Offbeat

Who doesn't wonder what public radio hosts actually look like?

Gaelan Kelly, an artist, went ahead and took a stab at making portraits of various hosts.

Here's the description from Kelly's website:

Well I'm sure we all do this with the voices on the radio, we (for some reason or other) get a mental picture of that person and it sticks.

The shock is when we actually end up seeing the face behind the voice and our mental image is shattered forever!

All year, Michigan Radio has been talking with people about projects and efforts that are having a positive effect on the state. Today, we hear from Ruth Olsson, a long-time volunteer for the Clean Works project in Grand Rapids.  The main goal of the project is to reduce the rate of HIV.  To do that, it runs a needle exchange program where drug users can turn in used syringes, and pick up a clean one.

Michigan Radio was very pleased to learn that the station won one of 3 RTDNA/UNITY awards for the Muslims in Michigan project. The award is presented to honor outstanding achievements in the coverage of diversity.

The Muslims in Michigan project was formed out of a partnership between Michigan Radio and the University of Michigan Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies. The five part radio series examined life for Muslim people living in Michigan. Beyond religion, the series also explored the cultural, political, ethnic, and social lives of this diverse group. The project also featured film events, speakers, and a community conversation.

You can find out more about Muslims in Michigan series at the story's website.

The city of Midland has a plan.  A “Youth Master Plan.” It was created by educators, clergy, police, parents, and others in the community to help kids in Midland. As part of Michigan Radio's What's Working series, we speak with Dick Dolinski, one of the founders of the Plan.  He’s president of the Legacy Center for Student Success. For more information, and to contact Dick about starting a Master Plan in your community, click here.

Here are some highlights from this week’s programming, in case you missed them. 

“You and me, pal. We’re the loonies.”

Our lives our busy. Who has time to read the myriad of license agreements tossed up on our computer screens by the websites we visit each day?

Well, now's the time to slow down, relax, and really take in the construction and word choice used in some of these documents.

Academy Award winner actor Richard Dreyfuss brings gravitas, a little crazy, and some Nazi to the 40-page iTunes end-user license agreement.

You can hear Dreyfuss ply his craft below (thanks to CNET).

Please read:

Your responsibility:

Damages:

Effective until:

Should the state of Michigan’s liquor control commission be allowed to ban the sale of a certain beer based on its name? That’s the question a federal judge in Grand Rapids will decide, following arguments this week.

People can buy several kinds of Flying Dog beer in Michigan already; In-heat wheat, Doggie Style pale ale, and Horn Dog barley wine for starters.

The state of Michigan argues the name of Flying Dog’s latest beer is a “sexist, derogatory and demeaning portrayal of women.”

Alan Gura is the brewery’s attorney.

 “The liquor commissioners don’t happen to like the name of Flying Dog’s Raging Bitch beer. They think it’s very offensive, we simply think that’s too bad.”

An amazing story from Jackson, where a man lifted a minivan off of another man who had been trapped underneath it when his jack collapsed.

From the Detroit Free Press/Associated Press:

"Authorities say a quick-acting man lifted a minivan off a 50-year-old who was trapped underneath when a jack collapsed in Jackson."

Sometimes getting caught can be a good thing.

A kayaker on the Manistee River in the northwestern Lower Peninsula recently was stopped by officers who were checking canoes and kayaks for safety equipment. The Department of Natural Resources says a man was adamant that he didn't need a life jacket or any other flotation device.

Just moments later, he flipped his kayak and landed in 51-degree water. Conservation officers Steve Converse and Sam Koscinski pulled him into their patrol boat and took him to shore.