Michael Yang hasn’t been in Michigan long enough to know that we use a hand to map our geography, but he smiles in recognition when he sees it. He says that China is shaped like a chicken, and quickly sketches one with a...
Read More“How much are you worth if you die?” U-M economics prof Sherrie Kossoudji asks a class of undergrads at Lorch Hall. “Why do ova cost more than sperm? Is it acceptable to sell your kidney?”Clearly, this is...
Read MoreDan’s Downtown Tavern adds a Pour House.Ever since the state’s restaurant smoking ban went into effect in May of 2010, business has picked up at Dan’s Downtown Tavern in the heart of downtown Saline. More...
Read MoreBob Sutherland’s up north empire started with T-shirts.Ann Arbor’s new Cherry Republic sells cherry jams, cherry butters, cherry jellies, cherry cookies, cherry BBQ sauce, cherry bath salts, cherry soda, cherry soap,...
Read MoreIf you walk into Lucky Haskins’ Antiques & Oddities on Main Street looking for Lucky, you won’t find him—there’s no such person. Owner Adnan Hourani came up with the name while driving south on I–75...
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In April, The Mission Marketplace, a nonprofit fair-trade store that sells handcrafted items from developing nations, lost its lease after nearly five years on Main Street. Glee Cake Patisserie will move into its spot this...
Read MoreU-M lecturer Fawzia Bariun says that’s the ultimatum Libyan dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi gave his subjects. As a young journalist in Libya, Bariun interviewed the former army officer in the early 1970s, and recalls how...
Read MoreJanice Stevenson, owner of Wackenhut Gartens, says people often guess that her store at Jackson and Lima Center roads was originally a church or a school. A former resident reported that people often knocked at his door thinking...
Read MoreGuitarist George Bedard is a pure local treasure. The unveiling of his new all-instrumental album, Pickin’ Apart the Past, at Top of the Park on July 10 ought to be accorded local holiday status, but he’ll be happy...
Read MoreHere’s a “hometown boy makes good” story. Adam Baru, son of a local orthodontist, who has worked with some restaurant industry giants–Masaharu Morimoto and Danny Meyer–has returned home to open his...
Read MoreWashtenaw County is truly blessed when it comes to parks and nature preserves. Our cities, towns, and countryside boast so many that some get almost no visitors at all. Here are three little-known natural areas that are well...
Read More“I can feel the pressure,” acknowledges local mystery writer Harry Dolan, whose second thriller set in Ann Arbor, Very Bad Men, will be published July 7. His first, Bad Things Happen, came out two years ago to...
Read MoreSeveral years ago my husband and I spent five weeks in India. We landed in the south, where it’s particularly hot and humid, and where the food, primarily vegetarian, centers around rice and dal, sambhars and chutneys. My...
Read MoreRyan Michaels, a hyper-articulate, hyper-opinionated fourteen-year-old, has been reviewing movies for the Heritage West newspapers since he was eleven. His critiques appear in the Ann Arbor Journal, Dexter Leader, Chelsea...
Read MoreIn the mid-1960s, Chelsea architect Art Lindauer hiked into a mosquito-laden woods south of downtown Chelsea. He was sent there by Dr. Michael Papo, a local physician who had outgrown the Chelsea storefront he shared with three...
Read MoreAfter a wet spring, poison ivy is “growing like crazy,” says former Ann Arbor parks planner Gerry Clark. Besides the rain, some believe that nature’s three-leaved pest has been multiplying for reasons that...
Read MoreThe results of the Fake Ad contest from the Spring Community Observer are a classic good news/bad news situation.The good news is that we finally took the training wheels off the contest. For years, we’ve been coddling...
Read More“Wow, now that’s what I call a big hint,” writes Ellen Willson. “This month was a challenge, until …” writes Ted Kennedy, “I paged through the Observer.” “I must admit this...
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