Last Post
We really appreciated all the nice comments over the last week. Come visit us at our new digs, the newly launched This Blog is Overrated, where we will be extending the concept of overratedness far beyond the boundaries of the Mitten State. Although we can’t promise we won’t blog about Ace Deuce there.
For all of you who disparaged the design choices that may have made AAIO a little hard to read — the new one is black type on a white background!
Click below to see how much we’ll miss Ann Arbor:
Top aaio post titles I would have appreciated seeing:
1. “Sabra Briere: Goddess o’ Evul”
2. LOWER RENTZ 4 STUDENTZ NOW!! OWWWW OW OOOWWW!!!!
3. “This Hyperspace for Rent” (since all computer/math geniuses live in another dimension, one hears)
But that’s all she wrote. (On this blog)
Outtie, but not pouty!
D. Bo
posted by Farewell Is Under Rated on June 2nd, 2008 at 1:22 pmHave always enjoyed AAIO and I look forward to the new TBIO.
posted by howdy on June 2nd, 2008 at 8:12 pmI will miss Ann Arbor Is Overrated and so will many others who have enjoyed it over the years.
posted by Kaptain Krunch on June 2nd, 2008 at 8:41 pmThank you for striving to decrease world suck!
posted by Louis on June 3rd, 2008 at 12:52 amThis blog will be missed.
Thanks for helping deflate Ann Arbor egos - just a little.
posted by Andy Piper on June 3rd, 2008 at 5:28 amWaiting for the aaio line of t-shirts (no doubt Elmo would print some)
posted by Edward Vielmetti on June 3rd, 2008 at 9:00 amAww, clicking ‘unsubscribe’ on my RSS feed for AAIO mad me sad for about the three seconds it took to add TBIO.
Kinda like the Michelin man who frowns when the tire he inspected leaves, only to turn around and welcome the next arrival.
posted by Tit for Tat on June 3rd, 2008 at 9:23 amWhy has mucho gusto not chimed during any of these long-goodbye threads?
posted by Constantine on June 3rd, 2008 at 10:21 amI’ve certainly enjoyed many of your insights and I’ve appreciated the opportunity to add my own thoughts.
It’s a satisfying irony that by providing people a forum to be miserable among friends you have made Ann Arbor a happier place for both yourself and others.
Protest all you like, but I don’t even think you hate it here anymore. The bitterness and rancor have just drained away over the past few years. Replaced with numbness, perhaps, but that’s pretty close to contentment, isn’t it?
And finally, decorum requires me to point out that when I offered to let you live in my basement I still thought you were a dude who looked like Ira Glass. That is to say, I wasn’t being fresh with you.
Take care, AAIO.
posted by Parking Structure Dude! on June 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 amGoodbye, AAIO, farewell, and thanks for everything!
posted by Lazaro on June 3rd, 2008 at 1:07 pmSo many possible responses …
(1) That’s nothing! Homeless Dave offered to let her live in his garage and bathe in his rain barrel, when she was right there in person on the teeter totter.
(2) Fresh? At least you and your “pockmarked jowl” are never stale.
(3) To maintain your style of deep anonymity has some costs — like missing all those blogger meetups where you could have met Julia long before her self-outing.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on June 3rd, 2008 at 3:10 pmLong live TBIO!!!!
posted by howdy on June 3rd, 2008 at 6:31 pmWe will miss you! In truth, I figured you might end up staying forever so I’m glad you are getting out before becoming a shell of your former bitter self. I love Ann Arbor and after living in other places, I know it is the place for me, but we certainly deserve a poke or two now and then. I always appreciate your erudite posts and clever turns of phrase. I’m glad you are going to continue blogging. Good luck in the future.
posted by Juliew on June 3rd, 2008 at 9:25 pm*sigh* At least there is a new avenue you will be persuing. Plus I’m looking at law schools in the region you’re moving to so I will probably find your rantings regarding your new locality interesting. I first discovered your blog years ago and your approach to things influenced my way of thinking. You, in part, caused me to get involved to a point where I ran for board of education in my home town as I was graduating high school, and have remained an interested follower of local politics after moving to the Ann Arbor area. Thanks AAiO. Good luck with TBiO.
posted by Dess on June 3rd, 2008 at 9:51 pmClassy exit. The t-shirt must be from someone
posted by kjc on June 3rd, 2008 at 9:59 pmwho really understood you.
” You, in part, caused me to get involved to a point where I ran for board of education in my home town as I was graduating high school, and have remained an interested follower of local politics after moving to the Ann Arbor area.”
See, now how completely cool is that??
Take care Dr. Lipman (hey, that has a nice ring to it).
If you’re ever out in Colo, give me a ring, and we’ll paint the town red.
