Nancy Allen, the Admiral Peary of cooking

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Nancy Allen has written the textbook she says she needed when she was teaching cooking. Her 933-page book, Discovering Global Cuisines, complete with recipes and photos, overviews of culture, history and geography from all over the world, is the result of five years of unflagging endeavor. The work required not just sitting at a computer terminal for endless hours, but actually preparing the food and trying out the recipes with her friends and neighbors and also testing them in places like Meadowlark, a long-standing organic subscription agriculture farm on the Leelanau Peninsula.

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“Pickin’ on Joah”, Empire to remember a gentle giant

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This Sunday, May 26, from 4-6 p.m. at the Village Inn in Empire, the Empire Area Community Emergency Fund will hold its monthly fund-raising concert to honor and celebrate the memory of Joah Dye, a beloved member of the community — not a musician, but rather a lover of music, people and life. The performers have chosen to “headline” Joah at this event. Among some of his favorite musicians are Chris Skellenger, Tom Fordyce, Norm Wheeler, Paul Koss and Patrick Niemisto who lovingly coined this event “Pickin’ On Joah”.

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Food extraordinaire Nancy Allen publishes “Discovering Global Cuisines”

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From staff reports Join Leelanau County food extraordinaire Nancy Allen, Fred Laughlin, culinary chefs and students, for an around-the-world tasting preview of Allen’s newly released culinary textbook, Discovering Global Cuisines on Friday, May 10 from 6-8 p.m. at Lobdell’s — on the second floor of the Northwestern Michigan College Great Lakes Campus, 715 East Front […]

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Remembering Dick Devinney, former Summers Singers director, Synchronicity owner

Dick Devinney, a longtime resident of Glen Arbor and Grand Rapids, founding director of the popular Summer Singers and former owner of Synchronicity Gallery, died recently while traveling in Paris. He is survived by his wife, Marion. Our thoughts are with the Devinney family, and we’re grateful for all Dick and Marion have done for the Glen Arbor community. Please read our feature story about Dick, “Singing in the Summertime,” which we published in June 2006.

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Glen Arbor part-time resident John Farah’s account of Boston Marathon tragedy

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Glen Arbor residents might recognize John Farah. The dentist from Ann Arbor owns a condominium at the Homestead Resort and likes to jog a 15-mile route around Big Glen Lake during his summer visits up north. On Monday in Boston, Farah was maintaining a solid pace, despite nagging small injuries that had interrupted his training cycle of late. He was hoping to finish the marathon at 4 hours and 15 minutes, and then greet his wife Jackie and her daughter Erin at the finish line. The plan was to take a train to Erin’s apartment so Farah could shower and change, and then head to Logan Airport for a flight back to Detroit.

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Jarvis family’s account of Boston Marathon tragedy

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In the hospital now, phone recharged, and finally have a laptop. I might as well post a longer update while everything is still fresh in my head. Though I doubt I’ll ever forget much of it. The funny thing is, the race was going really well up until everything happened. My mom and I waited to cheer my dad on at the 18-mile marker. He passed through right on schedule, ahead of most of the people with similar qualifying numbers. We handed him a protein shake, took some clothes he didn’t need, and then hurried over to the train to try and catch him at the finish line. The train was of course packed with people trying to do the same thing, and we had to let at least 3 go by until we could find one with enough space.

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Altruism in Empire

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Northern Michiganders with the urge to help someone in need in their community can take that altruistic step, and enjoy live music and a cold beer in the process. Tom Fordyce and his mates from Cabin Fever will perform on Sunday, Jan. 27, from 4-6 p.m., at the Empire Village Inn, as part of the Empire Area Community Emergency Fund’s (EACEF) monthly benefit concert.

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Lou Batori, still skiing at age 102

Think you’re in shape for your age? Forget about it! Glen Arbor’s centenarian + 2, Hungarian-born Lou Batori still hits the slopes every winter (and occasionally bikes around the Glen Lakes during the summer).

Today Batori visited Crystal Mountain, and the folks at the Benzie County resort were kind enough to post photos on Facebook. You can view them here.

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Stone bench at Inspiration Point tells its story

Local storyteller Tom Van Zoeren posted this video about the story, and the muse, behind the new stone bench at Inspiration Point, which overlooks the Glen Lakes. The first half of the 25-minute amateur video shows Empire stone mason Mark Finstad making the bench out of split stone. The second half shows people enjoying the bench in various ways.

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Sleeping Bear inspires local musician and composer James Filkins

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James Filkins makes moody, optimistic music that sounds like the natural outpouring of a real guy who has played long enough to have a sound and understand what he’s trying to say with his instrument. Listening to his finger-style guitar tunes, one imagines a languid outdoor scene, enough time to just hang out for a while — days and weeks, even — and the kind of weather that makes everything seem just fine.

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