Liberty Street is News columnist Jo Mathis’ favorite street. “Somehow it seems appropriate that a mural of Woody Allen, that edgy urbanite, is painted on a wall on Liberty between two movie theaters.”
As a new ongoing feature, we’re going to be following the A2 references of National Review writer Jay Nordlinger, who among Ann Arbor haters probably ranks first in prominence and second in dedication. This week, we’ve got a twofer! First, a dig at the News: “I would think that the Ann Arbor News would be embarrassed to employ [CBS producer] Mary Mapes (well, maybe not).” And then a reference to Nordlinger’s already-well-chronicled bookstore job at the Little Professor: “Ann Arbor is a bookseller’s paradise, and, in some ways, a conservative’s hell.” We’re sure he didn’t mean to suggest that these two are somehow related.
Remember the days when nighttime flashers had to use candles or simple incandescent flashlights to illuminate what the News so delicately calls their “mid-section[s]”? Not anymore, in this soulless age of cell phones with lighted displays. It’s just not the same in that cold LCD glow.
The Daily’s Weekend Magazine embarks on what they describe as the “impossible task of pinning down ‘Ann Arbor Culture.’” We learn that A2 is diverse “compared to Grand Rapids” and that it’s home to cultural events that “would never happen in Howell, or Grass Lake, or even Jackson.” That’s right - even Jackson. The writer, who starts out by lamenting Ann Arbor’s lack of nicknames other than “A2,” ends by suggesting one that outdoes even “Tree Town” in insipidness: “City of Cultures.”
Also, Uncle Grambo finally gets some belated Freep props from Mike Wendland, who decided he “wasn’t nearly as tigs with the Detroit blogging scene as [he] thought.”
The Old Fourth Ward Association, perennial cartoon villain of this site, is at it again, Arbor Update reports. This time they’re opposing a condo development on North Main that would threaten to “squash the small-town charm of Kerrytown,” as a News article that’s not online put it. North Main is not considered part of the Old Fourth Ward, at least according to this map.
The Matthaei Botanical Garden is looking for a name with “pizzazz” for its newsletter, reports Talk About Town. Suggestions that they haven’t settled on include “The Buzz,” “Gateways” and “The Plants of Our Lives,” the first two of which have nothing whatsoever to do with plants and the last of which tackles the plant motif head-on but in a way that’s perhaps a bit too starkly literal for our sensibiliities. Come on, readers - one of you can do better than this and win that membership in the garden’s friends group.
This has to be the toughest job in town: writing a gossip column about Ann Arbor. The items in this month’s “Quidnunc” include something about the Bird of Paradise closing (isn’t that actually pretty old news?), Henrietta Fahrenheit moving and some Bush stickers on bottles of Heinz ketchup. Not quite Page-Six-quality material. Still beats Liz Smith. But where’s the blind items? You know - “WHICH Ann Street resident was spotted putting out the recycling Tuesday night for a Thursday pickup?”
Mike Wendland’s Free Press piece on “Michibloggers” isn’t too down with the Arborblogs scene. Ypsidixit is there representing the Ypsi side of things, but an errant “www” in front of her URL sends Freep readers straight to the Diaryland error page. Uncle Grambo from whatevs.org seems a little miffed that he didn’t make the cut: “Stop doling out handjobs to douchebags from Franz Ferdistan who suck up to you with praise-filled emails and start giving kudos to those who deserve it. Namely me, you effin’ tourist!” Uh, yeah, it’s totally durst. Or maybe we mean bovs. Or possibly robvs.
Reason editor Jesse Walker’s feelings about his A2 roots are not quite as strong as Jay Nordlinger’s, but he does urge (okay, did urge - this is a pretty old item) his readers to listen to ‘CBN instead of Air America. Said readers debate whether Ann Arbor is the Oberlin of MIchigan, Ann Arbor is the Berkeley of the Midwest or Berkeley is the Ann Arbor of the West. Why does Ann Arbor always have to be the something of somewhere, or something has to be the Ann Arbor of somewhere? You’d almost think that it couldn’t stand on its own.
Leighton notices another list (well, sort of) of superlatives on which Ann Arbor will be making an appearance: America’s Most Wanted. Without Bert Sperling’s help, even.
Also, we heard that the meetup last night was a success. And that Larry Kestenbaum is running an awesome campaign for Washtenaw county clerk and you should all register to vote in town and consider giving him your vote.