ann arbor is overrated.

A correspondent of mine tells me, “I don’t say A-squared, and neither does anyone who grew up here.” So I apologize to all those I’ve tarred by implying that they use this insipid nickname. In my defense, I can say only that I would have assumed that “A-squared,” like “Frisco” or “the Big Easy,” was one of those city diminutives that immediately mark the user as a non-native, except that it would imply that those outside of Ann Arbor have reason to refer to it.