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1. Paris may ban SUVs. Good idea or obnoxious nanny-state restriction? 2. "Fahrenheit 911" is opening at the Michigan Theater June 25. 3. While looking out the front door this morning and trying to gauge how stupid I'd look biking in the rain, I saw a hummingbird at my (bright red) Star of Malta--the coolest thing ever. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-09-10:47 p.m.: CAMP AMERICAN offers Christian patriots ages 12-19 the chance to toast a marshmallow while decompressing from a lecture on "Purity for Young Men," or "Locke vs. Rousseau and Competing Views on the Role of Government," or "Global Warming: The Sky Isn't Falling." There's also miniature golf. And checkers. Not to mention the eagerly awaited Hawaiian Night. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-09-8:26 p.m.: HERE''S THE TRUE FACE OF LAURA BUSH: "Laura Bush, whose father died from Alzheimer's, said on Wednesday she admired Nancy Reagan's devotion to former President Ronald Reagan until his death but could not back her call for relaxation of stem cell research restrictions."(via Reuters) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-09-7:36 p.m.: THE "ASHCROFT FEAR REMIX" courtesy activist filmmaker Josh Koenig (dialup or broadband choice). ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-09-1:41 a.m.: TTLB BLOG ECOSYSTEM: Ypsidixit is thrilled--no, ecstatic--to find out that she is an "Insignificant Microbe" in the TTLB Blog Ecosystem.Hey, at least it's not a--wait, there's no lower ranking. Shoot. Find out your blogrank (takes a day or so for them to scan your blog, but I'll be checking back!). ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-08-11:14 p.m.: PENTAGON TORTURE MEMO: U.S. Air Force general counsel Mary Walker, who led the team of lawyers who wrote the recently reported-on Pentagon memo setting a new framework for torture protocol that far exceeds Geneva Conventions stipulations, is a devout Christian. A Billmon post contrasts some of her thoughts on God and faith with some of the torture technique details. The disconnect has to be read to be...still not believed.EXCERPT: "Walker [from an earlier interview]: "Making moral decisions in the workplace where it is easy to go along and get along takes courage. It takes moral strength and courage to say, 'I'm not going to do this because I don't think it's the right thing to do.' " Links to the actual memo. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-08-9:46 p.m.: BAGHDAD'S HEWAR GALLERY is hosting an invitational show of art inspired by Abu Ghraib abuse photos. The Iraqi artists' works range from sculptures depicting hooded naked prisoners to a series of masks depicting the metamorphosis of a "good" American face into one covered with corruption. Story. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-08-12:45 p.m.: OPEN THREAD: Chat away, please. Any topic you like. Ypsidixit is grateful for the community of readers that visit...your turn to talk about any subject you'd like to. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-07-10:34 p.m.: SORRY, the Transit of Venus leaves me cold. A little black dot moving across the sun? Whoopee. Celestial phenomena?--I remember the comet Kahoutek from about a decade ago. It hung in the western sky like a big shimmery soft silver tassel. I stared, awestruck. But no, for the transit I'm not going to set up the binoculars-shining-on-a-piece-of-paper or fiddle with a goddam pinhole camera or whatnot. Despite the usual media frenzy, this is a snore-quality celestial event. Or maybe Ypsidixit is jaded. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-07-8:17 p.m.: PROPER HERO WORSHIP: You know him, but you may not know, as I did not, that he's in large part responsible for the eradication of 99% of the crippling Guinea Worm disease in Africa. His agriculture program helps sub-Saharan farmers increase their crops sometimes up to threefold, and uses the cutting-edge no-till method that's just beginning to be used here. One of his peace programs monitors elections in emerging democracies to ensure clean elections. Perhaps the finest set of legacies of any ex-president. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-07-5:53 p.m.: URBAN DESIGN AS A DETERMINANT OF SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: Houses in Darwin, Australia, "responded to the tropics in an honest and minimalist way." Set on piles with a cool concrete under-veranda, they encouraged residents to lounge in the shade at day's end and thus greet every passerby, if not invite him onto the veranda for a beer or some BBQ. Then came a cyclone, and revamped buildings... (scroll down 1/4 way to the article titled "Urban Design Matters." ANALYSIS: Old hat, no doubt, to urban-design-affiliated readers, but hopefully intriguing to laypeople like Ypsidixit. