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"Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees; pouring cold water on naked detainees; beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair; threatening male detainees with rape; allowing a military police guard to stitch the wound of a detainee who was injured after being slammed against the wall in his cell; sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick, and using military working dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees with threats of attack, and in one instance actually biting a detainee." ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-05-01-7:07 p.m.: A SEVERED PIG'S HEAD browning on a giant BBQ rig near the tracks at the Ypsi Farmer's Market alerted me to the possibility of food as I browsed through the plants for sale. Sure enough, there was a Freight House fundraising pork lunch going on, so I bought a plate and quietly ate at a table. A garrulous boomer and his pals settled down next to me. He eyed my bag of veggies from the market. "So..." he boomed, "what did we buy today?" We? I'm just me, a divorce-shellshocked loner making tiny attempts to reenter society by doing things like going to the Farmer's Market. "Oh..just some veggies, and this little bag, which I thought was cute. The usual Saturday morning shopping." He introduced himself: Mike. We shook unweddingringed hands. His buddies glanced at me. "Usual Saturday morning shopping, huh?" Mike said. "On Saturday mornings, it's all I can do to get my boys out of bed!" He described his late-teen boys and spit out a little insult about his ex. Great. That's the last thing I need--to get embroiled again in a horrible stepfamily situation. No thanks. I made a couple of polite murmurs but mostly was quiet, eating my pork sandwich as fast as decently possible. I got up and gathered up my meal litter. "Have a good day," I told Mike pleasantly, walking off and leaving him, his pals, and another trainwrecked marriage that I don't have the strength to deal with at this point. Outside, I bought a hanging-basket fuchsia, its lush sprays of extravagant pink and purple flowers seeming to indicate some kind of proof that things do bloom again, after all. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-30-8:37 p.m.: SEAT OF THE REVOLUTION recently posted an excellent, thought-provoking post (with good discussion in the comments--go and read it) regarding Ypsi's scramble to write a grant application to get $100,000 from the Cool Cities initiative. The grant-writers came up with an inventive plan to convert the old DTE building into a retail/art studio space. This is one good idea that could help in the ongoing effort to rejuvenate the Mich Ave downtown area. It got me to thinking about what other projects might add to the attractiveness of Ypsi as a desireable place to live.1. Create and foster neighborhood organizations. Make little side streets, like mine, into "clubs." I remember seeing one street org. having a float in last year's 4th of July parade. I was impressed. This builds community by getting neighbors talking with each other as they work on e.g. the float and it promotes safety via neighborliness, as a neighborhood watch program does. It also adds to having a sense of place and rootedness, which I personally believe is good for mental health. Street "club" events could include streetwide BBQs, swimming pool owners opening up their pools for a day (need liability protections for this), and little streetwide garden tours. There are also a number of seniors on my street--there could be a "Christmas in April" type event in which people volunteer to clean seniors' yards, rake, tidy up, etc. I'd be willing to pitch in on that. 2. Create holidays marking local history events. Ann Arbor spent a ton of $ putting up pretty historical markers around downtown that nobody ever reads. A more proactive approach to local history is needed. Stage a "Ypsi Birthday" celebration on July 14 to mark the day when Ypsi was "born" (see 4/28 "plat map" post, below). Institute tours of Highland Cemetery with a storyteller who can entertainingly bring to life the lives of past Ypsi movers & shakers. Create a holiday to mark the pre-Ypsi Native American presence in the area that recreates the old settlement that used to exist in Riverside Park and commemorates the Native American burial ground that exists/used to exist between EMU and the river north of Cross St. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-30-8:31 p.m.: LEIGHTON has posted a good reminder that a local MoveOn "Anyone but Bush" bake sale is tomorrow, at 1307 N. Congress (between Mansfield and Wallace; Packard/Cross to Mansfield to N. Congress). 