I don’t read newspaper sports writing very often. It’s a little too breathy and panting for my tastes, usually. Pete Bigelow’s writing could be an exception. Last week, Pete Bigelow gave his notice at AnnArbor.com. He’s a sports writer, and when he wrote a well-crafted column it was sports writing that was as thought-provoking and [...]
According to research by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1920 the average American woman spent 30 hours per week preparing meals and cleaning up from them. By 1950, the number of hours per week women spent rustling up chow dropped to 20 hours per week. Today, American women spend, on average, 5.5 hours per [...]
The weather’s turning warm (and then cold again and then warm again, but let’s just forget the blustery part for now), the kids are clamoring to begin their video-game and amusement park-filled vacations, Leinenkugel Summer Shandy is in stores again—yes, this can only mean one thing. Summer—a blessed time in Michigan, and an especially exciting [...]
In 2009-2010 the Ann Arbor employees pension fund lost 27 percent of its total value, or about $80 million dollars. Whether the losses can be traced to mismanagement, as similarly large losses have been in other cities, is a question that remains to be investigated. What is certain is this: Ann Arbor’s city budget can’t [...]
By now, people all over the state of Michigan are talking about the fact that Governor Rick Snyder ran a campaign that, in essence, was short on substance and lacking in detail. His “10 Point Plan” to “reinvent” Michigan and put Michigan “back to work,” included nothing about giving $1.8 billion in tax breaks to [...]
I have written about our kids being entitled, (March 20), enabled (March 27), having poor manners (March 6). Every day I am reminded how easy our kids have it, how much is given to them, and how little we ask in return. There is a way to address and work on all of these problems, [...]
Every year, the Michigan Department of Education’s Library of Michigan and its Michigan Notable Books program choose 20 of the most notable books published in the year. According to the Notable Books web site, “The selections are reflective of Michigan’s diverse ethnic, historical, literary, and cultural experience.” The program is supported by sponsors such as Wayne [...]
A2PNotes: Ann Arbor is home to some 16,000 public school students, and approximately 1,700 students who attend the city’s various private schools. Those students are parented by tens of thousands of women and men who haven’t a clue about what their kids really do at school all day, not because they don’t want to know. [...]
Hugh Hefner is 84, and the circulation of Playboy stands around one million subscribers. That’s down from a high of seven million subscribers in the 1970s. People Magazine, on the other hand, has a circulation of 3.75 million and rakes in revenues of $1.5 billion dollars per year. Since July of 2009, when AnnArbor.com replaced [...]
On April 14, 2011, AnnArbor.com reported that John Hieftje said, “Ann Arbor has more police officers than most think. In addition to the 124 sworn officers in the Ann Arbor Police Department, he said the University of Michigan has 54 officers and they’re available to assist the city in emergency situations.” An official with the University [...]
