As a follow-up, here’s the email I received today from Mayor Hieft (note the form email that he was also sending out at the bottom, there info there as well.

Hi Jordan!

Hope you are well. The extended hours proposal was changed last night so that nothing was done for now but the DDA will come back with more details. They really want the turnover of spaces that the extended hours would accomplish. That may not work for all of downtown but we will take up the subject again in March. I have included below the information I sent out yesterday to people who wrote with concerns.

In regard to parking for downtown workers we talked about how the DDA and get downtown program could do more to educate people on what is available. Currently a downtown restaurant worker or retail worker can park in a structure from 3 PM on for $30 per month. There are also very inexpensive dial-a-rides that run very late.  Someone who wrote me yesterday said what about crime in a parking structure late at night?  I understand that the perception is that it would be more dangerous but when this was studied a few years ago the structures were to be found to as safe as or even safer than anywhere else downtown. And then it is usually possible to find someone to walk with you if you ask. It may be in the end that nothing changes or it does. We need to wait for the data.

Thanks for writing and have a great holiday.

John Hieftje

Hello:

The appearance of this issue on the agenda was a surprise to me even though it is something that has been talked about at the Downtown Development Authority for a few years.  I will not be voting for it.

Judging from casual conversations with a couple of council members I ran into over the weekend at a holiday party and at Caucus last night, you don’t need to worry about this passing. But, while I have you, please let me explain some of the background on this issue.

Parking meters first originated to promote turnover of street spaces and second, to generate revenue. As time went on revenue generation became prominent for cities but turnover remains an important consideration.  Ideally street spaces will serve the downtown patron who wants to dash in for an hour of shopping, enjoy lunch, coffee or a quick dinner. The parking structures and gated lots are intended to accommodate longer term parking. That’s a major reason why it costs more to park on the street.

The shortage of street parking downtown is one reason the DDA has discussed this issue with increased revenue to expand and maintain the parking system being the other. Every city in Michigan is struggling so the revenue side is easy to understand but turnover is needed too. In some parts of downtown there is more need for turnover of street spaces in the evening than during the day.

People often park at 6:00 and leave the car until 10:00, 11 or later. I’ve done this many times. From a parking expert’s point of view, the problem with this is that the space never turns over.  Kind of like sitting at a table in a restaurant for 4 hours.  Parking in a structure or gated surface lot means paying more but the street space might then be available for 3 or 4 shorter stops that night. That’s 3 or 4 more downtown customers served. But extending the meter times probably won’t work for all of downtown and of course we need to be fair to all.

Promoting turnover of street spaces may be the reason one of the four downtown business associations favors an extension of enforcement times but it could be a problem for Kerrytown where there is not an abundance of structures. As we can all see, this is not a simple issue. A one-size-fits-all policy may not work but then having different rules for different parts of downtown could create confusion. Not making changes is always an option too.

Our city’s lively downtown is truly a treasure and a major contributor to our award winning quality of life. For many of us it’s a major reason for living in Ann Arbor. It adds a lot to the city’s ability to attract new businesses and jobs. We need to carefully consider any changes and make sure we have a good understanding of the possible consequences before taking action.  I expect this to be a long term discussion and having this on the agenda has at least kicked off the conversation.

If you would ever like to discuss this or any other issue please call my office for an appointment during my weekly open office hours. Thanks for writing and please accept my best wishes for a happy holiday season.

John Hieftje

Here’s my response:

Hi John,

Thanks for writing back.

So it looks like this is an issue of public awareness more than anything.
I know this might sound self-aggrandizing, but I’m pretty well involved in the 25-40 townie set, and I think I could help.

If it’s true that the parking structures are safer, that information should be better publicized. Ditto for the $30 a month parking pass (I don’t know any downtown workers who know about this, and you certainly can’t leave it up to the owners, for the most part).

This story blew up entirely in the social media sphere. It was all over Facebook and Twitter. It was hardly even covered by AnnArbor.com.

If you or someone in your office would send me a link to that study, or the study itself, as well as info about that parking pass, I’ll do my best to spread it across the social media sphere (that’s also what I do for a living :]).

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Jordan Miller

About an hour ago I received an e-mail from Kerrytown Market and Shops manager Karen Farmer, who said she had just returned from a meeting with Sandi Smith (D-1st ward), the person responsible for bringing the parking meter resolution to the city council (and also a member of the DDA).

Here’s what Karen, who seemed none too pleased, had to say:

None of the city council members, nor did members of the DDA, ever bring this to the Kerrytown District Association’s attention, and there is little or no time to prepare and respond. In addition, it is in the height of our local independent business holiday season and to come out to a council meeting on such a negative subject really isn’t fair, without proper notice and information.

We feel our district isn’t affected by downtown workers taking up all of the parking spots, and feel that our clientele coming to dine at eve, or take in a concert at the Kerrytown Concert House, or coming to pick up groceries from Sparrow or the Food Co-op (open until 10pm) will be directly affected; in addition, we only have metered parking spots – not the convenience of an attended structure or an attended surface lot, where you can go park and not think about it  until the end of the evening.

She brings up a point that hasn’t even been mentioned. And I wonder how often Kerrytown gets slighted in these sorts of decisions; they don’t have the political might (and I use this term loosely, we ARE talking about the small business politics of a small city) of Main Street or State Street.

County Commissioner Leah Gunn, who is also a member of the DDA (anyone sensing a pattern, here?), made the following argument in the comments section of the Ann Arbor Chronicle:

From a story in the Boston Globe, published last month, on the fight over extending parking meter times in San Francisco:

“Earlier this year, when Chicago, desperate for revenue, leased its parking meter system for 75 years to Morgan Stanley for $1.15 billion, parking meter hours were extended, rates were quadrupled, citation fees were raised, and Mayor Richard Daley’s approval ratings fell to their worst level, 35 percent.”

Last week, on Facebook, my friend Julie Bertoni posted that the Ann Arbor City Council would be voting on a resolution to extend parking meters to 10 p.m. I immediately sent the following email to Steve Kunselman (D-3rd ward), Carsten Hohnke (D-5th ward), and Mike Anglin (D-5th ward):

Hi Carsten! Hi Mike! Hi Steve!

This is Jordan Miller (from the Skatepark committee/Joe’s girlfriend, however you know me).

I try not to bug you guys too much about stuff, but I heard that you’re going to be voting for or against pushing the parking meter time limit to 10 pm.

I write this not as someone who often patronizes downtown restaurants and bars, but as someone who used to work in them. Parking in the lots downtown can cost a lot of money for people working for tips (or, worse, low kitchen wages). The after-six amnesty is a big help to people who just can’t afford tickets. And there’s no way that a busy waitress can leave in the middle of her shift to put money in the meter. I know that parking revenues are down because of the new machines, but there has to be another way. Many of the people who are going to get socked by this are people who make too much to qualify for social services and too little to pay for their own benefits. Take it from me; I was one of them for a long time.

