30 september 2006
FALL COMFORT FOOD: It's the type of gloomy day that demands a good, bracing dinner of fall comfort food. Y. is soaking a bag o' beans and defrosting some chicken to make delicious 15-bean soup later. I should properly make it with pork or ham, but I'm too lazy to bike out to Kroger's through the chill just to get a pork chop. Y. is confident that kind readers are fixin' similarly filling, savory fall dishes and is curious to know what you're making.
Posted by ypsidixit at 11:30 am | Comments (30)
YPSIDIXIT enjoys listening to Glenn Beck, raving talk show guy, over coffee on rainy Saturday mornings while gearing up to do chores. Today Mr. Beck railed against the proposed ban on trans fats, saying of soy milk "of course it's organic--they don't need pesticides because even the bugs hate it!" He also questioned the Japanese creation of the "fembot." "The Japanese have cornered the global market in sushi, Godzilla, hybrids, and robots. Now, that's what I'd focus on if I were a country. Yeah. Raw fish...radiation monsters...the fembot...and, oh, if we have time, we'll reinvent the car. Speaking as a white guy, who the Japanese outscore in every imaginable area, including annual income and intelligence tests, I just wish the Japanese would use their brains to...cure something! Psoriasis! Cure that! We don't need the fembot!"
Y. loves talk radio, the most enjoyable form of performance art I can think of. You'll excuse me now though; it's Appliance Doctor time!
Posted by ypsidixit at 07:50 am | Comments (11)
29 september 2006
October Ypsi Peace Cafe Concert
A KIND READER sends info about a worthwhile upcoming event: a music concert at the Corner Brewery to benefit Michigan Peaceworks:
Wednesday October 11th, 6-8 pm
Musical guest: Joe Reilly
Discussion "Alternatives to Military Service."
6-8 p.m.
Corner Brewery
720 Norris St. (at W. Foresst), Ypsilanti Mi
This fits into Y.'s work schedule just fine. She plans to attend. Hope to see you there!
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:59 pm
OH, the school poll made me laugh. "The Diversitorium"? "Ypsilanti West"? "The Feel-Goodery"? (snort!) Take a bow, whoever suggested those.
Ypsilanti West High School 50% 3 out of 6
The Diversitorium 40% 2 out of 5
The Pre-University of One-Upmanship 35% 5 out of 14
Pampered, Spoiled, and Oh-So-Special H.S. 33% 3 out of 9
The Feel-Goodery 13% 2 out of 15
Dead Newt Academy. 12% 2 out of 16
New poll posted!
Posted by ypsidixit at 01:56 pm
In the Quiet Night
So bright a gleam on the foot of my bed --
Could there have been a frost already?
Lifting myself to look, I found that it was moonlight.
Sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home.
--Li Po, 701-762 A. D.
Posted by ypsidixit at 01:42 pm | Comments (2)
YPSIDIXIT sent this NYT article about feeding kids to her sensible and smart sis.
"Just a few years ago, giving lunch to a 1-year-old was a simple matter of popping open a jar of the Gerber mush du jour. But many parents now feed their children with the precision of chemists and the passion of Alice Waters, and expect sitters to do the same."
and
"Nicole Perez recently baby-sat for a 4-year-old boy in Boca Raton, Fla., who requested waffles and Oreos for dinner. “Obviously, I did not oblige his requests, despite his tantrums,” she said, explaining that she considered providing a healthy dinner part of her job. The result? “I was asked not to come back,” Ms. Perez said."
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:44 pm | Comments (12)
Mitch Albom Eviscerated in Slate
MIDDLEBROW SCHMALTZGRINDER ALBOM is deliciously minced into bits in Slate. Thank you to a kind reader for the link!
Posted by ypsidixit at 11:11 am | Comments (6)
The Diversitorium
100%
2
out of 2
Pampered, Spoiled, and Oh-So-Special H.S.
50%
3
out of 6
The Pre-University of One-Upmanship
36%
4
out of 11
The Feel-Goodery
16%
2
out of 12
Dead Newt Academy.
15%
2
out of 13
Posted by ypsidixit at 09:34 am
Open Mike Friday
IT'S UP TO YOU. Phones in the woods? Freecycle find? Weekend weatherstripping plans (always interesting)? The mike's wide open.
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:28 am | Comments (49)
EMU Echo Staff Have Reservations about City's Proposed College Place Park Plan
The Echo staff expresses reservations about the city's proposed $1,000,000 plan to create a pedestrian mall in front of Pease Auditorium. "We worry, frankly, that it is the proverbial lipstick on the pig."
Y. also questions this project. EMU and the city will team up to wring money from an empty-pocketed state. There is no demonstrable need that I can see for a pedestrian mall. Yes, Cross Street at College Place is not the Ginza, but gentrification along the street will likely raise rents, potentially driving out long-time local businesses, like the Cross Street Book Shop. In exchange for what? A cappuchino shop? No thanks.
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:07 am | Comments (9)
28 september 2006
TODAY'S FROST WARNING galvanized Ypsidixit into frenzied action. Soon as I got home, I leapt off my bike and fetched a passel of pots, my shovel, and potting soil from the garage. I dug up all my cheery marigolds and potted them up, determined to make 'em last through the winter. They went crazy this year, with no less than bushes of bright yellow and red parti-colored blossoms like the layered petticoats of folk dancers. They gave me so much joy this past summer; the least I could do was give them a winter home. I made 10 pots of marigolds and gave them a good soak with the hose. They're draining out now and I'll bring them in before bed.
While they drained, I labored to haul in my prized hibiscus trees. Here is a photo of one 7-foot tree stretching up to the ceiling fan. I'm so proud of them. So healthy and bursting with vigor and happiness. They're all in pots big enough to bathe in, so it took some huffing. They are real, actual trees, and there's nothing Y. likes better than having trees indoors. My living room looks like a forest, with three giant hibiscus and two lemon trees and a looming rubber plant grown from cuttings from my mom's rubber plant. The air already smells better, as these industrious plants churn out oxygen. I'm so very fond of them, and they know it. Y. will labor to pamper these beloved guys over the winter, with judicious helpings of Miracle-Gro and plenty of water and strategic positioning near floor furnace vents.
Did you scramble to beat the frost? Dig up some prized plants to pot? Drape a sheet over now-scraggly tomatoes? Haul in the outdoor array of houseplants? Time's running out; Y. plans to pot up the remaining outdoor marigolds to bring in this weekend. They'll make it fine through any frost tonight; they're toughies. I love their peppery, acrid smell. Probably my favorite flower, aside from extravagant sunflowers and so-sunny rudbeckia.
Phew.
Posted by ypsidixit at 07:54 pm | Comments (19)
THE UPCOMING POLISH FILM FESTIVAL November 17 and 18 in Ann Arbor contains what sounds like an extremely interesting roster of films this year, including 1950s Polish newsreels about a fishing net factory, a village ambulance, and the Polish struggle with the Colorado potato beetle, spread over Germany by the U.S. military. There's also a passel of animated short films by Marisz Wilczynski, which are all online (choose "films". Y. found the rough-hewn, dark little films mesmerizing and disturbing.
