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27 July 2010
(Art Fairs: Accessible from the Teeter Totter)
Nine months have now passed between views of the world from the end of a teeter totter. This most recent view down the board was of Brian Kerr. One way I know Brian is as a downtown pedestrian who strolls hatless down the sidewalk, even in bitterly cold weather, and who must be admonished as you bicycle past: "Put on a hat, it's cold out here!"
The chosen venue of our teeter totter ride was the middle of the intersection of Main and Liberty streets last Saturday morning, the last day of the Ann Arbor art fairs. We compromised our chosen venue somewhat by moving to the edge of the intersection, to accommodate concerns of art fair staff.
It was a small concession to make--we'd already dealt with the disappointment of being denied access to the bottom of the pit being dug for the underground parking garage along Fifth Avenue, just to the northeast. Construction sites can't reasonably be expected to be made accessible to random members of the general public--patrons of the arts, teeter totter riders, wheelchair users, the blind. That makes construction sites somewhat different from websites.
Under the Section 508 amendment of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973, federal agencies are required to make their websites accessible to people with disabilities. It's a different piece of legislation from the Americans with Disabilities Act, which just recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. But Section 508 is to websites what the ADA is to buildings--the idea is to make things accessible to disabled people.
Kerr works for a company called Deque, which specializes in helping to make websites work well for hearing- and visually-impaired people.
Here's a simple example. Visually impaired people sometimes use a screen-reader to get information from a website--it's a software program that tries to interpret the page using text-to-speech technology. If there's a picture on a page, say of a guy sitting on teeter totter, then what the screen reader interprets--and what the visually-impaired person hears--is just an indication that there's an image. If the author of the page supplies some description in the "behind the scenes" coding, the visually-impaired person might hear: "Brian Kerr, who is sitting on the end of a teeter totter. The view is down the board."
Like librarian Metta Landsdale, Kerr has a professional interest in making information accessible to people. And like Lou Rosenfeld, Kerr is a product of the master's degree program at the University of Michigan School of Information. And like Brandon Zwagerman, Kerr was one of a group of co-founders of ArborUpdate, a now-defunct local news and discussion website.
But there's something else that Kerr has in common with Landsdale, Rosenfeld and Zwagerman.
When they took their teeter totter rides, they were all leaving Ann Arbor. Landsdale was leaving for Traverse City to take a job directing the public library there. Rosenfeld was leaving for Brooklyn, New York, to start a publishing company. Zwagerman was also leaving for Brooklyn to take a job with an urban planning firm.
Kerr is leaving for Seattle, Washington, to continue to work for Deque--he already works for the company. Deque is headquartered in Reston, Virginia, so the geographic move is not job-related. It's fair to say that the kind of key-pressing that Kerr will continue to do for Deque allows a certain amount of geographic freedom.
Kerr is somebody I really knew of more than really knew during his time here in Ann Arbor. I kept up with him through the occasional blog post he'd write, a comment he'd leave, or a Tweet he'd send out into the world. That'll continue, I'm guessing.
What I will miss, though, is seeing him walking downtown and collecting a wave from him as I bicycle past. But there'll be bicyclists in Seattle for him to wave at, too.
For the complete conversation with Kerr, read his talk.
30 October 2009
(Launched from the Totter to Traverse City)
Longtime Ann Arbor resident Metta Lansdale was recently hired as director of the Traverse Area District Library in Traverse City. Her first day on the job is Nov. 2. I talked to her on the teeter totter just before her move north.
We talked about a range of moving topics--the fact that she's managed to sell her Ann Arbor house, how she found a place to live in Traverse City, her relationship to the Ann Arbor community, plus how she's getting rid of the stuff she doesn't want to move.
And some of that stuff includes books. I was keen to know how a librarian culls her own private collection.
In the mix of talk on the totter, there's some brief discussion of the tools currently being used by a historic district study committee in Ann Arbor. That committee is examining an area in Ann Arbor south of William Street as a possible historic district, and will eventually make a recommendation to the Ann Arbor city council on that matter.
25 August 2009
(Job Creation, Argo Dam, Movies, Fighting Crime)
In recent coverage of the Park Advisory Commission, The Ann Arbor Chronicle reported that Scott Rosencrans had just been elected chair by his colleagues on that body.
