Krivtsov, fifty, earned a PhD in electrical engineering at the University of Kharkov in Ukraine, then came to the U.S. on a postdoctoral exchange program. Ford hired him right after he finished his second PhD, in applied...
Read MoreAs the Ann Arbor Symphony rehearsed for a children’s concert, conductor Arie Lipsky was about to give the downbeat for the song “Puppy Love.” Mary Steffek Blaske, the symphony’s executive director, handed...
Read MoreAbel, a Detroit attorney, is no enemy of businesses that sell medical marijuana–in fact, he’s executive director of Michigan NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). But he’s pointing out...
Read MoreIt’s “the heart sculpture, Tools + Fire,” writes Johanna Grum about our August feature. David Karl used Google Earth to find Jim Dine’s sculpture on North Campus, and says, “thank you for leading me...
Read MoreWe received 120 entries correctly identifying the Fake Ad for sleep therapist Remy Knapp on page 77 of the August Observer.”Only one ad qualifies as weird enough, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” wrote longtime Fake...
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“All the world’s a stage” is a fitting speech delivered amidst the greenery of Nichols Arboretum. As You Like It, the lighthearted love story being performed as part of the Shakespeare in the Arb series, now in...
Read MoreAnne Irvine doesn’t step into a roller coaster–she leaps. She grabs the handle and swings her legs into the car like a vaulting gymnast. “Woo-hoo!” she shouts as she lands in the backseat of the...
Read MoreIn June, Maryam Barrie addressed the trustees of Washtenaw Community College. The president of the school’s faculty union announced that the union had filed a complaint with the college’s accreditation agency,...
Read MoreLots of colleagues vow to keep in touch when they move on, but one group of former co-workers at Peace Neighborhood Center has actually followed through, holding annual reunions for thirty years now. Even as they’ve...
Read MoreInternational Samaritan–the Ann Arbor-based charity that works with Third World kids growing up in garbage dumps–is moving up in the world. This summer, it moved into a Victorian house on the corner of N. Main and...
Read More“The Monarch is undoubtedly the most familiar and widely recognized butterfly in North America.” So wrote the author of the Butterflies of Michigan Field Guide, published in 2005. But we saw not a single monarch last...
Read MoreWe’re used to seeing people walking around Ann Arbor looking down at their phones. But on a recent Saturday, nineteen people walked around town holding their phones out in front of them. They were taking photos for the...
Read More“I always thought it was for kids, but the adults really get into it too,” says a Downtown Home and Garden employee. She’s speaking about “fairy gardens,” wee landscapes cultivated by lovers of...
Read More“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.”—That setting: Catfish Row in Charleston. Mine: Zukey Lake in Lakeland.My maternal grandparents, who lived in Ann Arbor, had a log cabin on a knoll overlooking Zukey...
Read MoreFirst published in 1977, Historic Buildings: Ann Arbor, Michigan was initially written by Marjorie Reade as an outgrowth of the city’s 1974 sesquicentennial celebration. The slim ninety-eight-page book grew out of the work...
Read MoreFor a new and not very big pond, the one at West Park is amazing. Created as part of a $1.4 million project to clean up an underground arm of Allen Creek, the small spring-fed pool harbored swarms of tadpoles in May, resulting...
Read MoreIt’s a rainy June afternoon, and All Star Driver Education instructor Dave Lamkin is giving two high school sophomores their fifth driving lesson. The girls remind him that today they’ll practice parallel parking and...
Read MoreQ: The elevator at the downtown library has been out of service for a couple months, and a sign says it “will be out of service for the foreseeable future.” What’s the problem? Isn’t there any money in...
Read MoreWhen Priya Khangura went to work for Food Gatherers two years ago, she developed a pilot program delivering fresh produce to needy families at their kids’ schools. And she didn’t stop at handing out fresh fruits and...
Read MoreSince 2007, seven “roundabouts” have opened around the periphery of Ann Arbor, mostly at intersections previously controlled by stoplights. Planners promised they’d yield less congestion and fewer accidents....
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