Ann Arbor his it's first professional sports team: AFC Ann Arbor is a minor league soccer team playing the Great Lakes Premier League. Their first game will be this Friday at Pioneer's Hollway Field. Tickets start at just $5, which is pretty great. While I am pretty skeptical of the whole Sports Industrial Complex, a local, minor league team is something I can definitely get behind. I'm excited to see where this goes.
Jason Kohl, a classmate from my undergrad days, has just released a short film about the impacts of global change on Lake Michigan. The Atlantic picked up the 7 minute short. I think you might like it, gentle reader.
I stumbled across this Weird Ann Arbor map a while back. There's tons of great, spooky stuff on the map. Did you know that both James A. Garfield and his assassin Charles Guiteau stayed at the same rooming house in Ann Arbor? Did you know that Ann Arbor was home to the first municipal parking structure? This is probably my favorite entrance though:
Mesmerism!The Ann Arbor Argus--the newspaper from the 19th century, not the radical paper of the 20th century--makes a lot of appearance in the stories mentioned in the map.Claiming the powers of Mesmerism, in which "animal magnetism" can be used to "to control epileptics, cure migranes, and treat femine hysteria," a Mr. L. De Bonderville of Paris is the subject of a series of heated debates between the Michigan Argus and the Michigan State Journal over the months of April and May, 1843.
De Bonderville is beset by the Argus, who claims that any consideration of such claims is both foolish and sacreligious; State Journal argues that animal magnetism and mesmerism has been proven by the Academe of Paris, and that as "scientific" men, the people of Ann Arbor must be open to the use of magnetism.
De Bonderville first refuses to give a public demonstration, having until this point contented himself with entertaining at society homes, then recants and schedules one semi-public performance in front of eight leading Ann Arbor citizens, listed in the State Journal by initial only, but understood to include the Mayor, two judges, and a prominent local educator, in which he uses his mesmerism on the daughter of one of the judges. All men are impressed as the girl enters a trance, and De Bonderville instructs her to raise and lower her body temperature, which she does. Then unspecified other tests are conducted, which the State Journal contends were the very measure of modern science. De Bonderville then gives a larger public performance, drawing a crowd around 100. The performance is, the State Journal reports, well-received, though the Argus contends that there was widespread dissatisfaction with the small results produced by De Bonderville. The Argus supplementally holds that the only people who would be impressed are "Reubens and Yokels," and that such a demonstration happened at all is testament to the gullible and unsophisticated nature of Washtenaw County residents.
Gentle reader, will you be at Festifools this afternoon? The weather could not be better so hopefully I will see you down on Main Street at 4.
It is time to make the policy changes that would recognize gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people as full and valued members of society. This means granting same-sex couples the right to marry, with the host of legal protections that status conveys. This means conferring civil rights protections. This means taking steps to hasten, not slow, inclusion.— Detroit Free Press Editorial Board, “Time Michigan got on the right side of history,” April 4 2015.
In the first hour, Mark talks with State Rep. Jeff Irwin about Michigans decline. In the second hour, Ben Connor Barrie gives Mark some creepy gifts.And:
In the first hour, Mark talks with U of M professor Maria Cotera about Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. In the second hour, people eat weird food combinations.With descriptions like that, how can you say no? On a related note, are there any other local podcasts I should check out?
The public meeting will include the following information: flyover data and analysis, draft conclusions, and recommended options for community and council consideration.Previous deer management coverage from Damn Arbor:
