2005-03-13-5:28 p.m.: HOMEBUILDERS' DEEMPHASIS ON DINING ROOMS suggests to Ypsidixit that families aren't eating many meals together anymore. She wonders what else contemporary home design says about contemporary culture.1 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-12-7:39 p.m.: YPSIDIXIT REWARDED HERSELF for working on a Saturday--and tomorrow too, as it turns out--by treating herself to the Chicken in the Rough (now called "Chicken In The Basket"; $9.95) at Haab's. The very shy Ypsidixit was unfortunately seated in an open area instead of a comforting nook but soon buried herself in a giant biography of Alexander Hamilton, aware that she cut a slightly eccentric figure but too old and crabby to care.
After a delicious mini-bowl of broccoli soup, a huge wicker basket piled with an enormous, steaming-hot heap of fried chicken and shoestring fries (and biscuit with honey) appeared. Ypsidixit had skipped lunch but, after a drumstick, wing, and breast, conceded defeat and took the rest home.
On the bike ride home, she stopped at the back of the Riverside Arts Center parking lot to look out over the twinkling lights of Michigan Ave. In the darkness, the river was invisible, except for six sparkly spots reflecting, in moving fish-scales of light, peach, yellow, and white lights on the opposite bank. Ypsidixit could just catch the purr of the idling motor of an ambulance parked, lights out, in the Riverside Park parking lot below. Red taillights moved down Michigan Ave. to the soft surf sound of distant traffic. Ypsidixit wondered where all those people were going, before wheeling around and rolling away over the crunchy sidewalk snow.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-11-10:20 p.m.: WHY DOES ONE two-mile stretch of road in Ypsi have five different names? [underlined in light blue]. To find out, I took a trip through my plat maps.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-10-10:38 p.m.: 
SECOND-FRIDAY BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION: Welcome to the inaugural book club discussion. All kind blogreaders are invited to join a discussion of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner.The next second-Friday book discussion is Friday, April 8. The club-chosen title is Manil Suri's Death of Vishnu.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-10-8:36 p.m.: CADY'S BAR AND GRILL, its big stone fireplace, its no-knife-needed pot roast, its wines, and its spicy onion rings prompt one happy reviewer to tag it as a highly romantic spot...perhaps the most romantic spot in Ypsi?45 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-10-12:26 p.m.: YD KINDLY LEFT THIS gem down in an old post, so, lest it be lost, I'm reposting it."My sister was a writer for Channel 7 News during the Bonds day. She has some great stories about him. My personal favorite is how he would come out of his office in a bathrobe in the middle of the day with a Strohs in one hand and wander around talking to everyone like nothing weird was going on." You have to wonder.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-10-12:27 a.m.: HERE ARE THE TOP YPSILANTI NEWS STORIES since last Thursday. When the Courier comes out tomorrow, I'll list the stories in the print version, for comparison. Ypsi Minister Pleads Guilty to Sex Charges
Mother in Eastern Highlands Scalding Case Pleads Guilty to Child Abuse
Ypsi Seeks State Grant for Park
Ypsi Twp. Apt. Evacuated Due to Fire
Rules on Parking Near EMU Revised
Carpenter Road to be Widened
Bosal Chooses Ypsi Twp. For New Plant
Yankee Air Museum to Rebuild
Ypsi Chosen for Redevelopment Program
Ypsi Group Wants Juries to be More Racially Diverse
Intruder Attacks 80-Year-Old Cross Street Village Resident
Garbage Limits Irk Some Township Residents
EMU Will Not Renew Basketball Coach Jim Boone�s Contract
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-09-12:54 p.m.: COUGAR SPOTTED SOUTH OF WASHTENAW COUNTY: Cool. A young female was spotted walking into a barn & eating from a trash can. Naturally they're not going to just leave this beautiful animal alone or peacefully share the planet but will trap it & move it to a more rural area. If she had enough land, Ypsidixit would welcome this rare beauty on her property. Since cougars and a chain-linked postage stamp of land don't mix, she'll just have to wish it well from afar.40 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-08-10:30 p.m.: BOOKS READ: "Edward R. Murrow: An American Original" by Joseph Persico.This gripping biography gives a warts-and-all portrait of "the father of broadcast journalism." From dangerous rooftop broadcasts during the WW II London Blitz to an attack on McCarthyism to a jaded take on the increasing 1960s commercialization of TV news, Murrow's titanic career is detailed.