So despite the fact that he did not prevail in the recent city council
Democratic primary election in Ward 5, Rosencrans will continue to serve the Ann Arbor community--by chairing PAC. Among the topics we discussed on the totter was Argo Dam, which was a campaign issue that might have affected how Ward 5 residents voted. Incumbent Mike Anglin was against removing the dam, while Rosencrans supported its removal if the rowing community could be accommodated. Rowers make heavy use of Argo Pond. [See additional Chronicle dam coverage.]
Back in 2004, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality alerted the city of Ann Arbor to problems related to the earthen berm to the east of the dam. That berm separates the mill race--used by canoists to reach a portage around the dam--from the river. A task force and study lasting at least two years culminated in a months-long community dialogue on the future of the dam earlier this year. The city council has made no decision on a dam-in or dam-out solution.
The city recently sent a letter to the MDEQ asking for another extension in the deadline for a decision on how to address problems with the dam's toe drains. And Byron Lane, chief of the dam safety program with the MDEQ, has sent a response.
As I told Rosencrans on the totter, Mary Morgan of The Ann Arbor Chronicle spoke with Lane by phone last week, and got the central highlight from that response letter: MDEQ is giving the city of Ann Arbor an order to close off the mill race. The Chronicle has requested a copy of the letter--both from MDEQ and the city.
Rosencrans' reaction to that order is not the only part of the 1-hour Talk that makes for interesting reading. For example, we also talked a bit about what sort of reading Rosencrans himself is doing these days. And we talked about Rosencrans' background in the movie business--ways to support the movie industry in Michigan and in Ann Arbor specifically. And that ties in to another tottering theme, which Rosencrans says he wishes he'd communicated better during the Ward 5 city council primary campaign: job creation.
From my end of the totter, though, what made me happiest was three separate tales Rosencrans told on the totter of crime fighting--in China, Chicago, and right here in Ann Arbor on Fourth Street.
And Rosencrans even gave me two specfiic suggestions on how to reduce creaking from the totter during rides (it interferes with sound quality and makes transcription a greater challenge). One was to use some plastic bushings on the pivot point. The other was to level up the base. The latter recommendation has already been implemented.
For details, read Scott's Talk.
29 July 2009
(Are You Done with That Section?)
Last Thursday, 23 July 2009, The Ann Arbor News published its final edition after nearly 175 years in business. I spent part of that morning talking on the teeter totter with Brian Tolle about what people "hire" newspapers to do -- besides provide them with news and information.
The notion of "hiring" newspapers -- by subscribing to them -- to do a "job" is a way of thinking about products that comes naturally to Tolle. He works in the field of organization development, providing consulting services to technology companies on the people side of the equation.
Tolle has a tolerance, even enthusiasm, for change and innovation. So when pitched the idea of reading a newspaper on a high-tech paper scroll, he did not fall off the teeter totter laughing.
When it comes to newspapers, here's the kind of question Tolle is not likely to ask: Do you want national coverage? Do you prefer lots of pictures and charts? How about captions on the pictures? Should sports be a part of the newspaper coverage? Which of these two fonts do you prefer? How about horoscopes? Would you like editorials?
Instead, Tolle is more likely to begin with: Will you miss getting the newspaper? And if the answer is Yes, he'll then follow up with, Why?
On the totter, Tolle gives two examples of people who will miss their paper. They've hired the newspaper to do a job other than provide news and information.
As usual, the conversation on the totter includes a range of topics, and there is one revelation that will come as a great news to potential future riders who wonder if there's "facilities" available. For details, read Brian's Talk.
15 July 2009
(Art of Peace and Nonviolence: A Totter)
During public commentary at a recent city council meeting, Alan Haber (a co-founder of the Students for a Democratic Society) suggested that the city-owned parcel on Ann Arbor's downtown "library lot" be dedicated to a use that celebrates the culture of peace and nonviolence for the children of the world.
The occasion of his remarks was consideration by the council of a Request for Proposals (RFP) process for development of the library lot site. The outcome of the council's deliberations was to issue the RFP in mid-August. One condition for the development of the site is that it at least be revenue-neutral. Otherwise put, a proposal that doesn't cost the city any money is okay, even if it doesn't generate revenue for the city.
The public space evisioned by Haber and others would incur some construction costs, and there would be ongoing maintenance costs for any such amenity. So the idea might be easy for some to dismiss as not meeting the most basic of the criteria.
