Archive for May, 2009

The Lansing State Journal publishes an op/ed by Lou Glazer, president of Ann Arbor-based Michigan Future Inc., who writes about the need for Michigan to invest in a knowledge-based economy: ”The world has changed fundamentally. We either adjust or we will continue to get poorer compared to the rest of the nation. Michigan has lagged in its support of the assets necessary to develop the knowledge-based economy at the needed scale. Building that economy is going to take a long time. Do we do what is required to compete in the knowledge-based economy or do we accept being a low prosperity state and region?” [Source]

In an article about the management styles of the CEOs at soon-to-merge Chrysler (Bob Nardelli) and Fiat (Sergio Marchionne), the Freep quotes UM business professor Noel Tichy: ”Both these guys are Italian, right? Good leadership’s good leadership. Good leadership is making good judgments in three areas: people, strategy and when in crisis.” [Source]

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Walking home in the drenching rain last week, soaked to the bone and feeling a little sorry for myself, I noted that at least I wasn’t cold – it finally felt like spring. And spring marks the third season of the year for The Ann Arbor Chronicle, another milestone as we check in with our eighth monthly update to readers.

This month we have a few things on the horizon, plus a reminder and some thank yous. [Full Story]

Google’s Press Center posts a transcript of the speech that its co-founder, Larry Page, gave at Saturday’s UM commencement: ”I have a story about following dreams. Or maybe more accurately, it’s a story about finding a path to make those dreams real. You know what it’s like to wake up in the middle of the night with a vivid dream? And you know how, if you don’t have a pencil and pad by the bed to write it down, it will be completely gone the next morning? Well, I had one of those dreams when I was 23. When I suddenly woke up, I was thinking: what if we could download the whole web, and just keep the links and… I grabbed a … [Full Story]

Todd Lassa posts an entry on Motor Trend Magazine’s Wide Open Throttle, bemoaning the way GM bid adieu to its Pontiac brand. “CEO and President Fritz Henderson announced last Monday morning that GM would kill the Pontiac brand. By this weekend, the G8 GXP ad was half gone. Replaced. By an insurance company ad. An insurance company ad. Couldn’t GM have instead added the words, ‘Gone to the Ypsilanti Orphan Car Show’?” [Source]

On his Ypsihistor blog, James Mann posts an article from the May 1, 1909 Ypsilanti Daily Press: “Guests who are regular boarders of the Hixson café going there this morning for their breakfast discovered a sigh on the door to the entrance of the dining room which read as follows: CLOSED INDEFINITELY. Inquiries as to whether service could be expected in the near future were met with unsatisfactory answers. A reporter for the Press calling at the Occidental endeavored to have Mr. Hixson issue a statement for the benefit of the patrons of the bar and café. ‘I have absolutely nothing to say,’ declared the proprietor. ‘Will you open again in the near future?’ he was asked. ‘That is my business.’” [... [Full Story]

Did you know that Monroe was once Michigan’s grape-growing capital – but nobody’s ever figured out if they made wine there?

Or that Chinese coolies who arrived to build the U.S. railroads ended up stomping huge vats of grapes for California wineries during the 1870s?

Neither did I.

I gleaned these tidbits from Dan Longone, curator of “500 Years of American Grapes and Wine,” on exhibit through May 29 at the University of Michigan’s Clements Library, on South University just east of UM president Mary Sue Coleman’s house.

If you visit, expect a cornucopia of grape and wine ephemera, from early British books instructing New World settlers on grape cultivation to a wine list from Detroit’s London Chop House, circa 1969.

A sign called my attention to the 1827 American origins of the word cocktail: “If Europe brought wine to the New World, we brought the cocktail to the Old.”

Bordeaux versus a Martini? Not much contest there.

Those Monroe grapes? The French originally settled the area and named the Riviere Raisin – which Anglicizes as Grape River.

Longone will give a public talk on the exhibit at 3 p.m., May 10, at the library. If our two-hour conversation offered any kind of preview, this born raconteur will offer tales aplenty about grapevines and their pleasure-giving progeny. [Full Story]

As we’ve reported previously here at The Chronicle, one of the cost-saving measures that’s been proposed in connection with the city’s budget for fiscal year 2010 is to eliminate publication of the city council agenda in the local newspaper. The move would save $15,000 per year. I imagine there are some citizens who rely on the newspaper publication of the council agenda to stay informed on civic matters, but would speculate that it’s not many – probably not enough to lobby successfully for its continued publication in the twice-weekly print edition of AnnArbor.com, which is to replace The Ann Arbor News.

One advantage of the city’s online publication of the council agenda is that it includes as attachments all the communications to the city clerk, whether they’re from boards and commission within the city, neighborhood associations, private citizens, or even anonymous sources.

Part of  my preparation to cover council meetings is to skim through those communications. For the May 4 meeting next Monday, the following item caught my eye: Illegal Restaurant & Chickens. [Full Story]

“Can we do it again?” asked Emma Silverman after her dad, Ken, had just completed a 1,000-pound leg press at the One on One Athletic Club on Thursday evening. The “it” was a ride on the leg press sled.

And her dad didn’t say no. He gave her a few more repetitions on the sled – but not before removing some of the 20 45-pound plates hanging off the 50-pound bar. The plates and the bar totaled 950 pounds.

Emma weighs exactly 50 pounds based on the pre-event weigh-in at the club, and it was her “live weight” that brought the total to 1,000 pounds.

It’s not a common father-daughter activity, not least because 1,000 pounds – as Silverman’s trainer, Roger Bowman, put it – “That’s a lot of weight.” Bowman, who’s worked at One on One for four years, confirmed that it’s not common to see that kind of poundage go up and down the leg press sled at the club.

So what motivated Silverman to begin training five months ago in December 2008 for his half-ton effort? It was to raise money for Ann Arbor Active Against ALS. [Full Story]

Greg of MVictors takes an in-depth look at the 1934 controversy when Georgia Tech came to Ann Arbor but refused to play if the Wolverines’ African American player, Willis Ward, was in the game. Though students protested in support of Ward, he did not play. ”Despite mentioning the story in a few places, I really haven’t taken a deep dive. I recently stopped by the Bentley Library and looked through some of the pages of The Daily in the days around the October 20, 1934 game against the Yellow Jackets. As a student paper should do, their words focused on the situation on campus and it’s a pretty interesting tale.” [Source]

Arnold Monto, a UM epidemiologist, is quoted in a Washington Post article about how communities are responding to the flu. ”Are we going to close lots of schools and tell people to work at home? A lot of this is based on a question that we don’t have an answer to yet, which is: How severe is this going to be? We don’t want to add social disruption to the already severe problems of having a lot of people sick for a long time.” [Source]

The Washtenaw County Breastfeeding Coalition is seeking nominations for awards recognizing model Washtenaw County workplace lactation support programs. The deadline for nominations is July 7. WCBC initiated this program last year, giving awards to 12 local businesses. This year nominations can be made by both employers and breastfeeding employees. Winners will be chosen based on the comprehensiveness of the company’s program and will be announced at a public event in August. [Source]