Finally Arrived
If everyone doesn’t stop being so nice to us, we’re going to lose our edge. Maybe that’s Geoff Larcom’s sinister plan. Writes Larcom, “When your father is a city official, you marry your high school sweetheart, then you live and work here, the old glasses can get a teensy bit rose-colored about Ann Arbor. For perspective, I self-prescribed a trip to ‘Ann Arbor is Overrated’…This is a skeptic with fresh eyes who enjoys tweaking the city’s fascination with itself.” Larry Kestenbaum, whom Larcom interviewed for the column, offers some insight as to how to square Ann Arbor’s high cost of living with its at least superficially left-wing politics.
The one quibble we have is that the headline, “Bloggers offer us some food for thought,” on a column just about this site and its posters implies that we’re the only blog around. The Ann Arbor blogosphere (sorry) has grown exponentially in the past year or so, and it’s been exciting to watch.
Also, Talk About Town reports that Ypsi’s water tower has made it into Esquire.
I think Ypsi Blogs will fly under AA News radar for quite some time.
posted by Steven B. Cherry on January 5th, 2004 at 12:58 pmWas this in Sunday’s?
I fell asleep reading about Gaylord…
Does AA already have Tower Envy?
posted by Leighton on January 5th, 2004 at 1:59 pmAA will soon be constructing a tower that’s somehow older than ours.
posted by Steven B. Cherry on January 5th, 2004 at 4:22 pmHa ha. I don’t doubt it, Steven.
posted by Boris on January 5th, 2004 at 4:51 pmThat reminds me of a bitter joke from Bosnia.
Among the losses in the war there was the Stare Most (”Old Bridge”), in the city of Mostar. The bridge, a simple (but huge) stone Persian arch, and a civic symbol of Mostar, was built in 1556; it was internationally recognized as a World Heritage Site. It was in very good shape until its deliberate destruction by point-blank cannon fire in 1993.
As part of the reconciliation after the war, there was some talk of rebuilding the Stare Most. Compared to the original, the new version would be “twice as beautiful, and even older!”
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 5th, 2004 at 4:55 pmNew sticker series?:
Our Tower is Older
Ann Arbor Sucks
OK, that’s gross and stupid.
It looks like the next series will say something more stupid like:
posted by Leighton on January 5th, 2004 at 7:01 pmSanitized (from Ypsi) for Your Protection: Ann Arbor Sucks (ypsifuckinlanti.com)
How about “our town is older”? so even if they somehow moved the tower to A2 we’d still be aight.
posted by Steven B. Cherry on January 5th, 2004 at 8:38 pmAt least Larcom gets it right about A2 politics. What a bunch of losers. Pandering pseudo-leftists who live in unbelievably expensive Burns Park houses financed by trust funds and cushy U jobs. These idiots try to “act” liberal with all of their Bush hating signs, but the reality is quite different…
When the A2 schools underwent redistricting a few of years ago(racial gerrymandering), the A2 liberals prescribed a plan which would “integrate” the entire district with the exception of a couple of schools - Lilly white Burns park being one of them. It was amazing to see all of the Burns Park liberals at the meetings and marching in protest to save “neighborhood schools”, yet somehow this didn’t apply to the rest of us.
How about our fine city council? These nutcases spent hours protesting the Patriot Act, saying it intruded on our individual securities and freedoms. In the next breath, they passed the most draconian anti-panhandling laws, so the poor liberals didn’t have to deal with any of the real poor. Interesting how some of our basic “freedoms” only extend to the liberal elites?
Let’s move back to the diversity issue. Does A2 really cherish diversity? Not on your life. How about the latest fiasco in the A2 schools. Remember the case which put A2 back in the national spotlight? The A2 schools denied that girl the opportunity to provide an alternative view on homosexuality. While I didn’t agree with her perspective, she had the right to freely express herself. In the end the only speech which was tolerated was the “politically correct” speech.
I am amazed at the hypocracy of the people in this town and their absolute disconnect from reality. It’s o.k. to equate Bush with Hitler, but a student can’t freely iterate that homosexuality doesn’t square with her beliefs. When did our Constitution provide for “selective” speech?
The truth is that A2 is filled with a bunch of Stalinists with totalitarian viewpoints and agendas. This is a scary place to live as an American and a true Democrat.
posted by True liberal on January 5th, 2004 at 9:10 pmI think you should pick up on Larcom’s suggestion of a daily AAIO radio talk show.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 5th, 2004 at 10:41 pmWow, I lived in AA for 10 years and never managed to get the attention of the AA News. I move out, and suddenly I’m quoted at length on important AA matters. Hell, if I’d known it would be that easy, I’d have left way earlier.
My parents will be so proud.
posted by Anna on January 5th, 2004 at 10:54 pmI’m more than a little disappointed that Mr Larcom’s otherwise informative column made no mention whatsoever of our beloved Daily pundit Ms Strayer and her anti-Oriental crusade. Speaking of which, when’s Chinese New Year?
posted by Boris on January 5th, 2004 at 11:29 pmIt seems obvious that the local plague of limousine liberals is a reality. So-called Ann Arbor diversity is truely a sham, “A neighborhood school for black …er African-Americans in Ann Arbor? Isn’t that what Ypsitucky’s for?”
I agree that that Pioneer girl’s views are more than slightly intolerant towards homosexuality. But shutting her up and not letting her hang herself with her own words was even more ignorant.
posted by Leighton on January 5th, 2004 at 11:42 pmChinese New Year is January 22. Are there any local observances scheduled?
I should remind y’all that the people on the school board pushing, mostly successfully, for racial integration in the first place (starting back in the 1960s) were also Ann Arbor liberals.
