Bad postcard of the week:

Bridgman's Cook Nuclear Center has a nice lobby, but no protesting rockers
From:  The Grand Rapids Press

The Cook Nuclear Center in Bridgman, Mich. has an attractive lobby.

 I remember growing up in the late 1970s and hip California musicians such as Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt teamed up for a big “No Nukes” concert at Madison Square Garden.

Well, it seems like Jackson, Bonnie and the rest of the L.A. music mafia should have made the trip over to Bridgman, Mich. to the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant.

The back reads: “Cook Nuclear Center, Bridgman, Michigan 49106. Comfortable lobby serves as starting point of free tour. Sight and sound program explains operation of 2.2-million kilowatt Donald C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant.”

ZIP code and everything. You don’t see that too often.

But more importantly: What the heck, Jackson? I see nothing threatening here.

Look how nice and safe it looks! This is a nuke plant? This looks like a Days Inn lobby prior to when we all started demanding breakfast, complete with waffle makers.

As an aside, whenever I’m in a place like that, it happens to be the same weekend as some lacrosse tournament and, like, four teams of kids come staggering down at the same time, taking all the tables and monopolizing the waffle maker, leaving me to take a cup of Frosted Flakes and orange juice back to the room. Why aren't we protesting that, James Taylor?

But I digress.

I know we’re a flyover state, but you have to wonder if Jackson and Bonnie would have felt differently had they taken the Cook Plant tour, and maybe learned a little from the sight and sound programs.

Looking at our very safe postcard, I see big and comfy sofas. Well, big sofas. There’s a very nice plant, which is probably plastic. Remember, it’s the 1970s.

And there are lots of velvet ropes to keep the pushy fans away. Pretty effective, too, based on the photo.

The nuclear plant, located about 11 miles south of St. Joseph, has two reactors – unseen in our postcard, unless they are the tall white things next to the sofas. Reactors would make a cool postcard, probably.

Cook went online in 1975, and produces enough electricity to meet the needs of a city 1.25 million people.

And, the visitors center features a 26-foot animated model demonstrating how the plant operates.

The visitors center we see here used to be open to the public six days a week on a drop-in basis. But after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, tours are limited only to school groups.

Alas, Bonnie and Jackson will never get to know the Cook plant, trapped forever in their protesting ways. Unless they want to chaperon a school group, that is.