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2005-03-18-12:20 p.m.: THE NEW FISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORY LIST is both stricter and clearer than before, with a depressing new "Do Not Eat" category [in "comments"].2 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-17-10:49 p.m.: PAPER MILL DIARIES: EMU has still not worked out an agreement with Edwards Communities as to whether the paper mill apartments will officially be EMU space, with resident RAs and so forth. Meanwhile, Edwards has already rented a third of the 184 apartments, with a weird arrangement of issuing leases per bedroom, instead of per suite. Prices: $685 for one-bedroom, $585 two-bedroom, $460-$480 for 3- and 4-bedrooms. At the same time, at EMU, "this academic year�s residence hall occupancy is down several hundred students from previous years, resulting in the closure of Jones Hall and the ground floor of Wise Hall." Story. 11 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-17-8:26 p.m.: YPSI AIDS THE IRISH: As the Irish staggered under the potato famine of 1845-1850, Ypsilantians met on St. Patrick's Day in 1847 to work up an aid society. "RELIEF MEETING. The citizens of Ypsilanti and vicinity are respectfully invited to assemble at Larzelere's Block on Tuesday the 23d inst. at 7 o'clock P.M. for the purpose of responding to the call of the State Committee for the relief of the famishing people of Ireland and Scotland. It is hoped that there will be a general attendance. MANY CITIZENS." --Ypsilanti Sentinel, March 17, 1847. Pictures of the famine here, here, and here. See more pictures here. Read about the tragedy in this meticulous collection of period newspaper accounts. 0 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-17-12:14 p.m.: YPSI SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT WILLIAM ZUHLKE RESIGNED LAST NIGHT, snagging as he goes a quarter of a million dollars. Story.12 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-16-12:55 p.m.: THE SENATE today voted (49 to 51) to leave language permitting oil drilling in the Arctic National Refuge in the Budget Resolution, thus edging closer to opening up the refuge.14 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-16-12:16 a.m.: STANDOFF ON HANSEN'S ISLAND: Ypsidixit has been following with interest an ongoing Free Press story about crusty landowner John Horvath, who refuses to let state officials onto his Hansen's Island land [in St Clair River just east of Detroit] to cut down ash trees alleged to be infested with the emerald ash borer.
This man fired up his personal bulldozer and blocked access to his land when officials came calling (any man who owns and maintains his own bulldozer is OK in Ypsidixit's book). Isn't private property private? Can't a man defend his own land?
EXCERPT: "On Monday, Horvath's eyes misted as he described the thousands of trees on his property..."These trees are my friends. This is what I live for." Trees are Ypsidixit's friends as well, and one of the things she lives for. She stands firmly behind self-described "redneck" Horvath and wants the state to leave this man alone. 30 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-15-11:23 p.m.: YPSIDIXIT'S MOM NOTES, "In front of the house and on the side little green sprouts are coming up from the hyacinths and some crocuses (or is it croci). I'm sure you have something going on in your yard?"The fervent gardener Ypsidixit has nothing going on in her yard, despite keeping an eagle eye on the hyacinth bed by the back door. Y's front yard is peppered with randomly-planted crocuses, but none have poked up yet. Ypsidixit noted a bunch of crocus and hyacinth sprouts in the warm urban microclimate next to the downtown AA YMCA southern wall. Also, Y's cherished magnolia trees and her apple trees have 1/2-inch, light green, delicate velvet buds. The green mist is nigh.