Cheers.
posted by todd on June 4th, 2008 at 12:09 amThanks for entertaining me while I secretly longed for simpler times.
posted by ggb on June 4th, 2008 at 12:52 amIf you were smiling any larger your ears would fall off! Good luck in Maryland!
posted by A Different Jon on June 4th, 2008 at 8:35 amBye, AAIO.
posted by Carolyn on June 4th, 2008 at 10:36 amThis is a huge loss for Ann Arbor, but a big gain for the world at large. Bye!
posted by Living Large on June 4th, 2008 at 1:15 pmThis is a huge loss for Ann Arbor, but a big gain for the world at large. Bye!
posted by Living Large on June 4th, 2008 at 1:15 pmkeep gettin em and get em good
posted by toasty on June 5th, 2008 at 1:33 amI’ve lived in Ann Arbor most of my life, other
posted by Tim on June 5th, 2008 at 9:14 amthan 6 years in Chicago, and i’d say you
just totally missed what makes Ann Arbor
great. It’s just a nice, laid back place to live,
period. Ann Arbor was overrated when you
were here, and it is just fine after you left,
addition by subtraction
Thanks for all the nice comments. I really will miss Ann Arbor, seriously.
And I missed mucho gusto here too!
And finally, decorum requires me to point out that when I offered to let you live in my basement I still thought you were a dude who looked like Ira Glass. That is to say, I wasn’t being fresh with you.
Heh. Ira Glass is considered pretty sexy by some segments of the population.
I have remained an interested follower of local politics after moving to the Ann Arbor area
Wow! I’m glad to have helped inspire that.
If you were smiling any larger your ears would fall off!
The picture is from right after my thesis defense, so yeah.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on June 5th, 2008 at 10:26 amWhat’s with the use of the royal we? Well I moved to AA for school right around the same time this blog first started, and I think I actually first found this blog because I was curious as to whether anyone else also found Ann Arbor to be as overrated as I found it, so I decided to google “Ann Arbor is overrated.” Even though I’m long gone fron AA I’ll still miss this blog.
posted by g on June 5th, 2008 at 4:58 pmThere have been AAIO legends such as Mucho Gusto and others who are going to be sorley missed
posted by John Dory on June 7th, 2008 at 12:15 pmSpeaking as someone with a similar opinion of ann arbor who started their PhD before this blog (and has hopes of finishing soon!) congratulations on getting out of here
posted by Long time lurker on June 7th, 2008 at 11:14 pmMucho Gusto? Sorely missed? HAH! A legend in my own mind.
A bit off topic, but when has that ever stopped me?
It has come to my attention that one or more local elected officials post misinformation under assumed names here and other weblogs (GASP!) and then use that disinformation against their colleagues. (DOUBLE GASP!)
I will miss AAIO, but the fight goes on. Ann Arbor is fond of tradition and those of us who have a stake in this town will continue the tradition of AAIO.
Leave no stone unturned, no balloon unpricked.
posted by mucho gusto (on the bus) on June 9th, 2008 at 12:24 pm“It has come to my attention that one or more local elected officials post misinformation under assumed names here and other weblogs (GASP!) and then use that disinformation against their colleagues. (DOUBLE GASP!)”
Evidence?
posted by Bruce Fields on June 9th, 2008 at 12:49 pmWho’s your council person Bruce? Why not ask them?
I was told this by a council person who suffered this display of childish behavior.
posted by mucho gusto (on the bus) on June 9th, 2008 at 1:05 pm“I was told this by a council person”
So, you can’t tell us the name of the council person, the name of the “local elected officials”, or any pointers to the posts. OK! Sounds like no evidence to me.
“Who’s your council person Bruce?”
I’m in ward 1, so Briere and Suarez.
“Why not ask them?”
Uh, because I assume they (unlike me) have better things than respond to totally unsupported claims made in blog posts?
posted by Bruce Fields on June 9th, 2008 at 1:12 pmI’d just like to say 2 things:
1) Thank you AAIO for all of the support I’ve found in my bitterness against the hypocrisies I’ve discovered on a daily basis from the citizens of Ann Arbor as an undergraduate student for the past 3 years. This truly has been an enjoyable blog, and I will greatly miss its humor and information about the city that wants to have its cake and eat it, too.
And 2) Tim (see comment above for reference), you’re not only wrong in that it’s a “laid back place,” hence the numerous reasons this blog existed and so many people felt the need to search for it (and others who feel the same way), but you’re also wrong in your timing. If you had a legitimate defense for Ann Arbor, you would have brought it up when a critical post was written, not when the blog was coming to an unfortunate end. To make your statement now is cowardly and without merit. Citizens like you are the reason students like me will never return to Ann Arbor after graduation, because we are taken for granted, and Ann Arbor is high on the fumes of its own self-satisfaction. (See previous posts about Student Housing in Ann Arbor and try to tell me otherwise.)
posted by Red on June 9th, 2008 at 4:26 pmRed, Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
posted by mucho gusto (on the bus) on June 9th, 2008 at 5:51 pmLet’s all support AAIO’s new blog: Thisblogisoverrated.com. Good luck out east.
posted by howdy on June 9th, 2008 at 6:26 pmAt least we will not have to deal with a black background.
posted by Kaptain Krunch on June 9th, 2008 at 7:43 pmI wonder what all the vapid fops whose only rallying cry is some minute variation of “well then leave if you don’t like it” will say to your posts now. I can almost hear the whoosh of the vacuum created by that loss of “rhetoric.”
