's Night was part of my geographic identity.
— Eric Spitznagel (@ericspitznagel) April 21, 2017
@APStamm @NYTmag It felt like fair game to me because it's something, as a Michigander, I've had to defend. Or feel weird about. That was my point.
— Eric Spitznagel (@ericspitznagel) April 21, 2017
Emily Gordy, a Detroit ad agency project manager with 2015 and 2016 University of Michigan degrees, joins our tweet chat as Thursday night turns into Friday:
@ericspitznagel @APStamm @NYTmag If you had to defend it, why provide more fodder for detractors by calling it one of the state's faults?
— Em (@emgordy) April 21, 2017
But wait -- there's one more thing.that troubles me, as Peter Falk would say. The Chicagoan's love letter to his ex-state includes a less annoying slip about another ex-resident.
"Nobody thought Tim Allen would move to Michigan," Spitzagel writes of the comic with diplomas from Seaholm High in Birmingham and Western Michigan University (Class of '76).
But hey now, why should a wise ass and humorist fret about a few stray facts?
