In the works
Sharp-eyed customers at Downtown Home & Garden may have noticed some activity behind the store–trenches being dug, low walls going up, and most recently, a tall, elegant iron fence defining a small concrete lot....
Read More2011 February
The Kruger Brothers
The Kruger Brothers, Jens and Uwe, first heard American roots music when their father brought folk records home to Switzerland from his business trips. They struck out on their own as street musicians, Jens on banjo and Uwe on...
Read MoreThrough a glass, locally
Mosaic artist Haley Alcock was sick of driving to Lansing for stained glass and other supplies, but she didn’t have much of a choice. “There were no glass shops in this area,” she says. “So I got the idea...
Read MoreHuron Valley Assisted Living
Last month’s Fake Ad for the New Year’s Eve Open House at Huron Valley Assisted Living (page 66 of the January Observer) prompted eighty-one responses. The ad contained a reference to the all-time cult film classic...
Read MoreEve’s blooming riot
As a fan of Eve Aronoff’s elegant eponymous restaurant in Kerrytown, I kept an eager eye on her casual new place, Frita Batidos, during months of construction delays. Peering through gaps in the brown-papered windows on...
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Lastingness
Nicholas Delbanco has been in Ann Arbor for almost thirty years now, first brought in as director during the early days of the U-M MFA program in creative writing, now universally recognized as one of the top three such programs...
Read MoreBus Odyssey
Ditch your car and save $8,000 a year by riding the bus. That’s what a recent Ann Arbor Transportation Authority press release suggests. The newly rich bus rider was assumed to have driven a mid-sized sedan 15,000 miles a...
Read MoreDealership Redo
Suburban Chevrolet Cadillac Saab Hummer saw some big changes in the past year. One of them was Hummer: it’s gone. General Motors deep-sixed the brand after a deal to sell it to a Chinese buyer fell through. That shrank the...
Read MoreCafe Felix
“I wondered if the map of the world had changed while I was away on vacation,” writes Kathy Peterson of January’s clue, “Where France borders Mongolia.” “Maybe some freakish act of nature...
Read MoreAdvantage Sports Opens
After twenty-four years in computer sales, Mike Charles walked away six years ago. “My kids got good at sports,” he explains, “and I got tired of missing all their [games].” He cashed out a couple of...
Read MoreBurns Park Players
Twenty-some years ago, a group of Burns Park Elementary parents decided to put on a show to raise some money. Did no one tell them art is not what you do to raise money? Hello! Who put the non in nonprofit? The arts,...
Read MoreThird and Long
For two days in January, the most-shared story on the Wall Street Journal’s website had nothing to do with business: it was a column by local writer John U. Bacon on the firing of Michigan football coach Rich...
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