11 a.m. The grapevine says that cheese bread will be among the offerings. Ditch the low-carb ethos for a weekend and come buy some goodies. I'll be there at 10:55 calling dibs on any and all loaves of cheese bread. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-29-9:37 p.m.: PAPER MILL DIARIES: "The Peninsular Paper Company, incorporated in 1867 by a number of Ypsilanti businessmen...has been part of a large national corporation, the James River Company, since 1974. Peninsular has always made paper from rags. Originally Peninsular made newsprint and the Chicago Tribune was one of its customers. But by the end of the century wood pulp largely replaced rags as the raw material in newspaper stock. Peninsular, however, did not abandon rag paper. Instead, it pioneered specialty papers, developing color papers of high quality and cover and text papers for fine books..Until the mid-1970s, one Ypsilanti family, the Quirks, dominated Peninsular's operations...Daniel Quirk, Jr., became president in 1914..."--"Washtenaw County: An Illustrated History" by Ruth Bordin. Daniel Quirk, Sr. also of Peninsular Paper, built the beautiful Romanesque home, now labeled the "Ladies Library," on the east side of Huron overlooking Riverside Park, near where Washtenaw dead-ends against Huron. Dear Mr. Quirk, Jr.: I visited your paper mill today, the factory that made possible your father's beautifully symmetrical home I pass every day on my bike, on my way to my house a few blocks east of the old city cemetery. I am sad to report that your mill is pocked with smashed-in holes. Windows are broken and barrels of noxious-smelling barrels labeled "ink" and "PCB" are out front. I'm afraid to trespass into the rooms you probably walked through with proprietary pride, but I peer in through a chain link fence and take pictures of a painted slogan: "DO NOT OPEN DOOR WITH TRACTOR." Dust devils whirl in the air on the northern side. I looked for a while and heard a "CLANK" from somewhere within the building, which spooked me into leaving. There's an air of desolation about the place. But even when it's gone it will be remembered by your fellow townsfolk, nearly a century later. Yours truly, Laura (2004) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-29-8:10 p.m.: INTIMIDATED BY STARBUCKS? Don't know if you want "misto" or not? Fear not. The company just rolled out a 22-page booklet designed to soothe beverage-related insecurities and translate Starbuckian lingo.Excerpt from Salon article: "Judging from their latest initiative, a 22-page booklet called "Make It Your Drink: A Guide to Starbucks' Beverages," they've decided that Americans are meek, anxiety-wracked naifs...The booklet's mission: to help us "build confidence in beverage ordering." "Simultaneously patronizing and intimidating, the booklet begins by reviewing the "lingo," 38 key ordering terms from the exotic ("misto," Italian for "mixed") to the folksy (diner-slang descendants such as "with legs" for "to go")....A special milk section reminds you that "the moo is where you can be most expressive." (via totalobscurity via salon) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-29-6:10 p.m.: VINTAGE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTOS: Look at a chimp smoking a cigarette, an ostrich-drawn cart, or send a postcard or see some vintage video.(via nat'l geo) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-28-11:21 p.m.: LADIES! Afraid you'll break a nail if you put up a shelf? Not to worry. "Hire a Hubby" has the solution to your handyman crises. Merely call and they'll send out a "hubby" to: 1. put up a fence (well, I fenced my front yard--a post-hole digger, cement, string, and a spirit level and you're home free). ANALYSIS: There's nothing especially hubbyish about plain old down-to-earth handyness. Anyone with a reasonable amount of patience and care plus a DIY book can learn to do (not things like master carpentry but) basic stuff, especially if they have a mechanic for a father who has things like extra hand-me-down table saws lying around. In the meantime I can think of more useful functions for this "Hire a Hubby" service but never mind that. