Category Archives: Adventures in history

CASS COUNTY ‘JUSTICE’

Posted on July 1, 2020 by admin

BY JOEL THURTELL Police unions are taking the rap for defending lawbreaking cops. Police chiefs argue that they are powerless to fire bad cops. There was a time when top cops openly made the case for protecting bad police officers. … Continue reading →

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THE 1977 POLICE KILLING OF MCELDON TISDEL

Posted on June 29, 2020 by admin

BY JOEL THURTELL She might as well have shot him herself.  The cops did the job for her. The victim was 28-year-old McEldon Tisdel, a black man  living with his family in a nearly all-white village in southwestern Michigan. Through … Continue reading →

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Lowell Kelly, UM, ham radio, and Peace Corps

Posted on April 10, 2020 by admin

BY JOEL THURTELL Thirty-five years ago, I met a retired University of Michigan psychology professor who was in charge of admitting volunteers to the newly-formed Peace Corps in the early 1960’s. And a former Peace Corps volunteer (Togo, West Africa), … Continue reading →

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Messaging Ford’s Nazi plants in wartime

Posted on February 5, 2019 by admin

“Since the state of war between U.S.A. and Germany I am unable to correspond with you very easily.” — Maurice Dollfus, Ford factory manager in Poissy, France January 28, 1942 letter to Edsel Ford BY JOEL THURTELL Ford Motor Company … Continue reading →

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Ford should pay World War II reparations

Posted on February 3, 2019 by admin

“I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration.” — Adolf Hitler BY JOEL THURTELL Did Bill McGraw think for one minute that the city of Dearborn would publish his story about Henry Ford’s hatred of Jews? I was not surprised that … Continue reading →

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Tarascan Surnames in Michoacán

Posted on January 18, 2019 by admin

By Joel Thurtell The first of my peer-reviewed academic journal articles about Mexico’s Tarascan society broke important news about an ethnic group that has largely been overlooked by historians. Scholars of Mexican history and anthropology were not previously aware that … Continue reading →

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Lethal Greenfield

Posted on October 14, 2017 by admin

By Joel Thurtell A main — if not the only — purpose of a museum should be to teach us about the past. But Greenfield Village and The Henry Ford have missed a golden opportunity to teach about about industrial … Continue reading →

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Flint’s man-made water crisis: where are the watchdogs?

Posted on January 16, 2016 by admin

By Joel Thurtell What a disaster the Flint water crisis has become. There was no need for tens of thousands of people to lose their publicly-provided source of clean drinking and bathing water. But government stupidity, folly, dishonesty made it … Continue reading →

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Free Press motto

Posted on February 22, 2014 by admin

Old Detroit Free Press motto: “It is a newspaper’s duty to print the news, and raise hell.”* New Free Press motto: “A newspaper’s duty is to digitize, and enliven downtown.” * Editor’s note: Oh, come on! This motto was coined … Continue reading →

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Antique oboist plays Denison Hall

Posted on March 22, 2013 by admin

By Joel Thurtell This tale is all about a joke, really, but it begins with my chirimía. For years, this curious musical instrument sat atop the hutch in our kitchen. It was made by a musician from the Lake Pátzcuaro … Continue reading →

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