However, if one is inclined to find a way to realize that vision, one approach is to think of that pubic space as art--functional art of the same kind that Herbert Dreiseitl has already been commissioned to design to process storm water for the new municipal center. The designs for that storm water art project will be presented on July 20, and the Ann Arbor Public Art Commission is likely to approve them, as is the city council.
The storm water art would be funded through the city's Percent for Art program, which sets aside 1% of the cost for any municipal capital project for public art, which is administered by AAPAC. Maintenance costs for public art are factored into AAPAC funding.
A revenue-neutral solution for the library lot could thus emerge as a result of considering the public plaza concept as art. How plausible is that?
One possible parallel is Veterans Memorial Park on Ann Arbor's west side, which is a memorial in the form of a park. And the Wave Field on the University of Michigan's north campus is an example of a public open park-like space that is explicitly intended and recognized as art. It's therefore not unreasonable to consider a public plaza as art.
It would, however, need to be recognizable as "art."
One approach would be to contemplate the installation of some kind of grand teeter totter on the library lot. The teeter totter itself promotes cooperation and understanding. And it's all about balance. So it's not unreasonable to contend that a teeter totter embodies the sort of peace and understanding Haber is talking about.
Plus, children love teeter totters. At Ann Arbor's Townie Party on July 13, I set up Totter 2.0 in a grassy area, and it was immediately swarmed with kids. If you're not convinced by the photo at the top of this entry that kids love a teeter totter, have a look at the whole set of Townie Party teeter tottering photos.
And it's not just the children of Ann Arbor. Alum of the totter, Joan Lowenstein, sent along the second photo from her recent trip to Korea. The ancient teeter totters in the photo are in the village commons. Their use in Korea, as I understand it, is typically in a standing position to bounce people into the air. They're still teeter totters.
To sum up, placement of a grand teeter totter on the library lot as a piece of art could be consistent with dedicating at least part of the space to peace and understanding for the children of the world, and the Percent for Art program could provide a mechanism for funding it.
Such an approach would not necessarily preclude installation of that art in the context of some additional development for the library lot site.
7 July 2009
(See-Saw Salve)
I care what things are called. Therefore I do not take lightly the headline written for this introduction to the most recent Teeter Talk--with Caryn Simon. I do not prefer the term "see-saw." In fact I rather dislike it.
It's a teeter totter, not a see-saw, and I want you to remember that.
Given that I have the power to write headlines as I like, why use a term I find odious? Because "see-saw" alliterates with "salve." And I enjoy alliteration more than I dislike the term "see-saw." Why "salve"? Because Caryn teaches a class on salve-making. [First session is July 11. Contact Info here.] Caryn makes salves from scratch, starting with fresh flowers picked on her farm. The morning of our totter ride up on North Territorial Road last week, she made tea from scratch after picking lemon balm from her garden.
In the course of her Talk we touched on salve-making, her work as a doula, whether she lives in Ann Arbor or Whitmore Lake, and what led her to lead the kind of life she's living.
In the category of everything-is-connected-to-everything, I would put the following fact: Some of the chickens on Caryn's farm were only one degree separated from the teeter totter prior to her ride. It turns out that some of her chickens are refugees from Peter Beal's place, which he had to abandon a couple of years ago.
On the totter I learned a lot--among other things that a salve is different from a paste. It did not occur to me to ask Caryn if a salve was the same as a tincture. I wish I had. I might have gotten a better headline out of that.
4 June 2009
(Tenor Totter)
Of the possible opera singers who could appear on the totter, I figure it's always best to go with the kind that alliterates with the venue: a tenor. But if I ever had occasion to invite a soprano to ride, I suppose
it might be possible to relax my rigid instance on "teeter totter" as the name of the equipment, in order to achieve a "Soprano See-Saw."
But no such accommodation was necessary for Shawn McDonald, who is not a soprano, but a tenor with the Arbor Opera Theater. He's the artistic director for the upcoming production of Die Fledermaus from June 18-21 at the Mendelssohn Theater. The AOT website includes a full
schedule of Die Fledermaus events, including specifics of performance times and ticket information.
When I think opera, I think of the movie "Moonstruck"--there's a scene where characters played by Nicholas Cage and Cher go to an opera. The opera in "Moonstruck" is one of those weighty affairs, fraught with desperate emotion and death. Which is not at all what Die Fledermaus is like, based on Shawn's description.
