Warm holiday wishes from the Ann Arbor Observer! Shop local this year, and support our downtown and around town businesses and find the perfect gift for everyone on your list. Enjoy the variety of events, live shows, and...
Read More
The sign for Bell’s Diner on W. Stadium is mounted on a chimney. Old-fashioned lettering can be seen behind the sign. Only the first two (of the five) letters can be read: “Wo.” What is written there?
Read MoreA few good deals: It’s not easy—but also not impossible—to find single-family homes for under $300,000. Typically they need tons of work, but there are exceptions.
Read More
“The large cast bronze trio [is] by Michele Oka Doner, [who] described them as ‘fossilized totems,’” writes Barb Tester. “When I first saw the sculpture, I thought it was a tree stump weathered by the elements,” writes David Karl.
Read More
Why did you sign up to be a poll worker on Election Day? I did it to see another side of our process and to make sure that every citizen got to vote in the manner of their choosing.
Read More
We received 177 entries correctly identifying the Fake Ad on page 71 of the November issue. “Finally!” writes the very clever Linda Etter. “An ad made just for me (and all those other gray/white-haired seniors)!”
Read More
The Observer’s call for historical artifacts earlier this year yielded an interesting range of items. Many will be documented by the Ann Arbor District Library as part of its digital archive of the city’s history.
Read More
Dorrie Dils became president and CEO of Gift of Life Michigan in 2016. At the time, she says, the Ann Arbor–based agency was “averaging about 280 organ donors a year.” The number has since more than doubled, to 578 last year.
Read More
In many ways, Jace Mendoza is a typical twelve-year-old. He likes to play video games with friends, watch YouTube videos, and eat pizza. But one thing sets Jace apart from his peers: He’s training to become a world-champion speed skater.
Read More
Last month’s Fake Ad for the Norwegian American Association of Michigan (page 62) asked readers to come up with the name Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons. One of the clues was that he created the longest-running TV show in history.
Read More
One Saturday in May 1971, I was a sixth grader on a mission: I wanted to buy a silver peace sign necklace. At the store Middle Earth on South University, in the heart of the campus, I looked carefully at the young woman with wire-rimmed glasses behind the counter. She had frizzy hair, a macramé belt, large hoop earrings, and a choker-style necklace. She looked a little like Janis Joplin and was wearing a T-shirt with the word REVOLT and a picture of a clenched fist. This young woman looked like she would be just the right person to help me.
Read More
“Lovely door, lovely venue,” writes Suzanne Tainter. October’s “I Spy is the Kerrytown Concert House on 415 N. Fourth Ave.,” writes Rudi Hauleitner. “Great place for small-scale concerts with marvelous acoustics!” he continues. “Looks good on the outside, sounds great on the inside!” agrees A.J. Kydd.
Read More“I will happily trade Florida’s hurricanes for Michigan’s blizzards,” muttered our son Benjamin as he spent his birthday bolting metal hurricane shutters over the windows of his St. Petersburg townhouse, anticipating a second major hurricane in two weeks.
Read MoreIt’s barely news when houses are bought low and sold fast for a bundle, but even by local standards the speedy turn for 3163 Norwood St. is head-spinning.
Read MoreIt isn’t unusual to see foam on the Huron in the Ann Arbor area. Does that mean that we have a PFAS problem?
Read More
In January 2023, when Lydia Goff was working on her Master of Social Work at the U-M, she met two classmates: Wolverine quarterback Jack Tuttle and center Drake Nugent (now on the San Francisco 49ers). Goff was a longtime volunteer with Best Buddies, an organization dedicated to ending the isolation of those with IDD by pairing college students and community members with people with disabilities for one-on-one interactions and by hosting monthly events for everyone involved.
Read More
Yuan Xiao has earned a reputation for turning out top competitors. “He has unbelievable respect in the gymnastics world,” says Justin Spring, an NBC gymnastics commentator and Olympic bronze medalist who now coaches at the University of Alabama.
Read More
The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate artillery opened fire on the federal Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Three days later, University of Michigan president Henry Tappan and other dignitaries in Ann Arbor addressed a public meeting at on the courthouse square at Main and Huron. “The meeting overflowed across the square into the street,” reports a city historic marker on the courthouse wall.
Read More
At dusk, on fall Fridays across the county, the world of high school football comes back to life, like a prep sports version of Brigadoon. The marching bands. Singsongy cheerleader chants. An announcer’s booming voice. Armored athletes crashing into each other. And the bleacher crowd’s claps and jeers at the action unfolding before them, on 100 yards of astroturf.
Read More