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:24 pm | Comments (3)
RESULTS of the Fall poll:
Started my mantra to the family: Not turning on the boiler til Nov 1st! Put a sweater on! 36% 4 out of 11
Turned the furnace on for the first time. 30% 4 out of 13
Put on socks (while holding back the tears) 30% 3 out of 10
Moved the libation hour up to 4 p.m. in anticipation of daylight savings time, or going off daylight savings time, or whatever. 23% 3 out of 13
Polished my gun collection. 15% 2 out of 13
Ignored the last few tomatoes and bell peppers in the withered dregs of my garden. 15% 2 out of 13
New poll posted!
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:42 am | Comments (31)
27 september 2006
YPSIDIXIT HAS GOTTEN A LOT OF EMAIL LATELY, and as some of the questions are out of my depth as a single lady, I'm turning over the mailbag to Jeb and Tiffany the Entwined Garter Snakes, Ypsi's Leading Relationship Experts.
Dear Jeb and Tiffany: I got mad at my boyfriend and stormed off the other day. But I want to call him. Should I cave? --HESITANT IN YPSILANTI
Dear Hesitant: Yes. You should cave. Choose a cave somewhere along the Huron, preferably one with plenty of nice, juicy crickets. Slither in there and coil up under some dead leaves. It's late September, so pretty soon hibernation will set in, and before you know it, it'll be spring and you won't remember a thing! --JEB
Dear Jeb and Tiffany: My wife and I are in a rut. We get along OK, but it seems like every day is the same. We could use a change, to put some sizzle back into the relationship. --HIDEBOUND
Dear Hidebound: Whenever Jeb and I feel this way, we--gosh, I'm blushing--honey, should I tell him?
Sure, sweetie, go ahead.
Well, we find that molting does the trick. It's an easy way to a whole new you, and, um, it's especially exciting if you do it together. Plus you can eat the skin afterwards. --TIFFANY
Dear Jeb and Tiffany: Ever since that buff male secretary started working at my fiancee's office, she's worked late almost every night. She says it's the Johnson contract, but after two years of this, I'm starting to wonder. --LICKING MY WOUNDS
Dear Licking: It doesn't add up. The Johnson contract wasn't all that tricky. She should have been done long ago. Sounds like she's speaking with a forked tongue. --JEB, WITH HELP FROM TIFFANY
Post Your Relationship Questions Below for Jeb and Tiffany, the Entwined Garter Snakes, Ypsi's Leading Relationship Experts!
Posted by ypsidixit at 09:17 pm | Comments (5)
Phone dial web browser.
Widow rented rotary phone for 42 years, for $14,000.
Telephone ads through the decades.
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:59 pm
REMEMBER ELAINE NUTT? She's the 74-year-old lady who, when ticketed last spring for walking on AA railroad tracks, made the issue a public one. She originally planned to fight the misdemeanor charge but since "I couldn't have a heart attack over this,'' she pled guilty to reach "closure." "I hated to cave in, but the stress on my body was more than I could deal with."
In yesterday's News Letters section, Ms. Nutt protests a plan to move a police station next to the downtown library as "almost as depressing as what happened in Nazi Germany," a comment that angered another reader.
With deference to Ms. Nutt as my elder, Y. reflects that in the unfortunate event Ms. Nutt were burglarized, mugged, or attacked, hard-working local police officers would do their best to help her as fast as possible.
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:29 pm | Comments (3)
TIDBIT from today's bus-book:
"Dreiser, with his unusual sensitivity, had been deeply wounded, first by Mencken's digs at The "Genius" in his Prefaces essay--digs which were, as Edmund Wilson later pointed out, skillfully designed to spike the enemy's guns by admitting Dreiser's technical faults--and then by Mencken's attempts to dissuade him from following through with "The Hand of the Potter," the drama of a sexually depraved young man, on the ground that it would bring the censors down on his head with new fury. And Dreiser's numbness under attack, his retirement into a world of ouija boards, Russian records, and candlelight, became irritating. When Dreiser wrote that he had already framed his last words--"Shakespeare, I come!"--and asked Mencken what his would be, Mencken replied acidly, "I regret that I have but one rectum to leave to my country."
--Disturber of the Peace: H. L. Mencken, William Manchester
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:44 am | Comments (4)
THE NASAL-WASHING POLL revealed widespread tolerance for this unconventional practice:
Yes, it is said to help with allergies and blocked sinuses. 50% 7 out of 14
The idea gives me the quimblies. 21% 3 out of 14
Of course; there's nothing I want to [do] more than pour water up my nose. 21% 3 out of 14
Yes, it's a yoga technique that's centuries old. 14% 2 out of 14
Y. is amused that three kind readers are trembling with the quimblies, when in fact "the quimblies" is an unspecified and in fact made-up malady. :)
New poll posted! Let your voice be heard!
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:29 am
26 september 2006
Million-Extension Phone Project Underway!
YPSIDIXIT IS GEEKED! She has figured out a way to create a home phone system with at least 15 extensions! I got a special ol'-timey four-prong adaptor, some diddly-doos from Circuit City, and collected some phones from my collection for this project. The great question of the evening is: when called, will all the phones ring at once? Without having something explode or summoning a SWAT team from MCI? It's a question I'm setting out with zest to answer tonight!
Yellow arrow is my treasured 1947 bakelite beauty, snagged off ebay. Red heart is my lovely and rare green one; I also have a rare brown one, thanks to T.! Red circle is an example of the old-time four-prong connector that used to be used and can be easily adapted to fit modern phone jacks, amazingly enough.
Y. had a chilling thought today. Will the phone companies discontinue land-line service in my lifetime? I guess I shouldn't worry; there will doubtless be adaptors. Perhaps by the time I'm 100 there will be a lumpy glob of 15 piggybacked adaptors hooked up to a satellite dish or a wireless network translating the signal so that I can still talk on my 1913 phone. Heh.
Off to fiddle with the diddly-doos and see if I can hook this up! Update later!
HERE'S YPSIDIXIT'S SECRET. I cobbled together a multi-jack tree from a bunch of multi-jack units, based on a 5-jack unit. As a result I have a 12-jack unit ready for testing! This is actually a very simple solution, but for thickheaded folk like Y. it took a while to think of it.
Here's the phone tree in testing mode. Y. called a friend and asked him to call her right back. I was trepidatious. Would I blow out a fuse, or ruin one of my beloved old phones? I hung up the phone and waited for his callback. ACK! Ypsidixit jumped an inch off her chair to hear the melodious joint ring of 5 rotary phones! I let it ring twice just out of enjoyment to hear the chorus of bells, so beautiful. Y. thanked her friend, talking on her strangely and evocatively echoey 1947 phone, and hung up. Green light ahead.
Here's the finished array on my piano. Y. has transformed her telephone system into a telethon-like array! She encourages her friends to call even more often, just so I can have the thrill of hearing my glorious chain of bells ring in unison! It works! YAY!
I still have many jacks open, so I can run a bunch of lines out from the phone jack tree and along baseboards and put even more phones everywhere! In the bathroom! The kitchen! My reading chair! The possibilities are endless! By adding more phone jack units, I could build up my phone jack tree to handle a hundred phones! I bet my neighbors would love that in the summer. At any rate, Y. is thrilled that her multi-mega historic rotary phone system is on its way!
