Call for Submissions: Who are we?

One local blog I like reading is Dr. Mandrake. The Dr. shares my sense that this farming burg turned college town turned self-appointed center of facile radicalism and overpriced dining needs to get over itself, though the problem is apparently much more acute for him. When you weary of Ann Arbor's pretension and narcissism, this Dr. has the tonic you need, at least if you don't mind a spot of profanity and invective with the subtlety of a car bomb. Ann Arbor is Overrated offers a similar, somewhat tamer, perspective.

Dr. Mandrake's entry for today lashed further afield, prescribing emasculation for

The guy who invented those police pull-offs in Ohio which make it virtually impossible to see the cop until you are thirty feet away from his radar gun. I love how car commercials tell you that a car goes from 0 - 60 in 5.7 seconds when what I really want is a car that has a button I can push that will make it go from 90 to 65 in .000001 seconds. But given that the car industry in America is centered around Detroit and people from Michigan generally have an intelligence quotient slightly higher than a stone, I won't bank on it anytime soon. But how fucking lame is the guy who engineered those fucking pull offs? What kind of tool, working for the man, is he? I bet he's from Ann Arbor.

I certainly don't feel any need to defend Ann Arbor, or even Michigan, where I am more or less happy to live, but this post reminded me of people I knew in grad school who came from elsewhere and found life in Michigan or the midwest confusing or somehow disagreeable (which was the majority of people who came from other parts of the country). People from the coasts think it's dull, and a little too folksy for comfort. Southerners think we're snobbish and sullen. New Englanders and Westerners think it's too flat (and aren't even impressed by the Irish Hills...heh heh). It snows too much, people drink too much, it's too violent, it's too dirty... I remember a conversation in an East Lansing bar where a couple of fellow students discussed with real incomprehension their observation that many Michiganders seem to like this state.

Comments like this never made me indignant, just curious. Having never spent an extended period of time, say more than a month, anywhere else, I never thought that much about what was distinctive about this area. I noticed differences when I traveled, but never gave much shape to my sense of what they differed from. I think I do have some ideas about that now, but I'd be interested to know what some others think about the culture/mindset/lifestyle of Michigan, especially if you came from somewhere else or have travelled a good bit. How would you describe the people and the ways of life here (or at least in your little corner of the state) to someone else? Granted, Michigan is hardly a uniform place, but it seemed to cohere sufficiently for grad students to diss it, so I expect we can safely engage in a little generalization here. Maybe a simpler way to pursue this is to ask, What catches your attention--good or bad--about Michgan, or at least about Southeast Michigan away from the purlieus of Ann Arbor?