Oddball Michigan - by Jerome Pohlen (Paperback)

About the Book

"There's more to Michigan than beautiful forests, shuttered factories, and miles and miles of stunning shoreline. Armed with this offbeat travel guide, you'll soon discover the strange underbelly of the Great Lakes State. Michigan has monuments to fluoridation, snurfing, the designer of the Jefferson nickel, and the once-famous Mr. Chicken, as well as festivals honoring tulips, Christmas pickles, and a 38-acre fungus. It's where you'll find the World's Largest Lugnut, the Nun Doll Museum, Joe's Gizzard City, the Teenie-Weenie Pickle Barrel Cottage, Howdy Doody, and Thomas Edison's last breath. The state also has its share of weird history--it's where Harry Houdini perished on Halloween night in 1926, where skater Tanya Harding's posse whacked Nancy Kerrigan, and where the Kellogg brothers invented popular breakfast cereals and less-popular yogurt enemas. Along with humorous histories and witty observations, Oddball Michigan provides addresses, websites, hours, fees, and driving directions for each of its 450 entries. "--

Book Synopsis

There's more to Michigan than beautiful forests, shuttered factories, and miles and miles of stunning shoreline. Armed with this offbeat travel guide, you'll soon discover the strange underbelly of the Great Lakes State. Michigan has monuments to fluoridation, snurfing, the designer of the Jefferson nickel, and the once-famous Mr. Chicken, as well as festivals honoring tulips, Christmas pickles, and a 38-acre fungus. It's where you'll find the World's Largest Lugnut, the Nun Doll Museum, Joe's Gizzard City, the Teenie-Weenie Pickle Barrel Cottage, Howdy Doody, and Thomas Edison's last breath. The state also has its share of weird history--it's where Harry Houdini perished on Halloween night in 1926, where skater Tanya Harding's posse whacked Nancy Kerrigan, and where the Kellogg brothers invented popular breakfast cereals and less-popular yogurt enemas. Along with humorous histories and witty observations, Oddball Michigan provides addresses, websites, hours, fees, and driving directions for each of its 450 entries.

Review Quotes

"Taking a "normal" road trip with the kids sounds like a drag after flipping through Oddball Michigan: A Guide to 450 Really Strange Places." --MetroParents.com

"[A] wonderful, ingenious book." --ExclusiveMagazine.com

"[A] good get to know us guide." --The Motor City Blog

"Pohlen found some real gems. I can envision tour planners and operators using Oddball Michigan as they plan an itinerary. Tour guides could weave facts from the book into their narration." --Group Tour Magazine

"In 450 funny blurbs, the author covers sights people might go out of their way for, as well as attractions one might check out while just passing through, providing location, cost, and contact information for each. Amusing, brisk, surprising, and slightly educational, this is a great resource for the discerning connoisseur of cheesy and eccentric tourist attractions of the Upper Midwest." --Library Journal

"Such grassroots creativity deserves to be celebrated, even by an author (Jerome Pohlen) who's from Chicago, a city which, let's be honest, cannot hold a candle to metro Detroit's oddball cred." --Detroit Free Press

"The publicity may not be exactly what Pure Michigan promoters had in mind, but it's a lot more fun to read." --Detroit Free Press

"Pohlen seeks all that is weirdly wacky and wonderful in the Mitten State, often serving up the descriptions of his finds with a seriously sizeable side of snark." --Midwest Guest

About the Author

Jerome Pohlen is an editor and travel writer whose travel writing has appeared in the Chicago Reader, Readers Digest, and TimeOut Chicago. He is the author of the Oddball series and Progressive Nation. He has been a regular contributor on travel and culture for the 848 Show on WBEZ, Chicago's NPR affiliate. He lives in Chicago.