Craig Manning | Author

A Hoppy Medium

March 12, 2022

If you’ve been looking for a local alternative to your favorite sparkling water brand—be it LaCroix, Perrier, or Bublé (sorry…Bubly)—Beards Brewery has you covered.

Since opening its doors in 2012, the Petoskey-based brewery has made its name on cleve… Read More >>

Every nine minutes.

That’s how often child protective service agencies in the United States substantiate a claim of child sexual abuse (CSA), according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN).

In total, one in every nine girls and one in eve… Read More >>

I Propose

Feb. 5, 2022

Contrary to popular belief, Valentine’s Day is actually not the biggest day for proposals and engagements. According to wedding planning website The Knot, the most popular day of the year to ask someone to spend their life with you is actually Christmas Day, followed closely by Christ… Read More >>

Two K’s 2020 Heirloom Ice Cider

Jan. 8, 2022

You’ve heard of ice wine, but what about ice cider? With ice wine, winemakers harvest grapes that have frozen while still on the vine. When grapes freeze, their water content turns to ice; not the sugars or other dissolved solids in the grape. That means frozen grapes give way to… Read More >>

Don't Call it a Comeback: Up North's Indie Bookstores Defy Odds

Dec. 18, 2021

Independent bookstores weren’t supposed to make it to 2021.

For decades, this embattled segment of the retail marketplace has faced one existential threat after another

First, it was the invasion of big box bookstores like Borders and Barnes & Noble, sneaking… Read More >>

Let's Shred!

Dec. 11, 2021

As we write this, snow is cascading from the sky and blanketing every surface in sight, suggesting that the long, strange autumn of 2021 might be permanently in the rearview. It’s the moment each year that confounds drivers, gives kids their first “snow day” of the season,… Read More >>

Our Go-to Guide to Up North's Holiday Art & Craft Markets

Nov. 20, 2021

2021 might just be the toughest season ever for holiday shopping.

Lately, that’s the general wisdom being shared by retail experts and splattered across the headlines of national media outlets like CNBC and USA Today. The culprit is the supply chain, which is still suffering a… Read More >>

Unwell Up North: Northern Michigan's Mental Health Crisis

Nov. 13, 2021

If you’ve tried finding a therapist for yourself or your child lately, you’ve probably had a hard time. That’s because northern Michigan doesn’t have the capacity to handle the huge spike in demand for mental health care services that COVID-19 triggered, local mental… Read More >>

The Worst Year on Two Wheels — and Foot

Nov. 6, 2021

On Aug. 24 this year, a 16-year-old girl died after being struck by a semi-truck while riding her bike in Interlochen. She was on her way to work.

On Sept. 6, a 76-year-old woman was killed after being hit by a pickup truck. It was 10am, and she had been walking along Traversefield … Read More >>

One For The "Record" Books

Oct. 16, 2021

Let’s dance.

That’s the invitation that authors Janet Borgerson and Jonathan Schroeder are extending to readers with their new book, titled Designed for Dancing: How Midcentury Records Taught America to Dance and out this month on MIT Press.

D… Read More >>

Unconventional Farming

Oct. 2, 2021

It started more than 100 years ago, as a quaint family farm. Today, it’s one of the hottest family-friendly hangout spots in northern Michigan.

Such is the epic story of Jacob’s Farm, a 40-acre slice of gorgeous agricultural property off M-72, just minutes from Traverse … Read More >>

Home Stage Advantage

Sept. 25, 2021

In music theory, an “accidental” is a music note that is foreign to the given scale or key in which a piece of music is written. By raising or lowering a musical pitch outside of the normal melodic pattern of a scale or key, an accidental can create unexpected deviations or stri… Read More >>

The Other Side of the Boom

Sept. 25, 2021

Zach Endres and Taylor Peterson are in tough spots. As you read the headlines almost daily about booming Traverse City home sales and housing shortages, Endres and Peterson are living the reality, in the thick of the housing hunt. And to hear their tales of the past 12-18 months, you hear o… Read More >>

Dropping the Gloves

Sept. 4, 2021

What’s northern Michigan’s biggest claim to fame when it comes to hockey?

Ask most hockey fans in the area – die-hards and casuals alike – and you’ll probably a hear a couple common answers: the fact that NHL legend Gordie Howe once called Traverse City… Read More >>

Now Hear This: Michigan's Best 2021

Aug. 7, 2021

Is it just us, or are Michigan bands and songwriters raising the bar in 2021?

Maybe it’s the fact that lots of artists held back works that were supposed to come out in 2020, in hopes that 2021 would allow for a return to gigs, tours, and normal album promotion campaigns. Or m… Read More >>

Break on Through: Michigan Rattlers' and the Will to Keep on Rockin'

Aug. 7, 2021

“I felt the storm coming, it was coming for you and I/I felt the storm coming that night.”

So goes the chorus to “The Storm,” the song that opens the sophomore full-length album from Petoskey-born-and-bred roots-rock band Michigan Rattlers. In … Read More >>

Whiskey's Treasure Island

July 24, 2021

Whiskey aficionados take note: You may soon be able to taste what whiskey tasted like in the midst of the Prohibition era — or, at least, closer to that flavor profile than anyone has gotten in the better part of a century.

The key to the past, in this case, is a specific type… Read More >>

6 al Fresco Favorites

July 24, 2021

We don’t know about you, but we think that everything tastes better when you can enjoy it outside in the summertime. Pizza or burgers, fish or steak, pasta or chicken; beer or cider, red wine or white, straight spirits or splashy cocktails. Especially in the evenings — when the … Read More >>

Have Cocktail, Will Roam: Up North Social Districts

July 17, 2021

A year ago, Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill into law that opened the door for local communities to establish outdoor “common areas” where customers could enjoy alcoholic beverages from properly licensed establishments. Now, several northern Michigan downto… Read More >>

Stone Hound Brewing Co.’s Sour de TART

July 10, 2021

Nothing says summer like a tall glass of ice-cold lemonade. The Sour de TART from the recently opened Stone Hound Brewing Co. in Acme is a fitting stand-in: A cherry-lemonade sour beer that tastes so much like your favorite lemonade you’ll hardly notice the 5.4 percent ABV. The hint o… Read More >>