A child of the fifties, I grew up on World War II movies like Twelve O’Clock High and Thirty Seconds over Tokyo. Before I wanted to be John Lennon and Keith Richards, I wanted to be Gregory Peck or Spencer Tracy. And I...
Read MorePerhaps it was the broad scope of the clue—”within city limits”—that stumped our audience in July. Or, the fact that the photo—cropped too far out of context—was of little help. Whatever the reason, for the first...
Read MoreWe received 81 correct entries from clever Fake Adders last month. And one from Dean McLaughlin.The ad, on page 57 of the July Observer, was for Great Haven Orchards, with the name of our June winner, Tom Jameson, hidden in the...
Read More“I expect them to play for and win the gold medal.”U-M water polo coach Matt Anderson predicts victory for the U.S. women in the Summer Olympics in London, where water polo competition starts July 30. “We...
Read MoreWhile there’s plenty of hard work going into the repairs of Dexter Rd., there is some play too. The portable toilet at the corner of Dexter and Doty was occupied by one worker recently when a co-worker, driving a huge CAT...
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Q: What’s the deal with the four houses for sale on Main north of Summit? Only one has a driveway, so how do people get to and from them? Will they all be sold at once?A: When Italian immigrant Benedict DeFilippi bought...
Read More8:30 a.m.: The online weather forecast calls for cumulus clouds, bases at 6,500 feet, visibility of twenty-five miles, light winds. Temperature in the morning will be 40 degrees with a high of 75. It’s a perfect day to...
Read More“It was freshman year in U.S. history that I got really interested in World War II,” says Dexter High sophomore Andrew Kapanowski. “I thought, ‘Wow!’ … some of these guys are still alive! Why...
Read MoreAfter a nearly thirty-year hiatus, the city’s black precision drill team, the French Dukes, is back for at least two scheduled performances this summer at picnics sponsored by organizations associated the city’s...
Read More“Developers seek asylum at local church.”If the headline in the News of Ann Arbor website was eye-catching, the lead was eye-popping: “After narrowly escaping a pitchfork-wielding mob yelling ‘We just...
Read MoreOn a rainy Saturday morning, Anne Reinstein’s students arrive at the back door of her home on a quiet cul-de-sac on Ann Arbor’s east side. In her cozy sunroom, four sewing machines await their users. Reinstein,...
Read More“It’s the Parkway Center, home to Castle Remedies and various medical and health-related businesses,” writes Elizabeth Woodford about June’s feature. “Better known as the big purple house(s) that...
Read MoreSometimes even the Fake Ad Czar makes mistakes (pause for gasp). The winner of our little contest in May was Karen Fournier. Somehow, in all the excitement over our new policy of including the previous winner’s name in the...
Read MoreThe last decade wasn’t kind to Saline. “Property tax revenues have gone down about 22 percent,” says mayor Gretchen Driskell. “And revenue sharing from the state has been going down since 2002, and it now...
Read MoreWhen Jordan attacked Israel in 1967, it began an extraordinary chain of events. During the Six-Day War, Israel occupied the West Bank, and afterward, a third of the 900,000 Palestinians living there left. Among them were Marwan...
Read MoreIn most ways Central Academy is like any other Ann Arbor school: pictures of the Statue of Liberty on the walls, and a copy of the Little House on the Prairie Cook Book in the library. And in most ways its students are like any...
Read MoreOn the Saturday before Mother’s Day, letter carrier Ozzie Williams parked his truck by the triangle where Oakland, Tappan, and South University come together, picked up a shovel, and joined the crowd of people planting...
Read MoreAt Bach School on a recent Saturday, a teacher reads a Spanish-language picture book on grocery shopping to a group of five-year-olds. When she asks where their parents buy food, the kids shout “Meijer’s!” and...
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