Archive for August, 2009

Paul Saginaw

Editor’s note: The following is an edited version of a letter that Paul Saginaw, co-founder of Zingerman’s, sent to his partners following a heart attack he suffered last month. Here at The Chronicle, we wish Paul all the best in his recovery, and thank him for sharing this cautionary tale.

Although hard for me to believe, I did, in fact, suffer a small heart attack. I also understand that if I do as I’ve been told, I am going to be okay. 

I believe that it occurred on Thursday night during a tennis match when it felt like “an elephant was stepping on my chest” and someone was pulling my arms out of their sockets. (What’s scary is that this is exactly how it was described in the book Lori [Saginaw] brought home for me, on page 20: The No Bull Book on Heart Disease, Okner and Clorfene.) 

Because I have the lethal combination of high tolerance to pain combined with low intelligence, I continued to play tennis for 2 1/2 hours more despite my partner’s willingness to forfeit. And although we lost, I have to say I played some of my best tennis. Probably due to my lacking the energy to over-hit the ball and having only enough in me to barely manage the basics. In retrospect, passing up the beer afterwards should have been a clue, but instead of the ER, I headed home and directly to bed. [Full Story]

The Detroit Free Press publishes an opinion piece by Lawrence Schweinhart, president of Ypsilanti-based HighScope Educational Research Foundation, and Marijata Daniel-Echols, HighScope’s research director. They argue against the proposed elimination of the state’s Great Start Readiness Program, as well as possible cuts to other early childhood education programs: “This is a step backward for the short- and long-term financial health of our state. Solid research shows that every dollar invested in children in their earliest years comes back to us many times over by reducing human misfortune. The savings come from fewer children repeating grades, fewer children needing special education, and, later on, fewer people who are not employable or who commit serious crimes.” [Source]

A Detroit News article looks at Michigan health care reform proposed by state House Speaker Andy Dillon, a Democrat, who wants to bundle all public employee health care plans into one. The plan is being attacked by unions, but supported by a range of others, including Ann Arbor’s Rick Snyder, a GOP gubernatorial candidate. The article reports that “the moderate Center for Michigan, an Ann Arbor-based think tank, wants to see it fully debated.” [Source]

On Gastronomical Three, Maria writes about her teenage daughter’s interest in learning to cook, and wonders what kind of cookbook – starter or classic – to give her. “I’m torn between the quick start that might be offered by inspirational glossy photos and simplified preparations and the last-a-lifetime value and basic education offered by the sturdy handbooks. My early 1970′s Joy of Cooking is in three pieces now and sits next to my husband’s inherited 1961 Craig Clairborne’s NYT Cookbook annotated by his mother with helpful comments such as ‘ugh – do not make again.’ Both books gets pulled out at least once every couple of weeks.” Readers weigh in with advice. [Source]

The home page for Chelsea Update, a new online local news site.

As a journalist, Heather Newman is perhaps best known for the technology column she wrote at the Detroit Free Press. Though she left that newspaper last year for a job at the University of Michigan, the Chelsea area resident has found another way to use her journalism skills. This month, she launched an online news site called Chelsea Update, focused on news and information in the town just west of Ann Arbor. In an email interview, we asked Newman to tell us about her new venture.

What got you started down this road? As you were thinking about the possibility of starting this venture, what were the pros and cons in weighing whether you’d actually do it?

I’d been writing for newspapers for almost 20 years when I left to join the marketing staff at the University of Michigan Press (its book publishing division) in December. Working here has been terrific, but I really felt that journalistic itch, so I was looking for something I could do in the evenings and on weekends to keep my hand in. I’ve lived in the Chelsea area for nine years, so I’m naturally nosy about what goes on there, and the only newspaper in the area is a weekly. It seemed like a great place to start. [Full Story]

USA Today reports on fast-track flu vaccine trials aimed at curbing the spread of the swine flu virus. The article quotes UM professor Arnold Monto, who’s also an adviser to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization: ”Timing is everything. We believe the second wave of flu will come in the fall. If vaccine doesn’t arrive until November-December, it won’t do as much good.” [Source]

A post on the Washtenaw Patriot describes an overheard debate about health care, and bemoans the lack of analytical skill on both sides: “Come to think of it, you both failed a critical test of debate: neither of you could really articulate, let alone agree, what the problem is. In fact, I’d bet there’d be a good amount of debate just on what the problem is, before even trying to get at solutions.” [Source]

Carolyn Hough, proprietor of The Mail Shoppe, peers out from behind some UPS packages that are ready to be sent out.