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-07-12:27 p.m.: Three big barns in Bridgewater Township just south of Ann Arbor hold 1,500 genetically altered chickens--chickens with a human gene--who lay eggs that are made into drug tablets after the yolk is discarded. The birds live in cages in tightly sealed and ventilated buildings (they are more frail than average chickens). The company may expand to a 80,000-bird operation. Story.Is this OK? Would it make any difference if it were a drug for Alzheimer's or for obesity? ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-07-12:52 a.m.: "WHAT I'D REALLY LIKE TO DO is be the president who made Americans believe in themselves again." --Ronald Reagan, on taking office in his first term.Born Feb. 6, 1911, Reagan came of age during the Great Depression. The son of an alcoholic shoe salesman and a frail mother who was later to die of Alzheimer's disease, Reagan moved five times with his family by the time he was 9. One defining moment in his life came at Christmas 1931. His father received a special-delivery letter that everyone thought was a Christmas bonus. It turned out to be a notice firing the elder Reagan from his shoe-selling job. "We didn't live on the wrong side of the tracks, but we lived so close to them we could hear the whistle real loud," Reagan told a biographer. Ypsidixit's mom and dad have a spray-painted chunk of the Berlin Wall on their bookshelves. All that "evil empire" rhetoric and the Iran-Contra affair seem almost quaint in light of current events, as Mark Maynard observed in an eloquent recent post. Reagan's body will travel via Air Force One from California to Washington on Wednesday, to lie in state at the Capitol. After his funeral, likely on Friday, his body wil be returned to California for interment at the Reagan library there. There's a picture in the Sunday Free Press of living presidents assembled for the funeral of Nixon in 1994. Clinton, Bush senior, Reagan, Carter, and Ford and wives are pictured. I do hope our current president takes the time to similarly pay his respects to Reagan. Ypsidixit is sad to hear of Reagan's passing. She also has respect for Nancy Reagan, who witnessed her dearest companion become a stranger over the past 10 years. Nancy Reagan steadfastly cared for her increasingly distant husband with a strength of character that Ypsidixit can only imagine. For 10 long years. Ypsidixit pays her respects to a president she seldom agreed with--rest in peace, Mr. Reagan. A letter Reagan wrote to his son on marital fidelity. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-05-7:41 p.m.: HEAVEN ON EARTH: Ypsidixit spent the day making a new flowerbed in her front yard, in her ongoing quest to annihilate the lawn. She also spent a good deal of time lolling on the bench by her pond, watching the goldfish. The new filter has cleared up the pond, and you can see clear to the bottom. Tree branches arch over the pond and make a secluded hideaway. Ypsidixit hid away, feeling that she inhabited Paradise. She bought yet another topiary hibiscus at Meijer's today (#4), and planted it in a big pot. All in all Ypsidixit felt glad to be alive, puttering around among her plants and trees (picked up another cherry tree too, to plant tomorrow). ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-04-8:52 p.m.: YPSIDIXIT APPOINTS YOU AS HEAD OF THOMPSON BUILDING DEVELOPMENT TASK FORCE: Ypsidixit is mighty tired of biking past this neglected plywood-clad Civil War-era jewel in Depot Town every day for the past several years without seeing the slightest effort made towards its rejuvenation. She appoints you the head of the Thompson Building Development Task Force. How would you redevelop this building? There's space for around 5 retails on the ground floor, and 2 stories of space above that. This graceful crumbling jewel deserves a careful redevelopment plan that preserves its heritage while offering viable Depot Town businesses/living spaces.YPSIDIXIT'S PLAN: Install the following 5 businesses on the ground floor: 1. a dentistry clinic 2. a gardening supply shop 3. a pet supplies shop 4. an auto detailing/auto specialty supplies shop 5. a video/DVD rental shop. Floors 2 & 3: loft apartments/condos: a beautiful, high-ceilinged view, and a central location in historic Depot Town; very appealing. What's your idea? ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-04-6:10 p.m.: EVOLUTION OF THE BIKE HELMET: Back when Ypsidixit was a girl with an imaginary llama (two, actually, and some cockatoos, plus some purple gallinules that I saw in a bird book and fancied) no one had bike helmets. My biking sister and I miraculously scraped through to adulthood unscathed, like our hardy unhelmeted pioneer forefathers.Today, helmets are de rigeur. But not the full-head-cradling motorcycle-style helmet. Instead, the bike shop offers pompous plastic swooshes that resemble a failed attempt by NASA to design a yarmulke. Strapped precariously on the skull, they offer zero protection to anything below the head�s equator. But they do make the average non-professional biker look like he�s detoured from the Tour de France. This is the same middle-aged guy who wears skin-tight shorts that broadcast too much information for Ypsidixit�s modest tastes, while riding an overengineered contraption costing more than her car. It�s all a bit much for the rough-hewn Ypsidixit, who rides an off-the-rack cheapie from Meijer�s and wears an aggressively anti-hip dorky white helmet that makes her look like Lady Ping Pong Ball. Like her hardy pioneer forefathers, Ypsidixit refuses to turn her biking into gaudy consumeristic ostentation (although she does get a secret inner kick out of her new high-tech blindingly bright blinky taillight.) