You’ve doubtless seen a stop sign appropriated for some political agenda with a well-placed sticker - “WAR,” say, or, as L. Fitzgerald Sjoberg would have it, “NOT FREEING MUMIA.” But how is one to parse a certain “Do Not Enter” sign in the Old Fourth Ward, the white bar between the “DO NOT” and the “ENTER” of which is defaced with “READ MORE BOOKS”?
Vandalism? Assault? The AAPD has real crime to deal with. After all, the tri-fraternity melee that left most of DKE’s first floor windows broken is just “kids fighting between fraternities” - “childish nonsense” that threatens to distract from the real business of writing MIP citations and sleuthing for fake IDs.
More Derbyshire on A2: “Berkeley was pretty bad, but I had sort of expected that, having spent time in Ann Arbor last year.”
The U may have hit upon the only way to invite a controversial ultra-conservative speaker to campus without having him shouted down Horowitz style - invite him for a talk about the Riemann hypothesis. Writes National Review columnist and Andrew Sullivan nemesis (Sullivan not being a fan of his gay marriage opposition) John Derbyshire of his appearance at U of M Thursday, “Unless things have changed since my own college days, engineering students are the least political crowd on campus, except possibly for the medical students.” Indeed we were. Oh, and it’s pronounced “DAR-by-sher.”
We thought that the only objectionable content on channel 15, the “Home Preview Channel,” involved the price of A2 real estate. But apparently if you tune in late at night, you can see “minimally-clothed women dancing in strip clubs, simulating sex acts and rolling around on beds in their lingerie.”
We don’t really want to think about what those historic district commission meetings on channel 16 might be like after hours.
The Observer commemorates the New Year’s closing of the Del Rio with a piece that features only interviews with management. Despite the management/employee dispute that precipitated the shutdown, not a single worker is quoted in the story, which details manager Karen Piehutkoski’s experiences with what appeared to be scrawled threats in the bar’s restrooms.
“You can’t do away with leaders,” owner Ernie Harburg is quoted as saying, presumably of the bar’s formerly cooperative style of management. “It was a case of the inmates running the asylum.”
“A soar hand bothers Brown,” the Ann Arbor News reports about the U of M basketball player.
“Is Sweetwaters itself an aphrodisiac?” the Ann Arbor Observer asks about the cafe on Washington and Ashley. Answers the “thirtysomething male customer” they ask: “Oh, God, yes. Fresh art keeps churning out on the walls. It’s all about sex and flirting. It’s ninety percent of why people come in here, other than work. It’s our Hollywood.”
“Do you think Ann Arbor is overrated?” asks the Daily in their Random Student Interview. “Slightly,” their subject responds, citing issues of “safety and scenery.”
We didn’t get to read the latest Observer yet, but Brandon Past the College Grounds did, and it’s an eye-opener. Among the revelations: a shadowy figure named Doug Cowherd runs everything in this town and practices an odd brand of “NIMBY environmentalis[m].” Also, an unnamed city employee refers to Dicken Woods and Sunset Ridge as “pieces of shit.” If you voted for the greenbelt, it’s worth checking out.