michigan monday: stuff & things

I'm not gonna even pretend Hanna and I are fully back in Boston headspace, although we arrived back home mid-afternoon on Saturday. It's been a pretty intense ten days (two weeks if you count from the day my grandmother had her initial stroke). 

So instead of any substantive post, here are a few Michigan-related things for you. Starting with the Detroit symphony orchestra's flash mob performance of "Ode to Joy" at a suburban IKEA. (via)

You may have heard NPR's coverage of the event on March 9th.

On a related note, the city of Detroit is offering free houses to writers looking for a place to live and be creative. I admit that part of me wishes that librarianship & archival science were slightly more mobile professions, since it would be really exciting to be part of a rejuvenation project like that -- and the urban core of Detroit has some amazing, historic spaces.

Within driving distance of Brewed Awakenings, this trip's coffee shop find.

And half a day's drive from Gaia Cafe in Grand Rapids, the visual-sensory display in my head whenever anyone uses the word "granola" as a cultural descriptor. 

Plus, soon enough Hanna and I would actually be married-married there. Instead of Massachusetts-and-federally-married there.

In fact, Hanna and I heard the news about Judge Friedman's ruling overturning the Michigan ban on marriage equality while we were driving through New York (oh, the endless endless miles of I-90) on Friday. Huzzah! 

I read the DeBoer v. Snyder decision yesterday afternoon. Some of my livetweets:

"Michigan does not make fertility or the desire to have children a prerequisite for obtaining a marriage license." http://t.co/wupembjXd8
— feministlibrarian (@feministlib) March 22, 2014

"The Court finds Regnerus’s testimony entirely unbelievable and not worthy of serious consideration." #DeBoer #ssm http://t.co/shaDdgPsvp
— feministlibrarian (@feministlib) March 22, 2014

really hope the #DeBoer ruling ends Regnerus' days as an "expert" witness on families headed by same-sex partnerships. #ssm #shoddyscience
— feministlibrarian (@feministlib) March 22, 2014

also love how Judge Friedman puts "study" in scare quotes when talking about the Regernus testimony. #DeBoer #ssm
— feministlibrarian (@feministlib) March 22, 2014

"Defendants argued that...heterosexual married couples provide the optimal environment for...children. The Court rejects this rationale."
— feministlibrarian (@feministlib) March 22, 2014

Friedman makes point we don't legally exclude "sub-optimal" straight couples from parenting based on group status. http://t.co/PB2lQ7Pjd8
— feministlibrarian (@feministlib) March 22, 2014

"While the justices recognized the state’s expansive power in the realm of domestic relations, they also noted...this power has its limits."
— feministlibrarian (@feministlib) March 22, 2014

Judge Friedman also turned up the snark to full volume by pointing out, in a quote too long to excerpt on Twitter, that:

Taking the state defendants’ position to its logical conclusion, the empirical evidence at hand should require that only rich, educated, suburban-dwelling, married Asians may marry, to the exclusion of all other heterosexual couples. Obviously the state has not adopted this policy and with good reason. The absurdity of such a requirement is self-evident. Optimal academic outcomes for children cannot logically dictate which groups may marry.

As of this writing, Michigan marriage licenses for same-sex couples are on hold until further review, but it's worth noting that Friedman himself didn't issue the stay -- I think it's pretty clear he's had enough of these anti-gay shenanigans.

And finally, for anyone who missed it on Twitter and Facebook, my father wrote a lovely obituary for my grandmother (his mom) which appeared in the local paper this past Wednesday.