The latest Jimmy Hoffa dirt-moving exercise triggers the mixed emotions some people feel when spotting a bizarre web headline or a video clip that could be cute or corny.

Click or ignore? Intrigue vs. disdain.  

Amid eye rolls, rueful chuckles and head shakes, the archeology-like search in Oakland Township also inspires plenty of chatter, cleverness and opinions. The spotlight starts with the media, but it's clear many people can't look away or avoid commenting.

The exploration that began Tuesday is one of two searches for a piece of the past under way in this state now. But the suburban dig for a Teamster president who vanished in 1975 draws way more attention than the Lake Michigan dive for a French sailing ship that sank in 1679. 


Jimmy Hoffa is "in the Hall of Fame of compelling mysteries," a pop culture professor says.

Only one of those Michigan mysteries involves "an enduring part of American folklore," as NPR reporter Alan Greenblatt puts it in a report Tuesday.

For the better part of 40 years, the disappearance of former Teamsters President James Hoffa has been a source of fascination on par with Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and the aliens in Roswell, N.M. . . .

The notion that Hoffa's body might turn up just about anywhere — there have been numerous false leads along the way — became an enduring part of American folklore. . . . Comedians used his name as a punchline when talking about anything that had disappeared or seemed impossible to find. 

Bob Thompson, a pop culture scholar at Syracuse University, tells Greenblatt: "Hoffa is really still in the Hall of Fame of compelling mysteries."

Los Angeles Times writer Matt Pearce calls him "arguably America's missingest man" in the lead of an article Tuesday.    

Closer to home, a Rochester brewery seven miles south of the dig site playfully grabs a promotional opportunity. "Consider this an open invitation to all the FBI agents digging for #Hoffa up to road to stop in for a pint when you're done," says a Tuesday morning tweet from the Rochester Mills Beer Co.

Other mirth is online, including tired cracks about finding Amelia Earhart or spotting Elvis.

"Why don't they ask the NSA where he is?" suggests Detroit News reader Michael Elias of Chicago.

"Some folks think a trip to the beach heralds the advent of summer. Some just wait for June 21. Me, I wait for the annual Hoffa dig, cuz it ain't Summer in Metro Detroit without one," says a Detroit Free Press reader in a comment posted Tuesday afternoon with a screen name..

"I like to think of the annual summer Hoffa Dig as Pure Michigan," Detroit News columnist Laura Berman says on Facebook. Rick Pluta, managing editor of the Michigan Public Radio Network, wonders whether Oakland Sheriff Michael Bouchard budgets "each year for the annual Jimmy Hoffa dig."

David Corn, a MSNBC analyst and Washington editor of Mother Jones magazine, tweets sarcastically:

Crafty Obama crew, engineering the discovery of Jimmy Hoffa to cover up all of its cover-ups.

Yes, journalists are reflexive wisecrackers -- especially about a story that keeps going and going and . . .