In a perfect world I would offer an alternate solution, but I don’t have one. But I’ll keep thinking about it.

Jordan Miller
Ward 5 (and a voter!)

Then, at our Christmas dinner on Saturday night, I asked our friend Ray about it. Ray isn’t an elected official, but he might as well be. He knows everyone and he’s involved in everything. He said that he was aware of the proposal, and that he was planning on speaking to it on Monday (today) at the city council meeting. He also said that he supports the proposed resolution.

Ray’s argument is the same as that of the DDA, which is that the service industry workers are exactly the problem. They take up spaces, and there’s nowhere for customers and patrons to park. But he also said that a free or reduced-rate lot for downtown employees would be a part of the deal. Several of the other guests at the party are or have been downtown service workers, and everyone agreed that they would support that.

Yesterday I received this email from Carsten Hohnke (whose wife owns Vie Fitness, a downtown business), so far the only one of the three to respond:

Hi Jordan,

Thanks for the input.  I appreciate the point of view that you offer as someone who worked downtown.

The DDA has been talking about extending hours for quite a while in order to promote turnover at meters (many merchants are advocating for this, including all of the members of the State Street Area Association).  The feeling is that the parking structures are available to accommodate longer-term parking, and turnover at meters in certain areas makes sense for folks coming downtown for less than a couple of hours (and for the local businesses they patronize).

Nonetheless, I don’t recall a blanket extension to 10:00 PM ever being discussed and I’m not supportive of it.

I hope (and expect) that the resolution will be postponed so that we can discuss this with the DDA and the community at greater length.   Our vibrant downtown is a key factor in the quality of life in Ann Arbor, and I agree with you that we need to make sure that short-term gains don’t lead to negative long-term consequences.

Thanks again for taking the time to write.

– Carsten

I’m glad to hear that Carsten agrees. Although he didn’t mention anything about the parking lot for employees, and he says that he didn’t know anything about this (which I am inclined to believe; from my limited personal interactions with him, he seems like a stand-up guy).

I wrote back:

Hi Carsten!

Thanks for being the only person to respond to my email.

So, I was talking to Ray Detter on Saturday evening, and he said that there’s a possibility of some sort of free or reduced rate parking lot for downtown employees after 6 if the meters get extended? If that’s the case, I would be much more amenable to the proposal and I know that the other people who were at our dinner party that night, several of whom are downtown service industry workers, felt the same way.

It’s pretty amazing how quickly this is moving through the social media sphere, because it’s something that would directly affect the 20- and 30- something crowd. And a lot of these people are die-hard townie-types. Just a heads-up that you guys might want to do some due diligence to make sure people have all of their facts straight (and you also might want to take advantage of the opportunity to reach out to a demographic that doesn’t normally get all that fired up about local politics.

Thanks again, and cheers to you!

But AnnArbor.com published an article on Saturday about the resolution with the headline “Ann Arbor City Council to vote on extending downtown parking meters until 10 p.m.” This was published a day before the e-mail from Carsten. Hopefully he was on some sort of holiday vacation, because it would be slightly ridiculous for a city council member to not have heard anything about an upcoming vote on such a contentious issue, especially when it has been covered in the local media.

In that article there is again no mention of Ray’s mysterious parking lot for downtown employees.

From the A2.com story:

City Council member Sandi Smith, D-1st Ward, who is sponsoring the resolution, sees it as a way to help potential customers.

She says that it will open up short-term parking that is often taken up by employees of the downtown businesses. “They might park there at five or six o’clock at night, put in a little money, and then stay until two in the morning,” she said.

According to the resolution, 100 % of on-street meters were filled during evening hours versus 68 % during daytime hours, “demonstrating the need for evening parking enforcement as a tool to encourage parking turnover.”

That story also mentions the following:

The resolution also includes a provision for net revenues from parking at the former Y site on East William to be directed to the city’s budget instead of the Downtown Development Authority’s budget.

The DDA’s parking system is budgeted to generate $18.2 million in revenue in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. Parking expenses are forecast at $7 million.

Which naturally begs the question, which should have been asked by AnnArbor.com: How much of a parking revenue increase is projected for the DDA if this resolution is passed?

So today I sent the following email to Mayor Hieftje. There has not been adequate time for him to respond but, if he does, I will post that, too:

Hi Mayor Hieftje,

This is Jordan Miller, your co-spokesmodel.

I just wanted to weigh-in on the vote slated for this evening on the resolution to extend downtown parking to 10 p.m.

This vote comes completely on the backs of downtown service workers; I know, I was one for many years. These are the people who keep downtown running, who make too much to get government benefits and too little to afford benefits on their own. These are also people who frequent downtown businesses (ask any downtown bartender, the other service industry workers are the biggest spenders and best tippers). And this is even worse for people working in the kitchens (imagine, if you make $9 an hour, the impact of a $10 parking ticket).

Ray Detter told me on Saturday that there is the possibility of a free or reduced-rate parking lot for these workers if this resolution is passed. Is that true? Because I can’t get any other confirmation of it.

Also, I think it should be made public exactly how much of a revenue increase the DDA stands to gain from the extended meter time.

Thank you for reading this, and I’m looking forward to your response.

Regards,
Jordan Miller
Ward 5 voter and friend to many waitresses.

So here are the next steps:
1. City council should postpone the vote for more community weigh-in.
2. The DDA should make public their forecasted revenue gain from this resolution.
3. AnnArbor.com should realize that they have a BIG STORY here, and they should cover it right.
4. The city council should realize that they actually have the potential to connect with a whole new demographic with this issue.

I’ll keep you updated.

Latkes are the tradition food served for the Jewish Holiday of Hanukkah. They usually consist of peeled shredded baking or yukon gold potatoes, grated onion, egg as a binder and usually some flour or potato starch to hold them together. I have seen recipes use matzoh meal, or even bread crumbs. Yet other recipes use a combination of sweet potatoes and white potatoes, and/or use other grated veggies like carrots or zucchini. I am a purist myself using the potato, onion,  little flour and egg combo.

Whatever your variation, I found the key to latkes is getting out as much water as possible from the potatoes. The other issue is the size of the latkes. I make mine by rolling the mixture into a golfball sized ball, then placing them in the hot oil and flattening them down with a spatula to about 1/2 inch thick. My Aunt Elaine likes to make hers super thin and flat.

You get about six latkes per pound of potatoes with my method.  My recipe makes 25-28 which sounds like a lot, but trust me, they will all be gone. In fact, I find there are often fights for the last one if you have an odd number. They also make great leftover for breakfast if by some chance you have extra, and they freeze well.