Posted by ypsidixit at 07:17 pm | Comments (25)
"DETROIT GAS PRICES" allows you car people to choose between buying gas at Ypsi's Speedway at Rawsonville and Grove for $2.01 or at Ann Arbor's BP at Plymouth Rd. and US-23 for $2.29.
Bogg's at Prospect and Cross was also $2.01 yesterday, and you should have seen the place! I thought of a mama pig with about a thousand little piglets jostling forward for a drink. It was mobbed, and on my li'l bike I nearly got bonked. It seemed silly to me. Is it worth the aggravation and crowding and breathing pollution and waiting in line in a running car to save a measly couple pennies per gallon? Of all the ways to save money, it seems like a bit too much effort and hassle for a bit too trivial a savings.
Posted by ypsidixit at 03:28 pm | Comments (5)
THE AA NEWS'S "On the Move" business column makes Y. roll her eyes a little bit. You can tell that the items were submitted by the person they described. Do we really need to know that "Tiffany Yusko has joined the Ann Arbor office of RMT Inc.?" Call me picky, or sniveling, or just an old crab, but one gets an impression of boasting.
Y. proposes an entirely new, juicier approach to this column. People should submit items exemplifying how they are On The Move in more interesting areas of their lives. Examples:
"Ypsilanti gardener Ypsidixit sat out in her back yard for 20 minutes last night, envisioning a staggeringly ambitious plan for a giant food garden next summer, highlighted by habanero peppers and purple beans."
"Linda Mushmelon worked up the nerve to tell off her obnoxious and selfish boyfriend and go find better things to do with her time, such as trimming her nose-hairs."
"Leslie Schnicklegruber received in the mail an adaptor, or, de-daptor, that allowed her to place a tinny telephone call on her 1947 bakelite telephone, the crown jewel in the empire of telephones covering most surfaces in her home."
That I would read. Of course, there's plenty of space in "comments" for kind readers to create their own such On The Move column, with any tidbits they'd care to divulge...
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:09 pm | Comments (11)
"BOMB ANN ARBOR NOW, the first ever video by the legendary Dead Schembechlers, is a neo-noir nuclear nightmare of ultra violence and radioactive doom. It is the greatest rock video in history."
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:24 am
Typewriter Invented in Ypsilanti?
YPSIDIXIT was cooling down from the excitement of her nasal cleaning pot experience by quietly reading Ralph Stein's The Great Inventions when she happened upon this alarming passage:
"The first American typewriter was invented by a thirty-seven-year-old Massachusetts Yankee named William Austin Burt. Like many another young American, he headed west after serving in the War of 1812 and settled his family in the vicinity of Detroit [what vicinity? -ed.]. He was a sort of backwoods mechanical genius, a surveyor, a builder of flour mills and sawmills. In 1826 he was elected to the Territorial Legislature and soon found himself drowning in political paperwork--legislative reports, bills, letters, records.
"Naturally, he looked for a mechanical solution to his pen-and-ink problems. He borrowed some type from the composing room of the Michigan Gazette, which was edited by a friend, John P. Sheldon, and in a lean-to behind his cabin started to build a typewriter. He called it a "Typographer." It was built inside a big wooden box and was mechanically similar to the toy typewriters children still play with in which rubber type is arranged around a movable circle...."
"When Burt's friend Sheldon saw the Typographer he became wildly enthusiadtic and banged off a letter to Andrew Jackson..."
SIR,
THIS IS A SPECIMEN OF THE PRINTING DONE BY ME ON MR. BURT'S TYPOGRAPHER. YOU WILL OBSERVE SOME INACCURACIES IN THE SITUATION OF THE LETTERS. THESE ARE OWING TO THE IMPERFECTIONS OF THE MACHINE, IT HAVING BEEN MADE IN THE WOODS OF MICHIGAN..."
In the "vicinity of Detroit." Ypsilantians! Rise up and claim the typewriter as our invention! It's only fitting that a city that boasts as fine a paper as...ah...the Courier should pride itself as the birthplace of typography!
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:49 am | Comments (2)
25 september 2006
WAAM REPORTS that some Ypsi schools will soon move to a school uniform, to combat bared midriffs, baggy pants, and "non-religious hats."
Y. thinks this is a great idea. A school uniform would have benefited Y. in high school. My blue-collar family, of which I am proud, wasn't awash in money and my mom, bless her, never bought into what the kids thought was cool. I hated it at the time and bless her for it now. But I remember wearing a red, white-polka-dotted polyester pantsuit donated by a family friend and being ridiculed for wearing "pajamas" to school, an accusation that stings Y. to this day. A little.
On the other hand, wearing off-brand jeans and inexpensive shoes helped start Y.'s education on how people are unfairly judged by appearances and how little that actually means. Plus it set the stage for Y. to later be comfortable with buying her entire wardrobe, if you can call it that, from Value World, which I do. Maybe being outcast is a good way to help kick off independent thinking. And thrifty later buying patterns. But a uniform would have saved me a lot of hurt feelings way back when. But way back when was way back when, and today, I have no regrets. I'm wearing my $3 Value World comfy-jeans and $1.50 polar fleece shirt at this moment, perfectly comfortable and cozy. Y. has to chuckle at any adults who buy into brand-worship. My mom was right after all, as usual.
Posted by ypsidixit at 11:13 pm | Comments (29)
Nasal Cleaning Pot a Vessel of Tingly Fun!
YPSIDIXIT BELIEVES that she should try new things on a regular basis. She believes that when you try a new thing, it creates a new neural pathway in the brain. So she purchased a nasal cleaning pot at the co-op today, after reading, enraptured, online testimonials as to its powerful efficacy.
Y. was trepidatious, scared even, and the online photos of people using these Pots certainly gave me pause. But my curiosity won the day. I tried it, and was astounded by how well it worked. An hour later, I'm breathing vast, healing draughts of Ypsilanti air and I feel more uncongested than I have all day. All cleaned out! Woowee, it's a marvel!
Unbelievably graphic description of the process below, in "Continue Reading," where the more quease-prone kind readers can safely skip it.
I opened the box and took out the little teapot. The co-op had special salt for sale, too, but Y. drew the line at that and just roughed it with table salt, like our hardy pioneer forefathers. I put a quarter teaspoon in and filled it with warm water, stirring to dissolve the salt.
The directions said to tilt your head forward and to the side so that you can just see the sink drain out of the corner of your eye. I inserted the nozzle into my right nostril and, as the instructions said, breathed through my mouth. I had no idea how the pipes connected in there and if I'd choke.
Nope. Somehow the water runs in, crosses over, and comes out the other nostril. I watched the stream of water run into the sink. Removing the pot, I blew out the remaining water gently with a tissue, and then reversed the process.
I felt a great tingle. The roots of my teeth felt...activated in some way, and vibrated in a vaguely Novocainey way. My whole nasal passage felt opened up, and tears streamed from my eyes. [GROSS SENTENCE ALERT]: I felt several tides of nasal mucus sloughing off down the back of my throat for the next ten minutes. [/GSA] It was enormously liberating in some way. It feels so clean now when I breathe. And my whole nose feels...dewy.