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-03-8:37 p.m.: IN A RESPECTFUL SALUTE TO SEAT OF THE REVOLUTION, and in response to incessant email requests, Ypsidixit here posts her own astrological chart. Students of astrology will pinpoint the many weaknesses indicated here, countered by the awesome analytical Virgo powers and sunny Leo nature. Yes, (stop emailing me!) I posted the entire analysis in comments for readers' perusal...as Anna commented on Steven's blog, it's rather uncannily accurate--there's much I heartily agree with and nothind, oddly, that seems inaccurate. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-03-7:53 p.m.: YOU CAN BUY POT AT THOUSANDS OF COFFEEHOUSES, gay marriage is legal (as it is in Belgium) and so is euthanasia. Gosh. If the "terrorists hate freedom," you'd think they'd have gotten around to bombing the Netherlands by now. (I'm betting that blogreaders don't know about the Zwarte Piet business, so I'm safe on that score). ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-03-5:53 p.m.: JOB-HUNTING: A good friend who says that "Zingerman's is not quite the place it was touted as being" is looking for a job. I would be very appreciative for any tips. My friend is a former U-M astrophysics grad student who has lots of experience in retail and some managerial retail experience. He is honest, reliable, has an excellent work ethic, a good sense of humor, and is completely trustworthy. He's good at working in positions that have little supervision--a self-starter, I mean. I believe he's looking for another retail position. He's a member of the 99.9% society for people with IQs in that percentile--a smart cookie, whom I've known for 12 years. I'm not sure if it's entirely kosher to blog this appeal, but at any rate, any tips would be very much appreciated. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-03-12:50 p.m.: FIDDLE WITH A NAVIGABLE aerial photo of Ypsilanti. Zoom in, zoom out, use the compass to travel around. Ypsidixit loves interesting maps and is always grateful for good map links.
____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-03-12:44 p.m.: "HIP-SILANTI CELEBRATES GRANT"--Granholm's press secretary Liz Boyd says the Ypsilanti Cool Cities plan "was really in the top tier of the [150] proposals we received," reports an Ann Arbor News story.
____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-03-12:30 p.m.: "LADY CHATTERLY'S LOVER" AUTHOR D. H. LAWRENCE DESPISED BENJAMIN FRANKLIN'S pious moralism and goody-goody precepts, and Lawrence devoted an entire fiery chapter in his "Studies in American Literature" to blasting Ben out of the water:"OH, but Benjamin fenced a little tract that he called the soul of man, and proceeded to get it into cultivation...And they think that bit of barbed wire is going to keep us in pound for ever? More fools they..." "THIS is what I believe: That I am I. That my soul is a dark forest. That my known self will never be more than a little clearing in the forest. That gods, strange gods, come forth from the forest into the clearing of my known self, and then go back..." "THE Perfectibility of Man! Ah heaven, what a dreary theme! The perfectibility of the Ford car! The perfectibility of which man ? I am many men. Which of them are you going to perfect ? I am not a mechanical contrivance." "AND NOW I, at least, know why I can't stand Benjamin. He tries to take away my wholeness and my dark forest, my freedom. For how can any man be free, without an illimitable background? And Benjamin tries to shove me into a barbed wire paddock and make me grow potatoes or Chicagoes." ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-03-8:11 a.m.: YPSIDIXIT is sympathetic to off-the-grid live-off-the-land types and would like to think of herself as openminded, but she wonders if large segments of the country are losing their collective mind in a spreading frenzy, marked by news stories popping up all over the place, of eating cicadas.Ypsidixit wonders why these otherwise normal people don't eat June bugs, the fat brown bugs we get each June, or other large insects, yet go bonkers as soon as a cicada drops by. Ypsidixit is content to limit her insect intake to sundry unidentifiable bits in her Fig Newtons. Tennessee deep-fried cicada feast--complete with a slideshow of how to cook 'em & delighted consumers. EXCERPT: "Ian Belcher took some persuading to go on a colonic irrigation holiday, even at a Thai beach resort. It is, he discovered, quite astonishing what gets flushed out in the course of a week's treatment. But did he feel the better for it?" Short answer: Yes. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-02-11:16 a.m.: YPSI GETS THE COOL CITIES GRANT!!! Hats off to the people who did such great work to get the grant! YAY!Excerpt from the Freep story: "--Ypsilanti: Plans include facility improvements to the Riverside Arts Center and to partner with DTE to expand the project. The project will involve the reutilization of a vacant office structure for retail gallery, studio, office and theater set construction and other Arts Center uses in Ypsilanti's downtown historic neighborhood. NOON UPDATE: From an Mlive story: "The city of Ann Arbor has formed a cool cities advisory group but did not apply for the catalyst grant because it could not meet the May 7 deadline." UPDATE 2: Quote from Jennifer Albaum (posted with her permission): "...This is huge, not just for the grant money, but as a way of attracting more people/businesses to invest in downtown, and quite honestly as a public relations boost, since so many people *still* have negative associations with Ypsilanti. I wish I could take credit for the 3" thick application, but that was almost all Jennifer Goulet (Downtown Development Authority). The thing is - and all of you who blog realize this already - it really doesn't take a whole lot on an individual level if *everyone* pulls together and tries. As a business owner, I've invested a huge amount of my own money and time in helping Ypsilanti thrive for Ypsilantians. This award, because of what it means more than what it brings (dollar-wise), definitely helps me feel as if my personal hard work and investment has been worth it..." ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-01-8:50 p.m.: BILL TO OUTLAW 8 BAD WORDS: Doug Ose (R-Sacramento), afire with indignation by the Bono comment at the Golden Globes awards, introduced a bill to Congress, currently floating around in subcommittees, to outlaw the broadcast of 8 naughty words, including the relatively innocuous "piss."[[WARNING: SOUL-ROTTING OBSCENITY:]] Text of the bill and its current status in Congress. ANALYSIS: Isn't a blog a broadcast of sorts? After all, it's a sort of newspaper that can be read around the world. What if some impressionable young mind tunes in to Ypsidixit only to read her bemoaning the ineradicable cat piss stain on her carpet? Will Ypsidixit have to make all further blog posts via scribbled toilet paper smuggled from lockdown, a la Albert Speer? Cat excretion, I mean. Excretion. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-01-6:11 p.m.: ALL DOGS ARE DOMESTICATED WOLVES, a process that began around 20,000 years ago, but some breeds are far older than others, recent genetic analysis has revealed:Oldest group: "four Asian spitz-type dogs: the shar-pei, the shiba inu, the Akita and the chow chow." All remaining dog breeds date from the past few hundred years, when dogs had to work for a living. Distinct groups within this group include: ANALYSIS: Ypsidixit is interested to note that the wolfier dogs are prominent on the CDC's list of the 10 most dangerous dogs: Pit bulls, Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes, Doberman Pinschers, Chow Chows, Great Danes, St. Bernards, Akitas ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-06-01-12:30 p.m.: VETERAN WAAM DJ Ted Heusel has been accepted into the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.Heusel says, "I don't think there was anybody better qualified than I was--53 years and with the activities that I've done," he said. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-31-8:31 p.m.: CHILDLESS WOMEN HAPPY ARTICLE: "I've pondered motherhood," says 34-year-old Neesah Heart, "but I've never had a strong sense that I could do that 24-hour-a-day job for 20 years. And I've come to realize that I have fears about what kind of parent I would be. I wouldn't want to repeat my parents' mistakes."This kind of thinking is taking place more and more, in this country as well as throughout the world. Women are choosing not to have children for varied reasons, but one thing is clear: a growing number of them are making that choice. Census figures show that in 1976, 35% of American women between 15 and 44 were childless. In 1996, the rate was 42%. Of women ages 40-44, one of five doesn't have children. By 2015, experts expect it to be 1 of 3." RESPONSE: Ypsidixit has thought long and hard on this since she was 20. Conclusion: it's not for her. Ypsidixit gets a kick out of her 2 nephews. However, despite several opportunities through the years, Ypsidixit is content to do without. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-30-5:39 p.m.: THOMAS JEFFERSON ORDERS MOOSE DELIVERY: While serving as minister to France in 1786, Thomas Jefferson got ticked at prominent French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon's snooty characterization of New World fauna as wimpy and inferior. Buffon called the American puma "much smaller, weaker, and more cowardly than the real lion" and declared that all New World animals were inferior due to America's "moist and poisonous vapors."In an "I'll show you" gesture, Jefferson, then in France, sent home for a moose. The one he got, a lumpily stuffed, mangy, smallish specimen with horns from a different animal, didn't fill the bill. Buffon went to his grave convinced that Old World animals were the real deal. (via National Geographic article). ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-30-5:04 p.m.: GARDENING UPDATE: Due to the profligate rains, Ypsidixit's yard exploded in green the past week or so, and Memorial Day Weekend is a good chance to get things under control. The 10' by 10' area under the grape arbor was a weedy mess, so Ypsidixit transplanted volunteer violets and a black-eyed susan, weeded the whole thing, planted 4 tomatoes along one edge, spaded up & raked the earth smooth, and made a patio by spreading out a square pad of springy mulch. With two garden chairs and a little table, it now looks inviting and cozy. Ypsidixit tied up the sprawling grapevines, which have lots of teeny baby grapes on them. She made a new perennial flowerbed, dug up a horrid infestation of deadly nightshade, transplanted and staked 4 volunteer maple trees, hung up baskets full of strawberry plants, and weeded and re-mulched the two long daylily beds on either side of the front yard. Now blooming: extravagant magenta peonies, painted daisies, orange poppies, and early yarrow. Ypsidixit noted with delight the grape-sized apples on her apple trees and the chickpea-sized cherries on her cherry trees and was thankful as always to be lucky enough to have a yard in which to have the fun of growing things. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-29-9:25 p.m.: NPR "MORNING EDITION" RECENTLY CANNED HOST BOB EDWARDS has been honored by numerous other NPR shows who hosted him, gestures that seem to be saying that it was wrong to can him. He appeared on "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" today, where he gamely failed the quiz, and also on today's edition of "Prairie Home Companion," where he and Garrison reminisced about their mythical "Radio Scout" days. He also appeared on an electrifying edition of the "Diane Rehm Show" last week, in which Diane read an email:Diane: "This email has in its subject line, "NPR was nuts to fire Bob Edwards," and in the body of the email it just says, "Period." (pause). "Like that, Bob?" Over 35,000 people have written in protest to NPR (635 Massachusetts Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001) and many have signed a petition. It's said that part of the reason he was canned was for an anti-Clear Channel speech he gave at the University of Kentucky. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-28-5:45 p.m.:
WHERE DO SHIPS GO TO DIE? When cargo ships get to be my age, they're driven to a 3-mile stretch of the Alang beach on the coast of northwestern India (Gujarat province), where they float offshore till high tide. Then they're run full speed up onto the beach. As the tide drains off, they're attacked by thousands of workers using little more than hand tools, who cut apart the ship. The steel, which is often contaminated with PCBs, dioxins, and other toxins, is sent to steel recyclers across India. With their bare hands, the workers tear apart asbestos and remove marine paint, which has higher levels of mercury and lead to make it more weather-impervious. Protective clothing is non-existant, and asbestos waste and other wastes are dumped into the sea or nearby land. It's called "shipbreaking," and goes on in Bangladesh too, where there is even less concern for the health of the workers, who earn around a dollar for a 7 a.m.-7 p.m. workday.
____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-28-8:03 a.m.: SLOGANATOR UNPLUGGED: The Bush/Cheney website had an interactive feature that allowed you to type in your own slogan and create a customized poster with the Bush/Cheney logo. Naturally, some weisenheimers immediately took advantage of this. The Sloganator lasted a mere 2 weeks.The Sloganator Memorial (slideshow w/Green Day soundtrack) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-27-8:12 p.m.: "POP vs. SODA. vs. COKE vs. OTHER" clickable map...with detailed county-level data.Michigan is diehard "pop," of course, with some detractors in midstate. Note the split in Wisconsin, Penn., NY, and Illinois-Missouri. And the Southwest is clearly on the brink of war. Click on the state name in this other list to see what was given as "other" ("pookie"). (metafilter) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-26-10:20 p.m.: PAPER MILL DIARIES: A friend who visited the fast-crumbling paper mill recently sends this report, which I post here with their permission:"I went to the mill and it was fairly disturbing due to its state of destruction, as well as the 3" of standing water i had to slog through in places. As I was moving through a pitch dark area I heard a noise in front of me. At first it sounded like a human footstep, but then i realized it was scratching. shining my flashlight in the general direction I discovered this: [raccoon picture deleted'] "fortunately, their mother was nowhere to be seen. They were very friendly, and kept making little whimpering sounds and trying to approach me. I slowly walked around them, took a few more pictures, and left. I hope that when the demolition work reaches the den of these� little fellows, they will escape through out a door or window and not into the basement. Regardless, it looks like the mill won't have much longer to go (probably just a few weeks, if that)."" ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-26-8:15 p.m.: ATTENDING THE 'YPSI'S BROKE--NOW WHAT?" public meeting: About 20 people attended the meeting in the atmospheric Freight House. Purpose: to solicit public opinion on ways Ypsi can balance its budget--the current proposed budget has a $1,000,000 shortfall, and most departments are now cut to the bone.Resident Pam Hamlin spoke on the need to enforce fines and increase city departments' efficiency. She was followed by the justifiably concerned Recreation Department's Missy Zuber (sp) who spoke of the need to keep a dialogue open between the rec. dept. and the city. Kirsten Mowry (sp) had lucid, short- medium- and long-term suggestions. One good short-term suggestion was enforcing garbage can limits--she says she sees this violated weekly, as do I. (And our 3-can limit seems luxurious next to my East Lansing sister's *one*-can limit). She also pointed out that shifting the means of gauging property tax from the building size to the Property size encourages denser development, which I thought was a thoughtful point, and spoke of parnering with other local communities to form regional alliances with more clout in Lansing. A detailed discussion of Proposal A and the Headlee (sp) amendment followed. Nutshell: these limit the amount of tax the city can collect to the rate of inflation. The city gets 63% of its income from property tax and 25% from shared state revenue. Drawback: Services provided to the untaxed EMU are not reimbursed in full: for example, fire services are reimbursed 44% of their actual cost, and EMU, having lost 30% of its own revenue in the last 18 months, cannot pay. The apolitical committee, appointed by the mayor, gave the impression of being a thoughtful group who had worked hard to examine the problem. They submit their recommendations in June, and are having several meetings before then that are also open to the public (and have a public-comment period). Check the city website to find more meeting info or contact Cherry Lawson at 483-1100. HIGHLIGHT: Ypsidixit spotted the Seat of the Revolution and The Bunker at the meeting, both of whom raised some excellent points and questions. Unfortunately, the terminally shy Ypsidixit, who has yet to meet either of these estimable local bloggers, dematerialized at meeting's end as Steven was chatting to some people outside. All in all, Ypsidixit is encouraged to see a good group at work on this and encouraged to hear that city departments, reportedly already stretched mighty thin, are trying to find ways to cooperate and trim expenses. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-25-7:55 p.m.: CHRISTIAN EXODUS: Taking a page from the "Free State" project, a bunch of fundamentalist Christians are trying to drum up 50,000 like-minded souls to collectively move to 1. Alabama 2. Mississippi or 3. South Carolina in order to establish a quasi-secessionist Christian State.HELPFUL TIP: Maybe it would be easier for everyone if we just assigned a different ethical-religious paradigm for each state. In which case I hope Michigan ends up as the "golden-rule atheist" state. Such a system would make life a lot easier for those who can't stand having to put up with people with a different worldview. Plus atheists are still far enough out of the mainstream (although our numbers are increasing) so that it's edgy and cool. Maybe we can tie it into the cool cities thing. Just brainstorming, here. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-25-12:10 p.m.: IN DEFERENCE TO THE VEIN OF HUMMERSCHADENFREUD running through local blogs, I offer this lovely picture taken yesterday in Sterling Heights. The trashed vehicle's owner, William Brandon, (pictured at right) said of his attempt to drive underwater, "This was stupid."(via Detroit Free Press). More Freep flood photos. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-24-9:48 p.m.: IS IT JUST ME, or is Henry David Thoreau a hottie?If he pruned off that semicircular chin-hedge, I mean. And maybe ran a comb through that bedhead tousle. But I like that dreamy miles-away expression, and serene, melancholy air. "Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a reverie, amidst the pines and hickories and sumacs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness, while the birds sang around or flitted noiseless through the house, until by the sun falling in at my west window, or the noise of some traveler's wagon on the distant highway, I was reminded of the lapse of time.