Pleasant Peninsula with O.W. Root

It’s been weeks since the sun peaked through the clouds. It won’t be over 20 degrees for a fortnight and the massive piles of snow at the end of the driveway has hardened, making it impossible to put the trash can in the right place. Yes, winter can be depressing, but O.W. reveals there’s a solution. Lean Into it. Plus, it’s a controversial opinion. Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, was a convicted crook who stole from the people he claimed to fight for. But he was a smooth criminal, at least in the fashion department. Could we bring back his style without the atrocious behavior?

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If you live where it snows in the winter, you know this person. He’s the guy who always says that every snowstorm is definitely going to be a blizzard. For those who’ve been around the block, you know it’s all hype, but what about the winter newbies who don’t know any better? Plus, O.W. loves the geese, and he’ll show you why.

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Does November get overlooked in the autumn shuffle? The leaves have already fallen, and Halloween is long gone, so what’s left? Once again, O.W. finds the nuance in this often overlooked month. Plus, remember going to Pizza Hut as a kid? The red plastic cups, the lamps, the Book-It Program, it was all so glorious. So where did all those old school dining rooms go? O.W. found one of the last remaining in Michigan.

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There’s no getting around it. Your dog is making a mess and you’re probably not cleaning it up. Kudos if you do, but the dog poop is piling up because so many others aren’t as decent. It doesn’t have to be this way. Plus, join O.W. on a journey to Hemingway’s Two Hearted River in Luce County. It’s not an easy place to get to, but it’s definitely worth the trip.

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For O.W., the first snow of the season doesn’t just bring beautiful scenes of white wilderness. That first dusting or storm has coincided with new life at the Root household, and it just happened again! Plus, he’s one of the most prolific kid’s authors in the world, and his spooky headquarters is located just off the highway in Northern Michigan. O.W. takes us inside Chillermania and gets insights from its creator, Jonathan Rand.

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O.W. pits noisy leaf blowers against the soulful scrape of rakes, celebrating autumn’s quieter rhythm and human-nature bond. He then unveils a 1970’s eastern U.P. UFO cult, where Warren Gates crafted a barn-born saucer to flee apocalypse via Lake Huron’s mothership. O.W. ties it all to Michigan’s remote wilds, where isolation sometimes sparks strange beliefs.

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O.W. Root takes a fall road trip through northern Michigan’s “Tunnel of Trees,” fueled by cider, color, and a touch of melancholy. Then it’s south to Mount Pleasant, where he asks: how “Indian” is a town with a casino, a university, and a Starbucks on reservation land? The answer lies in the quiet corners—the Ziibiwing Center, an old Ojibwe mission, and a cemetery where the past rests amid crops and windmills.

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O.W. shares what he believes is one of society’s greatest failures: the ability to wear an appropriate, stylish jacket. He has some fail-safe recommendations to get you through to winter coat season. Plus, have you noticed Trunk Or Treat on the ascent while Trick Or Treat gets smaller every year? Is it just a harmless new trend, or a harbinger of something bigger in the American way of life?

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Have you noticed Halloween decorations going from spooky and scary about 20 years ago, to gory and downright terrifying nowadays? Corpses hanging from trees, pour souls being disemboweled on your neighbor’s front yard. Why has our PG holiday suddenly become rated R, and why are people so touchy when you bring it up? Plus, the ghost towns of the U.P. No, not the spooky kind, but the ruins of times gone by, and why it’s worth it to see them up close.

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O.W. reflects on Bruce Catton’s Waiting for the Morning Train and how plunging into Michigan’s cold lakes feels timeless. While technology constantly changes, the dilemma of charging in or wading slowly remains universal. Plus, an exploration into how the lumberjack has shifted from rugged worker to modern competitor, where skill and spectacle meet. These contests, like the ones held by the Jack Pine Lumberjacks in Mackinaw City, still embody values of strength, courage, and camaraderie that once defined the American spirit.

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Follow O.W. Root on X: @necktiesalvage