ann arbor is overrated.

“Michigan hookup” hits the big time! Uber-popular blog whatevs.org, which we’ve always found annoying in that Old Navy commercial, can’t-look-away kind of way, picks up the story. “[I] say this kind of frank discourse is buzzworthy for the entire city of Ann Arbs.”

After reading this, and perusing a few other A-list blogs, we realized how out of it we are with blogger slang, and we’re going to try to do better by doing the following:

• Using “best” as a non-superlative adjective. “I got this balloon valance at From Vintage to Vogue Home…it’s so best.”

• Replacing the last syllable or syllables of words with an ’s.’ Downtown Devs Auths. Greenbs.
• Referring to other bloggers in the in-crowd as [first name][name of blog]. Rob Goodspeed Update. Hillary The Bunker. Larry Polygon, the Dancing Bear.

And, since we know you can’t hear enough about week-old Daily stories of questionable taste, here’s one faculty member’s take on the infamous “snobs” debacle. He doesn’t demand an apology for the parody, which he believes to have displayed an ignorance of “the history of anti-Semitic rhetoric,” but calls for “an exchange of views” about what was possibly funny about it.

Skylights, Spirit Airlines’ in-flight magazine, will be running a story about Art Fair, Talk About Town reports.

Could “Michigan hookup” actually be gaining currency? We’ve already received a number of search requests for the term (for which this site is the top hit.)

Writes Nancy Nall, “I, for one, would like to know how this particular act came to be known as a Michigan hookup.”

Ann Arbor has a Friendster profile. Among Tree Town’s more notable testimonials from her 260 friends:

• When I am travelling, people ask me where my home is. I usually tell them “Right about where I am standing.” But I tell them also that my spiritual home is Ann Arbor. I love to nestle in you ample bosom!…Everyone wants to be like Ann, she is used as the yardstick by which coolness is measured. When they say, “It;s kinda like Ann Arbor…” then you know it’s not. Ann, You taught me love and showed me how to free myself of the chains of convention.

• Ann, you nearly ruined me. I’ve beaten boys on the river, sold crack in Liberty Plaza and been pimped at the library for candy. The endless pizza, the hideous coffees, the rubbery tofu - it’s all here and I’ve survived it all. Thanks Ann, for keepin’ me alive - just barely, by the skin of my balls… but alive.
• Although you wouldn’t take me for the second year in a row, I still harbor no bad feeling towards you, Ms. AA. I’ve just recently shacked up with your Siamese twin and we’ve been getting awfully cuddly — even though she’s more of a plain Jane, she and I both agree that you may be over doing the whole urban sprawl deal. Your a beautiful town, there’s no reason for all that surgery; not even to help your self esteem.

The rarely-used comments feature on the Daily’s website is getting quite a workout from the “snobs” “parody” article, with calls for an apology to the Jewish community, accusations of political correctness and speculation over whether Jewish girls spell their names “Sarah” or “Sara.”

For the record, we are both a snob and a slob.

The votes are in and the winner of the Ann Arbor is Overrated contest to rewrite “Down On Main Street” is Dixie, whose heartwarmingly “positive” take on the whole thing charmed readers. (Aw.) Here’s the new version:

I remember kissing under the million sparkly winter tree-lights
Trying not to shock the prudes
There was this small remainder bookstore, Afterwords,
Where we knocked the snow off shoes
For a long, warm hour we poked through the shelves,
Showed each other finds, and forgot ourselves,
Down on Main Street.

In the coffeeshops, the poseurs, and the artistes,
We used to mock them through the glass,
When I slipped on ice you’d pull my hand,
I cuddled close, let yuppies pass.
Unlike all the self-important glitter of café and store,
Small mitten-in-mitten walk meant something more,
Down on Main Street.

Like the ousted dim old office store, the former drugstore there,
Some memory of you’s in the snowy air
Down on Main Street.
Down on Main Street.

Thanks to everyone who participated.