Who knew such a simple thing could work so well? I'm a nasal-pot convert, yes, sir.
Between that and soaking sprout-seeds on the kitchen counter, Y. is having a high old time over here this Monday night. Never a dull moment!
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:17 pm | Comments (7)
Favorite-FALL-ACTIVITY POLL RESULTS show that Ypsilantians aren't too "cool" to eschew the joy of carving pumpkins.
Carve a pumpkin and toast the seeds in the oven with salt; yum! 35% 5 out of 14
Playing dodge'em on the one-way streets with the new EMU students 15% 2 out of 13
Today's poll is posted!
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:57 pm
Sprouts!
YPSIDIXIT filled numerous pots with potting soil yesterday and planted radish and carrot seed and beans and peas. But a comment from Lisa B. this a.m. led me to the surprising revelation that sprouts are a form of winter gardening as well. Full of nutrition and ready for harvest in days, not weeks or months, this seems like the ideal way to get greens in the winter.
From sprout guru Gene Monson's site:
"SPROUTS! In the 1940's Cornell University's Dr. Clive McCay referred to them this way: "A live vegetable that will grow in any climate, rival meat in nutritional value (and tomatoes in vitamin C), matures in three to five days, may be planted any day of the year, requires neither soil nor sunshine, can be eaten raw." Y. is sold!
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:56 pm | Comments (11)
MTV's "The Real World" will be holding auditions in Ann Arbor on Thursday, September 28 at Scorekeepers, 310 Maynard. From the press release: "So what does it take to get on the show? “We look for characters from real life [as opposed to fake life -ed.]; people with strong personalities who are unafraid to speak their minds,” says Jonathan Murray, an Executive Producer of “The Real World.” Well! Ypsi's certainly got its share of those! Perhaps an Ypsilantian can represent our city. Or use his or her strong personality to convince MTV to produce a "Real World: Ypsilanti" episode.
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:47 am | Comments (5)
Big House Uproar
THIS MORNING'S discussion on WAAM's Lucy Ann Lance show centered on the controversy surrounding the proposed U-M stadium luxury box construction. Proponents say the boxes's revenue would more than cover the school's 13 million athletic scholarship program. Dissidents warn that "America's quintessential football stadium is at risk...The very idea of private luxury boxes in Michigan Stadium runs contrary to the egalitarian ideals to which the U-M is dedicated." Egalitarian, that is, for those who can afford to shell out up to $235 per game.
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:15 am | Comments (8)
24 september 2006
YPSIDIXIT is going outside into this beautiful day in a minute to set up her Winter Indoor Gardening setup. I have 100 pounds of potting soil, an infinite number of containers, three new auto-reflecto-shields, and leftover seeds. It'll be a first for me to grow vegetables indoors in the winter. Y. loves mucking around in the dirt, so it'll be fun setting up all my containers. It's also plant-bring-indoors time, so I'll have to find a spot for my lovely 6-foot topiary hibiscus trees in their pots, and give 'em a shot of fertilizer. I wonder if you can sprout lentils. I have lentils from here to eternity. It would be interesting to see what a lentil...bush...shrub...plant...looks like. At any rate, it's dirt time.
Posted by ypsidixit at 01:01 pm | Comments (16)
23 september 2006
Ypsidixit Inundated with Beauty
YPSIDIXIT was showered with blessings today and is humbled. A kind reader sent her the picture of this beautiful old phone and asked if she'd be interested in buying it. Y. regretfully declined, since, as she told the kind reader, she could not afford to buy so beautiful an item. Imagine my stupefaction when this generous soul offered to GIVE it to me, in return for a lunch at the Bomber!
In the week leading up to this meeting, Y. excitedly referred to this generous gentleman, to friends, as her "phone opa." He spotted me right off, as soon as I entered the Bomber this morning. "I recognized you by your left foot," he said, referring to an old post from last March that included a photo of my bare foot in a nature preserve north of town. Y. had to laugh.
This gracious older gentleman from Tecumseh had brought a friend, another kind reader of this blog. Y. felt shy and humble to know that her tiny blog is of sufficient interest to warrant the attention of far-flung readers way out of Washtenaw County. We had a good time chatting about the Bennett boathouse, the Tucker car industry, and subjects various and sundry. Y. felt shy to meet strangers but also felt glad to make new connections.
We lingered a long time over coffee. The best part came at the end, when we left. Y.'s generous older friend gave her this astounding phone, and she hugged her phone opa in gratitude. He gave her a tiny kiss on the cheek. Two, actually, since I hugged him twice. Those small kisses were the single most meaningful benefit I've received from my history of blogging. Y. lost her own Opa back in the 80s. Imagine how grateful I was to find a new one. Y. reverentially packed the lovely phone in her bag to take home. I tested it later. Works perfectly. It's the coolest item imaginable, and will displace my sunflower-yellow rotary phone as my primary phone. I have to hang it up on the wall tomorrow after finding a stud with my electronic studfinder. Oh, how I love this beauty.
Y. went home, picking up 100 pounds of potting soil on the way for my indoor winter gardening project, which is my assigned project to do before the next sustainability group meeting. At home, I found while perusing email that the gentleman who'd expressed interest in picking up my Freecycled moped could come by today. But he had a bonus in store. He offered me a Dahon folding "Mariner" bike that he intended to put on Freecycle but offered to me first, sub rosa. Y.'s jaw dropped to the floor.
Now, Dahons are the upper echelon of bike, like Trek or Diamondback. Normally, they'd be totally out of my price range. Y. has many times admired the Dahons she's seen in AA and longed for one of her own. A folding bike! Perfect for trips! Top quality!
Y. had the pleasure of meeting this generous gentleman when he came by to pick up the moped. His son, a very nice young man, seemed excited by the moped and Y. hoped he'd get good use out of it. Y. was dumbstruck when this gentleman wheeled the Dahon into her front yard. Oh, mercy. So nice a thing? For me? Oh, it was beautiful. A matte blue finish and light as a feather with an aluminum frame. Y. was agog. All it needs is a wee derailleur adjustment; Y. plans to take it to BIT for this tricky repair next week. 
Y. later found in her email inbox a historical photo from her phone opa showing the Tucker car assembly line, which we'd talked about over lunch. Y. scrutinized the photo closely, remembering the lunch-comments about Tucker being an innovator in including seat belts and a pop-out windshield and other safety features years before the Big Three were coerced into doing so.
Today was all about the evanescent connections of blogland made real. About the generosity of former strangers. Y. feels practically drowned in blessings and is thrilled by her new phone and bicycle.
Posted by ypsidixit at 06:32 pm | Comments (5)
YPSIDIXIT loves the way that the blog-polls highlight kind readers' senses of humor. Winning answer in the Mystery Spot poll:
There already IS a mystery spot at the S.E. corner of Michigan Avenue & Huron! [snort! --ed.]
Runner-up:
No, there's already a Mystery Hill in Irish Hills. The parking lot is always empty.
New poll posted! Let your voice be heard!