Potato Latkes: Makes 24-28 serves 4-6

Ingredients:

4 pounds of yukon and/or russet potatoes, peel, grated, and water squeezed out

1 medium onion grated

4 large eggs

3 Tablespoons of flour

1-2 teaspoons of kosher salt

fresh black pepper

Peanut oil for frying

Procedure:

Peel, grate, and squeeze as much liquid from the potatoes are possible into a bowl. The potato starch will float to the bottom. Drain off the potato liquid and reserve the starch to add to the potato mixture. Grate the onion and drain of some of the liquid. Add the onion to the grated potatoes  then mix in the eggs, the reserved potato starch, the flour and salt and pepper.

Roll out into golf ball size balls.

In a large saute pan, add enough oil to about an inch high. Test the oil temp with a single strand of potato. If is dances like crazy you are ready to fry. Place a potato ball into the pan then press down with a flat spatula to about 1/2 thick. Once you fill up the pan, cover with a splatter screen if you have one.

When golden brown flip.

When done, place on a paper towel to remove some of the excess oil. Place in a warm oven to keep warm until they are all done, or serve immediately.

Add more oil to the pan, and bring up to temperature, and continue cooking until the batch is complete.

Serve with apple sauce and full fat sour cream

Here is my official Hanukkah meal. I have yet to find an official hanukkah meal like there is for Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving. The meal is usually a lot of latkes and nothing else. While a plate of latkes are great, I feel the meal can be balanced with some veggies and protein. I like smoke salmon, and a cabbage dish with my meal.Clementine orange also have to lighten up this heavy offering.

Chocolate Coins, another Hanukkah tradition

Happy Hanukkah

The first annual Selma Holiday Cookie Swap and Bake Sale was a success. Six of us baked the night away, and several others generously donated their time and baking skills and brought some cooke to swap and for the bake sale. The cookie featured were the decorated beauties shown above, my sugar cookie dipped in chocolate glaze and candy cane dust, swedish butter cookies, classic chocolate chip, chocolate crinkles cookies, chocolate chocolate chip, fruit bar cookies,  pecan bars, and praline candy.  In the end we ended up with more then twenty plates of assorted cookies for the bake sale.

Thanks to everyone who participated. Happy holidays.

CB

The semester is almost over. It’s unbelievable how quickly time has passed, it seems like yesterday when I came to the USA. The smaller three-credit courses are now over, clearing the schedule for studio that now seems to consume all the time from the students at the college. It’s funny how students from some other departments are practically over with the semester already – classes did after all end on last Thursday – but for us it’s the studio home stretch.

Putting in the long days of intense work may seem ridiculous after what already has been a busy semester. I believe that to enjoy what we do, one has to be truly engaged in the field. To me, there’s no in-between or part-time solution, you don’t do it to bring food to the table or to pay the mortgage. In fact, shouldn’t this be the case with all fields? Why should people settle for less than their maximum potential? Maybe they don’t, many people probably have their interests and goals somewhere else than their career.

I do think that our field is unique in this sense, probably in line with some similarly creative ones. You need to have some artistic vision and talent to become an architect, you need to have something to say. Due to the artistic nature of the profession, there rarely is a definite answer to many of the questions that we deal with. But then again, that’s not the purpose either. It’s not like resolving mathematical equations that work within a given framework, it’s more about defining the framework itself – this is especially the case here at the University o Michigan. Needless to say, this has caused a lot of frustration during the studies while trying to grasp the meaning of it all. If you can define your framework, against what are you supposed to compare and evaluate it? Can you do just about anything and get away with it? And if this is the case, is it at all worthwhile? Does it have any real life applications or are you in it for the sake of being a student in the University?

While it’s still difficult for me to pinpoint exactly why, I do feel my stay has been very worthwhile and useful. Maybe it’s the way of thinking I’ve began to adapt, or being introduced to a new culture, education and ways of looking towards architecture as a profession. Or getting to use English on a daily basis, which I strangely enjoy more every day. One of the things I’ve realized is that when you do have the opportunity to define your work and interests on your own, you also have to take the responsibility and ownership of your work. An immature way to look at it would be to say “hey, now that I can do whatever I want, I’ll just choose something easy and get away with it”. Or maybe it’s not so much immature as it is unambitious. The resources are there – no matter what you choose to focus on, the school can bring the people and the knowledge together. This statement alone should motivate anyone to reach for their highest potential – why waste the opportunities?

There’s a thing called comfort zone that plays into all this. I would argue that people by nature are against learning something new, unless it’s fun and exciting or gives great personal pleasure. You do things because you have to – the tax reports get filled in because you may save money doing so, not because you enjoy going through the numbers (actually, some do). I’m constantly coming into terms with my comfort zone, which is always taking me away from the difficult task at hand. Why learn all of these new things when you could just go with the old ones, that are easier to handle? I like to think about this like collecting tools to my shed – to join two pieces of wood together, the hammer and the nails will do the job, but you will have more options if you also have a saw, some glue, screws and a screwdriver in the shed. Some tools you only need every now and then, but when you do, you really couldn’t do without them. If some people like to collect small porcelain figures, bottle caps and such, then I guess I like to collect knowledge. Although some bottle caps are also pretty neat.

Speaking of knowledge, I was offered a teaching position at the college last week. Due to a very, very unfortunate coincidence, the course that I would have been teaching (Computer aided design, visualization and modeling) overlapped with a course I absolutely have to take during the next semester. What are the odds for two hours in a week to overlap for two separate courses? Even though I had to turn the offer down, it’s great to know that I’m becoming a valued member of the academic community, as the chair of the school told me, almost no one usually gets these offers in their first year. This keeps me motivated in doing what I do, and perhaps at the Fall I’ll get to do some teaching.

Monday happened to land Chris and I in Livonia for an appointment. This was a good turn of events as I had to exchange a mis-sewn chair cover purchased at IKEA back in October. This also became an opportunity to visit Whole Foods. We used the GPS to find the closest one (to IKEA) which turned out to be the more southern Ann Arbor location, between A² and Ypsilanti. I have, somehow, never been inside this particular Whole Foods- maybe its a relocation?- although I have been to the Panera right next store. Anyhow, its huge and now I’m going to be sad next time I go to a smaller location. I’m not a fan of the one in West Bloomfield/Farmington- I feel like I’m missing a whole section every time. The deli area is either a really good thing or a really bad thing- depends on how much money I am looking to spend and how hungry I am. A-hem.

Because the appointment went over the lunch hour we decided to eat before shopping. After walking through the entire store, we realized that if you just turn right immediately upon entering, you can go along the wall and come in to the deli area. In this area, you can buy whatever you like and go eat it in a small cafe area. I made a salad and Chris opted for the hot buffet.

