Ghosts of East Ann Arbor
On Platt Rd. south of Packard, a two-bay cinderblock garage stands forlorn and abandoned, with a “SWISHER REALTY: For Lease” sign plastered on its front. “No one looking at it now would know that it was once an...
Read MoreMy Town
Chasing Butterflies
In the summer of 1975, my wife, Nancy, and I enrolled in a U-M adult education course, “The Natural History of Butterflies.” I had just begun my academic career as an assistant professor of surgery, and the class...
Read MoreOn Green Slime Pond
On my penultimate morning in Ann Arbor, I visited my favorite spot, the Green Slime Pond.The emerald algae-covered watery depression in Eberwhite Woods was my Thinking Place during my first dozen or so years here, a...
Read MoreThe Circus in the 1930s
Gaily painted circus wagons carrying huge tents and others bearing the menagerie of all types of wild animals travelled through the city streets this morning between the Michigan Central railroad and the Packard St. showgrounds...
Read MoreSqueezing Tomatoes
I learned a bit about shopping for produce from my mother, a housewife of Italian descent. I also was lucky to live in Italy for almost two years, where my neighbor Franca taught me how to shop at the market. In Italy, shopping...
Read MoreJohn Sinclair at the Hash Bash
“I gave the first speech about marijuana fifty years ago,” John Sinclair says. But at the Hash Bash in April, Sinclair, seventy-three, left the speeches to comedian Tommy Chong and others. Instead, Michigan’s...
Read MoreThe Collector
“There is someone you need to meet,” Bill Martin says. On a cold Sunday morning, the developer and former U-M athletic director ushers me into his Lincoln SUV at the downtown Sweetwaters. We head out Newport and pull...
Read MoreTreasury Department
The telephone rang on a Thursday morning. It wasn’t the usual time for calls asking for a donation to this or that charity, so, without too much thought, I picked up the receiver and said hello. The man at the other end...
Read MoreHabitat Chips In
It seems my appliances and my two cats have grown old along with me. When I moved into my north-side cottage in 1992, the previous owner bequeathed me a new roof, fridge, stove, water heater, and middle-aged furnace.While...
Read MoreA Place To Lay Their Heads
For the fourth time I picked up the ringing phone, praying this time the connection would work. “Sebastian?” I said loudly, knowing that if a connection failed this many times in a row, my son had to be calling from...
Read MoreJoybox Express
Mark Braun’s nearly 2,000-mile bicycle ride along the Mississippi River almost didn’t happen. Ann Arborites have long known Mr. B for his boogie-woogie, blues, and jazz piano concerts, including, for the past...
Read MoreReading, Writing, and Politics
Except for the spring of 1991, I have never attended an ice cream social. That year I went to thirteen, without ever tasting ice cream. I was running for the Ann Arbor Board of Education, and it was part of the job.So were the...
Read MoreReturn of the Sidewalk Surfer
I was introduced to skateboarding–then called “sidewalk surfing”–on a family visit to California in 1963. I got my first skateboard in 1965 from Beaver’s Bike and Hobby on Church St. So I’ve...
Read MoreKeeping Peace
Lots of colleagues vow to keep in touch when they move on, but one group of former co-workers at Peace Neighborhood Center has actually followed through, holding annual reunions for thirty years now. Even as they’ve...
Read MoreEasy Livin’
“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.”—That setting: Catfish Row in Charleston. Mine: Zukey Lake in Lakeland.My maternal grandparents, who lived in Ann Arbor, had a log cabin on a knoll overlooking Zukey...
Read MoreAviary Avocation
In weather fair and foul, Noel Roach’s feathered friends find sanctuary in the growing number of birdhouses–sixty-six in June–that decorate the lawn, fences, and flowerbeds of his modest home on Central Ave....
Read MoreObit for the O Team
On my bike rides this spring, I pedaled past Mitchell Field and Riverside Park. At Mitchell, four of the six softball fields I played on for years with the Observer’s O Team have been plowed under. At Riverside, where I...
Read MoreBaseball Dreams
On a cool weekday afternoon in April, the U-M baseball team is about to play Bowling Green at Ray Fisher Stadium. And, as usual, Debbie Bourque, Don Eaton, and Ted Maezes are in the stands. These Ann Arbor parents have been...
Read MoreUpcoming Events
- June 25, 2026 “Sounds & Sights on Thursday Nights”: Chelsea Area Festivals & Events 6:30 pm
- June 25, 2026 Comedy Bingo 7:15 pm
- June 25, 2026 Pub Quiz: Conor O’Neill’s Irish Pub 7:30 pm
- June 25, 2026 “Emma’s Wedding(s)”: Purple Rose Theatre Company 7:30 pm
- June 25, 2026 Live Trivia: Bløm Mead + Cider 8:00 pm