When customers call Carolyn Hough asking for directions to her store, she always tells them the same thing:  Look for the big yellow mailbox. Hough, owner of The Mail Shoppe in downtown Ann Arbor, says the decorative mailbox has marked the store’s location since it first opened 26 years ago.

For Hough, owning her own mailroom wasn’t something she dreamed of as a child. Originally hailing from Rhode Island, she spent most of her career as a medical librarian, a vocation she says was “very different” from her job now. What did that entail? It was a research position – before there were computerized databases. So responding to research requests from nurses and doctors – say on the latest known effective treatment for a particular disease – entailed manually poring through indexes and literature.

Hough purchased the business in 1983 from Doug Barnett after the hospital she was working for went bankrupt. “I love it – it’s so much more fun than working at the hospital,” she said. Readers who think that packaging a bear’s head sounds more fun than rummaging through medical literature might agree with her. [Full Story]

In our most recent city council meeting report, we incorrectly attributed comments made in support of the establishment of a historic district study committee to Carsten Hohnke (Ward 5), which were in fact made by Christopher Taylor (Ward 3). Hohnke also argued in support of the resolution, but it was Taylor who characterized the establishment of the committee as within council’s “arsenal of options.” We acknowledge the error here and have corrected the attribution in the original article.

A Michigan Daily article looks at the movie “Trivial Pursuits,” which has been filming in Ann Arbor and on UM’s campus. Directed by Christopher Farah, who’s from Ann Arbor and graduated from UM, the movie includes popular retired UM professor Ralph Williams, who plays the main character’s father. Says Williams, speaking about the film: ”It’s going to be marvelous for (university) people because it’s so intimately textured into and grows out of student life here.” [Source]

Eve Aronoff, outside her Kerrytown restaurant, eve.

Next week, Ann Arbor chef and restaurateur Eve Aronoff makes her debut on nationwide prime time TV.

The owner of Kerrytown’s eve is among 17 contestants to compete for the title of “Top Chef” on the sixth season of Bravo’s Emmy-winning series, filmed this year in Las Vegas. Its three-month run premieres on Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 9 p.m.

Aronoff acknowledges that she never watched Top Chef – let alone considered appearing on the show – before its producers approached her to become a contestant.

“People connected with the show had been to the restaurant and enjoyed it,” she explains, “so they invited me to apply.” [Full Story]

Valerie Mann – a sculptor, Saline resident and partner with Ann Arbor’s WSG Gallery – is profiled by the Detroit Free Press. On the topic of art education, Mann says: “In art school, nobody ever teaches you how to sell your work. I think it’s really important for people to be able to talk about that work because if they can explain it better and get their customer or collector to understand where they’re coming from and why they do what they do, you have a better story. You’re more likely to have people collect your work.” [Source]

The Detroit Free Press profiles Clifton Chippewa, an Ann Arbor hairstylist who’s been working on the sets of movies being filmed in Michigan. He was recently part of a team nominated for an Emmy for outstanding hairstyling in “Gifted Hands,” a movie shown on the cable network TNT. Says Chippewa: “Hairstyling is just manipulating the hair. Haircutting is the architecture of it. You have to build the structure before the walls will stay up. A beautiful haircut you can spot a mile away.” [Source]

