Burning Up the Dance Floor
July 24, 2003. I arrive home from work. Kalaea, the co-director of my dance group, has left messages on my voicemail: “The Technology Center is burning! You have to come and see!”I had spent a few moments that...
Read More2016 July
Snowflake Wanted
In May, the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners voted 6-1 (with two absences) to launch a new search for a county administrator. The lone dissenter, Dan Smith, was unhappy that “we never did take a formal vote”...
Read MoreThe Pretzel Bell
In a town full of individuals ready to bow down before the mighty block M, re-creating an iconic keeper of the flame seems a tad presumptuous, if not downright ballsy. Simply put, former institutions can’t be replicated,...
Read MoreThree Walks
A few years back, the Centers for Disease Control anounced approvingly that 145 million Americans walk for exercise. But a good hike should be more than racking up steps on a Fitbit or Apple Watch. An amble though our towns can...
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PEDs, Bo, and Me
In reading recent accounts of state-sponsored use of performance enhancing drugs, primarily by Russia, I was struck by how quickly it was decided that the FBI would open an investigation. There hasn’t always been a keen...
Read MoreVote of Confidence
Scot Graden, superintendent of the Saline Area Schools, took nothing for granted when the district decided to ask voters last fall to pay more taxes to help finance $67.5 million in school improvements.It had been fifteen years...
Read MoreMoney and Authenticity
Two of Ann Arbor’s three seats in the state house are up for grabs this year. In the deep-blue Fifty-Third District, Jeff Irwin is term-limited out. In the swing Fifty-Second, Democrat Gretchen Driskell replaced a...
Read More“We Can Help Dexter”
Karl Fink and John Hansen arrive right on time for a Thursday morning interview at Dexter’s Joe and Rosie coffee shop. But it takes them a moment to get to the table. First, they’ve got to greet just about everyone...
Read MoreMagical World
My journey with my teenage son to the U-M Biological Station began in an unlikely place: Jazzercise. That’s where I met a friendly lady named Carol. I often chatted with her after class, and one day she mentioned that her...
Read MoreShannon Gibney
I’d never heard the phrase transracial adoptee until I read Shannon Gibney’s young adult novel, See No Color, yet it describes something I’ve known about for a long time. Alexandra Kirtridge, Gibney’s...
Read MoreDetroit Dog Heads to Detroit
Detroit Dog Co. closed its doors in downtown Saline in early April but will soon open two new venues and a food truck. “All three are in the works,” says owner Catrina Vlisides, reached by phone, her seven-month-old...
Read MoreManning Home and Farm
We received only 29 entries correctly identifying the Fake Ad for Manning Farm and Home on page 27 of the Spring Community Observer.The ad featured driverless tractors, leading several Fake Adders to comment on the feasibility...
Read MoreThe Graduate
“Hi Bo!” (hand)writes JoAn Wetzel, chattily greeting last month’s subject, the “mural on the west wall of the Graduate” Ann Arbor Hotel. “The picture is of Bo Schembechler,” writes David...
Read MorePave It Games
It’s worth embracing the old adage “the road to success is always under construction.” Michiganders take it literally, knowing that with the last frost and the promise of spring come construction projects both...
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