Anne Stanton

Features Anne Stanton Thought Waves
Anne Stanton 2/9/09

Have you ever felt that you have a dual self? The self who does the naughty, and the voice who scolds you? The guy who eats an entire bag of chips and ruefully promises to start his diet tomorrow?
The teaching of Kriya Yoga says the mind has a sense of duality. The chattering voice – the ego, the “ ”—is not you, but a stream of thoughts, paradoxes, paranoia, worries, and ideas... a continuous response to endless stimulus.
So says Brandon Kietzman, who has invited yogi Shibendu Lahiri to Traverse City to share his teachings of Kriya yoga on the weekend of February 19. “When you observe the observer, you see the whole show. See the
thinker, and then it’s over. It just hits you,” he said.

Features Anne Stanton Green jobs blow into Manistee & Copemish
Anne Stanton 2/2/09

A few hundred feet from the fanfare of the presidential inauguration last week stood a graceful wind energy machine called Windspire. This newest generation wind machine will begin production in Manistee, starting this week.
What’s more, the Windspire will be distributed throughout the state by Contractors Building Supply, a business based in the nearby, tiny town of Copemish, which specializes in energy-efficient products such as solar attic fans, energy-efficient windows and solar water heaters.
The Windspire solves a lot of problems, which has plagued early wind energy generators. It has an attractive design (for those who think windmills are ugly) and doesn’t have wide propellers, which are known to whack migrating birds.

Features Anne Stanton People had fun at my wedding. They tell me that.
They thought it was funny. I thought it was memorable. For years, I remembered it vividly every time I went to someone else’s wedding extravaganza, no expense spared, and it’s taken me years to think it’s funny. Time heals, yes it does.
I met my husband, Doug, while he was still teaching English at a state university in Louisiana. He had stopped in on the day before Christmas Eve at the Traverse City Record-Eagle newsroom, where I worked in 1988 with his sister Debbie. She had told him about me, and me, him, so we went to the Woolworth’s coffee shop across the street, and decided to drive up to the Bluebird in Leland for a drink (he had boldly offered to buy dinner at the Grand Traverse Resort with less than $5 in his pocket). As we rumbled up M-22 in his blue Ford truck, he recited a Yeats poem about wine and love, and I was immediately intrigued. He later joked that the poem worked every time.

Music Anne Stanton Sunny Country (HD-1)
WLDR will continue with its country format on HD-1, playing new country and country legends. Borrowing from Henderson’s Southern influence, the station brings in up-and-coming singers from Nashville and Texas to Turtle Creek Casino; it broadcasts the shows live on Thursday nights (twice a month, 7 p.m., cover at Turtle Creek is free).
This week’s broadcast (January 22) will feature Joey + Rorey, a husband and wife duo who placed third in the Can You Duet reality show. Their hit song, Cheater, Cheater, climbed to No. 37 on the Billboard Hot Country chart.

Music Anne Stanton Roy Henderson is back in town, and Northern Michigan is hearing the difference.
Three years ago, Henderson went toe-to-toe against the popular WTCM-FM when he turned WLDR 101.9 FM into a country station. The switch was considered profound because the station had played soft rock for four decades.
Now Henderson has made another bold move -- becoming the first in Northern Michigan to go HD (high definition), requiring an investment of $500,000.
Here’s what it means for folks who have HD radios:
• Static-free radio reception
• The ability to listen to multiple stations at a single place on the dial. (See sidebar on WLDR’s new stations)
• A quality of sound that approaches a CD
• Lots of text information on what you’re hearing
Henderson said that WLDR will not only provide the names of songs and singers, but when commercials are running, the radio receiver will flash the product name and contact information.

Features Anne Stanton When it comes to getting ripped off, people with a generous or romantic heart are the most likely to fall.
So says Darryl Nelson, owner of the Cash Plus store in Traverse City, who sees two or three people getting scammed
every week.
Nelson believes there are three basic motivations involved in a scam—greed, romance, or a generous heart. A scammer will quickly glean what makes you tick, and then swoop in for the kill, Nelson said.
Sometimes it’s the woman who has fallen in love with the wrong man—a guy who comes to Northern Michigan, but has a counterpart in Nigeria, ready to reel her in.
The romance scam is simple enough. A man develops a relationship—either in person or over the Internet (he’ll make contact on a matchmaker site). Over many weeks, maybe months, love blossoms. He sends flowers. He sends her daily love notes. He listens to her problems. And then he has an emergency. He had to run back to Nigeria because his grandmother is dying and he urgently needs money because he finds his account is locked up.
“The girlfriend comes in to wire him money, and I tell her, ‘I can’t say whether your story is true or not, but it looks like a scam.’ Most times they’ll insist that this is really their boyfriend, that no one has ever treated them this well, has never listened to them the way he does. And now he needs to take care of his grandma who is sick.
“… Most people think that people who are scammed are simply idiots. But in a lot of cases, that’s just not true. These are not dumb people. They’re people who have a big heart and a diminishing checkbook.”

Features Anne Stanton Kima Kraimer, who “Rolfs” for a living, has heard it all when people think they know what Rolfing is:
Is Rolfing just a funny name for deep tissue massage?
“No, it’s not at all deep tissue massage.”
Is there some weird thing about rebirthing?
“No. It’s simple physical functional anatomy.”
Is it extremely painful?
“No!”

