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YPSIDIXIT WOULD LIKE TO REMIND YOU that the best protection from jellyfish stings is still the simplest: just wear women's pantyhose over arms and legs while sea-bathing. That's what otherwise manly Aussie lifeguards do (scroll down to "Simple Fix.") Considering that you could be killed in an instant by such jellyfish as the Arctic Lion's Mane (pictured), which can have a bell up to 8 feet wide with tentacles half a football field long, it's a small price to pay. More on the Arctic Lion's Mane. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-15-8:10 p.m.: WATER STREET FLOOD OF 1941: At the start of the war, Water Street suffered a massive flood, as seen here. Given that the new Water Street development is being built what seems to be a floodplain, and with the memory of last spring's Riverside Park Sea in mind, and further considering that development will cover roughly half of the site with impermeable surfaces (increasing runoff) one wonders if the Water Street condos will be dangerously prone to damaging floods.
____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-15-12:43 p.m.: MICHIGAN RADIO has a quaint little Blogspot blog that is useful because every day it gives you a one-page list of summaries of each show to be broadcast later, so you can pick 'n choose--it's much easier to use than the MR website. I found it while trying to find out why Charity Nebbe's "Stateside" has been changed from 5 days a week to Fridays only as of next week. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-14-12:42 p.m.: MICHIGAN GAVE A TAX CREDIT TO GM so that the carmaker would keep 1,000 jobs in MI instead of shipping them out of state. The bad news is that in the resulting consolidation in Pontiac, 800 high-end Ypsi jobs will be lost. Story. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-13-12:48 p.m.: MYSTERY SURROUNDS the sentencing of William Riney to 80 hours of community service and $500 plus court costs. The former leader of a group which sought to force the YCUA to find a means of disposing of sewage sludge other than incineration, Riney pleaded no contest to making a false statement on a petition to recall three Ypsi Twp. officials who also served on the YCUA board. OK. Mistake. But here's the mystery: Riney was accused of putting fake signatures on the petition after 4 people told police they'd never signed it. But a police investigation indicated that Riney did not add the signatures. So I'm curious to know how these fake signatures materialized on the petition, helping to kill the recall effort. The story. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-12-9:31 p.m.: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO YPSI'S INDEPENDENCE ISLAND? Visible on this 1868 map, the tiny Independence Island sits just southeast of the modern-day Water Street developments. It also appears on an 1890 map, but is vanished from present-day maps.
Aspero �amor, �violeta �corona �de �espinas, Por �que �precipitaste �tu �fuego �doloroso, Lo �cierto �es �que �temblo �la �noche �pavorosa, mientras �que �el �cruel �amor �me �cercaba �sin �tregua (via monkeyfilter) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-11-8:35 p.m.:
BOOKS READ: "Killing Ground" by John Huddleston. Award-winning photographer Huddleston collected a number of old Civil War battlefield photos and traveled to each site to photograph its modern counterpart. The results are startling: in place of vast agrarian landscapes are visually cluttered fast food strips, groomed anonymous lawns in national parks, and housing developments built on the bones of the dead. The author points out that there's something optimistic and hopeful about a cheerful housing development build on an old battlefield. On the other hand, paving over such sites seems to indicate that the debt of the lives lost there has been casually forgotten.The most striking effect of this book for me is seeing how a vast open land, over which a mind could apparently roam unchecked, is subjugated to the in-your-face clutter and ugliness of signs and wires and cars that eclipse the far horizon of the land and, seemingly, of the imagination. Reviews. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-10-11:03 p.m.: CALL FOR PASSENGER PIGEON MEMORIES: This is a long shot, I know. But I'm writing a story on passenger pigeons in MI (once numerous here) and am looking for local elderly residents who may remember their fathers or more likely grandfathers hunting/seeing the bird in Washtenaw County/surrounding areas. If you know of anyone who can contribute a recollection, that would be invaluable to me, and of course I'd credit you in print, if you like, for your help. Thanks in advance. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-10-7:16 p.m.: RECENT SEARCH STRINGS USED to find this blog:"color alert bush homeland nail paint" Don't ask me about that last one. One of those things I'm perfectly happy not knowing about. