“It’s probably the biggest sale in town,” says bookseller Gene Alloway. He plans to line up early on Friday, September 5, when the three-day event begins at WCC’s Morris Lawrence Building. “The books are in fine shape,” says the owner of Motte & Bailey Booksellers, “and they have lots of different subjects.”
Read More
Hats. Hats. And more hats!
Read More
Church members, neighbors, and passersby all enjoy seeing the tower, but they will have to live with a shorter one for several months. At almost seventy years old, its spire—the metal section on top—is about to be removed for repair.
Read More
At ten o’clock on a Sunday night, my eighty-six-year-old mother received a call from a girl who sounded like my daughter, then a college student. Crying, the caller said that she had gone to Canada with friends, their car had broken down, and they were stranded without money. Could Grammie please wire $700 right away, so they could get back to campus?
Read More
I spy “the ‘Tree of Life’ statue on the corner of State St. and North University,” writes Catrin Koselka.
Read MoreThere are more than 270 sales charted here, and we wish we could say the market is suddenly roaring. In truth, that crowd of triangles and circles reflects the assessors of Scio and Superior townships catching up after not uploading their sales to the state’s online database for months.
Read More
I think my life hit its peak when I had a bike and two dollars in my pocket.
Read More
“‘This isn’t Lycra U’ is very cute,” writes Steve Worden, “and using a U and you for (w) for the record, is one of your cleverer name arrangements.”
Read More
Since its modernization, the Summer Game has increased significantly in popularity. Retyi says that last summer they hit record numbers of participants, amassing nearly 15,000 sign-ups. This year, they’re on track to beat that record; more than 11,000 players and 3,000 lawn signs with redeemable codes for Summer Game points have been registered already.
Read More
“I spied with my little eye a mural at the entrance to [the] building at 124 W. Summit St.,” writes Isabel McEwen. It’s “in a little garden that backs up to the train tracks on the east border of … Water Hill,” says Dyke McEwen. “I visit friends nearby,” adds Dave Bicknell, “and always look to make sure it’s still there.”
While the team at Fake Ad Central was collating this month’s responses, the Czar happened to get his water quality report, and did something few people have probably ever done: read it.
Read More“It won an award for its unusual design—a concrete slab building, with windowless interior walls [and] indirect natural light,” reader Louisa Griffes wrote in response to Sally Bjork’s 2021 Observer I Spy contest. It “was named Holy Toaster because of its slab-sided design,” added Terri Klein Gordinier.
Read More
Litman brings a blend of humor and scholarship to her new book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes. Pop culture references that include Barbie, Game of Thrones, and Taylor Swift help illustrate her witty analytic history of key SCOTUS rulings.
Read More
Three Pioneer High School moms have joined forces to fund driver’s education classes for thirty-six Pioneer students in the upcoming school year. It’s a pilot project for their new Drive Forward Foundation, which aspires to provide fully funded driver’s education for underserved students throughout Washtenaw County.
Read MoreThe algorithm used by the nation’s most popular real estate site is usually in the ballpark of what property is worth—but not always.
Read More
What I have learned from my second summer here is that the city is only quiet if you’re looking in the wrong places. Campus may be quiet, but the city most certainly isn’t.
Read More
One sunny day in June of 1957, Kenny Scodeller pounded on my front door. When I answered, he commanded, “Get your baseball glove, you’re going to work!”
Read More
The connection she’s seeing is between incarcerated people and their children. As a volunteer and board member at large with a nonprofit called Staying in Closer Touch, she records women in the Huron Valley Correctional Facility reading children’s books aloud. Those waiting their turn use markers and crayons to create cards for their child or grandchild. Pilutti says it’s “very powerful to witness.”
Read More
“I prefer to be struggling in Ann Arbor as an artist than wasting every waking hour on my planet putting money into someone else’s pocket,” says Kymm Clark, whose circuitous journey has brought her back to Tree Town to her new collaborative fabrication studio, LullCo.
Read More
Visitors can now pop in their earbuds and tour the ornate landmark while listening to an original musical composition: Sara Tea’s “Fifth Wall: A Soundtrack for the Michigan Theater.”
Read More