Dome Home
Q. From Plymouth Rd., you can see a building above Arbor Springs that looks like it has an observatory. What’s the story there? A. That is not an observatory, but the “dome home” of architect Sahba Laal....
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Sculpture on Campus
On the road to Mandalay,Where the flyin’-fishes play,An’ the dawn comes up like thunder outer China ‘crost the Bay!These lines from Kipling’s poem “Mandalay” came immediately to mind when we...
Read MoreMock court
In March, Community High School won a state championship. Not in basketball–the school doesn’t even have a team–but by arguing an imaginary wrongful death lawsuit.”George Romero,” a partner in an...
Read MoreLong-Distance Medicine
Perumal Pillai, seventy-five, lives at Grace Care Center, an orphanage and elder care facility in Sri Lanka. For seven years he was blind. Then, five months ago, Pillai had surgery to remove cataracts from one eye. He’s...
Read MoreGayle Hurn
On a sunny morning in early May, no one is in the water at Fuller Pool, but about two dozen city staffers and volunteers are milling around it, adults setting up lounge chairs and little kids bouncing a basketball or picking...
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Canine Goose Patrol
The NCRC, the old Pfizer complex, employs some 2,000 people. It’s also home to perhaps a dozen nesting pairs of Canada geese. And when those geese hatch their babies, they bring their families to the entrances of the...
Read MoreFlower bed
Despite its beckoning antique charm, you won’t be able to take a leisurely afternoon snooze in the red iron bed in a front yard on South Maple. Yellow tulips and rose bushes have long ago claimed it for their own.Anne...
Read More“Fragments of the Great War”
Forty-six pieces–including ink drawings, watercolor and acrylic paintings, and collages–make up the collection. Lewis, ninety-six, says that four years ago he “went to work with serious vigor” to assemble...
Read MoreNorth Hall
Next door to last month’s feature is the building many guessed then. “North Hall,” identifies Susan Daron. “This is rather ironic,” writes Bob DeBona, “since last month I was speculating that...
Read MorePorcupine Mountain Sports
We received 177 entries correctly identifying the Fake Ad for Porcupine Mountain Sports on page 90 of the May Observer. The ad copy contained the last name of the previous month’s winner, “Reichert,” in the...
Read MoreBaseball Dreams
On a cool weekday afternoon in April, the U-M baseball team is about to play Bowling Green at Ray Fisher Stadium. And, as usual, Debbie Bourque, Don Eaton, and Ted Maezes are in the stands. These Ann Arbor parents have been...
Read MoreSue Thy Neighbor
When Nick Delbanco and his wife moved from Vermont to Ann Arbor in 1985, they were drawn to a home near Nichols Arboretum. Just a block away, a short path led to the Arb’s Main Valley. “I felt like a country...
Read MoreLost in Lakewood
When I was a wee lad back in the early sixties, I was convinced that Beaver Cleaver, of the TV show Leave It To Beaver, lived in our neighborhood, the Lakewood subdivision on the west side of Ann Arbor. I asked my mother to...
Read MoreLife at Panera
I’m sitting at my usual table by the window at the Panera on Washtenaw, sipping tea and revising my manuscript. There is a homeless man in a chair in the corner, his belongings stuffed in a ratty duffle bag next to him....
Read MoreCrossing the Rainbow Bridge
I tucked our little boy, Nathan, into bed and went back to the kitchen to button things up for the night. Five minutes later I heard the sobs. I went back upstairs, pulled him into my lap, and asked, “Is it about...
Read MoreKings of the Road
Recently, Vaughn Butterfield hooked up a 2014 Montana High Country fifth-wheel trailer at Lloyd Bridges Traveland and drove it 2,200 miles to Menifee, California. Butterfield had previously bought two recreational vehicles from...
Read MoreCrash Investigation Site
Q. What is the purpose of the “Crash Investigation Site” on eastbound I-94 a short distance east of the Jackson entrance ramp? Since there doesn’t seem to be another on the westbound side, how effective is...
Read MoreGoldfinches in Spring
If you find gold, the precious yellow metal, in its native form in your backyard, please do let us know. We will certainly consider an Outside article about it. However, this article is about living gold that, in its own way, is...
Read MoreLatania Fair
When there’s a late-night crisis at Alpha House, the local shelter for homeless families, shelter director Latania Fair gets the call. It may be a staff member wondering whether a client needs to go to the emergency room....
Read MoreDeconstruction
Soon after Gail Solway–an Ann Arbor pharmacist, massage therapist, and nutritionist–purchased the property at 500-504 Spring Street, she and her architects, Brad and Theresa Angelini, decided that renovating the...
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