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-10-12:03 a.m.: HOW WOULD YOU FEEL if Dublin's Trinity College took the Book of Kells and cut it up & framed the pages individually? I'd feel that yet another one of the world's treasures had been lost...and that the world art collection that represents the best part of humanity had been dimished.Yet that is what the UMMA chose to do. They've razored out the illustrations from their copy of a Persian epic from Baghdad, the Shahnama, for seperate display in an upcoming exhibit. This 1470 book is now irretrievably damaged and will never be whole again. The most nauseating part is the usual UMMA hype, [scroll down] now with a PC twist, about what they call "The Ann Arbor Shahnama." One gets the impression from PR that they're patting themselves on the back for making a big culturally-sensitive fuss over a Persian work that nobody heard of prior to now. Personally I feel that whoever made the decision to damage this work, when there are so many other options (hi-res photography) for showing the illustrations, should be dismissed as someone who is not fit to have authority over 534-year-old treasures that have miraculously come down through the ages whole. Till they get to hicktown Ann Arbor. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-09-9:30 p.m.:
HERE'S A BIT OF FLUFF just for fun on a Friday: "Awful Plastic Surgery: the good, bad, and ugly of celebrity plastic surgery." Yeeuuuwwww. The low point for Ypsidixit was Courtney Love's rippled accoutrement. NSFW here and there. "Enjoy." (Did John Kerry get Botox? Did George W. get a nose job?) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-09-5:23 p.m.: KITCHEN PORT KICKED OUT OF KERRYTOWN: Ypsidixit has learned through osmosis that Kerrytown's owner jacked up the KP rent 60%--yep, six-oh--this past spring. Kitchen Port couldn't pay it, but Vintage to Vogue could, so V to V is moving up into the Kitchen Port space & KP is moving to some Godforsaken spot out on Zeeb Rd. at Jackson.Putting her mixed feelings about Kitchen Port aside (pretentious kitchen crap, useful spot for fun gifts like the Pickle Plucker), Ypsidixit thinks this is a big mistake. KP is Kerrytown's magnet store. Even people like me, who lack kitchen fetishes, shop there. V to V will in no way generate the same amount of foot traffic, and Kerrytown as a whole will suffer to some degree. Ypsidixit also does not approve of the drastic rate hike. Pure greed, in my book. I don't see how other expenses could suddenly leap up so as to justify the landlord hiking things that much. Clearly there's more to the story, but the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-08-11:37 p.m.: DIGGING UP OLD YPSI OUTHOUSE PITS produces glimpses of the past, since a lot of people used outhouses as trash dumps. Bottles, broken crockery, buttons, and the like are common finds in privy excavations. Here's one story of an Ypsi privy-digger that features a photo of one of Ypsi's finest standing in a privy pit holding an antique bottle. It's amazing what you can find.Ypsidixit had the chance to paw through the huge pile of artifacts excavated from a site behind Ann Arbor's Kempf House. I thrilled to touch an old medicine bottle, a bit of painted china, and a doll fragment. Scott's Privy Page ("your interactive privy excavation news source!") [1999-2000]. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-08-8:22 p.m.: URBAN EXPLORATION of the abandoned Ypsi Psychiatric Hospital south of town, with lots of photos. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-08-12:39 p.m.: ANN ARBOR STREET RIOT: Early Thursday morning, over 300 people rioted in front of the Bird of Paradise. Three stabbings, one person hit with a bottle. "Police used large foggers to fire pepper spray into the crowd to break up the fights." Wow (Ann Arbor?!) The story. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-07-11:51 p.m.:  RECUMBENT AT HER DESK, Ypsidixit researched recumbent bikes this evening, concluding that most recumbents, which by and large resemble normal bikes run over by a train, are designed by pocket-protected geeks. Only a fraction have any style, sizzle, or pizzazz, including Cannondale's Bent II model (far left) and Velotechnik's Spirit model (near left), both around $1,500. Cannondale is sold through Ypsilanti's Tree Fort bike and board shop on Whittaker, and the nearest Velotechnik dealer is in Wisconsin. Ypsidixit's goal is long-range biking, including daily commutes to work (Y. biked home from AA in a record 65 minutes today, beating the bus for the first time) and in time, trips to Toledo (parents) and even Lansing (sister) on the back roads. It's a doable goal, but one I can't reach on my current low-end bike. Add a little trailer for Ypsidixit's mulch addiction and for most of the year, I could bike everywhere--that's my goal. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-07-10:42 p.m.: WE'RE ALL OPTIMISTS NOW: After the titanic nationwide grief tsunami that followed the recent death of a former president noted for optimism, Ypsidixit notes a recent emphasis on optimism from both November presidential candidates that suggests an unspoken acknowledgement that the country's in the toilet and we're all sick of it.An email from the Bush team says "the Vice President took the campaign's positive, optimistic agenda [on his current bus tour] to the voters in critical swing states." Yep. Cheney's one big bouncing ball of fun, all right. Earlier on NPR there was much chatter about Edwards adding crucial optimism to the ponderous Kerry's bid for prez. All this sunny optimism is infectious. Look for Ypsidixit to be dancing down the street to the bus stop tomorrow, singing a happy tune. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-07-5:54 p.m.: SMOKING POT IMPROVES NIGHT VISION, reports the world's best paper, the Guardian.That's the conclusion of a scientific study whose "results backed up claims by the Observer columnist Sue Arnold, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa and is officially registered blind. She noticed several years ago that drawing on strong Jamaican skunk suddenly and temporarily enabled her to see things clearly. "But Ms Arnold has since warned of side-effects that could impede night-time navigation. "'Only trouble was,' she said, 'I couldn't stand up.'" Ypsidixit sees important military night-fighting potential here. "What if they held a war and nobody stopped giggling long enough to kill anyone"? ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-07-5:27 p.m.: TERRORIST ALERT RATCHETED UP: Lost in the holiday weekend uproar was the alarming news that Ashcroft and Co. issued a terse bulletin from the bowels of the Homeland Insecurity Dept. warning against exploding beer coolers, and booby-trapped inflatable water toys.You heard me. Think about it. What more innocuous spot for a sneaky terrorist to secrete his gelignite than in an Igloo full of Budweiser? Remember the U.S. Cole, blown up by a suicide boat. Given that fact, it certainly seems...um,...likely...that some wild-eyed terrorist would wire up a radio-controlled bomb to an inflatable Scooby Doo fun ring and send it straight into...wait, no, I'm sorry, this is just too ridiculous to even pretend it has the slightest shred of sense. Thank God we all made it through the weekend unscathed. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-06-9:30 p.m.: AFTER RAPTLY PORING THROUGH THE Bigha site, Ypsidixit went so far as to customize (at left) one of these sensible, efficient, ergonomic recumbents for herself. The price? 3 grand. The prospect of divorcing my car, whizzing all over Washtenaw County, commuting to work, camping, and exploring back roads? Mighty....tempting.
____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-05-9:31 p.m.: 
"ROCK 'n' Roll turned 50 this morning when an Elvis Presley recording of 'That's All Right Mama' played simultaneously on at least 1200 radio stations worldwide... "Stations from the UK to Ukraine...carried the song as it was fed from Sun Studios, in Memphis, Tennessee. "Sun Studios is now a national landmark. There is even an "X" on the studio floor, where Presley stood." (the rest of the freerepublic.com story) Ypsidixit is fascinated by Elvis and Elvisiana. Having just absorbed Albert Goldman's scathing Elvis bio, she is primed for next weekend's Ypsi Elvisfest and plans to go. Ypsidixit is most of all curious as to the eternal-flame cult aspect of Elvis worship, and wonders what it is about this pill-popping, misogynistic, reclusive perpetual adolescent that attracts people. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-05-4:13 p.m.: MICHAEL MOORE'S NEW BLOG: Moore started a blog last night. It's funny and entertaining. Check it out. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-05-12:07 a.m.: IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION MONEY AWOL, SAYS GUARDIAN: "The US government spent just 2% of the $18.4bn it had obtained from Congress for the urgent reconstruction of Iraq..."The White House budget office report...showed that the US occupation authorities had spent nothing on healthcare or water and sanitation, two of the most urgent needs for Iraqis. In contrast, a total of $9m was spent on administrative expenses. ..."With the US reluctant to disburse cash, reconstruction money has largely been drawn from Iraq's oil receipts, with some $19bn of a $20bn fund spent... "A spokesman for the budget office said the figures were misleading...'The coalition has helped Iraqis rebuild schools...' Well, journalist Dave Enders saw firsthand the deplorable results of schools "refurbished" by Bechtel. The rest of the Guardian story. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-03-5:02 p.m.: A KIND READER shares a letter with Ypsidixit that she wrote to Jennifer Goulet (Jennifer(at)YpsilantiDDA(dot)org) concerning the desireability of downtown bike racks. How to get to the next DDA meeting. Ypsidixit posts the letter here, with the writer's name, with her permission.Dear Jennifer Goulet and the Ypsilanti Downtown Development Authority, It has come to our attention that new parking lots are going to be built and others repaired in the city of Ypsilanti. We applaud this move to maintain the street appearances of the Downtown area; however, we have heard from the Planning Commission that there are no plans to include bike racks in these areas. We are very dismayed to hear that. As homeowners within the Midtown area, we are only a few blocks away from downtown and find ourselves there often, at Henrietta Fahrenheit, the Wolverine, and the Tap Room, to mention a few names. We are usually riding bikes into town and the only options that are available to us and others are to chain our bikes onto lamp-posts or other poles.