A Boy on a Schwinn
I think my life hit its peak when I had a bike and two dollars in my pocket.
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Community
Spendthrift
“‘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.”
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AADL’s Summer Game
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.
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A Greco-Roman Mural on Summit St.
“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.”
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State Line Fireworks
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 MoreThat Brutalist Church on E. Huron
“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.
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Leah Litman
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.
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Driver’s Ed for All
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 More“A Class of Its Own” and a Cautionary Zillow Tale
The algorithm used by the nation’s most popular real estate site is usually in the ballpark of what property is worth—but not always.
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My Townie Summer
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.
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The Ann Arbor Travelers
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!”
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Voices from Prison
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.”
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Kymm Clark
“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.
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The Michigan Theater in Sound
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.”
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Homegrown Pope
Local Catholics responded with surprise and pleasure to the news of Chicago native Robert Prevost’s election as Pope Leo XIV.
Read MoreQuestion Corner | June 2025
While we navigated through several streets with reduced lanes on the way to a concert at Hill, we wondered: do companies have to pay the city when they close streets to make room for construction?
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Warriors and Caregivers
A Vietnam veteran and Ford Motor Company retiree, Kinzinger has been helping other veterans for around thirty-five years, including raising money for the Washtenaw County Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center. Now his focus is on Warriors and Caregivers United (WACU), a nonprofit that prioritizes supporting returning veterans, their caregivers, and their families.
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Concours de Médiocrité
“The most obvious giveaway is the date of June 31—it ain’t happening. Much more interesting, though, are the (at least in some way self-contradictory) instances of wordplay. ‘Competition in Mediocrity’—chef kiss left! ‘Pedestrian automobiles’—chef kiss right! … The nod to the previous month’s winner (Merry Muilenberg) is the 1926 Muilenberg Model X.”
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Red Hawk Bar & Grille
“RIP Red Hawk,” says Elise McCoy. “You were my family’s favorite.”
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Return to Arrowwood
It’s hard for me to grasp that I’ve now lived with my wife, Mary, at Arrowwood Hills Cooperative for five years. It’s been a circuitous and fortuitous journey.
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