Archive for September, 2008

The Cookie Sunshine blog describes (and includes a photograph of) an elaborate cake made for the SafeHouse Golf Outing and Silent Auction. “For this cake I chose the leaf theme because I wanted to give the cake an autumn feel. The bottom and top tiers were chocolate blackout cake filled with raspberry filling and iced with Italian butter cream frosting. The middle tier was a butter cake with apricot filling and Italian butter cream frosting.” [Source]

Maria Stuart, in an op/ed published by the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus, defends the community of Howell in response to a recent NY Times essay by “outsider” Eileen Pollack of Ann Arbor. Pollack’s essay had described her trip to Howell as she tried to discern the political climate there. “Perhaps you can tell that Pollack’s story torqued my sense of indignation about the community I love, a community that outsiders seemed determined to forever leash to the former grand dragon of the KKK who died so many years ago. I sure wish that when people want to write about us, they’d at least take the time to do some basic research.” [Source]

An article in the New Jersey Star-Ledger analyzes the proposed federal bailout, quoting Gibran Nicholas, CEO of the CMPS Institute, an Ann Arbor-based group that certifies and trains mortgage bankers and brokers. “The problem is, the plan is not clear. No one knows what we’re going to buy.” [Source]

[Full Story]

That's a .06 - or .02 below the legal limit of .08.

A group of 20-something women emerged giggling from Melange on Main Street. They were at first uncertain if they really wanted to try the free preliminary breath tests being offered at a sidewalk table. But after one had a painless encounter with a hollow plastic tube, they were all convinced, “Oh, I want to try!”

The idea behind the free breath tests, sponsored by the Breddell & Bredell Arrive Alive Foundation, is to give folks an objective assessment of what their blood alcohol content level is compared to how impaired they feel after having something to drink. The first young lady blew a .02, well below the .08 legal limit, but not everyone in her group came in under that upper bound. [Full Story]

Maize n Brew attempts to compile (with the help of its readers) a list of bars where you can watch Michigan football in cities from Chicago (Duffy’s Tavern) to Tokyo (Legends Sports Bar). Most of the suggestions are stateside, with addresses provided. [Source]

Michigan Fire Service.com has a Help Wanted posting for the job of Ypsilanti Township fire chief. “Driver’s license with satisfactory driver’s record is a condition of employment. Qualified applicants will be invited to participate in the Civil Service Examination for Fire Chief which will include a written test and an assessment center. Salary range $70,000 – $77,000 with excellent fringe benefits.” [Source]

The first graf from the Soul Rummage blog, titled “Juror 694″: “Juror 694 lives in Dexter, Michigan and is a middle school teacher at a small Christian school. Yes, she’s a Christian, but she’s not a Christian like Sarah Palin is a Christian. Her husband works in downtown Ann Arbor above a brew pub. He may make more money than she does, but she works harder, gets more fulfillment, and has better long term benefits.” [Source]

Graffiti in the alley next to Michigan Theater.

The alley next to Michigan Theater transformed pretty quickly over the summer from a colorful, artistically-coherent mural to a colorful collage of random graffiti – prompting Mr. Limpet to ask, “Where’s the Art?”

In early July, someone painted a swath of white over part of the mural called “Infinite Possibilities,” which had been created there in 1999. The Ann Arbor News ran an article about the incident, interviewing the artist, Katherine Tombeau Cost, who now lives in New Orleans. She said it had taken her five months to complete, but she wasn’t ticked off by the graffiti: “The thing about public art it is an exercise in letting go. You put it out there and you know it is not forever. I have to remind myself this isn’t my family room. That is the element of public art. It will be great and it will be gone.”

And now it’s really gone. [Full Story]

Astronauts Ed White and Jim McDivitt on the cover of Time magazine.

On any given day, it’s impossible to attend every single special lecture or event hosted at the University of Michigan. It’s even tough to keep track of what’s happening without feeling exhausted.

But when a Chronicle reader alerted us to astronaut Jim McDivitt‘s lecture on Friday and expressed regret that she wasn’t able to attend, that was enough to launch us into action.

It propelled us all the way to UM’s North Campus and its François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) building, where the aerospace engineering department is housed. An admission: Here at The Chronicle, we’re not aerospace engineers. That’s why we went with some trepidation that McDivitt’s lecture would be a difficult one, if not downright boring. [Full Story]

The Times-Mail, a paper in southern Indiana, reports on a POW/MIA recognition ceremony at which the featured guest speaker was Robert Warren Fletcher, who lives in the Ann Arbor area. A member of the last Buffalo Soldier troop, Fletcher was a POW for three years during the Korean War. He is the first African-American to hold the post of National Commander of American Ex-Prisoners of War. [Source]

The Freep writes about newly naturalized citizens and how they plan to vote. The article quotes Claudia Figueroa of Ann Arbor, who plans to vote for Barack Obama: ”This is a very emotional and exciting day for me. It’s a very long journey. Being an immigrant and to finally be able to participate in the political responsibilities of the country is something that I can’t wait to do.” [Source]

Archiving101.com has a post on archiving electronic records in light of the current financial crisis, and quotes extensively from an article first published by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press: “(I)n Michigan, the lack of a specific statute has allowed two agencies to develop radically different e-mail practices. The University of Michigan has made e-mail private to the ‘fullest extent permitted by law.’ Washtenaw County, where the university’s Ann Arbor campus is located, adopted a resolution to make county government e-mail open to public scrutiny. The conflicting policies in Michigan illustrate the tensions between open records laws and privacy concerns. Open records advocates argue that e-mail is a natural product of the move toward ‘paperless’ offices. Others argue that … [Full Story]

A UK Times article writes about a team – including UM professor Mark Newman – who’ve come up with alternatives ways of mapping the globe. Their work is in a new book called The Atlas of the Real World, or online at www.worldmapper.org. [Source]

On the Intentional Disciples blog, the writer describes her trip to Ann Arbor: “Also visited the Domino’s Pizza HQ, attended Mass in their chapel, and saw all the Catholic apostolates (including the studio where Al Kresta records his shows) that are housed there. The Ann Arbor area is a Catholic hotbed situated in a Berkley like University town.” [Source]

The Michigan Daily has a video profile of the UM student radio station, WCBN. [Source]

The Freep polled voters in southeast Michigan about whether Detroit is better off now than it was under former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Ann Arbor resident Chelsea Surfus was among those polled: “I hope the people who assume power in the city will learn from Kwame’s mistakes and try to do what’s best for the people living there.” [Source]

A Detroit News article quotes UM prof (and former American Motors Corp. chairman) Gerald Meyers for an article about auto-financing companies trying to get a piece of the federal bailout. Meyers said a bailout could make it easier for some – but not all – consumers to get car loans. “A line will be drawn by each finance company.” [Source]