Aug 23, 2011 | Community |
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,...
Read MoreAug 15, 2011 | Community |
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...
Read MoreAug 6, 2011 | Community |
“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...
Read MoreAug 6, 2011 | Community |
“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...
Read MoreJul 26, 2011 | Community |
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...
Read MoreJul 24, 2011 | Community |
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,...
Read MoreJul 23, 2011 | Community |
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...
Read MoreJul 18, 2011 | Community |
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...
Read MoreJul 12, 2011 | Community |
“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...
Read MoreJul 9, 2011 | Community |
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...
Read MoreWashtenaw 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...
Read MoreJul 7, 2011 | Community |
“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...
Read MoreRyan 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...
Read MoreIn 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...
Read MoreJul 4, 2011 | Community |
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...
Read MoreJul 3, 2011 | Community |
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...
Read MoreJul 2, 2011 | Community |
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...
Read MoreJun 29, 2011 | Community |
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...
Read MoreJun 23, 2011 | Community |
Dorian Deaver beams at the ten couples standing nervously on the dance floor at the Eberbach Cultural Arts Building in Burns Park. It’s common, he reassures them, “for the ladies to be more enthusiastic than the...
Read MoreJun 18, 2011 | Community |
Q. Are there any remaining Cold War-era fallout shelters in Ann Arbor?A. The Observer learned of just one surviving private fallout (aka bomb) shelter, in the tranquil Ann Arbor Hills neighborhood. The current home owner on...
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