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Local Musicians on Vacation: Matt Jones at Gettysburg, with Sarah Campbell
Occasionally, I get good ideas. I’m not sure if this is one of those times, but it occurred to me a few days ago that I should have a regular feature on the site in which I talk with local musicians...
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All aboard for Gettysburg
As you know if you read this site, I interviewed local musician Matt Jones over this past weekend about his all-consuming love for Gettysburg… Well, somewhere during our conversation, thanks in large...
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Printing yourself a Dillinger artifact from the Smithsonian’s adult section
Reference 1 Reference 2
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Ypsi Immigration Interview: Sarah Zawacki
Thanks to my network of well-compensated spies, I was just recently tipped off to the existence of today’s interview subject, Sarah Zawacki. Sadly, our interview had already concluded when it was...
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Stop your complaining about the Blimpy Burger crowd funding campaign, OK?
Apparently I have a lot of friends up in arms this evening over the fact that Rich and Chris Magner, the owners of Ann Arbor’s iconic Blimpy Burger, have launched a crowd funding campaign in hopes of...
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The early American origins of the War on Christmas
This holiday season Sarah Palin became the most recent in a long line of shameless conservative pundits to cash in on the so-called War on Christmas. Her book, “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting...
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You know those religious fanatics who fled England for America in 1630 with...
It had never crossed my mind that I might be descended from Puritans. I mean, I knew it was a possibility, as I was aware that members of my family had come over from England, but I didn’t think it was...
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How is that I’ve never heard about Native American remains having been found...
The following clipping was just sent to me by a fellow named Matt Siegfried. According to him, it’s from a local paper printed June 11, 1914. The area indicated in the article, he says, is somewhere...
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The Untold History of Ypsilanti: Our Native American Past
As I mentioned a few days ago, two articles were recently brought to my attention (one from 1901, and the other from 1914) about the discovery of what appeared to be Native American remains on the...
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Ypsilanti’s most despicable son, Harry Bennett
In advance of the release of The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm an America at War, which is set to hit bookstores on Tuesday, Salon.com is running a salacious excerpt on...
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Jelly Roll Morton and the gritty origins of jazz
At some point in 1938, while employed by the Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song to record and preserve regional American music being put at risk by popular music like jazz, music...
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Is Hitler’s childhood home in Dearborn? And is there a Nazi tank hidden at...
A comment which was just left on the site brought my attention back to a post I’d written about five years ago concerning a rumor within historic archeology community that one of the houses on Henry...
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Is it time for Deja Vu to go?
Apparently no photographic proof exists, but an acquaintance of mine was issued a written warning by Ypsilanti police yesterday after writing “Ypsilanti respects women” and “Ypsilanti doesn’t need a...
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Stuff you likely won’t hear about at the Ypsi Historical Society, Volume I:...
On occasion, I find that it’s easier to steal content than to write it myself. And, just now, I was given a terrific opportunity to do just that when my friend, the local historian Matt Siegfried,...
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Is Star Trek good for girls?
At some point, about a year ago, Clementine and I got out of the habit of reading together every night. It might have had something to do with the fact that Arlo had come along, and was demanding more...
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Frederick Douglas on the hypocrisy of July 4
In spite of the warrantless phone tapping, the daily drone strikes, and the fact that wealth is rapidly concentrating in the hands of just a few, I actually love America. For all of its flaws, I think...
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Checking in with Ypsi’s least favorite son, Tom Monaghan
The new issue of Businessweek has an interesting piece comparing and contrasting Michigan’s aging pizza barons, Tom Monaghan and Mike Ilitch. And, as it’s been a while since we’ve discussed Monaghan,...
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John Doe: On the origins of X, what the history books get wrong about the LA...
I had the opportunity a few days ago to speak briefly with John Doe of the legendary Los Angeles punk band X. Doe, along with his bandmates Exene Cervenka, Billy Zoom, DJ Bonebrake, after making their...
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Reverend Dr. William Barber II on reclaiming the moral high ground and...
Reverend Dr. William Barber II, the North Carolina minister who founded the Forward Together moral movement, is in the press today. It would seem that a young man in his group was arrested yesterday in...
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Mysterious Ypsi, scaring the fuck out of Ann Arbor since 1906
The above image has been making its way around the Ypsisphere today. According to the story that I was told, it was taken during a 1906 Halloween parade in Downtown Ann Arbor. While it’s a little...
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