Read during the epochal if awkward March 9, 2005 step-down of Dan Rather, this book prompts thought about the future of TV news. NPR, commenting tonight on Rather's exit, proclaimed that the modern urban audience is no longer available at 6:30 each night and that for them, TV news is irrelevant. An era's end.
Ypsidixit gets zero percent of her news from TV (not owning a TV). She reads the Freep every day, the NYT every Sunday, and relies on several magazines, Google News, and political sites and blogs.
She doubts there will ever again be another Ed Murrow.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-08-10:19 p.m.: FRIENDLY REMINDER: the book club meets here online anytime after 8 a.m. of this Friday, March 11, for a discussion of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. All kind blogreaders are invited to join the discussion. Ypsidixit loved and hated this book and looks forward to the talk.19 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-08-9:42 a.m.: CROSS STREET VILLAGE BURGLARY & ATTEMPTED RAPE: A burglar slipped into Cross Street Village Monday night, picked a lock, attempted to rape an 80-year-old woman, and stole $400 from her. Story, with video.41 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-07-9:01 p.m.: 
TODAY'S SHREWD POLITICAL ANALYSIS: Condi Rice and new UN rep John Bolton maintain impassive public personas, but their hairdos long for each other.On a serious note, the American people will forgive Mr. Bolton for expense-accounting a bottle of Just for Men. Two-toning went out in the 70s--on cars, at least.
Bolton is a hawkish UN critic who has said, "The (UN) Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." He also keeps a grenade displayed on his desk. Just the sort of subtle, polished finesse the United States needs when the entire world despises us. Story.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-07-12:00 p.m.: MICRORANT: I'm fed up with the post office and its cheap pop culture-dreck postmark tie-ins. First it was that annoying Shrek postmark plastered over everything--now it's a new postmark for that dumb new robot movie. As someone who strenuously avoids absorbing pop culture memes, I'm irritated that this postmark is not only being forced into my field of vision, but is also marring every single piece of mail I send out, no matter how important, personal, or special. It's undignified. And tacky. 19 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-07-12:44 p.m.: YPSILANTI HAS BEEN PICKED as one of 6 SE Mich cities to participate in a city-redevelopment study by the Michigan Suburbs Alliance. Ypsi was seen as a good candidate because it's "on the edge of success." Which reminded me of that scene in Stephen King's The Stand during the final immolation when the narrator claws up to the crumbling edge of a blacktop and clings there till his "fingernails peeled back like decals," a detail that has been making my skin crawl for years now. Story.5 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-06-8:33 p.m.: EFFIGY HANGING EXPLAINED: Ypsidixit went back to Halle Library today to find out why two effigies had been hung in downtown Ypsilanti, as detailed in an 1847 newspaper story.As you may have guessed, it was a case of "seduction" and adultery. The town held a meeting on this incident (story in comments).
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-06-4:11 p.m.: 
YPSIDIXIT CONDUCTED A SITE SURVEY for a possible dogpark today down at Waterworks Park. Ypsidixit biked east on Catherine to where it bends and Waterworks Park appears. This part of the road used to be called Race Road since a canal, or mill race, used to run just parallel to and just east of the road. No trace of the race remained in the forlorn park.Some park. More like a dumping ground for big piles of dirt. The southern bit still appears to be city-owned, with "AUTHORIZED VEHICLES ONLY" signs everyehere. One decrepit picnic shelter is rusting at the northwest tip of the park.
Waterworks Park appeared to be a good candidate for a dogpark. It currently has no amenities or play structures or sports facilities. It's more or less just decrepit. Throw a fence around it and voila.
Ypsidixit crossed the bridge at the north end of the park and, as she headed for Gilbert Park, noted two interesting things: 1. The Water Street site is surrounded by a preexisting 6-foot chain link fence. If it weren't slated for eventual development, the southern slice of the Water Street site would make an ideal dogpark. 2. Independence Island, though no longer shown on maps as in years past [it was the site of a huge 4th of July celebration in 1847] still exists as a tiny vestigial 20-foot islet.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-06-1:07 a.m.: YPSI BABY BORN IN MOVING VEHICLE: Andrae Richardson entered this vale of tears in a hell-bent speeding car. Mom and baby are fine. The article says, "The vast majority of newborns opt for the comfort of the birthing center rather than a moving vehicle." Nonsense. Newborns aren't in a position to opt for anything. In addition, our hardy pioneer forefathers didn't have any fancy-pants, dare I say namby-pamby, "birthing centers."