� It would be much easier, and indeed �cooler�, to have bike racks available for citizen use. To have a city that has various types of spaces: walking areas, shops, green spaces, etc. it is necessary to allow for different types of transportation. This need should not be understated: to attract folks into town who are bike riders, there has to be a place for the bikes to go. The racks would also help reinforce the image of Downtown Ypsilanti as a people friendly place. We do realize that there is bike rack parking next to the library�but it is on Washington in a not well lit or trafficked area. We would feel much safer it the rack was in the parking lot area. Please consider adding the bike racks to the parking lot plan as a viable option for the City of Ypsilanti. Thank you, cc: Mayor Cheryl C. Farmer Ms. Cuhran notes, "This issue especially important to do RIGHT NOW because the planning commission is supposed to talk about it at last month's meeting and didn't have time, so it will be coming up at the very next meeting which is July 21st (if I am correct thinking it is at the Planning Commission meeting). Even though it is the planning commission votingon the parking lots, it is the DDA that could decide whether or not there are bike racks." ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-03-1:24 p.m.: PARADE HIGHLIGHTS: Ypsidixit and her sidekick, Clover, enjoyed the nearly endless parade from a shady spot near Quinn's Essentials, and agreed that the best part was the Willow Run float, featuring the back half of a plane fuselage with several Rosie the Riveters riveting away on it. A couple of the Baptist churches had colorful floats conflating images of religion and patriotism, such as one striking float recreating the Iwo Jima flag-raising, with soldiers in camo raising a giant wooden cross painted in stars and bars, followed by an enthusiastic choir on foot singing a martial hymn--it was fun. Uncle Sam teetering on top of another Baptist church's bus made Ypsidixit a mite dizzy. After Clover got her own balloon, tied on her collar, several passersby started smiling at her and offered a few nice compliments. And nothing says summer like a cadre of Shriners whizzing around on their lawnmower cars. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-02-12:43 p.m.: DO A DNA EXTRACTION in the comfort and privacy of your own home, using dish soap, peas, and a couple other common household materials. Rainy-day fun! ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-01-9:18 p.m.: WHAT DO YOU THINK about this... architect's plan for the expansion of U-M's art museum? I have mixed feelings. I think the modernist design would do well if it were a free-standing structure, but it totally doesn't jibe with the stately ancientness of the original museum. I don't see any effort made here to echo the original structure in a complementary modern way, by riffing on the columns or whatnot. It just seems tacked-on. And it'll further clutter the Diag. Yes, it's true that the museum has far more holdings than it exhibits at any given time, and this extra space will give it the chance to show more--but--some recent exhibits were not good quality, such as the sky-high-hyped poor-quality St. Petersburg exhibit or the mediocre-quality Indian art exhibit. Seems to me like they have adequate room in the old building for the level of exhibits they're showing now. Consider the stunning coup that is the new Seattle library. This beautiful design is levels above the bunch of cubes offered here. This UMMA design doesn't move me. More images of the new addition (click on "news," top left). ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-01-8:34 p.m.: 19TH-CENTURY SPAM: Ypsidixit has been reading 19th-century Washtenaw county newspapers on microfilm at the Ann Arbor District Library during lunch hours, as part of an article she's writing. It's so fun. These quaint old papers are packed with ads for quack nostrums for "feminine complaints" and "consumptive cough" and the like. Ridiculous claims for snake-oil potions run on and on for column after column. Ypsidixit is somehow soothed to see that spam is not just a 21st-century phenomenon. It makes those hundred or so paeans to "sugper viamgra" cluttering her work email every morning a bit more tolerable. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-07-01-7:27 p.m.: "THIS RULE ABOUT NOT GOING OUTSIDE THE BOUNDARIES of one's profession is of great use to those in power. I have come up against it myself as a historian. I am supposed to talk just about history. When I showed up at the meeting of the American Historical Association in 1970 and proposed that we historians should speak out against the war in Vietnam, there was shock. 'We're historians," people said. "We're supposed to talk about history and present our papers and leave politics to the politicians.'"In the late 18th century, this French philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau had something to say about this sort of abdication of social responsibility. He said, 'We have all sorts of specialties; we have engineers, we have scientists, we have ministers, but we no longer have a citizen among us'--that is to say, somebody who will go beyond his or her professional prison and take part in the battle for social justice. "The people who do break out of that prison, like Michael Moore, deserve an enormous amount of credit. Entertainers have the ability to reach far greater numbers of people than the rest of us do, and if they don't take advantage of it, they deprive us all of an opportunity for greater communication." --from an interview with activist-scholar Howard Zinn, in July Sun magazine. ____________________________________________________________________________________________
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