Olympic Dreams
When Nancy Bates told her nine-year-old son, Evan, that she wanted him to learn ice dancing, his first reaction was yuck: “I don’t want to hold hands with a girl,” Nancy recalls him protesting. But she insisted...
Read More2010 January
Renewing St. Joe’s
Tom Tocco seems surprisingly calm for someone who’s responsible for spending almost $300 million. Trim and curly haired, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital’s director of facilities, engineering, and construction is attentive...
Read MoreA Leap of Faith
A design for a planned town-gown transit station on Fuller Road at East Medical Drive could be ready as early as this month. But Ann Arbor residents looking at drawings of the Fuller Road Station may still wonder what’s in...
Read MoreConcert4aCause
The format–an elevated musical variety show–matched the intent–the bringing together of artists, church people and social causes to their mutual edification, enjoyment, and endowment. In this case,...
Read MoreNew Statuses
It used to be you shopped Murray’s Discount Auto Parts on Stadium from east to west. Now it’s O’Reilly Auto Parts, and you shop it north to south. Murray’s changed the layout of its Ann Arbor store last...
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ACH Adds 400 Jobs
As other automakers close plants and shed jobs, the Automotive Component Holdings plant in Saline has been adding them. Since the start of 2009, the former Visteon/Ford parts plant has taken on more than 400 people, bringing its...
Read MoreSouth U. Pizza
Nizar El Awar came to Ann Arbor twenty-five years ago “to visit my brother, who graduated from U-M. I guess I’m still visiting,” he smiles. Shortly after he got here he opened a tiny toll-booth-sized sandwich...
Read MoreHome Ice Advantage
It’s a Sunday afternoon in the girls’ locker room at Chelsea’s Arctic Coliseum. “Are we gonna win?” one girl yells. “Yeah!” the others yell back through their face masks. The girls...
Read MoreThe Hangout
Dexter’s population grew more than 40 percent in the past decade, but at least one village tradition shows no sign of fading: hanging out in the morning at the Dexter Bakery.Parents still stop at the long glass counter to...
Read MoreDecadent Delight
Cheesecake is for sale again at 416 West Huron, the tiny shop in a wonderfully forgotten little warren of buildings under a railroad trestle. Originating as Sandy Ryder’s Say Cheese, it became Deda’s Bakery and...
Read MoreStar Outfitters
When the Swell Season–the Oscar-winning musical duo Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, made famous in the indie movie Once–performed at the Michigan Theater in early December, Hansard told the crowd how much fun...
Read MoreNagomi Sushi
Three new sushi restaurants opened in Ann Arbor earlier this year, and in mid-December they were joined by a fourth when Nick Ma opened Nagomi Sushi in Bagel Fragel’s old spot in the Plymouth View Center.Ma, thirty-seven,...
Read MoreIt’s Pickleball Time!
With winter’s arrival, Community Education and Recreation is hoping to lure people looking for indoor exercise to the drolly named sport of pickleball. A hybrid that blends elements of ping-pong, badminton, and tennis, the...
Read MoreJolly Pumpkin
I have to confess that I don’t like beer. After years spent trying to cultivate an appreciation, I can only regard my aversion as a character flaw and a serious inconvenience on a sweltering summer day–or when dining...
Read MoreSigma Chi Sobers Up
“It was like they were raised by wolves,” says Mike Stearns.Stearns, an Ann Arbor financial planner and 1981 U-M grad, is secretary of the alumni group that owns the Sigma Chi fraternity house next to the Michigan...
Read MoreMutual Kumquat
There’s certainly no reason why social change and fun can’t go hand in hand–everyone loves a good demonstration, especially one with happy, finger-snappin’ music. Mutual Kumquat–an area band with an...
Read MoreCosmic question
The answer may hinge on the existence of dark energy: the mysterious force that may or may not bind the cosmos together. U-M astronomer Philip Hughes admits dark energy is “an ad hoc and outrageous postulate” but...
Read MoreZingerman’s Coffee
“Ann Arbor is a very sophisticated town for coffee,” says Allen Leibowitz, co-managing partner of Zingerman’s Coffee Company. Heretofore only a wholesaler, ZCC opened for retail when it moved to Plaza Drive...
Read MoreChanneling Lincoln
Relax. That’s what modern dance choreographer Bill T. Jones tells audiences to do in his video Blog at billtjones.org. Don’t worry about it all making sense, allow what comes to you to come and see what you still...
Read MoreAshes to Not Ashes
Ten years ago, one in every seven trees in town was an ash–in some subdivisions, they made up half of the urban canopy. Then an emerald ash borer infestation was discovered in 2002, and within a few years, all 22,000 ash...
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