On his blog Reflection, Lon Horwedel writes about 11-year-0ld Kyree Tooson, who goes by the name T-Nice and was playing drums in the alley next to the Michigan Theater: “Not that Kyree needs an actual drum kit to play the drums. In fact, the booming sound emanating from the alley comes only from two 5-gallon buckets (three if you count the one he sits on) and a pair of tattered drum sticks. Both buckets have semi-circles cut out of their rims so Kyree can prop them up with his foot to get a deeper bass sound when he smacks them with a stick.” [Source]

Ann Arbor City Council meeting (Aug. 6, 2009): Two kinds of moratoria were on council’s agenda for Thursday’s meeting – which had been rescheduled to accommodate the Aug. 4 Democratic primary elections in Wards 3 and 5. The first was a moratorium on new development in districts zoned with the classification of R4C (multi-family residential) or R2A (two-family residential). The second was a moratorium on demolition, attached to the creation of a study committee for a possible historic district in a two-block area just south of William Street on Fourth and Fifth avenues.

Council voted down the more general prohibition on new development in R4C/R2A residential districts, but approved the historic district study committee with its attached moratorium on demolition. It’s a case where the vote tally alone doesn’t tell the whole story – or even an accurate one: Counter to what one might expect, Mike Anglin (Ward 5) voted against the R4C/R2A moratorium, while Leigh Greden (Ward 3) voted for it.

A third major agenda item facing council was also related to new development: the Near North planned unit development (PUD) proposed for North Main Street just south of Summit Street, which is an affordable housing project that includes the nonprofit Avalon Housing as a partner. The council voted to move Near North on to a second reading, when a final decision will be made.

But probably the most important matter considered by council on Thursday appeared on the agenda as an “introduction” by the city’s chief financial officer, Tom Crawford, who spent around a half hour telling the city council why the city’s projected financial condition is worse now than it had been when the FY 2010 budget was adopted in the spring. Crawford’s presentation was characterized during commentary from the public later in the meeting as the “first salvo in a PR campaign” for a city income tax.

A bit of breaking news from Crawford’s report: bonds for the Fifth Avenue underground parking garage were issued on Aug. 5. [Full Story]

Writing on electablog, Chris Savage describes a town hall meeting about health care attended by Congressman John Dingell: “Representative Dingell, bless his heart, did not shirk the crowd or the tough questions. There wasn’t a single softball lobbed at him the entire night.” The blog entry includes several high-quality photographs of the event.  [Source]

An Associated Press report, published in the San Francisco Examiner, looks at what it might be like for Sonia Sotomayor as junior justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. The article quotes Margo Schlanger, a UM law professor who worked for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during Ginsburg’s first term. During private conferences of the justices, it will be Sotomayor’s role to take notes. Says Schlanger: ”She’ll be keeping track of what goes on at conference as she’s trying to figure out what’s going on at conference.” [Source]

CrunchGear highlights Ann Arbor as a “geek weekend” getaway – the report was written by folks at MyBandStock, a local tech startup, and covers shopping, restaurants and entertainment options: “Too much technology and want to take a break? You won’t be at a loss in Ann Arbor when it comes to shopping. Peruse the shops on Main Street and you’ll come across quirky bookstores, independent art galleries and unique boutiques.” [Source]

Marianne Rzepka

Five years ago, Alex Young spent his days trying to get Zingerman’s Roadhouse up and open. A long-time chef, Young signed on as manager and chef there, moving his family to a farm outside Dexter.

But on his one day off each week, he picked up a shovel and started his garden. Every week, he dug one row, laboriously turning up deep layers of soil, trading physical labor for the stress of embarking on the new business venture.

That spring, Young wore out the heavy sole of his boot from the edge of the shovel and had a dozen rows in his 75-by-75-foot garden.

“It was a stress reducer,” he says now, and he still sees the calming and even meditative side of growing food as that garden sprouted into Cornman Farms, a business that still is growing. [Full Story]

The Los Angeles Times reports on the connection between altruism and health. The article quotes Stephanie Brown, assistant professor of general medicine at the UM Medical School and a faculty associate at UM’s Institute for Social Research: ”People that help others live longer than those who don’t.” [Source]