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-28-10:29 p.m.: U-M HISTORY PROFESSOR and Middle East expert Juan Cole says that Tuesday's U.S. airstrikes against the Julan quarter of Fallujah are in direct violation of the Geneva Convention: (No trackback: scroll down to his post of Tues. Apr. 27)."I made the mistake of turning on the television in the middle of the day and was treated to horrific images of part of the Julan quarter of Fallujah in flames. It appears that the Marines took fire from there and called in AC-130 strikes... "The immense firepower of these warplanes, however, simply should not be being unleashed against the Julan quarter. You cannot do that so precisely that you ensure that innocent civilians are not massacred along with the guerrillas. It is a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Although about 1/3 of Fallujans have reportedly left the city, that would leave 200,000 or so inside. "Given that most of the people living in the poverty-stricken Julan quarter of Fallujah are not guerrillas and are not combatants, calling down AC-130 fire on a neighborhood with civilians in it, in which the civilians are inevitably in harm's way, seems to me to contradict Article 3." Cole goes on to quote the relevant article and analyze the situation in depth. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-28-9:05 p.m.: YPSILANTI'S ORIGINAL PLAT MAP, 1825: While poring over a copy of the map Detroit judge A. Woodward used to advertise land for sale in the July 26 "Detroit Gazette," I find that the original town was miniscule. Its epicenter is where Michigan crosses the Huron (unbridged in 1825). Its four corners correspond to: Washtenaw at Hamilton, Woodward at Hamilton (near post office), Grove Rd. at Follett, and Grove at North St. Woodward and two other buyers had bought the land from former French fur traders Gabriel Godfroy and Romaine de Chambre, who had a trading post near Huron and Pearl, near the Riverside Arts Center.Woodwards's ad in the Gazette: SMITH, A. Laurence; born, Ashland, Mich., Mar. 30, 1873; son of Lewis and Mary (Stephenson) Smith; educated in public schools of Ypsilanti, Mich.; married at Cleveland, O., 1904, Miss Frances Barnu. Began active career in employ of the Peninsular Paper Co., at Ypsilanti, 1895... Dear Laurence, I visited your paper mill today. They�re tearing it down. Right now they�re unloading loose items from inside. On the building�s east side, workers left steel drums of dyes and toxins, bins of dead fire extinguishers, boxes of outmoded telephones and broken computers, and rolls of paper. I looked through a chain link fence into an open truck-sized door, on the north part of the building�s east side, into a vast space walled with squares of blue and green glass, some broken, that created a dim aquarium light. I wanted to go in that room and look at the ocean light, but was afraid of trespassing. Instead, I looked at a rough second-story hole, on the south portion of the east side, that resembled a dark mouth with broken teeth. From a vantage point of a telephone pole by the tracks, thin-yellow April sun bleached the building�s grey southern side into a chalky cliff punctuated by smashed ground-floor windows. This is just a memo to let you know that your factory, where you worked over a century ago, is still with us for the time being. Even when it�s gone it�ll still echo in the minds of your modern-day fellow Ypsilantians. And I�m taking pictures, to remind me of this Civil War era building where you worked before your marriage. Yours truly, Laura Ypsidixit (2004) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-27-6:54 p.m.:
TAKE THIS 6-QUESTION QUIZ to find out your chronotype. "The idea that society will one day split into Morlocks who shun the light and Eloi who like to bask in it, popularised by H G Wells in The Time Machine, may not be so far off the mark...Prof Till Roenneberg of Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, will describe how he has discovered that people have a "chronotype" which influences their health and profession. �Roger Highfield, "Researchers shed some light on owls and larks of the workplace," The Daily Telegraph, March 29, 2004" My score: 24. "Mild Owl." "Mild" owl my talon. I'm all-owl. via wordspy via this girl thinks ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-27-12:37 p.m.: FROM THE PEOPLE WHO BROUGHT YOU THE TELESCOPE, the microscope, the Oort cloud, and chocolate sprinkles: eye jewelry. (via "stateside" on npr) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-26-10:02 p.m.: PAPER MILL DESTRUCTION BEGUN: This morning around 8 a.m., the large cargo door on the northwest corner of the building, facing the tracks, was open--eerie because it was so unusual. This afternoon around 6:30, several ground-floor windows were smashed in and several 2nd-floor windows were broken. The "broken-windows-encourages-crime" principle immediately became apparent--before, it had just been an abandoned factory quietly comotose on the riverbank, but with broken windows, it immediately looked derelict. A contractor's mobile home is parked across Leforge and a couple of dumpsters are out front of the factory--cleaning out the loose or toxic stuff I imagine. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-26-8:54 p.m.: I HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF CHATTING WITH MITCH ALBOM today, via email, while researching something for work. I didn't fully expect him to have the time for my small question, but he responded immediately, saying that he'd answer my questions by 5:30. And he did, very thoroughly, although I'm sure he had a million other things to do. I came away with an impression of him as a very polite and down-to-earth person. His book "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" wasn't to my tastes (never read "Tuesdays with Morrie" since I suspect it's along the same lines--a wee bit too earnestly life-lessonish for me) but he left a fine impression of Mitch Albom the guy. And it was kind of a thrill to get an email from a Pulitzer winner (the second time I've had that pleasure--William Bolcom was similarly polite and helpful to a nobody pestering him with questions). ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-26-7:28 p.m.: SINCE YPSI HAS SUCH A SHORTAGE OF CAR FESTIVALS, Edsel fans decided to start a new Edselfest here. 50 Edsels will grace Riverside Park on June 5.We already have the VW fest, the (interesting) Orphan Car fest, the Street Rod show, the (fun) every-summer-Thursday Depot Town show...am I forgetting one?...what next, I wonder. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-26-5:57 p.m.: JUST AS I WAS HEADING OUT THE DOOR to start bailing out the muck in my pond, since my ingenious gardenhose-siphon plan was a miserable failure, I got a phonecall. It was Visa, just checking up on me and seeing if I'd like a fabulous new credit plan that they were hellbent on billing me for. The lady had an Indian accent, and I could hardly understand her as she launched into a robotic spiel. At the end, I asked her to please not enroll me in the fabulous plan. Then I asked her her name. "Nehi." "This week, the Michigan House of Representatives passed a series of bills that would allow a health care provider (including individual employees) or health facility to refuse to provide or participate in a health care service based on professional, moral, ethical or religious beliefs and allow health insurers, health maintenance organizations, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to refuse to offer or provide a health care benefit based on professional, moral, ethical or religious beliefs as reflected in its organizational documents, bylaws, charter, or an adopted mission statement. Review the bills: HB 5006, HB 5276, HB 5277 and HB 5278 (http://mileg.org/mileg.asp?page=home) Although the legislation prohibits the denial of services to people protected under the Michigan Civil Rights Act, sexual orientation and gender identity are not protected categories.�� This means that LGBT people can be denied medical treatment, standard medication, or their insurance company could deny payment of services rendered." COMMENT: When I find out who sponsored this piece of legislation, I'll post that. The ACLU is justifiably concerned about denial of services to LBGT people, but I think the primary intent of this law is to erect a barrier against abortion. If you wish to act on this--they might vote on it as soon as next week--contact your senator and Gov. Granholm. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-22-8:37 p.m.: I SEE TWO MAIN PROBLEMS WITH MOST "ECO-TIPS FOR THE HOME" TYPE LISTS. One problem is that they suggest things too expensive for the average person like me. I can't afford solar panels, and even rain barrels in gardening catalogs are pricey. The other problem is that the tips are patronizing and stupid ("turn the thermostat down and put on a sweater"). Duh.With these problems in mind, in honor of Earth Day, I did some research tonight to try and draw up a list of simple, easy, low-cost, small things to do to increase the eco-friendliness of one's home. Note: just so you don't think that I'm preaching hypocritically, I already do most of these things, but my research did dig up a few extra things that I will begin doing. Here we go. 1. Save trees by getting off junk mailing lists. A simple form letter done on the computer and sent to these six addresses will reduce unwanted junk mail. 2. Look around your home for any appliances that have a built-in digital clock or other function that runs even when the machine is turned off. Put all of these items on power surge strips and turn power strip off when not in use. Those little microwave clocks/stereo LCDs/stove timers "leak" a surprising amount of energy otherwise...24 hours a day. Adds up. 3. Don't buy paper napkins, paper towels, or Kleenex. Napkins especially use up lots of paper. Use cloth napkins, which are more elegant anyways in my opinion, cloth dish towels, and toilet paper for Kleenex. 