5 things to know from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's new book

(Detroit Free Press) ....(snip)....

Gretchen Whitmer has a shark tattoo

In “True Gretch,” Whitmer cops to having not one but two tattoos. The first, which she got with daughters Sydney and Sherry, is a smiley face. When the girls were young, Whitmer writes, she’d draw smiley faces on their stomachs with marker before they left for sleepaway camp — a small reminder that she was always thinking about them. As adults, the trio got matching smiley face tattoos.

The second is a shark.

Whitmer explains in "True Gretch" that she’d heard comedian Na’im Lynn, opening for Kevin Hart at a 2018 show in Detroit, use the phrase "It's Shark Week, m-----f-----," in a bit about how the language women use to discuss menstruation has changed. (When Whitmer was in high school, girls were vague, referring to “a visit from Aunt Flo” or other obfuscatory terms.)

Whitmer writes that she loved the change in attitude — that menstruation shouldn’t be secretive or shameful — and, it cracked her up. It became a pet phrase that she used to reference female empowerment, and to lessen anxiety in tense situations ... like a virtual speech during the 2020 Democratic National Convention.

Waiting to go live at a UAW hall in Lansing, the mood was tense, Whitmer writes. “Somebody say something funny,” she said. A staffer replied, “It’s Shark Week!” and Whitmer responded, “It’s not just Shark Week, it’s Shark Week m-----f-----,” mouthing the expletive. ............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/nancy-kaffer/2024/07/09/gretchen-whitmer-book-true-gretch-michigan/74247767007/