Duly nourished, we started shopping. Our mission was to get things we couldn’t get in Lansing and focus on healthy stuff. We still came home with a block of cheese and 2 bottles of wine (reminds me, we might need to start drinking this stuff soon- our rack is full again). We also picked up some Key West Pinks, the only shrimp Chris will eat, a number of bags from the produce section and 2 packages of gourmet sausages: pork andouille and a chicken chorizo from Sausages by Amylu.

Right away, with a planned focus on eating more rice in my future, I knew I’d take the andouille sausage to make some jambalaya. Not that I have the slightest idea what goes in to an authentic jambalaya except rice.

Internet to the rescue! Except, there are thousands of recipes for jambalaya using various proteins, mostly. Ideally, I would have made a shrimp and sausage combo but someone was supposed to work on deveining the shrimp earlier and did not. I ended up scanning about 10 recipes and then just winged it.

Jambalaya

Ingredients

Directions

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium-high heat in a large pan (like the everyday pan from Calphalon).

Once oil is warmed and shimmering, saute onion and garlic until onions are lightly golden. Add salt, pepper, cayenne and thyme to onions. Cook just enough to release aromatics in herbs.

Add bell pepper and cook for another minute or two.

Add rice and stir to coat, allowing the rice to absorb some of the oil. You can let this cook for 1-2 minutes until you smell the nutty fragrant of toasted rice.

Add tomatoes and water or broth along with bay leaf and bay seasoning. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to low and cover. Simmer 20 minutes or until rice has absorbed most of liquid.

Add sausages and corn, allow to cook until sausages are just cooked through.  Serve garnished with fresh parsley or cilantro.

Notes:

1. Corn, as noted in ingredient list, is optional. I only used it because we had some leftover that needed to be used within 24 hours.

2. The sausages I used were pre-cooked so they just needed to be heated up at the end. If raw sausages are used, I’d suggest cooking them in the pan first then using the drippings to cook the onions, etc.

3. Adjust cayenne pepper to your taste and also the heat in the sausages.

4. If I’d added shrimp to this, I would have used more Old Bay Seasoning. Usually when we boil shrimp, we use Bay Seasoning and pickling spice. Chris is in charge of this process so the exact ratios aren’t known to me. But, the Old Bay is required, I’m told.

This is interesting.  I can understand it though.  All the major players in the pizza delivery game have pretty much the same product.  Sure, there’s a little bit of a difference, but not enough to make one really jump out.  I’ll definitely give Domino’s another try after the change.  

From a Domino’s Pizza press release….

Celebrating 50th Year, Domino’s Pizza Gives Itself a Makeover
Domino’s reinventing its pizza with seasoned crust, robust sauce, shredded cheese

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Dec 16, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ — Approaching 50 years in the business, Domino’s Pizza (NYSE: DPZ), the recognized world leader in pizza delivery, announced today it is changing its core pizza recipe. With a new garlic seasoned crust, robust sauce and more flavorful shredded cheese, Domino’s new hand-tossed pizza has been reinvented to deliver more taste — and Domino’s is backing it up with a guarantee. 

Rolling out over the course of the next few weeks, Domino’s new pizza will be in all U.S. stores beginning December 27.

“2010 will be our 50th year in the business, and we are kicking it off with the most aggressive promotion in the history of our company,” said Domino’s Chairman and CEO David A. Brandon. “This is the biggest product introduction we’ve done since…well, pizza.”

The primary changes include:

– Crust – A garlic seasoned crust with parsley baked to a golden brown

– Sauce – Sweeter, bolder tomato sauce with a medley of herbs and a red
pepper kick

– Cheese – Shredded cheese made with 100% real mozzarella and flavored
with just a hint of provolone

Reinventing the Domino’s Brand

“The fact is, we love our pizza, but as times change, so do consumer tastes,” said Russell Weiner, Domino’s Chief Marketing Officer. “We’ve created a pizza to reflect what consumers are looking for. We’re not talking about a slightly-altered version of our previous pizza. It’s a completely new pizza reinvented from the crust up, and we are proud of it. To us, it’s as big as McDonald’s changing the Big Mac, or Burger King reinventing the Whopper. We spent the last 18 months reinventing the brand in anticipation of our 50th anniversary.”

Weiner noted that more than 80 percent of the Domino’s menu is new since 2008. Added to the menu since that time:

– Oven Baked Sandwiches, available in eight delicious varieties
– Domino’s American Legends, a line of premium specialty pizzas
– Breadbowl Pasta, five varieties of pasta baked into a seasoned bread
bowl
– Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes, oven-baked chocolate cakes, crunchy on the
outside, with warm flowing chocolate fudge inside

“The cherry on the top of all this recent innovation is our newly-inspired pizza,” said Weiner. “Our inspiration came from the thousands of direct consumer feedback messages on several social media channels.

“Over a two-year period, we tested dozens of cheeses, 15 sauces, and nearly 50 crust seasoning blends and researched every possible combination with customers who order from us all the time and customers who haven’t tried us in years. Our extensive research showed that the new pizza is significantly improved over our previous pizza.”

Great Value Offer with Ads Featuring Real Domino’s Team Members

Domino’s Pizza will be marketing this new pizza aggressively in the next several weeks with advertising on many top-rated entertainment and sports programs, sampling opportunities throughout the country and a strong web-based presence, Weiner said.

The special introductory offer will be 2 medium, 2 topping pizzas for $5.99 each.

Advertising produced by creative agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky will include documentary-style anecdotes featuring real Domino’s Pizza team members. The spots, filmed at Domino’s World Resource Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan will show how the company took on the challenge of changing the negative perceptions of some consumers nationwide.

Putting Our Money Where Your Mouth Is

“We’ve long been known for service,” said Weiner. “With this new pizza we are convinced Domino’s can be known for both quality and service. That’s why we’re introducing this new pizza with a guarantee: If you are not completely satisfied with your Domino’s pizza experience, we will make it right or refund your money.

“The entire company has been involved in this,” Weiner continued. “From our CEO to our franchisees; from our supply chain division to our supply partners; from our product development team to our marketers — everyone has had a hand in reinventing our pizza.”

 

In a haunting soliloquy near the end of Moby Dick Captain Ahab yearns, fleet­ingly, to be somewhere else than in obsessive pursuit of the white whale:

There’s a soft shower to leeward. Such lovely leewardings! they must lead to somewhere—to something else than common land, more palmy than palms.

It was winter in Ann Arbor when I first read that passage now more than 50 years ago. The closest thing to “palmy” in the li­brary’s grad­uate reading room was a bedraggled dracaena marginata stuck off in a drafty corner, struggling to survive amid billows of blue cigarette smoke.