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:41 am | Comments (1)
22 september 2006
Every Ypsilantian Is On Freecycle
YPSIDIXIT is tickled to see how Freecycle brings hordes of fellow Ypsilantians whom I know out of the woodwork. Tonight I offered an old moped and it was snapped up instantly by a local cafe owner down in Depot Town. Later, while in Depot Town with the AF, taking in an improv show at the Dreamland, the venue's kind proprietess asked Y. if her Mystery Box was still available (yes!) Y. likes the way Freecycle creates these little spiderweb connections to community members. And the glow of giving useful items to others is definitely addictive. It's also definitely sustainable in the way it distributes unused yet useful items to people who can use them. A great invention.
Posted by ypsidixit at 11:52 pm | Comments (7)
21 september 2006
DIY Studded Winter-Bike Tires
A KIND READER and friend sends a link to instructions on how to resourcefully create your own metal-studded winter-bike tires for that post-apocalyptic Mad-Max-on-a-bike testosterone-laden spiky-bike look. All you need is a power drill, a handful of screws, and some "duck tape" (also useful for taping down wandering ducks). Bonus: the link introduced Y. to the site "Car-Free Ann Arbor." Y. is car-free. We need a "Car-Free Ypsilanti" website where the car-free can share tips and tricks for maneuvering through life on our bagel-powered vehicles.
Posted by ypsidixit at 10:09 pm | Comments (24)
"Sustainability in Post-Apocalyptic Ypsilanti" Group Forms Community Project Plan
ONCE AGAIN, the conversation with the sustainability group was so interesting and lively that we had to be shooed out of the closing library not once, but twice by the library lady. Group members reported on their projects that they'd chosen since the last meeting. Y. described cooking lentils in her solar cooker and the problem with floppiness of the reflecto-shield and how I planned to reinforce it with coathanger wire. F. reported dam findings, T. reported canvas-shopping-bag progress, and others made other comments.
The group discussed at length plans for a community project. Cafe Luwak's Jim Karnopp, with his "bring-in-your-cup-and-we'll-only-charge-you-for-a-small" coffee plan, inadvertently provided leadership for our group. We admired the concrete, achievable nature of this arrangement and decided to do a citywide survey of businesses willing to adopt a similar plan. We talked logistics and how to make the plan benefit business owners, so that they'd have an incentive to participate. You can't just lecture people. That's a bit obnoxious. You have to show them how it'd benefit their bottom line. Y. finds that only reasonable.
We plan to flesh out all the details by next meeting, including thinking of a snappy title for this cup project and a zingy tagline. Something that would look cool on a window-sign for participating businesses.
Y. left the group with more energy than she'd arrived with and was thankful to group members for their input. Y. chose as her project to do by next meeting to set up an indoor vegetable winter-gardening system. I'll have to round up a car-person and go load up on potting soil before it disappears from Meijer's shelves.
Posted by ypsidixit at 09:46 pm | Comments (13)
THE RETURN-THE-WINDOW? POLL reveals widespread fear about Mary Starkweather's unquiet ghost:
No, not until Mary Starkweather stops haunting EMU's campus, she scares me 100% 3 out of 3
Yes, it should be viewed in its original setting. 41% 5 out of 12
No, the Historical Society plans to restore it. 30% 3 out of 10
One wonders if the restoration of the window or of the dilapedated Starkweather home will help matters.
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:39 pm
A BUDDING CRITIC has some issues with the Elbow Room, which she and her friend express in a two-person blogpost festooned with exclamation marks.
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:34 pm | Comments (2)
20 september 2006
Water Street Project Incorporates Canal System
At last night’s City Council meeting, council members voted unanimously to devote a significant portion of the project’s budget to developing a network of canals between planned condo units.
Said one council member, “Let’s make Water Street live up to its name. We have as our neighbor the Athens of the Midwest. Ypsi can become the Venice of the Midwest.”
The visionary plan involves the razing of Haab’s for a Water Street resident parking lot, and a system of gondola taxis to ferry condo residents to and from their homes.
“With the downsizing of local auto plants, our plan creates jobs for gondola-drivers,” said one Water Street insider. “It’s a new chapter in Michigan’s long history as a transportation innovator.”
Local sustainability expert Leslie Bismarck spoke at the meeting. approving of the plan’s inclusion of a car-free water-taxi service to Ann Arbor, provided by local fisherman-entrepreneur Dave Mulholland, who was also present.
“They can take one of them gondolas out to the river in the morning, where I’ll be waiting in my boat,” said Mulholland. “I can boat ‘em up to Ann Arbor no problem. Only thing is, I just got a trollin’ motor, so it’ll take two, three hours. But I’ll get ‘em to work on time. Home, too. I ain’t got nothin’ better to do.”
Arborists are slated to begin harvesting Riverside Park trees next week to provide wood for the gondola fleet. The plan calls for a collaboration with local artists and high school students to decorate the boats, producing floating works of art. Local artist Ygg Mulholland, tapped to decorate one boat, intends to style his craft after the storied Confederate ironclad the Virginia. “I’ve got tinfoil to recreate the ironclad look,” he said. “There’s a rotating gun turret, too, and it shoots!”
Posted by ypsidixit at 10:41 pm | Comments (17)
APB: Ypsi Puggle Stolen
A KIND READER WRITES TO REPORT THAT YPSILANTI PUGGLE WINSTON was stolen from his Linden Court, Ypsilanti home at 2:10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 16. If you've seen this poor puggle's tan body, li'l white chin, black-tipped ears, and black eye and nose area, you can contact ypsichic[at]yahoo.com.
Posted by ypsidixit at 01:01 pm
Tiffany Confusion
Y. IS CONFUSED. Last night the city sold the Museum to the Historical Society, including the Tiffany window housed therein, which the city removed from the Ladies' Library in 1967. The society plans to repair the warped window. But I can't even determine who now actually owns the window.
More confusion: is it worth $40-$70,000, according to Materials Unlimited's Renold Lowe? Or, as the News story says, $150,000? Why the discrepancy? And considering that the building's current owner wants it back and agrees to sign a proviso that the window will never be sold, should it not be returned to its rightful home?
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:59 pm
THE SMEET FROG was the winning indigenous animal in yesterday's poll, followed closely by the charming suggestion of "lightning bug." The idea of a Ypsilanti Lightning Bug Festival completely charms Y. There's a lot you can do with a lightning bug theme.
Smeet Frog 62% 5 out of 8
lightning bug 40% 2 out of 5
feral cat 16% 2 out of 12
The calm carp. 13% 2 out of 15
New poll as usual at left.
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:22 pm | Comments (4)
THE YPSI CITY COUNCIL last night approved borrowing more money for the Water Street Project, which could raise the cost of the project to 40 million dollars. The project, set up through the county, also needs county approval to proceed.
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:16 pm | Comments (4)
UP FOR A CHALLENGE? Try finding a copy of the Weekly World News in downtown Ann Arbor. It simply can't be done. I've looked hither. I've looked yon. No dice. Guess I'll have to schlep out to some supermarket somewhere later; even Borders informed me, coolly, "We don't carry tabloids." Phooey.
