If You Build It, They Will Come

So an amazing event took place in Detroit last week - a grocery store opened in the city. A Whole Foods in Mid-town, to be exact. In no other place on the planet would such an opening be so anticipated (the hype has been rampant for over a year), ballyhooed and celebrated (with marching bands, no less). Lines formed blocks long, TV news crews covered it like a presidential visit, and it was, by all accounts,  truly a circus. Why so much fuss? It's the only grocery store, with fresh meat, organic produce, a cafe and a salad bar in the city. Only in Detroit. And did I mention that the people came in droves? I will admit to being a nay sayer about the whole thing since it was announced - I don't particularly care for the chain in question, and in an economically downtrodden urban area, a store better known as "Whole Paycheck" didn't seem the right fit.  I'd rather have seen a Trader Joe's (but my regular readers know about my on-going affair with Joe). And as such, I stayed away on opening day, but curiosity got the best of me and I went the following morning. The store was still packed, although the lines had abated. People seemed genuinely pleased to be grocery shopping. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe this is the start of something. Is this heaven? No, it's still Detroit.

Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner's (when he WAS Kevin Costner) 1989 baseball film par excellence. In a Iowa cornfield, a farmer down on his luck and about to lose everything, listens to a voice in his head telling him to plow his land into a ball field. Much to the chagrin of his wife and financial advisor, he listens and creates a place for dead major leaguers to reunite and play. At first only he can see the eight men out, but over time his family and friends become believers as well. Of course, it is really all about Costner's character and his unresolved feelings for the father that abandoned him, with a little Shoeless Joe Jackson thrown in for good measure. Nevertheless, a classic baseball film that I watch every time there is a rain out and Fox Sports has to show something (okay, we will get to Bull Durham another time, I promise but never The Natural, I still don't get that one). If you build it, he will come.


The Recipe:

Hope
Faith
Trust
(And, a little pixie dust)

Don't stop believing in Detroit Rock City. Serves 700,000