Aug 5, 2010 | Community |
Last month’s Fake Ad for Real Green lawn service promised to use human power and wind power instead of noxious, toxic, greenhouse gas-causing fossil fuels. Naturally, in Ann Arbor, there were those who didn’t think...
Read MoreAug 4, 2010 | Community |
“My wife thinks it’s the Power Center,” writes Brian Mickey about July’s I Spy. “She’s pretty smart, so I’m going with it.””The Power Center!” concurs Molly Yunker....
Read MoreJul 30, 2010 | Community |
Housecleaning can be tough on your knees, as a local homeowner was reminded when she overheard her cleaning woman on her cell phone, discussing an upcoming knee replacement procedure. “I wanted one of those feminine...
Read MoreJul 26, 2010 | Community |
Q. Where is all the dirt that’s being removed for the new underground parking garage next to the library going? A. Most of the soil removed from the site is sand and gravel, so it’s been in demand: 3,800 cubic yards...
Read MoreJul 19, 2010 | Community |
Ann Arbor residents facing the city’s mandatory footing drain disconnection–which aims to keep rainwater out of the city’s sanitary sewer system and reduce the chances of basement backups–also may be...
Read MoreJul 9, 2010 | Community |
In 1954, Albert and Gail Green drove up from Dayton and dropped their son off at South Quad. Charlie Green’s been an Ann Arborite ever since.After graduating from the U-M in 1959, Green taught subjects that, he says,...
Read MoreJul 6, 2010 | Community |
“It was a perfect storm,” city parks and recreation manager Colin Smith told a meeting at the Leslie Science and Nature Center in mid-June. He was speaking of all the rain–especially the nearly two inches that...
Read MoreJul 5, 2010 | Community |
“One of my favorite buildings in town!” writes Julie Weatherbee of June’s I Spy (below), “a dual-purpose building on Mary Street.” It’s “the Bird Center of Washtenaw County,”...
Read MoreJul 5, 2010 | Community |
We received eighty-three entries last month correctly identifying the Fake Ad for the Washtenaw County Coalition for Local Business on page 68 of the June Observer. The ad was, of course, made up, but the idea of what would...
Read MoreJun 22, 2010 | Community |
In a small, neatly kept house in the east part of town, Kate MacEwen, twenty-nine, is recording a video interview. MacEwen, of average height, blue-eyed and rosy-cheeked, is development director of an organization called...
Read MoreJun 18, 2010 | Community |
Tom Laporte, aka the “Boiled Peanut Man,” brought a small piece of Dixie to Dexter’s backyard last November. Laporte, thirty-five, the sous chef at the Ann Arbor City Club, has worked in the food industry most...
Read MoreJun 11, 2010 | Community |
At King School’s ice cream social on June 11, principal Kevin Karr will be triumphantly wearing maize and blue. This may not seem out of the ordinary for a U-M alum who special-ordered a big block M on his parking space...
Read MoreJun 7, 2010 | Community |
St. Joe oncologist Phillip Stella was volunteering at Ypsilanti’s Hope Clinic when he saw a patient with a nagging cough–which turned out to be treatable early stage lung cancer. Without the clinic, which provides...
Read MoreJun 2, 2010 | Community |
“Let them eat cake,” writes Noah Levin, adding, “I spy the Jefferson Market.” Make that the “fabulous Jefferson Market and Cakery, across…from my daughter’s school,” writes Linda...
Read MoreJun 2, 2010 | Community |
You know how annoying it is when the media takes incomplete, flawed data and uses it to draw a really broad conclusion? Well, prepare to be annoyed.Last month’s Fake Ad was the most difficult to find in months. We know...
Read MoreMay 27, 2010 | Community |
Ever wonder what happens to all those neglected articles of clothing left at the cleaners? Harold Kim, owner of Armen Cleaners, estimates that fifteen to twenty pieces go unclaimed each year between his three locations. Although...
Read MoreMay 26, 2010 | Community |
If you want to hear all 270 of Bach’s compositions for organ–played on instruments that Bach himself used–they’re just a few clicks away at www.blockmrecords.org/bach. Downloads are free, and there have...
Read MoreMay 24, 2010 | Community |
Whenever Chris Frey is ready to brew, he fills thirteen five-gallon jugs with water in Detroit and hauls them back to his home in Saline. “Gretchen [Driskell], our mayor, would not be pleased to hear me say this,” he...
Read MoreMay 20, 2010 | Community |
On November 2, 1869, the famed Hutchinson Family Singers appeared at Dexter’s Costello Hall. Known for their four-part harmonies and social activism, the Hutchinsons presented comic, dramatic, and sentimental...
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