Community

Odd little building on Miller?

Q. What is that odd little building on Miller that abuts the eastern side of the train tracks, right before Knight’s Market? I remember walking past it twenty years ago, and it still looks the same, though a little worse...

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Doggie Dream

Four years ago, Ralph Pasola bought a standard schnauzer puppy from Ackley Kennels in Northfield Township. He named him Petey. Petey goes everywhere with Ralph–he even follows him into the bathroom in the morning. Ralph...

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Ann Arborite Demond Johnson

Five years ago, Sgt. Demond Johnson was told he could choose either Michigan or California as the next stop in his army career. Sunny San Diego beckoned, but after Johnson finished catching his breath at the cost of homes there,...

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The Sound of Memories

My grandfather adapted easily to change, which may be why he lived to ninety-seven. He defied the usual expectations of age that companies use to rationalize hiring only people with pre-pubescent arteries.Ernest was born in a...

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The Lemonade Hut

“Finally one I know!” exclaims Kara Rumsey about July’s I Spy. “I see it every Saturday when I go to the Farmers’ Market.” It’s the “lemonade … hut,” writes Sarah...

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Prenup Clean-Up

“The Fake Ad this month is on page 58 for the ‘Prenup Clean-Up’ teeth cleaning with Drs. Barbor, Webster, and Seaugh,” emailed Kristen Schleick, underlining “arborweb,” the name of the...

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That boarded-up house on First

Q. I’m wondering about the boarded-up house at the corner of Kingsley and First. Why is the house sitting there in that shape? It’s like Detroit.A. The house is in the Allen Creek floodway, which means it can neither...

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Small world

The AAUW Book Sale that takes place every September at WCC’s Morris Lawrence Building is one of the largest in the country. The sale, whose proceeds are used mainly for scholarships, grosses about $40,000 over one weekend,...

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Ann Arborite Tom Bartlett

Tom Bartlett is the owner of the mystery storefront at 111 S. Fourth Ave., next to the Embassy Hotel. Its window displays an odd black bicycle and the name “Circumference.” Business cards taped to the door give...

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Counting Crowds

How many people attend the Ann Arbor Art Fair? I googled that question and found “over 500,000 visitors attend the fairs each year” (Wikipedia), “an estimated half-million visitors” ( AnnArbor.com), and...

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Pricing bodies

“How much are you worth if you die?” U-M economics prof Sherrie Kossoudji asks a class of undergrads at Lorch Hall. “Why do ova cost more than sperm? Is it acceptable to sell your kidney?”Clearly, this is...

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Lima Center Interurban Station

Janice Stevenson, owner of Wackenhut Gartens, says people often guess that her store at Jackson and Lima Center roads was originally a church or a school. A former resident reported that people often knocked at his door thinking...

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Hidden Gems

Washtenaw County is truly blessed when it comes to parks and nature preserves. Our cities, towns, and countryside boast so many that some get almost no visitors at all. Here are three little-known natural areas that are well...

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Very Bad Men

“I can feel the pressure,” acknowledges local mystery writer Harry Dolan, whose second thriller set in Ann Arbor, Very Bad Men, will be published July 7. His first, Bad Things Happen, came out two years ago to...

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The Last Film Critic

Ryan Michaels, a hyper-articulate, hyper-opinionated fourteen-year-old, has been reviewing movies for the Heritage West newspapers since he was eleven. His critiques appear in the Ann Arbor Journal, Dexter Leader, Chelsea...

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New Growth in the Woods

In the mid-1960s, Chelsea architect Art Lindauer hiked into a mosquito-laden woods south of downtown Chelsea. He was sent there by Dr. Michael Papo, a local physician who had outgrown the Chelsea storefront he shared with three...

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Leaves of Three, Let It Be

After a wet spring, poison ivy is “growing like crazy,” says former Ann Arbor parks planner Gerry Clark. Besides the rain, some believe that nature’s three-leaved pest has been multiplying for reasons that...

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The Tide Turns

In another sign that the county’s economy is recovering, Pittsfield and Dexter township voters overwhelmingly approved three public safety millages in the May election: by 72 to 28 percent in Pittsfield and 70 to 30 for...

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Field of Dreams

On a Saturday afternoon in late May, Chelsea’s Timber Town Park wastransformed into a field of dreams as the Monitor Base Ball Club of Chelsea resumed play after a 140-year hiatus. Made up of local businessmen and...

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Catching Mental Illness Early

Nathan Edmunds had just started ninth grade at Skyline High when he was overcome by a sadness so deep that he found it hard to get out of bed in the morning. He’d been a straight-A student with many friends, but both his...

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