I suppose I should have been more deeply moved by the heartbreaking longing of that passage (I am now), but I was bored with Ahab’s mono­mania, bored with daily quizzes, bored with libraries, bored with winter. So I conjured up a bit of palminess.

I pictured myself, tanned and muscular, sprinting from the surf across white sands to a line of palm trees, fan-shaped fronds rustling upon zephyrs redolent of exotica. A bronzed-skinned girl, sarong-wrapped, waited there to hand-feed me from a bas­ket laden with the fruits of paradise, as I reclined in her lap.

Wild Fan Palms

Tahiti?  Hawaii?  Take out the sarong and put in a bikini and it could have been the French Riviera. It didn’t matter. In my fantasy it was “more palmy than palms.”

Years later, I moved to Tucson, Arizona where my office was surrounded by palm trees. And, at an age when fantasies didn’t serve me as well as they used to, I contented my­self with a more studied view of palms.

What I didn’t know in my eager youth is that had I been lucky enough to be transported to the Côte d’Azur, or even Hawaii, many of the stately palms I may have found there are native in neither place. They’re desert palms, indi­genous only to the desert oases of Arizona and southern California.

The common name is California fan palm, in scientific nomenclature, Washingtonia filifera, named for George, the cherry tree man. Hardy, easy to grow, the fan palm is one of the most widely planted of palms. In the U.S. it can thrive not only in California and Ari­zona but in all the Gulf states and as far north as South Carolina.

A southern cousin of W. filifera is the Mexican sky duster, Washing­tonia robusta. The fan palm and the sky duster are “petticoat palms.”  When left untrimmed year after year, their large fan-shaped leaves form a thick shag of dead foliage. Slender and brownish, the sky duster is a tall tree, as its name implies, soaring easily to a height of 150 feet when well nour­ished. The California fan palm is shorter, stouter, and grayish.

In the wild, fan palms grow in canyons at eleva­tions up to 3,000 feet, always near desert springs or seeps. In one such oasis, Palm Can­yon in Arizona’s Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, wild trees, more slender than cultivated ones, are seldom taller than 50 feet.

Another Arizona palm, a non-native, is Phoenix dacty­li­fera, the date palm, which originated in the Middle East and Egypt where the date is a di­etary staple and where the tree is cultivated in groves of thousands. Date palms have been domesticated for millennia; there are probably no wild ones left anywhere in the world.

To tell a date palm from a fan palm look at the frond. If it’s pinnate, or feather-shaped, it’s a date palm. If it’s palmate, or fan-shaped, it’s a fan palm or sky duster—the tree height will tell you which.

Developers love palm trees. Anywhere palms grow you’ll find apartment complexes dating from the 1950s with tony names like Riviera Arms, Royale Palms, and Kon-Tiki Gardens. Today, landscapers use palms to lend elegance to of­fice buildings and shopping malls. Palms in neat clusters mark the boulevard entrances to parking lots, or lean rak­ishly against office walls, flood-lighted to make pretty shadows at night.

Native people who co-evolved with fan palms in California’s old Salton Sea Basin were experts in palm tree husbandry. They used fire to manage the trees, discovering that after their shaggy pet­ticoats were torched, the palms became more robust. Palms don’t have a true bark, so the fire didn’t kill them—just left them slightly charred.

Like Eskimos who used every bit of a slain seal, from hair to gut tis­sue, the ancient palm managers used the whole tree. It gave them food, fi­bers for weaving, wood for shelters, fronds for thatching, and leaf stems for utensils.

One day I measured the stout-bodied fan palm outside my office win­dow. A mature specimen (they can live 200 years) its bole measured an impressive eleven feet around. And I judged it to be about 60 feet from base to crown.

It wasn’t much to look at. It had no shag and most of the year appeared denuded. Just about the time last year’s fronds dried and shaped themselves along the upper trunk and the old tree started to take on a shaggy palm character again and the 12-foot seed stalks drooped toward the ground to dis­charge their small brown ellipsoidal seeds, the groundskeeper called in a tree trimmer.

The birds didn’t seem to mind the trimming. When the chain­saws stopped, they came back. Regularly, a group of flickers and Gila wood­peckers sailed in to hammer uselessly at the trunk. Doves perched among the fronds. And, once in a while, the neighborhood kestrel swooped in to scatter the doves although he was no threat to them.

House finches, too, returned to rebuild their nests in the cozy little cups created where this year’s leaf-stem bases lay­ered against last year’s and those from years past. One day after a storm I found a wind-blown nest. It was woven of grass, bits of palm panicle, shredded facial tissue, a red-cello­phane pull-tab, dryer lint, a length of spun silk from a spider web, and a strand of dental floss. A more creative recycling of flotsam was hard to imagine.

Palmy?  Only the finches could say.

After a very successful fall semester at Rec & Ed, I will be teaching two Italian classes next semester: Italian 1 and Italian 2.

These evening, adult classes are fun and help you to learn useful phrases, grammar and vocabulary. I speak as much as possible in Italian and create an immersion environment. We always end the semester with a festa!

Not sure if you should take Italian 1 or Italian 2? The Italian 2 class will be a continuation of last semester’s Italian 1. We completed the present tense and useful vocabulary surrounding greetings, hotels, directions, trains/planes/buses, and eating. We will be reviewing, of course, as we move onto the past tense. If you spoke some Italian at home growing up or have taken a course or two before, Italian 2 is for you. If you’ve never taken Italian before, I recommend that you start with Italian 1.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me: ChloeMiller{at}gmail{dot}com. You can register online! Scroll down on this page for information on the classes and links to register.

Here are the details:

Italian 1

8 Wednesday nights (January 27 to February 17 & March 3 to March 24)

6 to 7:30pm

Price Resident: $115.00

Non-resident: $129.00

Class will be held at Pioneer High School 

Italian 2

8 Wednesday nights (January 27 to February 17 & March 3 to March 24)

7:40 to 9:10pm

Price Resident: $115.00

Non-resident: $129.00

Class will be held at Pioneer High School 

*If you are interested in learning Italian this winter but can’t make these classes, I am available for private tutoring. I have a very flexible schedule: we can meet in the mornings, afternoons or evenings. I can suggest texts and provide handouts for our private lessons based on your interests, skills and needs. I am happy to work with individuals and small groups.

Tiffany Yang

Winter arrived in Ann Arbor last Wednesday very suddenly.

