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You are What You Read

Since John Weise and Stephanie Bentley started selling books, CDs, and DVDs on consignment almost seven years ago, they’ve processed more than 400,000 items, about 85 percent of them books.”One thing that’s...

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CHS on HuffPo

Like almost everybody else under age twenty, Eva Hattie Schueler has read the Hunger Games trilogy. “I read them all in the last three or four months,” says the Community High School junior, “once all the way...

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Abandoned bike blues

“I bike every day if it’s a nice day,” says Marilee Sturtevant, manager of the Red Hawk Bar & Grill on State St. “I need a place to park my bike, and the nice thing about the Maynard St. parking...

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Huff and Puff

While a tornado was destroying homes in Dexter on March 15, builder Ken Trever and a worker were just a few miles away, in the garage of an unfinished home in the Polo Fields subdivision. When the worker’s wife called...

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A Tale of Two Sisters

My mother grew up in a converted barn on Butternut Street in what used to be called East Ann Arbor. She had five sisters and a brother, Lewie, who hit his head and drowned in Malletts Creek when he was ten years old.Mom was an...

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Atulya Shetty

It’s lunchtime at Huron High School, and a couple dozen students have gathered in teacher Ken Long’s room for chess club. Sophomore Atulya (pronounced ah-thul-ya) Shetty, sixteen, sets up his board to play...

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Lonely Millage

“The problem now is with our software upgrades,” says Ann Arbor Public Schools spokeswoman Liz Margolis. “These computers don’t support the new software.”The AAPS has 8,000 or so computers, mostly...

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Tooth sculpture

“I recognize that tooth!” writes Linda Sattler of April’s feature. “It’s near our house.” “It was quite clever as they were sculpting” it, adds Cherry Westerman, while Linda...

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Cydefex

We’re changing the rules on you, Fake Adders.Many years ago, we decided to use the Fake Ad contest to promote the Observer’s website, arborweb.com. By using “Arborweb” as the secret word in every Fake Ad,...

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Screaming Yellow Building

Q: What is the screaming yellow unfinished building visible from westbound I-94 between the State St. and Ann Arbor-Saline Rd. exits, and what is its status? I’m curious, but not curious enough to get off the freeway...

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The Bees Sneeze

Richard Mendel, ad hoc coordinator of Ann Arbor Backyard Beekeepers, was on the phone a lot in March, giving advice to local beekeepers dealing with a lot of confused bees. Most of the region’s bees emerged from their...

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Bagels to bread

Ten years ago, when Zingerman’s first started giving away a half-dozen “birthday bagels,” only about twenty-five people picked them up. By last year, word of the freebie had spread, and close to 2,000 people...

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It Still Looks Pretty Grim

Rural poverty is every bit as bad as urban poverty. It’s just harder to see.”People can disguise their problems, but not forever,” says Nancy Paul, director of Faith in Action, a human-services group operating...

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More Than a Game

Michigan’s 4-0 defeat of Michigan State April 6 at Ray Fisher Stadium promised to be yet another grand game in a rivalry that I’ve enjoyed for more than thirty years.Yet what made it unforgettable weren’t the...

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Social un-networking

Though fewer Christians abstain from eating meat during Lent now than in the past, many still choose to give up indulgences like pastries, or chocolate, or alcohol during the season of penitence leading up to Easter. “I...

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Rain, rain, come and stay

In March, Susan Bryan cooked up thirty-four batches of play dough, dyed them blue and green, and packed them in old yogurt containers. No, she’s not a preschool teacher; she’s the county’s rain garden...

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Waterfront living

Fans of “Project Runway” are familiar with the phrase “one minute you’re in, the next minute you’re out,” as a panel of celebrities determines who goes home and who stays for another round....

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The Hash Bash’s Missing MC

When the Hash Bash returns to the U-M Diag on April 7, it will be without longtime master of ceremonies Adam Brook. Brook, who once ran a hydroponics store in the Kerrytown district (see photo), currently resides at the Parnell...

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Gas station at Miller & Maple

Q. Is anything being done about the dilapidated gas station at Miller and Maple? And what’s going on with the empty store across the street? It’s been unoccupied for years.A. Speedway has submitted site plans to...

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Forest Plaza

“I Spy that building at 715 S. Forest Ave.,” writes Vivian Loh. The “photo is of Forest Plaza,” notes Dave Bicknell. “This Spanish Renaissance detail graces the entryway of the charming 1920’s...

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