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“Thanksgiving isn’t all that old a holiday,” says Beth Israel rabbi Robert Dobrusin. And because of Thanksgiving’s comparative youth–Abraham Lincoln declared it a national holiday in...

Thousands of low-income kids got a break last month when a state-funded dental insurance program expanded into Washtenaw County. Administered by Delta Dental, the program pays private dentists to provide cleanings and treatment....

“This is Ann Arbor,” says Marguerite Grabarek. “Gotta keep the dog on a leash.”With dry humor, Grabarek is explaining why a rope connects two bushes in her front yard on Virnankay Circle–one...

Author John U. Bacon had 2,014 Facebook friends in mid-October–and some 600 “pending requests,” most of them from people he doesn’t know. Suspecting that “some just want to get access to the...

“Boots was the first pet at the Majestic Pathway Garden,” Wanda Hagan says. “I wanted him near me.”Since opening in 1928, Ann Arbor’s forty-acre Arborcrest Memorial Park on Glazier Way has been...

After World War II, many Washtenaw County veterans returned home with a strong craving for adventure. In awe of the pilots they watched help win the war, a good number were attracted to daring pursuits like flying. Lucky for the...

“Apples are pretty tough,” says Dale Lesser, who’s grown them commercially for more than forty years at Lesser Farms in Dexter Township. “It’s amazing that you can have an apple tree with...

In May, Michigan’s women’s basketball coach Kim Barnes Arico flew to a Big Ten coaches’ meeting in Chicago at the last minute. Afterward, the second-year Wolverine coach showed her practicality by asking MSU...

Q: We exit our neighborhood at Pittsfield Boulevard and Washtenaw Avenue. For as long as I can remember, cars stopped at that light (going west toward downtown Ann Arbor) are turning left from Washtenaw onto Pittsfield, then...

“The building … in the background is unmistakable!” writes Alexandra Burja. “I can spy those teeth-like pillars of the dental school anywhere!” adds Gaia Stenson–the sculpture shown last month...

A healthy 169 Fake Adders spotted the Fake Ad for Inkin, a job search firm for creative types, on page 77 of the October Observer.Many entrants quickly spotted the name of last month’s winner, Jim Pluta, hidden (sort of)...