As an undergraduate, I lived about 5 minutes walking distance from any class that I was taking. But, having moved to a place about 3 miles away from the School of Public Health (up a hill), I had been listening to the radio with increasing fear as the last couple weeks have gone by. My mode of transportation has shifted from walking to biking and it has been pretty interesting so far. I biked as an undergrad, but not that much as it was so easy to just walk to class and the farmer’s market. After having made the decision to live so far from school, which allowed me to live in a house and have my own garden, I had to make the trade-off of either taking the Ann Arbor public bus or biking.

I chose biking.

So, after much consultation and eBay searching, I bought a Surly (no worries, I didn’t pay anywhere near that price). Biking in the summer and fall was fine, but it was winter that scared me. I’ve never biked in the winter and didn’t know whether any special gear was needed (oh, yes). I nearly froze my ears and jaw off last week and had to buy a balaclava. Not to mention studded tires.

A few people who knew that I biked to school asked if I was going to continue biking in the winter and whether that was even possible. I’m sure I sounded confidant in my reply, but I was really cringing in the inside because I had no idea if I was up to it. Let me just say that is is pretty intense. As in, I thought I was going to keel over by the time I got home. Biking with studded tires is like hardcore resistance biking. I was surprised at first how much harder it was to bike uphill.

What irks me so far about riding in the winter, though, is the lack of covered bike parking. We are not allowed to keep bikes inside the School of Public Health (though I have seen at least one in a professor’s office) because they are a fire hazard. However, there isn’t anything provided for us. I talked with the building manager and he told me that there are plans to put one in but that no one is in charge of it and therefore there are no dates for when it will be implemented. There probably aren’t that many people biking in the winter, but for the minority population of SPH that does bike in the winter, shouldn’t there be some sort of a solution? Leaving your bike outside in the cold is just bad for it and I’m particularly protective of this one.

Are there any seasoned winter bikers out there? Any tips? I’m getting the hang of it and it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, even as my homework-and-study pile gets bigger.

last night, i stumbled into 826 michigan from the blustery cold for mark maynard’s writing workshop titled ‘blogs, zines, & other new traditions in self-publishing.’

as a 31 year-old business owner with occasional migraines and fingernails chewed to stubs, it takes a lot to move me to action. i’m not a wide-eyed, easily-influenced twenty-something anymore.

but, just look at me!
i’m blogging!
i’d call that inspired.

last night, mark talked with us about creative outlets for self-expression from the early days of the founding fathers pamphlets, through the dada movement, to the underground world of photocopied zines…which morphed into blogs. in the present day blogosphere, you can reach almost anyone, anywhere with your message. mark reaches thousands of people with his blog, and connects them through conversations about local and national events. he makes things happen. online dialogues. local art fairs. community connections. and he doesn’t do it for money. he does it for the conversations.

which made me wonder, why do i blog? of course, i want my business to succeed. i blog to sell floral design, and to sell gardening services, and to sell…well, me.
to be a business owner is to be a part of the community. so when my lovely client LK calls me for a flower delivery, i leave knowing how to cast off my knitting project. and when i make my weekly restaurant maintenance visits, i hear about the owner’s, the employee’s, and the customer’s weekend plans.
ah-ha!
the flowers are the vehicle for the relationship.

this, dear reader, is where you come in. mark blogs to connect to his community, and to help his community connect.
i blog to connect my products, services, and myself to clients.
why do you blog?
maybe you don’t blog. maybe you use twitter or facebook. or maybe you just follow a few choice blogs.

in my inspirational haze i propose this: post! tweet! comment!
let’s use the tools we have online to build community offline.

photo credit

It is my excited pleasure to introduce to the world theNew2Do.com!

You have been anxiously waiting, wondering, “What is Devin up to?”  Well, the day has finally come, and I am proud to announce the arrival of theNew2Do.

What is theNew2Do?

TheNew2Do is an event-based social networking site that helps you find things to do and people to do those things with in your local community.

Whether you are interested in…

• Playing sports
• Learning
• Discussing politics
• Exercising
• Going to bars and nightclubs
• Comedy
• Doing volunteer work and fundraising
• Playing poker, bowling, and billiards
• Studying
• Networking for business
• Reading
• Shopping
• Or anything else you can imagine…

You are not alone! Let’s do something 2gether.

TheNew2Do is your tool to connect with people who share your interests in order to do things that you love.  Meet new people, develop deeper interests, and grow as an individual!

So on any day of the week, if you have nothing to do, you can hop on theNew2Do in order to find a meaningful way to spend your day.  You will never be bored again!

Our First Stop: Ann Arbor, MI

Although you will be able to use theNew2Do in your local community, wherever that is, to organize events and make friends once we go live January 4, 2010, we will be actively trying to build theNew2Do community in Ann Arbor, MI, home of the University of Michigan!

Our goal is to be the central hub for all campus activity at universities across the country, taking the vibrant communities found on college campuses, and putting them all in one place just clicks away.

Naturally, I have chosen the University of Michigan as our first stop.  I have done this for a number of reasons.  First, it is my Alma Mater, and I feel this is my opportunity to give back to the school that has done so much for me in the past four years.  Second, I am proud to say that the University of Michigan, with over 1,000 clubs and student organizations, has one of the most active campuses across the country.  It is my pleasure to give students the opportunity to easily find and engage in all of that amazing activity.

Additionally, theNew2Do will be the best place to form and find study groups on campus.  We all know how daunting it can be to walk into a lecture hall of 300 people and not know one of them.

Festifall + the Internet = TheNew2Do.com

For those of you familiar with Michigan and our many long-standing traditions, my hope is to take all of the amazing things that one might find at Festifall, and put them online, all in one centralized location.  Festifall, for those of you who are not fellow Wolverines, is an event that the University of Michigan holds in the Diag (our Quad) every year to help promote the various student organizations on campus.

I have enjoyed Festifall for four years, but I often find that it is difficult to find out about a club or organization from a 30 second conversation with someone promoting at a booth set up in the Diag.  TheNew2Do will give students an opportunity to find out about student organizations in much more detail through the events they have and will be hosting.  Then, if you are interested in the group, you can begin joining their events right on theNew2Do.  It’s so easy!

Are you part of a club or organization? TheNew2Do will be able to help…

• Improve your organization’s recruiting
• Promote events to your community
• Coordinate meetings, events, and discussions among members

For groups, clubs, and organizations, theNew2Do will be the perfect vehicle for serving your organization’s needs and will be able to act as the official website for your group, no matter what kind of group that is.  Even if your organization already has a website, a group profile page can be used to communicate with members, recruit new members, plan meetings, host events, and promote events to the community.  Most importantly creating a group profile will enable your organization to become a part of the active community hosted on theNew2Do.

But, that is just the tip of the iceberg…

I hope you are now just as eager about the launch of theNew2Do.com as I am!  However, what I have told you here is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are a number of additional ways that you will be able to use theNew2Do.  To find this information, keep following this blog, and be sure to check http://thenew2doblog.com.