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:02 pm | Comments (27)
The Secret Life of Henry Ford
IS A 1978 BOOK by John Cote Dahlinger that Y. is halfway through. It claims the author is Ford's illegitimate son. I initially approached this claim with a great deal of skepticism, but am becoming slowly persuaded that it may possibly be true. A Dearborn website is circumspect. An obscure discussion board has some details (search for "evangeline"). Dahlinger briefly surfaces in an American Heritage essay Perhaps a kind reader has some knowledge of this claim.
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:15 am | Comments (7)
19 september 2006
A KIND READER sends along a bit of satire published in the Eastern Echo.
You be the judge.
Posted by ypsidixit at 09:09 pm | Comments (25)
Ypsidixit Obtains Winter-Bike
TODAY YPSIDIXIT got her winter-bike, a no-frills mountain bike from Bicycles in Town. $45. That's how no-frills it is. But Y. is a no-frills person.
Drawback: it's a hideous shade of girly-girl purple. Now, Y. is not a girly girl. I grant you, I have my feminine side. Like you, kind reader. Yes, I can be nurturing to plants, when I don't kill them. Yes, I can put dinner on the table, if it's the chicken dinner I've been feebly trying to impress people with for the past decade. Yes, I like my satin PJs, because they encourage laziness, one of life's soul-healing prerequisites. But my one dusty eyeshadow thing is ten years old and my preferred footwear is sneakers. So I felt a tad ridiculous powering this unicorn-purple bike home today. The purple's gotta go.
In its favor, this bike is just what I was looking for. Its rugged tires are almost 2 inches thick and covered with the knobbly knobs that grip ice like a claw. Its hard, unyielding seat fosters the hard, unyielding resolve needed to bike through freezing cold. Its tough steel frame can wham over curbs and potholes without injury. And it's suspension-free, which means the shock absorbers are not in the front fork but in my arms, which will only toughen them. Yes, sir, this machine, elegant in its simplicity, will help hone me into the fearsome athlete who can cruise without incident through six feet of snow in blizzard conditions. Old Man Winter, peeking around the corner, regards with dismay my all-conquering craft.
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:22 pm | Comments (3)
Spam Wins Pulitzer Prize
I will turn sleep -- death's twin -- against death,
One line in my checkbook erases the lines from my face.
I''ll remember --
(How hard in old age, to remember!)
-- that I've only borrowed the daylight,
The night comes free,
But our topical wrinkle remover is available for a new, low price.
That's this year's winning entry in the Pulitzer's new category for artistic spam.
Posted by ypsidixit at 03:23 pm | Comments (2)
Inverted Indoor Winter Gardening
MOURNFULLY staring at your dwindling garden? Sighing over the soybeans? Dreading the plantless winter? Not to worry. With a two-liter soda bottle, a glue gun, and a bit of elbow grease, you can make an almost-attractive hanging planter and grow veggies upside down in your living room!
Posted by ypsidixit at 01:34 pm | Comments (5)
"o2 Michigan is a proud participant in the international movement toward the creation of places, environments and products that support humane and ecologically sustainable lifestyles...We strongly believe that environmental and social impacts must be integrated with traditionally respected design considerations (including economic, aesthetic and functional). o2 Michigan is a network, meeting point, and clearing house created to support the thoughtful conceptualization, innovative development, and practical solutions to sustainability issues."
They've got a listserv, email, links, photos, a monthly "Green Drinks" at Leopold Brothers, and a blog that asks "What can you make with chicken feathers and soybeans? How about a circuit board?"
Posted by ypsidixit at 01:21 pm
TRANSITIONAL HOUSING FOR PRISONERS poll results below. For most of the day, responses were in favor of the site, until later in the day when some responses against it created a mixed response overall, with a slight margin in favor.
Prison is more of a societal failure than an individual one. Ex-offenders have a right to housing. 42% 3 out of 7
Community acceptance is part of the societal reintegration. 25% 3 out of 12
Nope. They chose to break the rules. I don't want to live near paroled prisoners. 16% 2 out of 12
I'm not comfortable with transitional housing in my neighborhood. 16% 2 out of 12
The site would have been monitored 24 hours. I don't see a problem. 16% 2 out of 12
New poll at right! Cast your vote!
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:59 am | Comments (3)
"Sustainability in Post-Apocalyptic Ypsilanti" Group Meets Thursday
YOU'RE INVITED to this dynamic and exciting group's second meeting this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Michigan Avenue Library downstairs meeting room. Last meeting's discussion was vibrant and lively. This Thursday's meeting will feature a surprise sustainability presentation by D. and reports on the sustainability projects we assigned ourselves at the last meeting. See you there!
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:48 am
YPSIDIXIT was impressed by the size of the picketing AFSCME (Federation of State County & Municipal Employees) crowd outside of Ann Arbor's City Hall yesterday afternoon. Several signs made reference to local parks or asked rhetorically "Tree Town?" This morning WAAM mentioned the picketers, and Y. was troubled to hear that the workers are prohibited by law from striking. Why? That doesn't seem right.
In an effort to find out the reason for this ban on striking, Y. ran across an interesting history of the IWW in Ann Arbor.
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:34 am | Comments (4)
18 september 2006
YPSIDIXIT just got four more rotary phones, from an alert scout-friend who snuffled them out and promises two more, one a rare green one! Ooo, my favorite color! In this batch were a Caucasian-flesh-colored phone, two awesome black wall rotaries, and a cheery cunflower-yellow one that I immediately made my primary calling-phone. We plugged it into the phone line to test it. Just as with all my other old rotaries, it worked perfectly first time. PLUS, I won an ebay bid today for an awesomely gorgeous 1940s phone! Oh, it's a beauty.
Ypsidixit's goal for this winter is to wire up some of the older ones--including my 1920s jewel--so that when someone calls, ALL of my rotaries ring at the same time. Can you imagine the beauty of this phenomenon? I have been told that this will work--that one li'l phonecall coming in will sufficiently power all the phones so that they'll ring simultaneously. I have to do more research to find out if that's true. Imagine the glorious clangour! I certainly won't miss any calls! Y. just ordered a booklet called "How to Rewire Old Phones," and my soldering iron is metaphorically warming up for this project.
Irony: today on the bus, I heard a cell phone ring with an old-timey ringtone, the sound my hooked-up rotary makes when someone calls. The beautiful bell-sound. Only it was tinny in that cheapo electronic way. I had to smile, thinking, I got the real thing, kiddo. Heh.
Posted by ypsidixit at 10:22 pm | Comments (3)
Lances in the Civil War
DID YOU KNOW that one corps of soldiers in the Civil War was issued lances, instead of guns, that they employed in numerous battles? I didn't. But this tidbit is wryly recorded in the wonderful Civil War Curiosities: Strange Stories, Oddities, Events, and Coincidences.
"An unidentified political leader in Pennsylvania had what seemed to him to be a great idea. Because men were volunteering so rapidly that there were not enough muskets to go around, why not supply some of them with lances like those used by knights errant of old?
"Prodded by Governor Andrew G. Curtin, the U.S. War Department let a contract for a manufacturer to turn out one thousand lances adapted from an old Austrian pattern. A nine-foot staff of Norway fir, tipped with a three-edged blade nearly a foot long, seemed formidable indeed. Citizens of Philadelphia were so delighted with the weapon calculated to put a quick end to the war that they contributed bright red swallow-tailed pennons to embellish each lance.
