The Cookie Jar Diet
Jessica Thatai knew she had to lose weight on the February morning when she told her then four-year-old daughter that she was too tired to go out in the snow to play. “Mommy,” her daughter Sonia responded, “you...
Read More2009 April
Masons at the Crossroads
Mysterious rituals, clandestine meetings, lost treasure, murder: the Freemasons, or “Masons” for short, are a rich source of literary fodder. Real-life Masons, for their part, tend to accept the attention with good...
Read MoreThe Flow Never Stops
“In my business, we always need three pumps–two pumps and a standby,” says Mike Amicangelo. “And we get very nervous when one of the two pumps goes down and we’re running on...
Read MoreCrime Map: February 2009
Click here to view this month’s Crime Map.Burglaries, sexual assaults, and robberies were all down slightly in February 2009 compared to the same month a year earlier, while vehicle thefts rose. #PAGEBREAK#February 2009...
Read MoreLaid Off – Again
The bar area of Mélange Underground Bistro is dark, crowded, and buzzing. But only a few of the well-dressed people here are sipping drinks. The rest are waiting, nervously or confidently, for the opportunity to pitch their...
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Life after Talal Chahine
Palm Palace Restaurants Inc. bought out Charlie’s Mediterranean Cuisine—formerly Charlie’s La Shish, formerly La Shish—last fall. “La Shish had a pretty strong following,” says Palm Palace spokesperson...
Read MoreWho We Are
A proud liberal, I moved from an East Coast factory town to Ann Arbor in 1954, sure I would find a compatible political atmosphere. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Mayor Bill Brown, a Republican stalwart, was elected to...
Read MoreJohn McCutcheon at the Ark
In a fine new John McCutcheon Live DVD recording issued by Ann Arbor’s Bamboo Concerts, the musician diverges almost immediately from his opening numbers into monologues recounting episodes in his education as a folk...
Read MoreBig Day II
After the Big Day, it gets dry-cleaned, wrapped carefully around bodice-shaped cardboard, placed in a double-thick acid-free cardboard box the size of a bathtub, and stored in the closet. And there it stays, year after year.You...
Read MoreQuick Bites: Cafe Japon
Two-year-old Café Japon, the French-Japanese fusion bakery café on Liberty, now serves breakfast seven days a week. Like the rest of the menu, it’s an ideal counterpoint of East and West: on the one side, French omelets,...
Read MoreViolinist Julia Fischer
What is this—a movement?For the second time in the same season, the UMS has hired a very attractive German violinist to perform in town immediately after she released recordings of Bach’s violin concertos. Earlier this...
Read MoreChris Bathgate 2009
“I blame Bob Dylan for records like this.” That’s what my friend, Steve, said to me as we listened to Chris Bathgate’s A Cork Tale Wake, released last year. Steve was referring to the inscrutable lyrics...
Read MoreTaxation with Representation
On April 15–Tax Day–two hundred people gathered on the Diag to protest taxation. We called five county commissioners to ask if they’d been persuaded to cut taxes. With the county facing a projected $26 million...
Read MoreThrift Shop Exodus
“We’re down to one volunteer a day,” says Janet Fritsch, chair of the PTO Thrift Shop. “We used to have ten or fifteen.” The shop, which raises money for PTO and booster groups in the public...
Read MoreEnd of the Dream
“It has just been a walk-through of hugs and well-wishes,” says Doreen Collins, of the final days of Dream On Futon. Collins and her husband, John, planned to close Dream On at the end of March.The Collinses have...
Read MoreTios goes down swinging
“I’m not closing because we’re not doing business,” says Tios owner Tim Seaver. “I’m closing because the city’s decided a parking lot’s worth more than nineteen jobs.” Seaver...
Read MoreSmall Donors Save PerfNet
Michigan nonprofits have had it tough for years and have had to find increasingly clever ways to wring money from an increasingly destitute public. Last week, Performance Network, Ann Arbor’s professional theater, in...
Read MoreAfter Great Pain
There are at least a couple of ways of reading a book of poetry. You can jump around in it, looking for individual gems that move your fancy—or you can read the whole thing from beginning to end, including even the blurbs, the...
Read MoreA fresh start at U Towers
If you’re looking for sweet, TCBY-style yogurt, you won’t find it at Yogo Bliss Frozen Yogurt & Gelato Bar. “This is going to be a more of a tart yogurt, so it’ll have more of a real yogurt...
Read MoreHyundai Holds Up
“You’re not seeing what we call ‘tire kickers,'” says Ann Arbor Automotive president Doug Fox. But though the window-shoppers are staying home, Fox says, Ann Arbor’s high levels of education and...
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