while watching the bears and lions game (go lions!)

Two things brought me to Chicago. First, there was this pretty girl with curly brown hair. Second, there was this thing about the Michigan economy not being too great. This recent salon.com article, written by an ex-Michigander, gives a picture of what many already know: times are tough in Motor City and what the state needs (besides a budget apparently) is an industry to replace the one drowning in the middle of the Great Lakes.

Michigan did not become great because of the auto industry. The auto industry became great because of a Michigander, Henry Ford. The state still produces creative people. Google founder Larry Page, a Ford of the 21st century, grew up in East Lansing, and studied at the University of Michigan, whose main function seems to be giving young Michiganders the credentials to get the hell out of Michigan. Page went to California, but as a sop to his home state, Google is opening a 1,000-employee office in Ann Arbor.

(I've moved back to Michigan three times since college. My last attempt lasted a year -- until I was laid off. I now live on the North Side of Chicago, which is so crowded with my fellow economic refugees that we call it "Michago.")