Michigan Map Mania

 Maps are ubiquitous but I've never seen so many as on my recent trip to northern Michigan. They love their state's shape. It appears on everything (with or without the Upper Peninsula) from jewelry to buses to chairs

to lamps

to the obvious oven mitt.

There is even a Handmap Brewing Company.

Arriving at the airport in Traverse City you see these nice artistic map tiles of the surrounding bays and peninsulas on the bathroom walls.

The stores are full of map-centric merchandise. Here is a shelf of coasters at My Secret Stash.

Here are a couple of map themed glasses.

I bought this Tolkien themed shirt there.

The company TeeSeeTee -nice logo! -
has all kinds of great map themes including Dr. Suess,

and PacMan.

Another store. Momentum Outfitters has an impressive collection of woodcut maps of seemingly every lake, bay and island within a 500-mile radius. The underwater depths are kind of fascinating - to me anyway.

They also have these nautical chart bags.

There were many good maps along the way including this in the Mission Point Lighthouse,

and this nice map showing the past and present of Glen Haven in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Seashore.

Part of this larger sign.

Even the ice cream place (Moomers) has maps you can pin.

One of my final stops was at 45th Parallel Park in Sutton's Bay, just for the geographic novelty of it.

Detroit in 50 Maps

 It's a strange coincidence but less than a week after blogging about Cleveland in 50 Maps, I got a notice about a successor book.

There are no maps on the web page, just the cover. The book is only available for preorder right now. Maybe when it is ready will be more to see. Here is part of the write-up

"Detroit in 50 Mapsdeconstructs the Motor City in surprising new ways. Track where new coffee shops and coworking spaces have opened and closed in the last five years. Find the areas with the highest concentrations of pizzerias, Coney Island hot dog shops, or ring-necked pheasants. In each colorful map, you'll find a new perspective on one of America’s most misunderstood cities and the people who live here."

Yes Cleveland was also described as "one of America’s most misunderstood cities".

Cleveland in 50 Maps

This book is almost two years old now but sometimes things stay in my in-box for a long time! Long enough that you can now buy it at a steep discount.

From the website: "Cleveland in 50 Maps deconstructs the Forest City in surprising new ways. Follow the changing locations of breweries, music venues, and commuter rail lines over time. Track the Clinic’s growing east side footprint, year-by-year attendance at the Jake, and the addition of communities to the Cultural Gardens. Find out which local high schools produce the most NFL players and which locations the major presidential candidates visited in 2016. Discover the massive salt mine under Lake Erie and the barricades on the border of Shaker Heights. In each colorful map, you'll find a new perspective on one of America’s most misunderstood cities and the people who live here."

Here is that massive salt mine under Lake Erie, who knew?

The logic of streets and avenues in Cleveland's "grid" is explained in two maps showing each respectively. The avenue map is much prettier. Avenues run east-west while streets are north-south

Here is an interesting map showing the evolution of the Cultural Gardens

Read more about it and buy a copy here.

The Atlas of Disappearing Places

A new book the Atlas of Disappearing Places by researchers and artists Christina Conklin and Marina Psaros shows 20 places around the globe under existential threat from global warming.

“The direction in which our planet is headed isn't a good one, and most of us don’t know how to change it. The bad news is that we will experience great loss. The good news is that we already have what we need to build a better future.” —from the introduction. 

The maps were inked onto seaweed for a beautiful and ephemeral look.

Screen shots via Amazon

Here is a map of the disappearing Pine Island Glacier in Antarctica.

A detail showing the legend,

and a close up the the ink on seaweed look.

You can see more info and purchase a copy here.

Another Office Tour of Scranton

My wife was passing through Scranton recently. Looking for a recommended tourist break, I found this Office tour. A few year ago I posted this downtown map. Here is a more regional view. 

The map itself (via Auburn Artisan) is nothing special - just a Google Map tour. What is new (to me anyway) is that the restaurants and bars are real. I just assumed they made up these places like in most shows. The one place that not real* is the one you'd least expect, Chili's - the nearest one according to the post is in Wilkes-Barre**. While that is only a 30 minute drive away it seems kind of far to go for an office event.

* Probably Pizza by Alfredo (not to be confused with Alfredo's Pizza) with their "hot circle of garbage" is also a fake place.

**According the Chili's web site that location also no longer exists and the nearest one is in Bartonsville, over 40 miles away. Seems like an untapped market.

Just to complete your collection of "Office" themed maps there is this abomination, available on Etsy.

The subway metaphor does not work for everything. How many times was public transit ever mentioned on the show? This is a fine example of becksploitation. While you don't expect perfect geography on a transit map, they didn't even try here. The two lakes are NOT in opposite directions, the University should be in the middle and how about those two major stations in the middle that they couldn't even name? The Radisson is a major omission. Anyway if you like the show and don't care about any of this then enjoy!