"Organization of a new unit of fighting men was completed in October 1861. Those splendid lances were given to members of the Sixth Cavalry Regiment, led by English-born Richard H. Rush. On May 25, 1862, the men of Company C charged a Confederate picket line, lances at the ready, and pretended they didn't notice that men in gray doubled up with laughter when they saw them coming.
"Men of Rush's Lancers later took their cumbersome weapons to Gaines's Mill, Savage's Station, White Oak Swamp, Malvern Hill, Harrison's Landing, Antietam, Frederickburg, Chancellorsville, Brandy Station, and numerous other battlefields. A remnant of the regiment, then armed with rifles, was present at Appomattox.
"Heavy and awkward lances, not known to have accounted for a single Confederate death, were discarded in May 1863 as "unfit for the wooded country of Virginia." When these weapons were abandoned, lancers strapped on sabers to replace them."
Posted by ypsidixit at 07:15 pm | Comments (1)
Freecycle GOLD!
YAY! YPSIDIXIT just won the Freecycle JACKPOT! A brass kerosene lamp! Just what I wanted! Y. told the kind giver she was trying to make her home more sustainable and less electricity-dependent. This kind person said she liked that, making me feel even better! Kerosene lamp! Yay! I'll add a photo to this post when I arrive home.
Posted by ypsidixit at 04:42 pm | Comments (11)
QUIZNO'S poll results:
There's already a bakery going in there and opening in October (boy, does Y. feel stupid. I'd seen the bakery signs but thought it was one door down for some reason). 21% 5 out of 23
Korean food restaurant/sushi bar 20% 5 out of 24
gun store (Y.'s favorite answer) 18% 3 out of 16
small grocery store 12% 3 out of 24
hip novelty shop a la Ann Arbor's Acme Mercantile 8% 2 out of 24
New poll up! Let your voice be heard!
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:56 pm | Comments (12)
A QUIBBLE in Gallup Park yesterday over whether a huge bird spotted on a telephone pole was a hawk (Y.) or a turkey vulture (AF) has led Y., via Googling, to actually learn something about the interesting turkey vulture, common in Michigan. They pee on their legs to sterilize them (extra-strong stomach acids). They barf on attackers. They're quite peaceful, and do not circle over dying animals. They prefer herbivore carcasses since they are "tastier" then carnivore carcasses (why?) They can circle and soar for 6 hours without flapping their huge wings! Y. is starting to think these maligned buzzards, as they're also called, are beautiful and interesting animals.
More vulture tidbits: a group of them is called a "venue," and a bunch of them circling is called a "kettle" for some mysterious reason. Turkey vultures are silent except for hissing when scared and grunting when courting. Telltale ID trick: it flies with its wings in a dihedral (V-shaped) position, unlike hawks.
Like to attract some? No problem. "Yes, it is not only possible, but a most enjoyable activity. I would, however, only advise attracting vultures if you have no neighbors that would be angered by their presence. You can establish your own "vulture restaurant" by placing any dead meat in an open area (leach field, pasture, etc.)
"I collect roadkill for this purpose. I keep a large tupperware in my car for squirrels and rabbits, and use a pickup truck for deer. It depends on how far you want to go. If this disgusts you, you can use raw meat from the grocer, but it gets very expensive, and shouldn't be fed often, as it does not have all the hair, fat, and bones that provide necessary nutrients for the vultures."
One website advises, "If you are truly passionate about animals, consider becoming a rehabilitator yourself! There are very few rehabilitators who are willing to care for vultures." Weird. You'd think they'd have compassion regardless of species; guess not.
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:16 am | Comments (22)
YPSIDIXIT and the AF took a bike ride through Gallup Park today, turning a jaundiced eye on the Diabetes Walk in progress there. Gas generators noisily poweraed a moonwalk. A clown presided over cages of harried bunnies. A shelter was piled with bags of apples and carrots to refresh the walkers after their harrowing 5-km walk. It all struck Y. as wasteful. Doesn't the Bible say to give charity in secret? To not make a big deal of it? To not parade around in specially-commissioned T-shirts? Y. thinks these charity walks are more about "look at me, I'm so caring" than about any meaningful contribution to a charity. They're pointless. Just write a check and be done with it.
The Gallup sumac was turning. The goldenrod as blooming. Y. let the drooping pathside plants bop against her as she rode, getting dusted with pollen. She and the AF picnicked by the Parker Mill cabin. Y. plucked a yellow sumac leaf and gave it as a present to the AF, who threw it away. We watched a bizarre car race at EMU on the way home, in which ordinary street cars raced through a maze. One lost a tire in a skid. We couldn't figure out why the cars were racing.
Y. got a hesitant hug nefore returning home. At my back door, home, I observed two garter snakes coiled together in the warm sun, and permitted myself, fooliishly, to regard them as an omen.
Posted by ypsidixit at 01:58 am | Comments (16)
16 september 2006
YPSIDIXIT stopped off at the Cross St. book store for the usual ration of books for the weekend and week ahead and picked up some good ones:
William Golding ("Lord of the Flies" author) The Inheritors. Critically acclaimed novel about Neanderthal society and their terror at the new flat-face invaders. Saturday Review calls it better than LOTF.
Webb Garrison's Civil War Curiosities: Strange Stories, Oddities, Events, and Coincidences. A miscellany of tasty CW tidbits. Good bathroom book.
John Dahlinger's The Secret Life of Henry Ford, written by his supposed illegitimate child. Will approach with caution.
James Moran's Printing Presses: History and Development from the 15th Century to Modern Times. I always love reading "the history of...X" books, and of course my dad is a printing press mechanic.
Ralph Stein's The Great Inventions: a big picture book tracing the history of noteable inventions.
Mitchell Wilson's American Science and Invention: a huge, weighty volume, lavishly illustrated, of the history of American inventions. Whoo, a splurge--but a beauty!
So it's dive-in time. I think the latter one will be my choice this evening.
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:43 pm | Comments (2)
15 september 2006
The Call of the Past
YPSIDIXIT IS THRILLED to be the new caretaker of this precious and beautiful artifact. It is a 1920s-1930s telephone, an old crank-and-magneto phone. Its simplicity, beauty, and historicity fairly take my breath away.
This is the oldest phone in my collection by far. I held the heavy, pleasing handset to my ear, enchanted to wonder whose face had last talked into the mouthpiece.
The AF found and rescued it, and cleaned it. He also printed out some online wiring schematics to show how the magneto was connected. The magneto is like a battery. You crank the phone and it works up a charge so that you can send the call. This was in the days before phones were powered by the phone company itself and all you need do is plug in the phone for it to be powered.
Y. is awed and humbled to be the caretaker of this 80-year-old telephone. It's missing the magneto and crank, but I've seen parts on ebay. Word is you can restore these old phones so that they can take incoming calls. THAT would be the kick of the decade, to be able to take calls on my 1920s-30s phone. Oh, yeah. Can't dial out, of course, and I would not dream of installing a dial, thus tainting this lovely object. But oh, how I'd love to get it working again.