On second thought, they will probably still use it, despite its being inapplicable.
This was one place that eased my frustration, if by simple commiseration. I will miss it. Without this vent, I fear much more tangible manifestations of my outrage. Maybe I’ll try that technique of writing letters and ripping them up. Or maybe I’ll write letters to city council members and let THEM rip them up.
posted by BecomingJaded on June 11th, 2008 at 11:34 pm“So, you can’t tell us the name of the council person, the name of the “local elected officials”, or any pointers to the posts. OK! Sounds like no evidence to me.”
One out of three–Mucho Gusto emailed a quote from Ron Suarez saying in part that “at least one person on Council is posting to the web using a different name”. Nothing about who that person might be, what posts are, or what lead Ron Suarez to think this.
I don’t have any reason to doubt Mucho Gusto–I can believe that the quote is real–but it seems unlikely to me that Mr. Suarez would really know for a fact that this was going on.
So it still looks to me like someone’s just accepting a rumor a little too uncritically. Maybe somebody else can shed some light.
posted by Bruce Fields on June 12th, 2008 at 10:08 amVapid fops? Tangible manifestations?
Give me a fuckin’ break. It’s this kind of mangled vocabulary that makes A2 overrated. We don’t talk like that down at The Dairy.
Dear friends, please don’t mistake the rest of us as wannabe intellectuals.
Go read some Hemingway.
posted by mucho gusto (on the bus) on June 12th, 2008 at 9:34 pmWe are afflicted with a proclivity for bombastic sesquipedalianism.
posted by Roadman on June 12th, 2008 at 10:04 pmSo the non-wannabe intellectual tells me to go read Hemingway. That’s rich.
posted by BecomingJaded on June 13th, 2008 at 7:42 pmThat should be wannabe non-intellectual.
posted by mucho gusto (on the bus) on June 15th, 2008 at 2:19 pmThis was a great blog, but all good things must come to an end.
posted by Kerry D. on June 15th, 2008 at 7:08 pmGod, I really hate to see it end,
posted by howdy on June 15th, 2008 at 10:10 pmMaybe this blog can be copyrighted and sold to Googol for $400,000,000 so one can service each U.S. city and get a lot of Fortune 500 advertising.
posted by Roadman on June 16th, 2008 at 4:32 pmoh my god, what a great idea, wait a minute….maybe it IT is copyrighted!
posted by howdy on June 16th, 2008 at 7:26 pmDon’t go
posted by damon on June 16th, 2008 at 7:27 pmA fond farewell to a great blog;i t is certainly a loss to Ann Arborites.
posted by Colorado Sun on June 17th, 2008 at 8:30 pmwhat? AAIO is no more?
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
posted by __earth on June 27th, 2008 at 6:09 amThe sentiments of many, Mr Earth.
posted by Roadman on June 27th, 2008 at 1:31 pmIt’s just that, I thought you were a guy…
posted by Neo on June 29th, 2008 at 1:17 amHardly a guy….but a surprise who will be missed
posted by gary s on June 29th, 2008 at 9:04 amIt is certainly a great loss, but at least we all got “This Blog Is Overrated” as a sequel.
posted by Kaptain Krunch on June 30th, 2008 at 7:44 pmAre you the elusive Kaptain Krunch from the 60’s?
posted by gary s on July 1st, 2008 at 9:30 pmNo, I am not John Draper; his handle was “Captain Crunch”, nor am I the dog of Adam De Angeli (Ron Paul campain manager of Washtenaw County), who also is “Captain Crunch”.
posted by Kaptain Krunch on July 1st, 2008 at 9:55 pmGood luck in Baltimore, many locals have enjoyed AAIO over the years.
posted by Kerry D. on July 5th, 2008 at 5:14 pmI’ve really enjoyed your blog, and wish you the best in Bal’mer. I think you’ll find it’s, well, nothing like Ann Arbor.