Indeed, the ones on the elected school board are/were probably more broadly representative of the community than the protesters in some specific neighborhood.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 6th, 2004 at 12:03 amLarry’s right: A call in show would be great…just imagine being flamed live on the air for making fun of marshmallows.
I would like to point out, proudly, that I received homemade AA marshmallows as a gift over the holidays. Not kidding….and I can’t tell you how hard it was to keep a straight face when my friend unveiled this extravagant gift with much aplomb.
The funniest part of it all was that the damn little buggers were good.
posted by todd on January 6th, 2004 at 10:08 amWhat’s this? An Arbour-Ypsi War?
posted by __earth on January 6th, 2004 at 11:07 amAre the AA liberals of 40 years ago the same as our supposed AA liberals of today? I know the town isn’t the same, does that drag on the populace?
posted by Leighton on January 6th, 2004 at 1:25 pmNice to see we’ve hit the big time - if the AA boosters are right about this place being the epicenter of western civilization, a News write-up should be a guaranteed ticket to fame and glory. I imagine one day, after AAIO has graduated and the blog is shut down, the U-M alumni among us will brag to our friends about how much cooler Ann Arbor was when we were there, and that we made it that way. Something that all U-M alumni are expected to do, I think.
Seriously though, congratulations on providing the one form of entertainment in AA that isn’t overpriced or disappointing.
posted by Nick on January 6th, 2004 at 1:32 pmHeh. Nicely put, Nick.
posted by Anna on January 6th, 2004 at 1:36 pmTodd, don’t tell us that Leopold Bros. will soon be featuring homemade marshmallows on the menu?
posted by Boris on January 6th, 2004 at 1:55 pmBoris you know me too well already. From this point on we will be known as Leopold’s Brewing, Distilling, and Marshmallowing.
Picture a beer-battered marshmallow with a raspberry liqueur-filled center. Mmmmmmm, hyphenated-foods.
posted by todd on January 6th, 2004 at 3:33 pmI believe marsh mallows grow wild in this part of Michigan. Why go for artificial ones when the real thing is available?
But maybe it’s like maple syrup: people who grew up with the fake, artificially flavored cornsyrup stuff detest the genuine article.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 6th, 2004 at 3:38 pmTodd, Why stop there? You could create an entire menu modeled on Bill Knapp’s, but with wholesome, organic ingredients.
For example:
Baked sweet potatoes. Hey — you already have the marshmallows.
Beer Battered Shrimp — that would be a snap. You could substitute gluten free texturized vegetable protein for the shrimp, and — beer! Easy!
Mini Corn Dogs: Mmmm. Corn. Dogs. Doesn’t get any more American than that. Even better if it could be made with tofu and hops.
Bill’s Chocolate Cake. Call it Todd’s Carob Cake! Mmmmm.
See?
The possibilities are endless!
posted by Anna on January 6th, 2004 at 5:17 pmTodd, Why stop there? You could create an entire menu modeled on Bill Knapp’s, but with wholesome, organic ingredients.
For example:
Baked sweet potatoes. Hey — you already have the marshmallows.
Beer Battered Shrimp — that would be a snap. You could substitute gluten free texturized vegetable protein for the shrimp, and — beer! Easy!
Mini Corn Dogs: Mmmm. Corn. Dogs. Doesn’t get any more American than that. Even better if it could be made with tofu and hops.
Bill’s Chocolate Cake. Call it Todd’s Carob Cake! Mmmmm.
See?
The possibilities are endless!
posted by Anna on January 6th, 2004 at 5:18 pm(AAIO, sorry for the double-post)
posted by Anna on January 6th, 2004 at 5:28 pmDoes anyone take Larcom serious. He has a job at the A2 News because of his Papi. He is the standard for Ann Arbor Latte Liberals. Ann Arbor is his social utopia.
posted by Bluheaven on January 7th, 2004 at 8:16 amHow about a follow-up?
I see that the City Council is trying to limit “free speech” again. Can’t blame them with all of the lunatics who pack the CC meetings and rant on. I’d limit open comments to topics germaine to the agenda. The A2 nutcases can always email or write letters (if they know how to do that) or even picket.
posted by True Democrat on January 7th, 2004 at 1:38 pmI recently stumbled across a livable cities index. The author says he wanted to know, “where can [he] can function without a car and still feel relatively safe?”. Based on 2001 crime statistics, he calculated two indexes for NYC. Note that when he included deaths due to 9/11 in the murder rate, his index score is the same for NYC and AA.
posted by Anna on January 7th, 2004 at 2:01 pm“I see that the City Council is trying to limit “free speech” again. Can’t blame them with all of the lunatics who pack the CC meetings and rant on. I’d limit open comments to topics germaine to the agenda.”
All that this means is that you have to approach a councilmember and ask that your “concern” be put on the agenda for the upcoming meeting. Not much to ask, in my opinion.
True Democrat is right. Anyone who has sat through a council session will tell you that there are always some serious nutjobs ranting about some crazy topic that wastes the time of everyone involved. No fun for people who are actually trying to do their jobs. I do not envy these well-intentioned people.
posted by todd on January 7th, 2004 at 2:47 pmThe more I observe of human nature, the more I am convinced this is true in any group that’s trying to get anything done. We had idiots in the co-op who would hold up meetings for hours over important things like “crunchy versus smooth peanut butter” or “nuts in bread: discuss”. This happens all the time, too, in our faculty and committee meetings. It takes a talented chair and very strict rules of procedure to keep a meeting moving along without getting derailed by egomaniacal meglomaniacs.
posted by Anna on January 7th, 2004 at 3:22 pm