4. Use fluorescent bulbs, which fit regular sockets. They cost a bit more but use 1/4 the energy and last about 10 times as long. 5. Don't buy chemical cleaners. Home made ones are as or more effective in my experience. Some easy recipes using the "big six": borax, vinegar, washing soap, pure soap, baking soda, and ammonia (note: the jury is still out on whether ammonia is carcinogenic--you might want to avoid it.) More recipes. 6. Get basic household stuff at the dollar store. Things I buy at "Dollar Mania" on Washtenaw that cost a lot more anywhere else: dish towels, dish soap, shower curtain, Murphy's oil soap, kitchen utensils, office supplies, gift wrap, cards, and nice gift bags, some canned goods, oddball items like feather dusters. The reason why this is eco-friendly is that dollar stores buy parcels of items from shipping companies that are overstocked/misdelivered...it's stuff that would go to waste otherwise. More specialized tips: 7. If you need plywood for an indoor project, buy "exterior grade" plywood--it outgasses 1,000 times fewer toxic chemicals. 8. If replacing carpet, look for "nylon type 6." This is a nylon that can be recycled and re-polymerized in a "closed loop system" that re-creates new, high-quality carpet fibers without the old carpet having to go to a landfill. 9. Put a weighted 2-liter pop bottle or even a small weighted drinking water bottle in yout toilet tank. 10. Avoid particleboard in the home--it outgasses urea formaldehyde. 11. Avoid vinyl in general. It contains PCBs, which also outgas. Instead of vinyl blinds or shower curtain, use cloth curtains or a polyester/nylon shower curtain. 12. In the garden, use soaker hoses instead of sprinklers. Mulch heavily (I use wood chips everywhere)--this keeps water from evaporating, reducing the need for water, looks nice, and is slowly broken down to enrich the soil. 13. Most sponges are impregnated with an antibacterial agent, usually triclosan, which is classified by the EPA as a pesticide. You don't want to spread that all over your plates & kitchen counter. Look for pure cellulose sponges (in hardware stores & some grocery stores) and avoid sponges whose packaging says things like "kills odors." Hope those are helpful. Happy Earth Day. NOTE: If you have a tip, I would be very grateful if you added it in "comments." ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-22-11:52 a.m.: FIND OUT what style of house you'll get in heaven.I personally favor the cute, easy-to-maintain "Struggling Believer" model. I note that the "Pew Warmer" at least has a flower garden in front. You'd think solar panels would be widely used way up there, but apparently not, surprisingly. No sustainable housing, either. Troubling. Trying to picture the "Secular Humanist" housing...probably a cardboard box at most. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-21-10:02 p.m.: TURN AWAY FROM THE RAGING WHIRLWIND OF WORLD EVENTS for a moment to find your Pantone Birthday Color. Seamlessly blending astrology and colorology, the Pantone Birthday Color System will shed new light on the most intricate fractal-like nooks of your personality.As for me, the overall color for August is "Marigold: Grand and royal, Marigold is the color of power and greatness,..." yeah, yeah, old news. The August 7 specifi-color is "Ash Rose: "High-minded and generous, you are the angels of society..." Blushing here. It's Ash Rose and Marigold from here on out! Tell me, please, whether your Pantone Birthday Color is similarly on target. (via metafilter) ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-21-5:39 p.m.: METRO TIMES: FAST-RISING-STAR DETROIT ARTIST GLENN BARR'S GRITTY PAINTINGS are flying out of West Coast art galleries. Barr's works depict fabulist urban scenes with a style that combines animation and graffiti, all overlaid with a veil of soot. My favorite one from the absorbing Metro Times story is "Tainted" (at right). Barr, whose cv ranges from "The Ren and Stimpy Show" to DC and Marvel comic book covers, says this work is "all about Detroit." From the roof of a grim-looking distorted building a grey harpy-angel wafts from a jack-in-the-box under a polluted sky. Magical and beautiful.