Ypsidixit, who was born on a rock-strewn cliff during a raging summer storm, superstitiously believes that the circumstances of one's birth dictate one's later life. She expects great things from this wee one who boldly chose to enter life in a dangerously hurtling car.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-05-12:22 p.m.: ON THE BUS TO WORK today rode two of Ypsilanti's least ignorable bus-riders; the Man without a Face and a gentleman I think of as The Bear. The Man without a Face was riding with his buddy--I was glad to see he had a friend in this world. The Bear is an over 7-foot-tall gentleman with a wild mountain-man whirl of long black-gray hair and such massive proportions that he regularly totes around a 2-liter in his big brown leather coat's pocket. Once in AA, I stopped in at Borders to grab a copy of the Kite Runner for next Friday's book club. I had planned to borrow my mom's copy, which had lain quietly next to her reading chair since Christmas. When she heard I hoped to borrow it, she immediately began reading it. Rats. Borders was having a 3 for 2 sale, so I splurged and picked up Kite Runner, [May book club selection] Dog in the Night-Time and Krakatoa, which I'd had my eye on. I felt lucky to find and be able to splurge on such nice books. Half a pound of delicious stuffed grape leaves lunch-takeout from Ahmo's and on to work.16 comments--add a comment
____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-04-8:24 p.m.: THE BIGGER THE YPSI STREET, THE EARLIER THE LANDOWNER. That's a fair if faulty rule of thumb to go by when tracing the history of Ypsi street names. It's faulty because often, later roadwork truncates formerly long streets. On this 1874 plat showing Ypsidixit's neck of the woods, you can see the Holmes land (circled in red) and the modern-day Holmes Rd. Also, Harris and Harris Rd. in blue (with its conjectured original length shown in dotted line), the modern-day Spencer Ln. in green, and Wiard Rd. in pink. Also, note the onetime Willow Run creek (white). The smaller side streets in Ypsidixit's neighborhood were named for later landowners.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-04-12:28 p.m.: RIVERSIDE UPDATE: YPSI BUSINESSES, filling in funding because the city can't, have coughed up $15K for nebulous Riverside Park "improvements." If they raise $29K, that would allow the city to apply for an $87K grant. For what? Things that will only incur future costs. Like landscaping. Think about it. The park looks fine now. Let's say they put in landscaping all over, say, the sledding hill, thus ruining it. Well, all that landscaping will need maintenance, unlike the current grassy hill. Untended landscaping looks worse and more forlorn than any old grassy hill. And play equipment? Doesn't Prospect Park offer enough of a plethora of playscapes? Perhaps Riverside is appealing to some of us because it's not overrun with squalling children.I find this whole project misguided and unimaginative. For this money, Gilbert Park could have been fenced & spiffed up and--voila--Lynne's suggestion of a dog park would be a reality, a new, unique city attraction--not just some vague, bland "improvements." But what do I know.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-04-8:32 a.m.: THE FREE PRESS, which often has a droll take on particularly stupid news, today published a spoof on the narcissistic to-do calendar Martha Stewart publishes in her magazine. Stewart has been released from jail--where she lost a decorating contest. Next to the Freep�s picture of a planthanger made of handcuffs and barbed wire (not bad-looking!), the mock March calendar includes such tidbits as:
March 4: Arrive home. Take shower. Alone.
March 11: Expand parameters of house arrest by buying all houses in New York State.
March 20: Half an hour of exercise in the yard...oh, wait, can do more if I want.
March 25: Alphabetize soup tureens.
March 31: Continue with plans for world domination.
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____________________________________________________________________________________________2005-03-04-12:18 a.m.: FREAKIEST NEWS STORY OF THE DAY: Heart transplant patients develop new and foreign habits and cravings peculiar to their donors. There's the sports-hating, Italian-food-loving college student who, post-transplant, craved Mexican food and began obsessively following sports...when she met her donor's family, she found out he'd loved those things too.
There's the fat, sluggish businessman who, post-transplant, threw himself into all sorts of extreme sports...and then found out his heart came from a stuntman.
There's even the girl who, post-transplant, had nightmares about the murder that had killed her donor...nightmares that let her help police find the killer.
OK, Ypsidixit is officially weirded out. She also has, some time ago, signed the organ-donor thing on her driver's license, and now feels something like pity for the recipient. This person will unaccountably develop a love of garlic and solitude and an obsession for scrutinizing plat maps from some Godforsaken Michigan town. Story.
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