Countdown to Launch: 25 Days

Come Wednesday, December 16, 7:00-9:30 PM, for a holiday cookie making party, and cookie swap (located at 722 Soule Blvd. Ann Arbor, MI The home of Lisa Gottlieb and Jeff McCabe)

Bring your recipes, ingredients and a listing of what is in your cookies for people with allergy or diet restrictions.

Have enough supplies to make at least two dozen cookies, or bring cookies made at home. Please no store bought cookies. Feel free to make more.

One dozen cookies will be for the Holiday Cookie Swap where we will trade cookies with each other to leave with a fun holiday assortment.

The other dozen will be donated to Friday Mornings@Selma for a holiday bake sale.

If you plan to bake your cookies at SELMA RSVP is appreciate so we can organize. contact: chefbrian1@yahoo.com or  yogalisagottlieb@gmail.com

Come join the fun and spirit of the holidays.

In an era when most people live in jeans (oh wait, is that just me?), receiving an invitation in the mail with “Black Tie Only” or “Dressy Casual Preferred” at the bottom can leave you asking, “so what do I wear?”  I’ll tell you.   

Now in this instance I see no need to reinvent the wheel.  I’m going to borrow from Thomas Hart’s article on HowtoDoThings.com for this one.  Mind you, Mr. Hart appears to be a bit of a snob, judging from his opinion of party hosts that request casual attire (see below), but we’ll forgive him because the information is concise and to the point… just like I like it.  Since he covers the men’s attire in good detail, I’ve added some pictures of the women’s dress to clarify further.  Here we go…   

Here are the possible phrases you’ll see on your invitation:   

• White Tie: The most formal possible. Women wear full-length gowns with a crinoline. Men wear black pants, a black tail coat, white tuxedo shirt with bow-tie and a top hat with optional white kid gloves.

Ball Gown (White Tie)

• Black Tie/Formal: Second on the formal scale, this includes a straight gown for women and, for men, a black tuxedo with no hat.

Evening Gown (Black Tie/Formal)

• Semi formal/Informal: This actually does not mean ‘informal’ in the way you or I would naturally use the word, but it is less formal than the first two options. The men are in black suits and the women in dark knee-length dresses. 
  

  Semi-formal/Cocktail

• Cocktail: Men wear dark suits and women wear fun knee-length dresses, 
• Dressy Casual: Men wear blazers or sports jackets, a white dress shirt and black dress pants, while the ladies wear skirts and blouses.
• Business: Men wear blazers or sports jackets with a coloured shirt and khakis or dark denim. Women can wear skirts or dress pants. 

Work or dinner (Business)

• Casual: Either gender what they please, within reason. Use good judgement if the host or hostess is un-classy enough to mistakenly allow this type of dress at his of her party.
  

  Casual (Remember, it's a party)

“Here are the specific instructions for a men’s Black Tie dress code.  

Countdown to Launch: 28 Days

I went to Ann Arbor this past weekend…once again.  While I had a great time catching up with everyone and pretending I was in college for one more weekend, the trip ended up being more of a business trip than anything.  On a side note, I am pretty sure that some of the sophomores in my fraternity think that I am still a senior who only shows up sporadically.

Anyhow, if you have been following my blog, you know that I have not yet released the big news: what is my website, and why is it so life-changing?  Well, I still need to finish up some of the legal stuff before I feel comfortable actually posting that information on this blog- I will release that information sometime in the next week.

However, I have begun to tell friends what the big idea is in person, so feel free to ask me when I’m around.  I should mention that the social networking site can be very helpful on college campuses.  As such, I tried to meet with a number of people at U of M in order to get their thoughts and opinions about the concept, as well as invite them to begin using the website once we launch.

I came away from the weekend feeling very good about the market for the website, and it seems like the University of Michigan could benefit from what I am proposing.  Everyone I spoke with seemed intrigued and excited, and the general consensus seemed to be, “Yeah, I would definitely use that.”  While my meetings were helpful in reassuring me that there is a need for my website, I also came away with some great ideas concerning marketing the social network and functionalities that the site should have.

The actual website development is coming along as planned.  However, this is crunch time, so I have been extensively reviewing the website several times a day- I just hope am not annoying my developers too much because they are doing a fantastic job.

I am very excited for the launch, and I cannot believe all that I have already accomplished.  Just five months ago, I had nothing but an idea.  Now, I am counting down the launch date- pretty crazy if you ask me.  I know the journey has just begun, and I am going to have to do a ton more to ensure the success of this business, but for now, I am proud of myself and what I have accomplished.  And, I am certainly enjoying the ride.

And it’s a good thing. It has been a month since I posted here at City Mouse, mainly because I designed this blog as a chronicle of my relocation to Minneapolis. I guess now I am not so sure that is where my life will be taking me. I recently visited the city, and had a great time… mostly on my own. I was supposed to be visiting a friend, yet felt pretty snubbed once I got there. One of the main attractions of moving there was the fact that I thought I had a great friend there, and an opportunity to network within her group. On paper, it seemed that we had such similar personalities, yet in person things were a little different. We have since fallen apart and no longer speak. Which is a shame.

Currently I am looking into alternative schools. I am blessed to have met someone in Ann Arbor Michigan, and who knows where that will lead. So far, it is shaping up to be the start of something great. I can see myself being head over heels for her. I am applying at the University of Michigan’s school of Art and Design, and if all goes well I will be moving up there. At this point, it is all about getting away from Toledo, and if I get to be closer to Penny, then that is even better.

Like I said, it is good.

http://www.art-design.umich.edu/

Almost every day over the past year there’s a new apocalyptic story about the demise of newspapers and print journalism.

In recent weeks, the subject has reached a crescendo with the strategic power plays between Rupert Murdoch (s nws), Google (s goog) and Microsoft’s Bing (s msft).

However, there’s some light at the end of the tunnel for  journalism, with the story of the Ann Arbor Chronicle and its success as a post-digital news organization, available exclusively online. It was founded before The Ann Arbor News, the local printed daily, closed.

What’s of particular interest is the untethered, web worker philosophy underpinning the Chronicle’s success and the incredible story of the husband-and-wife duo — Dave Askins and Mary Morgan — who act as editor and publisher.

The team’s working practices and tools will be very familiar to web workers:

• Askins and Morgan work out of the Workantile Exchange, a local coworking community.
• The team publishes 10 “heavily reported and edited posts” each week, edit columnists and sell advertising, using a blogging platform.
• A one-hour editorial meeting takes place each week in their home office.
• Twitter is used for story leads (often republished as a local feed) from readers, and a dozen Google Alerts tracked with key phrases.