____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-20-9:05 p.m.:  TREASURE-BOOKS NOW ONLINE: The British Library has put some of its rarest, most beautiful books online. You can actually turn the pages of a Da Vinci notebook, an anatomy by Vesalius, or the world's oldest book, a 9th-century copy of the Buddhist Diamond Sutra. You can even zoom in, to examine details in an exquisite Book of Hours (at right) and other books. Breathtaking. Some of the world's greatest, most seldom-seen treasures suddenly bloom across the face of the earth, for anyone to see, via the Internet. (needs Shockwave--they provide a link). For dial-up people: this takes quite a while but is more than worth it. (via the guardian). ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-20-7:32 p.m.: NOAM CHOMSKY BLOGS, "Surely Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, etc., understand the significance of obtaining the first secure military base in a dependable client state at the heart of the world's main energy reserves, a tremendous lever of world control." via left i on the news. More info on this picture at left i. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-19-9:09 p.m.: "If you don't know where you are, you don't know who you are."  ADOPT-A-FLAT PROGRAM: Ypsilanti's nonprofit "Growing Hope" program offers you a chance to start some seeds on your windowsill that will later be planted, by you or Growing Hope volunteers, in a community garden. They give you the trays, seeds, soil, and everything. All you do is water. The eventual fresh produce is distributed to people in need. What's not to like? AA News story. Growing Hope website. How to contact Growing Hope. I emailed ([email protected]) to ask how to pick up a flat & will post the reply. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-19-5:24 p.m.: HALF-HEARTEDLY THINKING of starting some seeds but don't know where to turn? Stop off at the Carpenter Rd. Meijer's and get yourself a cheap peat pellet tray, in the indoor gardening section. This is the first year I've seen these items offered outside of gardening catalogs, and they work wonders. Pour in the water and watch the peat pellets expand, which is fun in itself (my entertainment bar is set pretty low). Make a hole in each plumped-up pellet with a pencil, put in 2 seeds per pellet, cover hole, put lid on. I currently have 350 assorted flower seeds started this way, and I've never seen such good germination results. Not even with the $40 hi-tech and complicated Bio-Dome that I bought out of a catalog last year. Once the seedlings are big enough, just pop the peat pellet in the ground; I always peel off the net thing although they say you don't have to...the same "they" that said Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Peel 'em.Peat pellet trays. Easy. Fun. Smart. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-19-5:16 p.m.: THE WOODEN NICKLE is getting a coat of paint. Either they're sprucing it up prior to putting it on the market or it's been sold already. Either way, it seems like a sign of life. Wonder if they'll eventually have bands, and of what caliber. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-17-7:31 p.m.: WEEKLY HOME DEPOT GARDEN CENTER REPORT: Instead of going to the Meijer Garden Center, I decided to drop in to the excellent Carpenter Rd. Home Depot garden center "just to look." An hour and $135 later, I had a lovely magnolia (a measly $17 for a 3-year-old tree as tall as me!--steal!) 20 daylilies for my Daylily Hill, cheerful coreopsis, hyacinths sprouted in flats to fill in my hyacinth bed, which is blooming and intoxicatingly fragrant right now, two boxes of pour-a-garden, a bunch of clematis which I'm gonna train up into my apple and crabapple trees which should be gorgeous, grape hyacinths, purple coneflowers and other assorted perennials, a flat of pansies, a rhodie for the island in my pond, and of course two more bags of essential mulch. Planted the magnolia, pansies, and hyacinths tonight. I already have a purple magnolia, budding right now, but this one is white--I love magnolias. I forgot yard waste bags so--darn--I'll have to stop by tomorrow again. ____________________________________________________________________________________________2004-04-16-8:24 p.m.: ONE OF THE ALLEGEDLY 600 TROOPS WHO HAVE GONE AWOL FROM IRAQ tells his story. ____________________________________________________________________________________________
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