� I grew in those seasons like corn in the night, and they were far better than any work of the hands would have been.� They were not time subtracted from my life, but so much over and above my usual allowance." --HDT [ypsidixit has been known to spend days like this too] ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-24-8:00 p.m.: BALANCED review of Michael Moore's film "911."EXCERPT: "Perhaps the most damning sequence in "Fahrenheit 9/11" is the one showing American troops as they ridicule hooded detainees...why didn't we see any of this on American TV before "60 Minutes II"?" EXCERPT 2: "...a particularly unappetizing spectacle is provided by Paul Wolfowitz...we watch him stick his comb in his mouth until it is wet with spit, after which he runs it through his hair. This is not the image we usually see of the deputy defense secretary, who has been ritualistically presented in the press as the most refined of intellectuals..." ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-24-12:30 p.m.: "WE ARE ALL ADDICTS OF FOSSIL FUELS in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey."And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left of what we�re hooked on." --Kurt Vonnegut, "Cold Turkey" ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-23-9:39 a.m.:  BOOKS READ: "Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" by Lynne Truss. TWO-WORD REVIEW: Punctuation, Lite. This bit of fluff, transformed into a 206-page, 5 and 3/16-inch by 7 and 1/2-inch book thanks to the use of airy line spacing and generous margins, disappoints. In every age there are public-illiteracy Chicken Littles, but few as self-righteous as self-appointed comma cop Truss. Her book contains much unnecessary snark, but little bankable information. I distrusted this author from the moment I heard her present an urban myth as fact in an NPR interview. The myth says that an English professor wrote the words "A woman without her man is nothing" and asked the students to punctuate it. Supposedly, the men wrote, "A woman, without her man, is nothing." and the women wrote "A woman: without her, man is nothing.". In the interview, Truss presented this chestnut as an actual incident and named a college (if I remember right, she said King's College). An author who embellishes in this manner loses credibility. RECOMMENDATION: Instead, read Strunk and White's timeless, absorbing, and elegant "The Elements of Style". ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-21-11:02 a.m.: BACKYARD BALL LIGHTNING?: TRANSFIXED IN AWE by the strobing lightning, I watched my backyard flicker back and forth between dim dark shapes and sudden white silhouettes. Never having seen so much electricity in a storm, I was mesmerized. While gazing in the backyard, I suddenly saw a glowing yellow tennis-ball sized light move rapidly (running-person speed) from north to south at a height of around four feet for a distance of around 12 feet, then disappear. My jaw dropped. Then it happened again--except this time the yellow ball turned bright red halfway through its journey.! I have a wall of trees at the back of my yard, and so could tell that these apparitions were in fact in the back of my yard (not some distant car lights or whatever, which would be obscured by leaves, anyways, and not clear, unoccluded, & distinct like the balls). St. Elmo's Fire? Omen? Portent? What the heck? Any explanation? ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-20-6:51 p.m.: OPEN THREAD: Chat away, please. Whatever topic you want. Ypsidixit feels fortunate to have attracted a community of thoughtful people (including detractors, who keep me on my toes). Regular visitors know the tenor of the blog & the range of commentors' viewpoints. So what do you want to talk about with them? Handing over the reins to see what happens. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-20-2:08 p.m.: 555 SENDOFF? A comment from Raymond reminded me there's a big bash at gallery 555 this Sat., 9 p.m., $7. "Sound," fashion, art installation, video, and more. Is this meant to be a "farewell Ypsilanti" party? ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-20-12:15 p.m.: YPSI SEEKS YOUR MONEY-SAVING IDEAS: The city's "blue ribbon finance committee" is having a public meeting next Wednesday at 6:30 p.m., May 26, at the Freight House. They're looking for resident suggestions on how the city can save money.If this were Ann Arbor, I'd say fire the city ornithologist & entomologist. Other than that I'm short on ideas (recycling pickup once a month instead of weekly? road-destruction tax on beige-Hummer owners?) but am trying to come up with something productive to contribute at the meeting. ____________________________________________________________________________________________
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