Elimination Games
London had its summer Olympics. Ann Arbor has a more regular match. It isn’t necessarily seasonal, and it certainly isn’t sport. It’s the hide-and-seek chasing down of spray-can-wielding outlaws.Tag,...
Read More2012 December
Joe the Builder
In 1961, Joe O’Neal worked on two construction projects. The first was a dam in Asia worth $300-$400 million. The second was a house in Ann Arbor that cost $39,000.In January of that year, the blond, fit Ohio native added...
Read MoreWhose Library Is It Anyway?
Despite a tenacious campaign, Ann Arborites voted not to build a new downtown library. The decline of print media, an increasingly suspicious electorate, and a woman haunted by a dream all played a role. —On election...
Read MoreDigitizing Memories
“It’s like opening a Christmas gift,” says Rob Hoffman.Recently, Mitch Rosenwasser, executive director of the U-M’s Camp Michigania, handed Hoffman a box of 16 mm movies taken at Michigan’s summer...
Read MoreNorton’s Flowers & Gifts
Tim Galea, president of Norton’s Flowers & Gifts, is scrambling to get his Ann Arbor store moved into its new west-side space by Thanksgiving, when the holiday flower season starts: “it’s all about...
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Burton Hoey vs. Everyone
It’s a beautiful fall day at Jenny’s Farm Market on the corner of Island Lake and Dexter-Pinckney roads, with sunlight shining on the straw maze outside and streaming through the jars of pickles and preserves...
Read MoreThe Joy of Apheresis
QUESTION: What non-activity provides a near-perfect getaway? A solid block of time to catch up on your pulp fiction, review for a test, or see that movie that got the rave reviews but you missed while you were preparing for...
Read MoreSisters Art & Gifts
Pop-ups are a new trend in the restaurant world, but artists have been doing pop-ups for ages. They’re called craft shows and they’re sick of it! “It’s a lot of work setting tents up, taking tents down....
Read MoreCrane Climb
Builder Joe O’Neal says he was “mad for a minute” to learn that the New York City marathon was cancelled in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy. He was already in the city, ready to run the marathon for his...
Read MoreHockey Mom
I lug my heavy hockey bag into the locker room at Veterans Memorial Ice Arena on a Friday evening and join a few of my teammates who are already suiting up. Once I strap on my pads, lace up my skates, and secure my helmet, a...
Read MoreBike care for the masses
Public bike maintenance equipment will help ease cyclists’ commutes on the U-M campus this spring, thanks to grad student Arielle Fleisher. Fleisher, a student in the School of Public Health, spearheaded the plan to...
Read MoreBlack Jake & the Carnies
Black Jake stands at the front of the stage, dressed like a ringmaster, his banjo adorned with Christmas lights. He stands resolute, barely moving amid the chaos that surrounds him, yet he cranks out lyrics like an auctioneer....
Read MoreSihem’s joins Taco King
Ann Arbor has never had a Tunisian restaurant, and soon there will be two. In Maple Miller Plaza, Susan Thomas and Khaled Houamed plan to open El Harissa Market Café, a Tunisian café, deli, and market, in the former Mercado...
Read MoreThe Re-Wilding of Waterloo
As early as 1834, pioneers bought up tracts of government land and began clearing it for farms in what is now the Waterloo Recreation Area. A hundred years later, during the Great Depression, many descendants of these pioneers...
Read MoreSampling the Holidays
If you believe every day is a holiday somewhere in the world, you can begin to prove your case along both sides of three blocks of Packard just past Platt. The area in what old-time Ann Arborites call East Ann Arbor is now our...
Read MoreBasketball Blessings
U-M basketball coach John Beilein has an unusual problem this year: too much talent.Beilein has four proven players returning, and two of these, point guard Trey Burke and swing player Tim Hardaway Jr., have NBA potential....
Read MoreNeon revival
For years people walking by the Ann Arbor Bus Depot on West Huron shook their heads at its sad state of decay. Out-of-towners often thought it was no longer in use, while many townies assumed that the owner, Bill Martin, was too...
Read MoreStreet Language
Overheard at west-side polling places in November were pronunciations that infuriate Old West Siders: Lutz pronounced “lutts,” Bach pronounced “bock,” Revena pronounced “ravenna”–and all...
Read MoreMore Better Pot
“It’s the best dope I’ve had in years,” says an anonymous local pothead. “The first time I smoked it, I laughed and laughed and laughed.”He’s not the only satisfied customer. For years,...
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