All the world’s a stage. Or at least Detroit will be if Sam White has anything to say about it. Sam White, founder and artistic director of Shakespeare in Detroit, has always had big dreams. This particular dream started with the successful production of Shakespeare’s Othello she produced and directed this summer in Grand Circus Park. But her dreams keep […]

Hallelujah All photos by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog As I wrote back January (has it been that long?), the Detroit City Council set itself up to be the punchline of a bad joke when it rejected an offer by the State of Michigan to make the fabulous Belle Isle our state’s newest state park. However, in his best […]

Don’t be the punchline of a dumb joke

There’s a joke that talks about a guy stranded on a desert island. A man paddles by on a raft and asks, “Would you like some help?” “No,” answered the guy, “God will help me.”

A few days later a boat pulls up and the driver asks, “Would you like some help”? “No,” the guy answered again, “God will save me.”

The next day a helicopter lands on the island and the pilot says, “Hop on! I’ll help you!” “No,” says the man a third time, “God will help me.”

A week later, the man is despondent. “God, why won’t you save me?!” the man shouts to the heavens.

A booming voice from the sky answers, “Dude, I sent you a raft, a boat and a helicopter. What else do you want from me?”

This is exactly the situation Detroit was in with regard to Belle Isle. Long a “jewel” in Detroit, it has fallen into shameful disrepair over the past couple of decades. The State of Michigan offered to lease the island from Detroit, make it a State Park, and restore it back to some semblance of its original beauty.

Find out how the Detroit City Council blew it after the jump.