ann arbor is overrated.

A2 sex blog Sex and the Diag characterizes the Old Fourth Ward as “the assumed virginal side of town– deep into Ann, Catherine, and Thayer.” So that’s where we went wrong when looking for an apartment! Apparently the odd Kingsley or Ingalls resident gets some occasionally, though. And even in this chaste enclave, we’re glad to hear, “Sex, UM, and tradition are everywhere– a triangle capturing each students latent desires.”

The News may be missing a headline for the “Police Beat” column, but that’s no reason not to be polite. “Head will go here and here please,” they decorously instruct.

We don’t know how we could have missed this: the Ann Arbor Ad Club’s “Capture the Cool” contest to create a logo and/or slogan that adequately sums up the coolness of a city that’s “a leader in modern health care, yet embraces ancient holistic healing methods” (via ypsidixit.) “Rub shoulders with the rich and famous,” the site urges, apropos of nothing. “Or at least the well-connected and infamous.” Unless they mean “infamous” in the same way as that Daily article about Rush Street, we’re not sure if Ann Arbor actually has any infamous. And what does “well-connected” really mean here, anyway? The guy at Zingerman’s recognizes you and gives you free baguettes when you walk in there?

The deadline’s the 19th, and we just know that one of you can win this thing. This is an unprecedented opportunity for “culture jamming,” or whatever the kids are calling it these days. If the $1000 prize isn’t incentive enough, keep in mind that all entries will be exhibited at the Ann Arbor Art Center.

Preservation Online, the publication of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, runs a short piece on the demolition of the Frieze Building (thanks Dale!), quoting the December letter to the News accusing the U of M of “callousness and arrogance.” A public hearing on the matter will take place on the 13th, the story reports. How come we didn’t hear about this before? Could the university actually be rethinking plans for the new dorm?

Rush Street and its sibling bar 800 North, the latest additions to Main Street, attempt to replicate “a bit of Chicago” in A2 writes the Daily’s Lauren Smith, who describes both Chicago’s bar scene and Ann Arbor’s restaurant scene as “infamous” in a way that leaves us unsure whether it’s meant to be a compliment. 800 North is actually 314 south — it’s been said that naming a restaurant after a number other than its address number is the height of pretension, but what if it’s the address number of something else? In any case, they’re wasting a great opportunity for a pi-themed establishment, which actually has some Chicago precedent with My Pi pizza.

This gives us a great idea if we ever move back to Chicago; opening up a place called Liberty Street. With a menu that’s an eclectic fusion of artisanal homemade marshmallows and Bill Knapp’s classics and a closing time of 8:30, it’ll be a bit of A2 in Chicago.

Well, it’s been an exciting week or so while we were out of town. Things we missed:

• The price of owl pellets is out of control these days. $2.50? Yeah, maybe if it has a completely intact vole skeleton. Has anyone looked into whether supplier Pellets Incorporated has a monopolistic hold on the industry?
• Judy McGovern still wants year-round residents to “reclaim” neighborhoods.
• Lake Superior State University in the Upper Peninsula has banned the word “blog” at the behest of people “unsure of its meaning.”

But we’re back, in time for Larry Kestenbaum’s swearing-in as Washtenaw County Clerk and Register of Deeds tomorrow. Don’t miss it — the Drain Commissioner’s going to be there. (What do they debate about in drain commissioner races? “If my opponent is elected, the drains of this town are going to be clogged with more hair and grease than you imagined possible.”)

If we’d known we could have rung in the New Year at a Gourmet Dinner Trek along the Huron, we would have stuck around, but as it is, we’re spending this New Year’s Day in a city out east that we may tend to overrate at times. We’ll be back in a few days or sooner.