The AF rang the bell. A shiver rang down my spine to hear it and to wonder how many calls those bells had announced in the distant, dim past even before my nearly 80-year-old father was even born. How many vanished words once poured from its earpiece? How many sobbing conversations? Announcements of the birth of a healthy baby girl? I fancied I could almost hear the whispers of those vanished voices as I pressed the handset to my ear.
Posted by ypsidixit at 09:19 pm | Comments (7)
Mi-Hut No More
YPSIDIXIT noted while passing the Mi-Hut this morning that it is permanently closed. I liked the quiet Mi-Hut; there should definitely be a coffee shop within 100 yards of the bus stop (I like Abe's, but their coffee is swill).
Posted by ypsidixit at 11:58 am | Comments (9)
Open Mike Friday
HOW NICE to once again have an Open Mike Friday after two austere weeks of nothingness. Electric recumbent quadricycles? Shag carpeted-estates? Antique phones? Take it away!
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:29 am | Comments (13)
Today I biked around the last Cross Street car show of the summer. In contrast to the anemic turnout of last week, today cars lined Cross Street from the tracks right up to Huron. The cars' bright colors, meticulously polished to brilliance by guys in their 60s recollecting the 1950s, among the few fallen brown street-leaves presaging fall, seemed like defiant grasps at summer, a long-ago-summer, the gone summer of the car-owners' lives, now only remembered. The gleaming cars are insects in shiny amber, preserved relics of those summers.
Ypsidixit has about forty summers left to her. Fifty if I'm lucky. Ain't many. I go through fifty cigarettes in three days. It's a finite number. This past summer, I learned about techniques for toleration of a difficult person. I grew corn that was shaded out by sunflowers. I helped the AF tend the Kempf House lawn, secretly checking him out as I pretended to prune. I watched my parents get one year older, and celebrated their 40th anniversary, noting that I have no anniversary of my own, and weighed at length the questionable advantages and quiet and sad detriments of that fact.
Y. heads with you into the brilliant fluorescence of fall and then the dark coal mine of winter, lightened by the brilliance of morning sparkling snow. Right now, I'm listening to crickets outside my still-all-open windows. The crickets are running down, chirping slower and slower. The heated, busy sussuration of August has changed to an almost memorialistic, tired chirping from the slowed crickets. They are saying goodbye to summer, and anticipating the ultimate stillness, as does Y.
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:35 am
14 september 2006
EMU POLL RESULTS reveal little sympathy for striking faculty in an economically depressed city. Results:
that the faculty stop being so greedy and take a pay increase and good health care at a low premium, two things rare in a recession state 6 / 14 42% 6 out of 14
EMU is not the Ford Motor Company. Faculty unions are rare, especially in good universities. The union should disband in favor of competitive contracts. 3 / 10 30% 3 out of 10
EMU should meet all of the faculty requests. 4 / 18 22% 4 out of 18
I am so tired of teachers, who have the whole summer off, whining about already-generous salary packages. 3 / 18 16% 3 out of 18
EMU wastes far too much money on administrative expenses and should be thoroughly audited.
3 / 18 16% 3 out of 18
New poll at right! Let your voice be heard!
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:53 pm | Comments (17)
Mystery Boxes Populate Freecycle
YPSIDIXIT IS CHARMED to note a new innovation on the Ypsi and Ann Arbor Freecycle boards: the advent of Mystery Boxes. Containing a variety of unnamed objects, these enigmatic boxes ensnare the curiosity of strangers and simultaneously clean out the giver's closet. What they amount to is strangers giving each other surprise presents, which Y. finds adorable.
The giver of the latest Mystery Box announces, portentously, "There will be at least one mystery box on my doorstep tomorrow a.m. after 10:00." The suspense!
Posted by ypsidixit at 09:04 am | Comments (2)
THE LOCAL FATHER of a premature baby without a small intestine accuses the U-M hospital of murdering his child, after an ethics committee recommended that she be released from life support.
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:34 am
13 september 2006
CAFE LUWAK'S NEWSLETTER'S most surprising info-tidbit deals with the lengths to which the restaurant goes to respect its vegetarian customers. The workers slice meat last on the slicer each day, after the vegetables and cheese have been sliced. The slicer is then completely disassembled and cleaned after slicing the meat. They never grill meat directly on the panini grill, and they use color-coded knives to slice veg. vs. meat sandwiches. Several of the chefs are veggie or vegan. These painstaking methods guard against cross-contamination and are the most mindful processes Y. has heard of in any restaurant.
Also, CL is running three coupons: free ice cream or latte with the purchase of a sandwich and a drink, two-for-one coffee, and 20% off your entire order after 4 p.m.
Posted by ypsidixit at 07:50 pm | Comments (4)
NEW POLL at right; let your voice be heard!
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:23 am | Comments (4)
Readin' Roundup
A KIND READER'S QUERY about good post-apocalyptic novels reminded Y. of a book she just finished and reminded her that it's high time she surveyed kind readers to find out what folks are reading. I'm always interested to know, and I love finding out about new books. What are you reading?
In answer to the reader's query, I just finished the mesmerizing post-apocalyptic Brian Aldiss novel The Long Afternoon of Earth, also published as Hothouse. This magnificently imaginative novel depicts Earth near the end of its life. The Earth's rotation has stopped, with one side in light and the other in perpetual darkness. On the light side, plants have taken over. They're ambulatory. Some are sentient. Most are deadly. Among them, in the one great giant banyan tree that dominates the entire light side of earth, live tiny, frail humans, a weak race of prey who live a hand-to-mouth existence in the trees. When one group is forced to take an unsought voyage, strange and horrible and beautiful new landscapes open up. Y. was gripped from start to finish by this wonderful novel.
Posted by ypsidixit at 07:51 am | Comments (8)
12 september 2006
Yp Van Winkle Rises!
YES! The kindest of friends, an Ypsi City Council member, gave not one but TWO of his evenings to selflessly slave away over my ancient iMac. Cleverly, he found the problem. Deftly, he fixed it. Humbly, I thanked him, not before enjoying a conversation about old phones and radios. I also forced him to admire my antique 1960s Galaxie 10 blender, which he did goodnaturedly. All hail to this savior! My noble knight of the network! My masterful maestro of the modem! My Odin-like oracle of the operating system! Praise to him! YPSIDIXIT IS BACK!
Posted by ypsidixit at 08:05 pm | Comments (27)
Rotary Phone Joy
YPSIDIXIT is still offline, but must pause in the middle of her tuna fish sandwich to inform kind readers that to my collection of rotary telephones has come a black mid-60s model with a bizarre, cubic-inch four-prong phone jack (similar to picture). Y. was instantly intrigued by this mysterious jack, and finds that it is called an "RJ Connector" and that it appeared in the mid-60s and was replaced by modern jacks in the 1970s.
Then I found an electronics guy in Kalamazoo who sells adaptors! THEN I found out that there are fellow telephone freaks out there who go so far as to post querulous quibbles about historically inaccurate phones in movies! Sheesh. At any rate, this is my oldest rotary yet and Y. is geeked. I am making it my primary phone, soon's as I figger out how to adapt the jack.
Y. pays cold, hard cash for that old rotary in your attic, so dust it off, shoot me an email, and take advantage of my rotary mania!
Posted by ypsidixit at 12:17 pm | Comments (9)