Are you ready for some Motown football???

Well it's finally here - the one week in the history of time in which it is cool to be from Detroit (OK -- Maybe there were a few years back in the Motown era).

Unless you are living in a cave, you know that I am referring to Super Bowl XL!

So how does this effect Detroit?

Well -- we got our streets cleaned, and believe me, that is unusual. According to an MDOT spokesman, "MDOT doesn't usually clean up the freeway during the winter because, well, it's winter." I don't recall ever being subjected to the traffic jams we had last week, while they cleaned the roads. Not even in the summer. Of course, they've shined up the whole downtown business district also. What will it all look like 2 weeks after the Super Bowl? We shall see.

Then there's the fact that the Super Bowl will bring in a ton of revenue for the city. That's true, but what will city officials do with that money? Given the Kilpatrick administration and city council's track record, I predict that there will be Lincoln Navigators and strippers for everyone.

There is mixed opinion about how the press will portray Detroit. Will they notice our polished image and speak favorably, or will the "traditional bashing of Detroit" continue? Our saving grace, according to many analysts, will be our casinos. Liquor 'em up, take their money, and of course they will speak kindly of us is the theory. Jacksonville set the bar so low last year, that I think we will come out looking better than ever in the end.

Past Detroit basher Jimmy Kimmel has brought his show to the Motor City this week, and apparently showed off many of the positive sides of our city last night. Maybe tonight I'll stay up late enough to see it.

All the celebs are in town, and I've yet to see one. Of course I run from one class to the next, to my car, to pick up the children, home to make dinner, and back to school. With a schedule like that, I am lucky that I run into my own family some days.

At the end of the day though, I only have 2 gripes about Detroit's Super Bowl...
1) I don't have tickets.
2) I have no idea where in the heck I am going to park tomorrow, when the Wayne State parking garages become Super Bowl festivities parking lots, shuttle stops and all.

Jenn

Fire

I came across this fire on my way home the other day.

Actually I was seeing it for miles on the highway and, when I got off, it looked as if it was coming from the direction of my house. Turned out to be one of the businesses near my house. The picture really doesn't do it justice. People claim to have seen the smoke from many, many miles away. At one point I was at the right spot to take the most awesome picture, but as I was getting my camera set up, the officer directing traffic made a threatening gesture, so I thought better of it. I tried to come back around, but they had closed the road by then.

For the record, nobody was injured in this fire, and only one business was destroyed, although my CVS, next door, smelled terribly of smoke on Friday.