Couch Surfer
“Who are you?” I nervously asked the unfamiliar young man sleeping on my couch. Barely...
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My Town
Civil War Story
I didn’t realize, when Ken Burns’ Civil War series made its debut on PBS in 1990, that...
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Notes from the Field
A pokeweed plant insists on my attention. It has rooted near the chain-link fence, pushing...
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Spruce Trees Are Suffering
Winter is the time to hear and feel crunching underfoot. But it happened to me in May, on the...
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I Braked for Jake
Hard to believe, but it’s been almost ten years since Jake Woods died. Never without his...
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The Uncool Underground
The Ann Arbor Area Pipe Society is in session near the window at Tobacco Rose cigar shop. Mike...
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The Forestry Crew
I live on a street lined with old crabapple trees. Early last summer, a city forestry crew came...
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Tides of Change
My wife and I have lived in the area now known as Water Hill for thirty-seven years, in two houses...
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Last Impression
I’ve just sent off the final payments and tax information for my family’s business,...
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A Man at the Women’s March
My wife and I both hate crowds, but Susan felt she had to go downtown to be part of history the...
Read MoreFeeding Creativity
It’s after midnight, and in front of the Vault of Midnight a young man tends a small island of a hot dog stand with a gas grill, cold storage boxes, and a large umbrella. It is a cold late autumn night in Ann Arbor. The...
Read MoreSteinway Philosophy
Hard-core Ann Arborites know that the historic Kempf House on Division was owned and occupied by music teacher Reuben Kempf and his family, and that the Kempfs’ Steinway, manufactured in 1877, is reputed to have been the...
Read MoreMy Series of Unfortunate Events
The series of unfortunate events that led me to feel prematurely old began the week before Christmas last year, when I bit down too hard on a Kalamata olive (hence those ubiquitous warnings: “May contain pits”!)....
Read MoreSuperwoman
How did this happen? One minute my wife, Kim, was happily planting flowers in containers in front of the house. The next, she was bursting through the door and into the kitchen sweating, agitated, eyes wide open with...
Read MoreEasy Pay, Easy Go
For years, print newspapers have been trying increasingly desperate measures to boost revenue, but the latest ploy by the MLive Media Group breaks new ground: taking subscribers’ money without their permission.MLive,...
Read MoreBack Yard Fences
To my neighbors …I’ve been thinking about fences lately; I apologize if you’ve seen me surreptitiously peeking at your backyards, trying to see your views and your fence arrangements. It’s really...
Read MoreAnn Arbor Nights
The bus drops me off on Victors Way twice a week around 9 p.m., just as the skies slowly peel from the bright blue of day to reveal soft shades of lavender, pink, and silver. I love this time of night and enjoy walking slowly...
Read MoreFront Yard Gardens
“Farm-to-table” cooking is popping up everywhere, from restaurants to hospitals. In the summer of 2015, as I limbered up a new hip walking my Newport/Westport/Red Oak neighborhood, I realized it had even spread to my...
Read MoreMy Short and Strange Write-In Candidacy
Things started getting weird on the morning of August 5, 2014, when I innocently returned a phone call from my friend Bill. It was primary election day, and Bill had called to discuss the statewide ballot Proposal 1, which was...
Read MoreBurning Up the Dance Floor
July 24, 2003. I arrive home from work. Kalaea, the co-director of my dance group, has left messages on my voicemail: “The Technology Center is burning! You have to come and see!”I had spent a few moments that...
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