How much winter driving have you actually done? Like literally — days, weeks, couple of months several years ago...

Totally agree. I live in lower MI, and I always buy FWD. Now if I lived in upper MI where they get a lot of deep snow and it's often colder, I could see the beauty of 4WD. But if you live where there’s plowing, I think FWD is where it’s at. My minivan (plus the fact that I don’t drive like an invincible idiot) keeps…

There’s no such thing as tiny stopping distance in actual winter weather, dude. Also, no amount of skill will save your ass in many winter situations — just lack of speed. Actual roads are not that predictable.

Michigander here, I feel you. I was doing 15 in an ice storm last month and that felt too fast. It varies so much — cuz you probably know too that in certain situations (like the really thick slush snow or sometimes deep powder) you need more speed so it doesn’t grab you. But then maybe you slow down and glide through…

Totally agree. I’ve used them as a gauge for years. Plus, sometimes it’s much easier to follow their lights when the snow is falling fast.

I live in MI. Pretty sure you’re one of the people I’d see in a ditch here. Sometimes you gotta go way slower than that, bro. We had an ice storm last month, and 15 mph was too fast in some spots. Plenty of times 25mph has been fast enough on the freeway. Lots of times in straight snow you can do 40-45 safely, but…

Exactly. I’m a redhead and I have both slaves and slavers in my past. Most Americans do, researchers tell us. Hiding shit is worse than just admitting it and dealing with reality.

You think white people would not admit it? That hasn’t been the case in my family. We had a Ty Burrell moment about 15 years ago when I discovered a “mulatto” ancestor while doing our genealogy. I haven’t heard a single cousin express anything but fascination with this fact. My racist grandma (who is about 1/8 African…

This is precisely why I support genealogy becoming A Thing. Because if more people do it, more people will have these direct experiences.

Exactly.

Thank you!

Thank you. I should tell my sister to have my niece tested. A few exposures shouldn’t be a big deal, right — but some locations had horrifically high levels. I hope we weren’t at one.

NAILED IT.

I’m thinking billions in the red. Estimates say that about half of the household pipes and service pipes in Flint are lead or have lead soldering. That’s a lot of pipes. Then of course there is medical care, educational support, behavioral help for thousands of children, potentially, and potentially for life. There…

Yeah, when I heard about it, I was like THE FUCK?. I grew up in a town on the Flint River, and we were always told never to drink it or eat fish from it. When I was in middle school, I remember my outdoor instructor would not even wear the same waders in other rivers that he wore in the Flint River — he kept them…

I have to believe it too.

I really hope so. I live right next to this shit. While I avoid Flint most of the time, I started thinking back to my few trips there. I definitely drank it, but much worse, I held my little niece up to the fountain too. Rage. Then I think about how my sister sold her Flint house and moved like two months before the…

IF ONLY. Michigander here.

I’m with you here too. I had a roommate, and when he was being bipolar he might have 10 different guys over in one week. I would walk into the kitchen to discover some dude I’d never met before (and roommate probably was hammered when he chose to bring him in). It was scary. He had zero respect for my concerns about…

This is precisely the part I’ve never understood. There has to be a way for her to earn a living but still be near them for much of the year. Plus, I hear Monaco is lovely.