Word: michigan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...this year, the red-winged blackbird hysteria seems louder than ever. Joggers along Lake Michigan have gotten plucked. Workers on the edge of the city's downtown business district have lunched on street corners instead of park benches to avoid becoming part of a reenactment of Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 classic The Birds. Experts say it appears urban red wings are more aggressive than their rural counterparts, partly because the city birds are particularly sensitive to (or fed up with) excessive human encroachment on their turf...
This is about the time the birds are nesting after returning to the Upper Midwest from their southern winter retreats. The red-winged variety is particularly attracted to marshy terrain and large bodies of water, like Lake Michigan (the shores of which are lined with jogging and cycling paths). Male red wings are usually 10 inches long, and weigh just 2 ounces. They quickly establish their territory - sometime among the trees surrounding urban ponds, or in suburban neighborhoods. They're followed by a throng of a comparatively secretive female lovers (yes, male red wings are polygamous). Females tend to carry...
...federal officials have advised citizens confronted head-on by a red wing to simply stare back into its eyes. Better yet, they advise, avoid known red wing territories altogether. But in a city that cherishes every rare minute of sunshine, it's unlikely many will stay away from Lake Michigan's jogging paths. In the meantime, they'll simply have to duck from The Birds...
...thermostats routinely set at 68deg.F, and sometimes even 65 deg., in the (far too many) hotel rooms I've suffered on the campaign trail. "Americans seem to keep their houses cooler in summer than they do in the winter," muses Edward Parson, an environmental expert at the University of Michigan Law School. But it's hard to know for sure, since there are no comprehensive studies that measure air-conditioning trend lines...
...facts show that my hypothesis is completely wrong: Visits to online shopping sites are up compared to the previous year. Perhaps the increase could be explained by consumer price sensitivity. In the same University of Michigan Consumer Index report, consumers expect an inflation rate of 5.6% over the next 12 months. Here's a new hypothesis: when economic times get tough, online shopping sites become an important tool to help consumers find the best price on potential purchases...