posted by Nick on July 9th, 2008 at 6:34 pmI grew up in AA and have lived in many cities around the country. I still like visiting the town, friends, family, etc., though it’s been a long time since I’ve lived there. I’ve enjoyed this blog despite my different view of things, but one question always occurred to me: overrated by whom? Real estate developers? Chamber of Commerce? City Council? What a startling revelation. Find me a town that isn’t overrated by such people. The worst shit-hole in the country will be trumpeted as paradise by someone with an interest in doing so. In the interview article from the News, the author said that when telling folks in Boston she was moving to Ann Arbor, they told her it was ‘great’. Not sure where her Bostonian friends formed that opinion, but one can hardly blame that on AA townies. It’s also not astonishing that AA has less to offer than Boston, NY, SF, etc. No real news there. I live in a big city on the west coast, and the whacky stuff that goes on here make the follies posted on this AAIO look like a tempest in a tea pot. Take the good with the bad.
posted by exmichiganian on July 11th, 2008 at 8:06 pmsorry to have this site go…I like the white on black better. It’s distinctive.
posted by aj on July 11th, 2008 at 11:03 pmThanks for doing such a good job. Come back soon.
Can’t you contribute once in a while, AAIO? I like the black and white better also.
posted by gary s on July 12th, 2008 at 8:45 amSome twenty years ago, I moved from East Lansing MI to Ithaca NY, to attend grad school at Cornell. I discovered that people in Upstate NY have a bizarrely positive view of Michigan, and some even questioned why I would ever want to leave.
We think we’re depressed here in Michigan, but Upstate New York has been feeling forgotten and disrespected and in decay a lot longer than we have. Some of those cities (e.g., Watertown) have been economically stagnant since the end of World War I.
After all, as one fellow said to me, while pulling soda cans out of a trash bin for the 5 cent deposits, in Michigan you get a DIME.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on July 13th, 2008 at 11:59 amLarry, as always, an interesting addition to the discussion.
posted by sophie in NYC on July 13th, 2008 at 8:56 pmI love the black and white border too.
posted by John Dory on July 15th, 2008 at 7:08 pm“It’s also not astonishing that AA has less to offer than Boston, NY, SF, etc. No real news there.” –exmichiganian
Sure, like traffic jams, high rises, crime, pollution and folks who get uncomfortable when you look them in the eye and smile on the street? Friendliness is almost always inversely proportional to the number of interactions we have with others (think about it). If you require the constant stimuli of ‘big city life,’ perhaps you didn’t read the census data before you moved to little Ann Arbor. In my humble opinion, living off the land in rural Montana would have ‘more to offer’ than living in downtown Manhattan. Don’t get me wrong, exmichiganian, your opinion is most certainly the majority view. After all, most humans, like goats and other animals, feel more comfortable living in packs. The beauty of Ann Arbor (for some of us) is that it offers some amenities of the big city while still retaining that small town feel. I guess I’ve never seen a skyline and thought it was a beautiful thing, but I sure as shit melt when I kayak from Gallup Park to the Arboretum. Sounds like someone needs to start www.bigcitiesareoverrated.com, huh? Respectfully…and to each his or her own.
posted by Troutsniffer Extraordinaire on July 20th, 2008 at 4:06 pmTroutsniffer:
You may have misunderstood my previous post, or I wasn’t clear (the latter is certainly possible). My intention was to point out to those who unfavorably compare AA to say, NY or LA, that yes, those cities have many things to offer that AA doesn’t, but there are some negatives too, as you have described. That is why I said “take the good with the bad”.
I live in a large west coast city now, and gee, the weather is great, and the economy, relative to most places in the country, is pretty good. But the crime is bad, traffic sucks, and stress is generally higher. My problem is I like some aspects of urban life, some aspects of small town life, and some aspects of country life.
posted by exmichiganian on July 21st, 2008 at 9:21 pm“My problem is I like some aspects of urban life, some aspects of small town life, and some aspects of country life.” –exmichiganian
Sounds like you are making an argument for why Ann Arbor was ever ‘rated’ in the first place. Ironically, I myself have moved from lovely Ann Arbor to Boulder, Colorado–so essentially I have addressed the weather and economy issues. Of course, it is foolish to presume we have the same ideals in looking for a place to live. We might as well argue our favorite color (and I’ll get red in the face if you don’t agree that aquamarine is numero uno). I would just like to point out that if everyone thought Ann Arbor was UNDERRATED, either the population or real estate values would sky rocket, rendering Ann Arbor an entirely different town. So, cheers to all the folks who believe the town to be overrated! I certainly hope Ann Arbor is still Ann Arbor when I visit in September.
posted by Troutsniffer Extraordinaire on July 22nd, 2008 at 2:36 pmAs they say at the UM Hockey Games…. C-ya!!
posted by MjC on August 1st, 2008 at 9:03 pmann arbor won
posted by rob porter on August 6th, 2008 at 10:18 pmrob…how so? I think AAIO won when she skedaddled
posted by sophie in NYC on August 7th, 2008 at 10:13 pmHow did Ann Abor or AAIO win?
posted by Kaptain Krunch on August 10th, 2008 at 8:33 pm