Offbeat

In 2013, if you want to let the world know you're someplace having a good time, you might whip out your smartphone and tweet it or post a check-in or status update on Facebook.

97 years ago, you might write a message, roll it up, tuck it in a bottle and toss it into the St Clair River.

That's what a couple of young Detroiters did when they were having fun one summer's day at Tashmoo. That was a very popular amusement part on Harsen's Island on the northern end of Lake St Clair.

And why do we know about this message in a bottle? Because Dave Leander found the bottle as he was diving in the St Clair River.

There were four baby peregrine falcons nesting on the roof of University Hospital at the end of April. The University Record reports this is the third year in a row that two falcons nested on the hospital roof.

A contest was held to name the babies. Today, the people running the University of Michigan's Facebook page announced the winning names:

• Maize,
• Blue,
• Woodson,
• and Howard.

The images of the cute falcon babies got us wondering, 'what can be cuter than these things?'

As Father's Day is just around the corner, are you thinking about what to get that special man in your life?

Well, ask virtually any wife and chances are she'll tell you that when the man of the house steps outside his designated "manly chores" and does something that would be considered to be in her domain, that man wants praise and plenty of it.

There's something to this: a Pew Research Center survey finds, of the predictors for a successful marriage, sharing household chores is Number Three on the list, just behind faithfulness and a happy sexual relationship.

All of this inspired a Waterford man to put on his "entrepreneur's hat" and come up with a new business: Man Medals, a witty but pointed way for her to dish out praise to him, and for him to take a bow for helping out.

Jim O'Brien is the founder of the Man Medals, and he joined us today in the studio.

Listen to the full interview above.

This coming Sunday isn’t just Father's Day -- it is also National Fudge Day.

By most accounts, the first batch of fudge was concocted in Baltimore in the 1880s. By the turn of the century, fudge-making arrived on Mackinac Island in northern Michigan, which today has a legitimate claim as the modern day fudge capital.

Tourists pile off ferries and onto Mackinac Island by the thousands every day during the summer. For many, one of the first stops when they arrive or the last stop before they board a ferry back home, is one of the island’s 15 or so fudge shops. 

Island-wide, the favorite is plain, unadulterated chocolate fudge.

This morning, Rebecca Williams reported on the MSU research that found we are still falling down on the job when it comes to washing our hands.

I say "still" because these kinds of studies have been done in the past.