Pleasant: Walking home at twilight on a mildly warm Monday night, the streets of my neighborhood almost completely deserted. Looking up and seeing the crescent moon in all its glory. The sunsets and twilights this time...
Blog
AirBeagleHave You Ever Heard of a Library?
Laura Miller writes in today’s New York Times: I doubt I bought a single new hardcover book for myself (as opposed to for a class) until sometime after I’d turned 30. Being underemployed and unencumbered by...
Saturday in the Park
This afternoon we took the beagle to the grounds of Forsythe Middle School, where he had a great time chasing squirrels and sniffing the ground (and making up for the ignominy of this morning, when he was tormented by a...
Carey Get Out Your Cane
I read a column in Thursday’s Michigan Daily (called, appropriately enough, “Get Over It Man: Your Favorite Band Sucks”) that made my jaw drop. Some writer made a point of slamming Coldplay, Dashboard...
Autumn on the Way
Wow … I don’t remember who it was, but something that somebody said about Michigan weather has stuck with me, which is that if it’s been one mode of weather for five days in a row, you can guarantee...
Highway to Hell
Last night I was waiting for the bus at the corner of South U and State. I guess srah’s right — the Gideons are out in force. Or at least I think it was the Gideons. It’s so hard to tell the different...
The Things Ya See …
Seen on the way home from teaching middle school social studies Friday afternoon: 1. A minivan with New York license plates and the bumper sticker, ‘I’d Rather Be In Ann Arbor’ and … 2. The...
They Have Filthy Filthy Minds
This pretty much sums up the hypocritical state of the Empire. « Says Mike Reiss, a writer for The Simpsons »: ‘The rules governing what we may or may not say are a little hard to follow. This year...
Food for Thought
From Daniel Boorstin’s 1961 classic The Image: Nowadays everybody tells us that what we need is more belief, a stronger and deeper and more encompassing faith. A faith in America and what we are doing. That may be...
Missionary Trick
Speaking of missionaries, I guess the Mormons have a new trick going. One night last week when I was waiting to cross State, a guy appeared out of the corner of my vision and pressed a Book of Mormon card into my hand...
Oldies Circuit
Not only did Johnny Ramone die today, but when I stopped during my hectic day to get a bite of lentil soup at the Rendezvous annex on South University, the kid behind the counter, as she was taking my order, said...
UScareways No More?
Motley Fool says it best: ‘Think about it: Would shutting down the nation’s seventh-largest carrier really be such a tragedy? On a human level, yes, undoubtedly. The sting of more displaced workers...
Hit and Run and Banishment
I made it to 90 miles on the Bobcat before disaster struck: A few weeks ago, I was involved in a hit-and-run with a total bitch who came from behind me while I was cycling south in the bike lane on Packard and turned...
Nichols Arboretum
We went to Nichols Arboretum this afternoon, our first visit there. It seemed strange that there was no parking, but I found out after we got home that the main entrance is apparently on the other side from where we...
First Week Back
Classes only began for me Wednesday. But I officially began the second year of library school at 8.30 last Thursday morning when I volunteered to help out at one of the new student orientation events. One of the...
Late Summer Twilight
A very nice sunny day today, not too hot, almost no humidity to speak of. And the light is starting to take on that languid, deep-toned, Gatsby-esque autumnal quality. I went outside briefly tonight at dusk and looked...
The Year Begins
Student Move-In Days were this past week, from Wednesday through Friday. The dotty Ann Arbor News ran a front-pager recently featuring a list of the Top 10 ways you could tell students were back in town, but, unless...
Surprising? No …
Odd weather this past week … for the first time almost all summer long (except maybe for a few days in May and June) we had what could truthfully be called Summer Weather with capital letters, with highs in the...
Perfect Weather
Today was perfect weather (in my opinion), for summer, anyway … the sun was out, but there were periodic clouds moving across the sky, and the weather never got much hotter than 70 degrees. There was a breeze in...
Music to My Ears
From today’s Ann Arbor News: The Farmers’ Almanac is predicting a wild winter with heavy precipitation and dramatic temperature swings in the Northeast. The northern Plains and Great Lakes will be snowy, the...
Is It Snowing Yet?
Well, no more Retro Posts, folks … we made it successfully past the one-year mark and what a year it’s been. I’ve forgotten lots of things that happened, but I do remember one thing: The trees were...
Retro Post—29-Aug-03 #3
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] The first squirrel encounter...
Retro Post—29-Aug-03 #2
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Settling in … Ann...
Retro Post—29-Aug-03
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Rethinking things …...
Fighting the Right
Say hello to The AntiFascist, your antidote to that famous right-wing website run by that famous Florida queen-in-denial. (It’s brand-new, so bear with us …)
The Other Side of the Table
Oh, yeah: I’ll be on the other side of the LGBT table this year (this coming Thursday), helping greet incoming first-year students as a board member of LILA.
Information with a Capital I
It’s more than somewhat embarrassing to re-read last year’s entries from about this time about the School of Information, actually. I still feel, a year later, as though the school is emphatic (occasionally...
Retro Post—28-Aug-03
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Does he feel the same way...
An Actual August Day
This was the first day all month that actually felt like August. Most of the rest of the month has alternated between day that were what could best be described as tepid and days that were actually cold and/or...
Retro Post—27-Aug-03
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Immersion …...
Reflections
Bear with me as I indulge in some sentimentality … What’s interesting to me about glancing back at the retro posts from last year at this time is how new this all was to me: not just Ann Arbor, although that...
Retro Post—26-Aug-03
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] The calm before the grad...
Retro Post—25-Aug-03
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] More of our first days in AA...
Retro Post—24-Aug-03 #3
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Oh, those heady first days...
Retro Post—24-Aug-03 #2
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Some memories are better...
Retro Post—24-Aug-03
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] I do remember the exhaustion...
Retro Post—23-Aug-03
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Ouch. Moving in is almost as...
Compare/Contrast Time
As seen on « Daily Kos »: What was on John F. Kerry’s chest: What was on the Boy Emperor’s [sullied] uniform: What was on the Dick Cheney’s uniform: ZILCH And for those of you, like me, who...
Retro Post—22-Aug-03
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Has it really been a year...
Retro Post—21-Aug-03 #3
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Ahhhhh … home at last...
At the Altar of the Blues
One thing that I’ve really learned in my time in southeast Michigan is an increased appreciation for the blues. You have blues played on the radio and blues festivals in the Bay Area, to be sure, although for...
Cock of the Walk
The students are definitely back. About the only thing that hasn’t happened yet is the start of classes, so the mad throngs of students filing across central campus haven’t materialized yet, but otherwise...
Retro Post—21-Aug-03 #2
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] My second visit to...
Bayley the Beagle
The first time I met Bayley was the first time I set foot in Steve’s apartment in the Sunset in February 2000. Steve opened the front door and a beagle was on the other side of it. When Bayley saw the stranger...
Retro Post—21-Aug-03
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Memphis. Ugh. Tennessee...
Retro Post—20-Aug-03 #5
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] I kinda enjoyed Nashville...
Retro Post—20-Aug-03 #4
[It’s aSquared’s First Birthday … we’re celebrating by looking back at events from a year ago … skip these retro posts if you’re not into sentimentality.] Thank god for this music...
