James Carville clearly doesn’t think much of Michigan football, but we find his characterization of A2 as “Antarctica” more baffling than insulting, especially since he’s comparing it to Minnesota. A writer to the News, however, sees fit to respond with an equally perplexing riposte: “Think I’ll prepare some visuals for Carville from this ’swing state.’”
Rice flour, soy flour, spelt flour, whole-wheat bread flour, whole-wheat pastry flour, low-gluten flour and high-gluten flour. None of which is known to make the most delicious crepes. “I hate to recommend this, but you might actually want to go to a standard grocery store,” the guy working at the People’s Food Co-op told us.
Also, the second Ann Arbor is Overrated meeting is tonight at 9.
Of all the assorted miscreants that the AAPD cracks down on around this time of year, we probably have the least sympathy for tailgaters who can’t be bothered to throw their trash in a trash can - especially since, unlike those unlucky partiers who stumble into one of the Old Fourth Ward’s cell phone sting operations, they’re always given warnings first. But a throwaway line in the News story hints at more alarming designs: “It’s part of a city-wide push to go after problematic neighbors.” This is the first we’ve heard of such a push. Oh, we’re aware of various initiatives or programs or ordinances, but not a push. Isn’t a push something that’s kind of organized?
An unsuspecting visiting student from U-M Flint gets entangled in the labyrinthine University parking system.
A resident writing to the News letters page suggests naming the new high school “Ann Arbor Landlady High.” Not to impugn her former profession or anything, but we can’t help but notice that land-persons don’t always attract the warmest feelings in A2, both among the students they rent to and the townies who don’t want to live near the students they rent to. Perhaps there’s some other occupation that might have more public support, although since the writer specifically mentioned naming the new high school after local women, we suppose Ann Arbor Bird Lister High, with its hypermasculine associations, is out.
Also, Notional Slurry offers some long-needed skepticism about the Engineering Honor Code.
What: Ann Arbor is Overrated meetup
Where: Leopold Bros., 523 S. Main St. We’ll have some kind of sign.
When: Tuesday, September 14th at 9 p.m.
Who: Ann Arbor haters. Ann Arbor lovers. Students. Townies. Candidates for obscure Washtenaw County offices. Anyone who was there last time. Anyone who was too lame to make it last time. Anyone who didn’t know about it last time.
The latest Observer also profiles some new A2 businesses, among them a Kerrytown clothing store. Its proprietor describes her shop as, “very elegant, very European flair, very woof.” “Woof?” asks the Observer. (Were the Observer written by P.G. Wodehouse, it would have asked, “Woof, madam?” with just the tiniest hint of disapproval.) “Oh, you know, people will walk in, they will say ‘Wow!’” Oh, right, that woof! Woof, as in, wow!
Very good, madam.
In “Confessions of an Obsessive Bird Lister,” this month’s Observer goes directly inside the world of high-stakes bird listing. It’s cutthroat - when bird lister Sandy Komito challenges another bird lister’s bird list, the latter dubs him “Iago Komito.” Concedes the writer, “In Shakespeare’s Othello, Iago’s poisonous slanders end in murder. The stakes in birding aren’t quite so high.” He goes on to speculate that his hobby may be “a guy thing, a manifestation of too much testosterone.” Boy, you really have to watch out when that Ann Arbor testosterone gets out of hand. You don’t want to be hanging around the bar when two of these guys can’t agree on whether they saw a Townsend’s warbler or a western tanager, is all we have to say.
AAIO meetup: let’s try this again. How does Thursday the 9th or Tuesday the 14th sound?
Got some tomatoes, Cheese-Its and sour cream sitting around? You’ve got the makings of “Tomato Casserole With Crackers.” The dish is to be topped with “bread crumbs or more cheese-flavored cracker crumbs.”