Archive for March, 2009

I generally brace myself when February rolls around – it doesn’t have a great track record of bringing the best of times, in my experience.

This year was different.

February treated The Chronicle okay. In spite of continued grim economic news, we’ve signed on new advertisers. In spite of the media’s general belief  that readers have super-short attention spans, we’ve gained new readers – and you might have noticed that we don’t always write short.

Yeah, this sounds pretty self-congratulatory. I can’t help it. Each business, nonprofit or professional who spends their advertising dollars with us or contributes via our Tip Jar, each person who spends some of their time reading The Chronicle – when they have a hundred other things calling out for their attention – is a precious thing to us, and we celebrate that unabashedly.

A lot happened in February, including several things we’re doing aimed at spreading the word about our publication. For our sixth monthly milestone message, here’s an update on what we’ve been up to. [Full Story]

Writing on her blog The Bonzo Chronicles, local artist Lynda Cole provides commentary on her work that’s being exhibited in the main lobby of the UM Hospital through April 13: “Most people will look at these paintings and see the wax patterns – they are the subjects. But for those who care to observe more carefully, the Moire pattern is there. Look and the motion of the Moire pattern will take you on a journey, the wax pattern with its stillness will bring you back to the present. Opposites – one doesn’t exist without the other.” [Source]

Zachary London’s Hard Taco Project is about writing and recording a new song every month until Zach dies. He  introduces the song for March, addressed to college students, this way: “You can listen to the song, but I’m not going to sugar-coat the truth: you really need to study harder, starting right now. You’re never going to win a lifetime achievement award at this rate.” [.mp3] [Source]

Burrill Strong, writing on his blog The Connective Lens, gives a behind-the-scenes account of a profile of him recently published in the Chelsea Standard. “Back in early January, Editor Terry, the fearless commander of the Chelsea Standard and Dexter Leader, floated the idea of having Sports Editor Don write a feature article on me and my business. Both my business and I thought that was an excellent idea, so Don sent me a few questions to answer; I sent back my answers and a few of my favorite pictures, and then I waited for my moment in the ink-stained spotlight.”  [Source]

The Freep’s Javan Kienzle reviews “World War II Front Line Nurse” by Mildred MacGregor, a 95-year-old Ann Arbor resident. Kienzl writes that MacGregor describes her “memories of being on a ship zigzagging through U-Boat Alley, huddling through air raids in England, living through 120-degree heat in North Africa and following the First Army across Europe. …There is little time for literary niceties when one is trying to write a few words after endless hours cleaning wounds, assisting at operations, changing bloodied dressings and giving injections. The University of Michigan Press, in publishing this memoir as is has done the reader a service; war is not for grammarians.” [Source]

A brutally cold wind buffets the group huddled around a sugar maple at the Washtenaw County Farm Park. They’re looking at a small metal device that’s been gently hammered into a hole drilled in the tree. Faye Stoner, a park naturalist for the county, sounds doubtful. “It’s probably too cold,” she says.

But wait – a kid in the group cries out: “It dripped … it dripped!” And sure enough, a globule slowly rolls off the end of the spout.

The maple sap is rising, and two dozen very cold people are learning about what Stoner calls “a gift from nature.” [Full Story]

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