So, this week the high and mighty in Lansing have deemed it permissible to open up indoor, eat-out dining. Michigan restaurants were thrown a bone — a little life saver and allowed to open at a 25 percent capacity and to stay open only to 10 p.m. Which kind of reminds me of a comedy sketch from Bud Abbott and Lou Costello.
In the movie the Naughty Nineties (released in the mid 1940s), comedians Bud and Lou find themselves on a riverboat. If memory serves me correct, somebody falls overboard, splashing and hollering and hoping for help. In the skit, Costello goes into his pocket, pulls out a roll of candy and pitches into the river a nickel-sized “life-saver” candy — not exactly what the drowning man needed.
That’s sorta’ like what Michigan has offered the restaurant industry, which was closed down much of the year 2020.
Last month Bridge.com reported, “Nearly 1 in 6 of the state’s 17,000 restaurants closed permanently during the pandemic.” That’s a couple of hundred shy of 3,000 restaurants closed. Restaurants, before 2020, employed nine percent of the state’s workers, generating three percent of the state’s payroll.

I’ve talked to restaurant owners and I am here to tell you, the ability to now only make up to 25 percent of their capacity is not a recipe for keeping a business open. It surely won’t thrive.
To help local restaurants, we here at your ever-lovin’ community paper have come up with our own Restaurant Relief Program. For four weeks — the last two weeks of February and the first two weeks in March — we will give dine-in restaurants four, half page, color ads.
People want to go out and eat, but they have been pretty much blocked from doing so by state policy. Starting this week, they will look for new dining experiences. They may go back to their old favorites, however chances are they will also experiment with new eateries. To that end, we are going to deliver all these restaurant ads to nearly every home from Goodrich down through Clarkston, over to Orion and up into the Oxford/Addison township community. Over 50,000 homes in this area will get these restaurant ads.
If you know someone in the local restaurant business, share this with them, or have them contact me. This is a great opportunity I’d hate for them to miss!
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Saw a headline which stated something like, “About 2/3rds of Michigan kids under 18 live at home with married couples.”
Which, I guess is better than one third, but not as good as, say three fourths. As often, I was curious how we locals shake out against the state. So, from the US Census Bureau we find . . .
In the Brandon school district, 79 percent of the kids live in a married household; 14 percent with a single mom and seven percent with a single dad.
In the Clarkston school district, 77 percent of the kids live in a married household; 14 percent with a single mom and eight percent with a single dad.
In the Goodrich school district, 82 percent of the kids live in a married household; 10 percent with a single mom and eight percent with a single dad.
In the Lake Orion school district, 80 percent of the kids live in a married household; 14 percent with a single mom and six percent with a single dad.
And, in the Oxford school district, 82 percent of the kids live in a married household; 12 percent with a single mom and six percent with a single dad.
No pithy commentary, just thought I’d share.
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Received an email with the subject line reading: Are You a Microaggressor?
Truth be told, by definition, probably, yes.
While the email was enlightening, one thing kinda’ triggered some uncomfortableness, deep down in my soul, that was the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assist finding microaggressors and harassment. What shivers me timbers about this is how this technology will be used. Will AI now read all emails or listen into all phone calls? What parameters will this software have? Who has access to these programs?
What are we willing to give up in the hopes for a utopian society?
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Received this email from reader Stephen S.:
Don, As one who has attained over seven decades of intrinsic “wisdom,” I am aware that my most important knowledge is that I don’t know … what I don’t know! (When I was younger, I knew a LOT!) However, the things I know … I KNOW! One of those things is that you’re spot on with regard to folks who “turned away from religion” have placed their faith elsewhere and one of those is the golden calf of politics. I’ve also grown weary of adults who play with a ball and/or pretend to be someone they aren’t (actors) being described as “role models” and “heroes!” I often feel I must have dozed off and awakened in an alternate universe devoid of honor, truth and common sense. Then I remember I don’t know what I don’t know! There must be some reason for all of this?
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Thanks for reading and writing Stephen. Anyone else wants to drop me a line, send it to this email, DontRushDon@gmail.com

  don rush, don’t rush me