Features Anne Stanton You’ve probably met the type. The former basketball jock recalling his glory days with a beer in one hand and a bowl of Cheetos in the other.
Bob Guenther was one of those guys. At the age of 42, he was overweight, under-exercised and wondering how he got there. He actually knows. It was the long, dark winters, large dishes of comfort food, and a partying girlfriend—a fertile environment for life as a couch potato. Over the years, he bought bigger and bigger pants to accommodate his girth. One day, he saw a picture of himself standing at a wedding.
“I still have the picture. I thought, ‘Holy crap, I look like shit,” Guenther said. “The funny thing is, when the picture was taken, I thought I was looking so cool.”
He sought out help from a fitness trainer, Doug Petersen, who “guided him down the path of rightousness.” He lost weight and returned to the buff Bob of old. Then three years ago, he decided to take it to an entirely new level after getting a hip replacement.

Features Anne Stanton At a time when most businesses are cutting costs, laying off people, or even closing their doors, there are a few stores in Northern Michigan that are going the other way—opening a new store or hugely expanding their business.
One can only ask, What were you thinking!?
Cream of the Crop?
Most of the stores that are expanding in Northern Michigan are aimed at the affluent. We’re talking high-end dresses, food, furniture and clothing. Coincidence? It’s interesting to note that during the Great Depression, more millionaires were created as a percentage of the population than during any other era in our nation’s history. So maybe not so crazy to take a plunge. Maybe crazy like a fox.
So, what were they thinking? Here’s what they said.

Features Anne Stanton No, Matt Skeels has not heard from Obama’s people on what kind of roads and infrastructure TC-Talus wants to build in the area, but he’s ready with a list for when they do.
Earlier this month, President-elect Barack Obama said that he wants to invest billions of dollars into public infrastructure in order to repair crumbling roads and give the withering economy a jump start.

Features Anne Stanton Last summer, Elizabeth and Jon Roth had an epiphany when they learned the grapes they’d been happily buying and eating were harming planet earth. Simply getting that bunch of grapes from Chile to their Traverse City table poured six pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
“We were shocked by that,” Jon said. “We started wondering what other habits in our life caused that kind of carbon emission. So we went to a website where we answered questions about our energy usage and living habits—how many cars we had, how many kids, where we lived, that sort of thing.
“The web site did a calculation that if everyone on Earth lived with the same profile we lived with, it would take 4.3 Earths to support us all,” Elizabeth added. “They didn’t even ask if I owned a horse that lives in a barn out in the country to where I drive five times a week.”
The couple was surprised by their carbon footprint and decided to make
a different kind of New Year’s resolu-tion. They’ll spend the year of 2009
re-engineering their lives to go “green.”

Features Anne Stanton This week the Express continues its Ripped Off series to alert consumers to pocketbook predators. If you’d like to share your own story, please write a letter to the editor or call Anne Stanton at 1-877-244-8787
This week, the Ripped-Off articles became a little too close for comfort.
After taking the expert’s advice, I began checking my debit card transactions more closely and more often. Last week, I discovered that some @%#@ thief stole my number to buy a couple of items at Himalayan Organic in Grandville. The amounts were small—just $52 and the bank immediately credited the charges back to my account—but I was told scammers usually test the water to see if the card holder is watching.
An even bigger coincidence: The topic of this week’s Ripped-Off series is “scam jobs,” which are often advertised in the newspaper. And, whaddya know, Northern Express ran two such ads last week — one for a Mystery Shopper and the other for a market researcher. The ads have since been pulled, hopefully with no damage done.

Features Anne Stanton Times are about as tough as they have ever been for the folks in Northern Michigan. Yet some people are looking at the hard times as an opportunity to profoundly shift their lives. Is it possible to live a richer life on less?
Our “Less is More” series will showcase families who do just that. Their shopping habits reflect their fundamental beliefs about money, consumption, and taking it easy on the planet Earth. The series is meant to inspire thought—not guilt or judgement—so enjoy.

Features Anne Stanton This week, the Express continues its Ripped-Off series that alerts consumers to pocketbook predators. We’ll draw on true stories from people around the region. Of course, the more stories the better, so call Anne Stanton toll-free at
1-877-244-8787 if you’d like to share your own.



How would you like an “instantly approved” credit application for a Target or Kohl’s card?
Hey, it’s not a coincidence these generous card offers arrive just in time for the holidays. Lots of people are running short on cash for gifts and might consider these offers a godsend. But before you call the 800 number to activate the card, check out the interest rate. These cards typically come attached with rates of 21 percent or even higher.
It’s not a scam exactly, but those finance fees and interest rates sure will drain your bank account.
If you’re like most Christmas shoppers, you’re probably more focused on buying the right gift rather than watching out for your wallet.
But ho, ho, ho, the holidays are a gift to scammers, who view this brief period of mania shopping as a personal windfall.

Features Anne Stanton The billowing, white sails of the schooner Madeline are a familiar sight on West Grand Traverse Bay, but some people have viewed its sailing crew as a bit of a closed club.
That all changed last January when the Maritime Heritage Alliance, a 26-year-old nonprofit group, hired its first executive director and made the decision to energetically reach out to youth and adults alike.
A little background: The Madeline is a replica of a tall ship schooner which graced the Great Lakes 150 years ago. Volunteers built the Madeline over a period of five years and launched the schooner in 1990. Since then, volunteer crews have sailed the Madeline to ports from Duluth to Toronto, inviting the public to tour the ship and learn a bit of maritime history.