The Nieman Journalism Labs article focuses on the punishing work rate that Askins and Morgan have, but also on the journalistic freedom they both enjoy, as well as the conversational nature of the publication they have created.

There are lessons here for larger news organizations struggling to transition into digital culture, but notably the Chronicle’s success is a vindication of many of the trends, technologies and themes we’ve been covering here at WebWorkerDaily: coworking, conversational media, use of social media and working from home.

Read more at the Nieman Journalism Lab’s “WordPress, Twitter, the Elks Club: 10 new routines at a news startup“

How do you see the future for print journalism?

I am busy this week. Lots of little things to do, to get done. None of it particularly interesting to you, but things that I have to do in order to feel comfortable in my own skin.

I am flying with my son to St. Louis, MO next week for the Pokemon TCG U.S. National Championships. My son will be playing at his 3rd Nationals, this will be his first year playing at Nationals in the Senior division. I will be helping as a Junior division judge. I am incredibly honored to be chosen to be invited by Pokemon to staff Nationals this year; I have a free flight and room, and am even getting a little folding green to cover food and incidentals, so by using some frequent flier miles for my son Charlie’s flight, we have a free trip when we would have been okay with bearing these costs to share another vacation together.

With help from a much better player in our region, Charlie has a solid and novel deck list of cards to build and play at this year’s Nationals. We had 53 out of the 60 cards needed for this deck. The remaining 7 cards needed cost less than $6.00 online. This is the cheapest deck build for a major tournament ever.

Not wanting to be less current than the Junior division players I will be helping to judge, I will be studying the rules compendium and any updates and recent rulings and decisions for the next week. With scholarships and invites to the World’s Championships on the line, I want to give a flawless, mistake free, judging experience to my players.

A couple of weeks later, I fly into Detroit, MI on July 7 for work. I booked flights for me and Art, my associate, a rental car, hotel. We are scheduled to do three shows, Wyandotte, Plymouth, and Ann Arbor. We are scheduled to fly back on July 19.

Ann Arbor hosts the nation’s largest Arts and Craft show, with over 500,000 attendees over 4 days. I have sold my wine bottle stoppers there for the last 4 years, in booth A3 of the courtyard off Liberty street roughly across from Seva restaurant. Art and I work the show together, and make a nice bit of money at the show.

This year, I hope to abandon Art to work the show alone, or possibly fly my brother up from New Orleans to join and help him. I hope to be interviewing for my dream job instead of working the Ann Arbor show.

Since submitting my video job application, #1015, to Murphy-Goode, 297 more video applications have been submitted. With help and support from lots of people, my video job application is the #25 most popular having received 487 votes so far. If you have 60 seconds, you can view the video application at the link provided; if you have an available email address, you can vote the video your favorite. I would appreciate it. Murphy-Goode’s really goode job is my dream job.

http://www.areallygoodejob.com/video-view.aspx?vid=A1m7ZIwYMbw

The application period will close this Friday, June 19. One week later, the Top 50 candidates will be chosen; I hope to find myself in the Top 50 from St. Louis. If I make the Top 50, and then the Top 10, I will have to scramble; I will fly home after working Wyandotte and Plymouth, on July 13, so I can interview in person July 14-18. On July 21, one of the Top 10 will find that they are the winning candidate for my dream job. August 15 is the first day of work for Murphy-Goode.

In addition to booking travel for upcoming trips, studying Pokemon rules, and asking for favorite video votes all over the interwebs, I have been enjoying a new (to me only) book, Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour. Again, I am constantly impressed with Bourdain’s writing. Paying bills, housekeeping, and dealing with familial dramas round out my busy week.

Each week night, Mon-Thur, I have been enjoying a horrible vice. I have been joining others in an internet chat room and watching “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!” on streaming video three hours earlier than it is shown here in northern California. There is something less than noble about watching this trainwreck of a show, deriving delight and entertainment from the bad actions of first Speidi, then Janice Dickinson. Even less noble, I voted for Janice to be safe, so that the entertainment can continue.

I first started this East coast stream watching and chatting during American Idol, which I blogged about earlier this year. It is nice to watch these shows with others who find the funny in the unintended entertainment provided in badly sung karaoke and z-list celebrity Survivor-type shenanigans.

I have been rotating among four musical choices as I work at my computer. As always, the Grateful Dead is tops on the iTunes, but this week the Cardiff Reefers, Railroad Earth, and Yes We Can, Voices of a Grassroots Movement are also in heavy rotation. I am finding strength, sustenance in the positive messages and happy vibes of this week’s musical favorites.

Instead of focusing on the 80’s and 90’s Dead, during the time I toured and saw them live, I have been enjoying some older 60’s and 70’s Dead for the difference that PigPen, then Keith and Donna provide.

A friend, Bill, and I found recently that we share a fondness for the Cardiff Reefers, a band that played about 1,800 gigs before breaking up. San Diego marijuana loving ska/reggae/rock/jam brilliance. I don’t smoke, but I almost get a contact high listening to two CD’s Bill burned me of a concert from Santa Rosa’s old Magnolia’s. Bill and I both may have attended this concert, but not recognized each other then, caught up in our own lives between high school graduation and now.

Clare, an old girlfriend who turned me on to a lot of really cool stuff during the time we spent together, introduced me to Railroad Earth. An East coast folk rock jam band, Railroad Earth is just a nice tasty groove in this week’s menu.

Rounding out this week’s choices are songs sung by Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Wonder, John Mayer, Dave Stewart, Shontelle, Los Lonely Boys, John Legend, Suai, Jill Scott, Ozomatli, Jackson Browne, Sheryl Crow, Nulik Yusef, Kanye West, Adam Levine, Yolanda Adams, Keb’ Mo’, Ken Stacey, and Buddy Miller.

This week, an incredibly sweet gal from my long distant past reached out, asking for help. I let her know that we are interconnected, all things part of a greater whole. When in need, ask for help, and watch out, because help is coming. The trick is to ask for help. Too many people stay quiet and suffer alone, never knowing there is a way out of the unhappiness they find themselves in. Ask for help when you need it. Be prepared to work when help is offered. Not everyone has all the answers, you may have to ask more than one person for help.

The internet has provided me constant access to over 50 of my former high school classmates, hundreds of forum acquaintances – some friends, and countless unknown readers of my writings. You have lifted me when I felt down, you led me to the news of Murphy-Goode’s job offer, you have stepped up and voted my application into a a noticeable position. I have asked for help, and you have responded. In real life, I receive similar support and bounty, and a measure of difficulty at turns as well; I am trying to be open and receptive to the needs of others in return.

I might not be the right person to ask for help in all cases, and you might have to speak up, I’m partly deaf – but we are not alone.

As always, thanks for reading.