14 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-15-8:30 a.m.: CARE FOR A LOOK AT HUMAN NATURE? Here's a lovely little story. When an Ann Arbor cancer patient petitioned the board of University Townhouses Cooperative to accept a Section 8 (federally subsidized) voucher so that she could stay in her home, the board said no--because it would be "too much paperwork." Nonsense. The board said--incorrectly, according to the ACLU (one wonders how qualified these people are to sit on a board) that if they took one Section 8, they'd have to open up the whole place to other Section 8 tenants. The board clearly doesn't want low-income people--although the place is supposed to be an affordable-housing development. This patient and her 2 sons may be kicked out, thanks to this board's callous, uncompassionate cruelty. 57 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-14-11:40 p.m.: GRANHOLM'S NEW OFFICE OF FAITH-BASED INITIATIVES funneling state money to religious groups not only blurs the line between church and State, it gives implicit approval to non-reason-based, superstitious patriarchal fantasies as a means of understanding the world. How uncivilized. Ypsidixit is ashamed at this juncture to be a citizen of such a primitive hick backwater of a state.5 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-14-9:25 p.m.: CONSTRUCTION SITE THEFT: An interesting article in today's Free Press details the recent rise in theft from construction sites. One photo shows workers loading ladders and extension cords onto the prongs of a forklift, then elevating them high into the air, to deter theft. EXCERPT: "Power tools from a site could end up in a flea market; materials can find their way into a subcontractor's basement project, and a backhoe can end up on a farm in the Upper Peninsula. Ypsidixit passes the Dixboro Bridge construction site twice a day. In the evening, almost all of the 4 or so big cranes on the site suspend some piece of equipment high above the ground. Ypsidixit imagines herself as an air compressor hooked to a crane throughout a chill March night, slowly turning in the wind above the truck-tire-rutted, frost-white mud, churning river water, and concrete bridge columns. 12 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-14-7:24 p.m.: BLESS THE TRASHPICKERS: Ypsilanti is unobtrusively patrolled by a corps of old guys in overalls and rusty pickups. These gentlemen know when every separate sector of the city has its trash day, and they have their favorite sectors. After dinner with the lady they�ve been married to for 45 years, the trashpickers decide to take a little drive. All over town, chairs with one busted arm, ancient black-and-white TVs, and remodeling detritus is at this moment being loaded into old pickup beds. The items are driven home to spotless, brightly lit basement workshops, which are organized down to the last bolt. Here the items are tinkered with, fixed up, tightened, glued, and painted till you�d swear it was new. Then they�re usually given away as nice gifts. In this way a good deal of useable items are sifted from the waste stream�and wives are given a few hours� reprieve from their well-loved but hovering retiree husbands. Ypsidixit likes and admires the trashpickers�reliable, handy, thrifty, unassuming, resourceful souls.13 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-14-12:54 p.m.: YPSI ST. PATRICK'S DAY FESTIVITIES include live bagpipers at Aubree's, the Sidetrack, and Cady's, W4 Country at Buffalo Wild Wings, 89X at Club Divine, and Irish stew, corned beef and cabbage, and shepherd's pie all over town. "In the Ypsilanti area, the parties start early," notes the News, with perhaps a hint of disapproval.11 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-14-8:30 a.m.: TODAY'S MOST IRRITATING STORY in the Free Press was that cell phone companies want to plant cell towers in graveyards. How respectful. Ypsidixit can think of a lot of quiet old graveyards around the county that would most emphatically not be improved by some hideous tower.T-Mobile "director for national siting policy" Laura Altschul defends this tacky rapaciousness: "Usually, cemeteries are located around residential areas, and the residential areas are the most important area for wireless companies to be building in right now, because people want to use their mobile phones at home." Yah. Presumably that's why they got a mobile phone. When herd consumerism leads to the desecration of graveyards, people have to stop, take a breath, and actually think about what they're doing. 21 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-13-10:02 p.m.: YPSIDIXIT WAS JUST TURNING EAST ON CROSS from the Huron Street sidewalk leading from the bus stop today when she was irritatingly honked at by a guy in a truck.
"Hey! You got a flat tire!"
Rocketing down Cross towards the bridge, Ypsidixit chuckled indulgently. What this gentleman didn't grasp was the hibernal hypoinflation hypothesis, or, to put it in lay terms, keeping one's tires underinflated so as to provide for maximum icy-road-gripping surface area, as recommended by leading winter bikers. Also part of the equation was that Ypsidixit was back-seating, a technical biker's term that means scooting backwards on the seat (thus putting more weight on the rear tire) while going downhill so as to avoid hurtling over the handlebars when hitting bumps. Add to this what's known in (the more rarified) biking circles as DeGroot's Illusion, which is the tendency of fat mountain bike tires to look flatter than they are. Oh, who am I kidding. I had a flat tire. I crabbily pumped it up once I got home. 3 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-13-9:26 p.m.:  YPSIDIXIT IS TRYING to gauge the perspective of this photo (snippet shown at right). The caption says it's looking northwest from Park or Grove Street, but that can't be right, since the Thompson Building's south side is seen square on, just east of the old depot. Maybe just east of River Street? Further confusing the issue is what appears to be the mislabeled "River St."--that has to be Cross Street. That rather drastic bend in the railroad also muddies the waters.
15 comments--add a comment
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