two fell swoops

Why is it that people turn store names into possessives?
Here in southeast Michigan, it happens with a lot of grocery stores names. Meijer becomes “Meijer’s.” Kroger becomes “Kroger’s.” Farmer Jack becomes “Farmer Jack’s.” Even Kerrytown’s little Sparrow becomes “Sparrow’s,” (after owner Bob Sparrow). And it’s common to hear people say that they or someone they […]

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Yesterday on my way home from work I drove past this:

In a busy Midwestern college town, this has to happen to everyone at least once.  The poor guy was clearing snow away from his car using only his hands. I felt kind of bad about taking the picture, and then I remembered that I’d thrown […]

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The other day my job led me to a place I’d never been before - the alley right next to the State Theater entrance. Some graffiti on the wall there announced a free concert at another alley in Ann Arbor, an alley with a name: Tripper’s Alley.
Tripper’s Alley is supposedly named for the longtime […]

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Whenever I go by, these two houses and their respective detached garages appear solitary and stately, set back from the road on a large empty lot just east of Platt on the north side of Packard. They’ve been abandoned for years - their exteriors unmaintained - to the point that the paint and siding has […]

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I’d driven by the sign a thousand times and always wondered what Putt N Glow was. I pictured all the little hills and faux-greenery of a typical miniature golf course, except inside, under bright florescent lights. But when I finally resolved to go there last week - with my fellow Swoop in tow […]

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We like to walk around town and take pictures of surfaces that are weathered or aged or decaying or distressed or whatever you want to call it.  And we want to archive some of those pictures here on our blog.  So I thought it would be appropriate for the first post to feature one of […]

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Even though we cringe just as much as the next person when we hear the term “Treetown”, we still think there’s a place for the recognition of outstanding trees. So, for the first post in what we hope will be a regular series here at TwoFellSwoops, I thought we should feature the tree that […]

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It’s old news now that Ann Arbor legend Shaky Jake has died. Even older and less newsworthy - and perhaps just as sad - is the familiar chorus about the “death of Ann Arbor” that follows such a passing from our town. Witness the comments on the just-linked Ann Arbor News story:
The Del Rio is […]

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