Die Fledermaus is a light, comedic piece, accessible to the whole family--that's what he told me on the totter. From the sound of it, it could work as a "starter opera" for someone who's unfamiliar with the whole genre. Say, for someone like me, who did not recognize the name "Zeffirelli" when Shawn dropped it on the totter. For more on the Zeffirelli connection to AOT's production of Die Fledermaus, as well as what it's like in Ann Arbor to earn your money as a musician--if not as an opera singer, read Shawn McDonald's Talk.
28 May 2009
(A Walk to the River)
There's been an unintended two-month hiatus in tottering. Talking on the totter resumed last week with Brenda Bentley.
I met Brenda around this time of year standing on the Broadway Bridge--the one
over the Huron River, not the one over the railroad tracks. I first thought it was last year, but my recollection is hazy.
Through that haze, I think I remember the reason I was hanging out on a bridge that's not in my neighborhood: I was waiting for Liz Elling to pass through during her swim along the length of the Huron River.
Elling swam around a 100 miles down the Huron in July 2007. So it's actually been two years since I first met Brenda.
On that occasion, she was taking notes for a book she was writing about walking routes that lead to the river. Consistent with my habit, I invited her to come ride the teeter totter once she completed the book.
The book is done. Last Friday, she took delivery of the first edition of "Riverwalks, Ann Arbor," which was printed by Goetzcraft Printers. We tottered on location where North State tees into Fuller Road, just east of the Gandy Dancer restaurant. It's a place included on one of her riverwalks.
For more on what's in the book, and what the impact of the long tottering hiatus was on the equipment, read Brenda's Talk.
The book can be purchased at Downtown Home & Garden as well as Crazy Wisdom Bookstore. Both stores are located in downtown Ann Arbor.
23 March 2009
(Ecology Center Canvasser)
How does someone like Ariane Carr come to be a guest on my backyard teeter totter?
I live in a neighborhood that is frequently targeted by canvassers for various causes. In my youth, I knocked on doors selling subscriptions to the morning newspaper that I delivered (the Courier-Journal out of Louisville, KY), and I have no fond memories of that experience. So I do not envy the task of these mostly 20-something folks wielding clipboards. For several years I've had a long-standing strategy of telling them right up front, I'm not handing over any money, but I'm happy to sign stuff and write stuff. I don't want to waste their time if money is the only way they can use my help.
In the time since I built the teeter totter in my backyard, I have begun offering canvassers a ride on it. Generally, the offer is met with skepticism. But it's not unprecedented that a canvasser has accepted the offer.
Last Wednesday evening, on returning home from the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority board meeting (which I covered for The Ann Arbor Chronicle), Ariane Carr knocked on my door. She was canvassing for the Ecology Center in support of state legislation that would require manufacturers of children's toys to declare what sort of stuff they're putting in them. And she had the gumption to climb aboard the totter.
23 February 2009
(Annie Get Your Gun Redux)
A couple of weeks ago, I pointed readers to connections of the totter to the recent Burns Park Players production of Annie Get Your Gun. I missed one of those connections that was fairly dramatic. Apparently, if you take away the 12-foot long board, you take away all the contextual clues I need to recognize someone.
Here's a photo of that totter alum playing the role of Tommy Keeler. His line in the musical should have been "I once rode a teeter totter that was longer than this." That way I would have pegged him instantly as an alum of the totter. Scan through all the complete set of teeter totter portraits to see if you can recognize him yourself, or go straight to his Talk to see who that is.
17 February 2009
(Traffic Totter)
I first met Zak Branigan outside the UPS store at Westgate shopping center, when I was dropping off a load in the course of my bicycle delivery duties. He'd recognized me by the sign on my bicycle trailer for ArborTeas, which is run by a friend of his, and alum of the totter, Jeremy Lopatin.
Subsequent email correspondence to recruit Zak to ride the totter led him to suggest the middle of a roundabout as a place to teeter totter. With three such junctions recently constructed on North Maple Road, and others planned at Nixon and Plymouth as well as on Geddes and US-23, Ann Arbor area drivers are getting more familiar with these road intersections where traffic flows one-way around a central island. I figured Zak was kidding. He wasn't. It turns out he's something of a roundabout geek.
It's one of the briefer Talks on the Totter, but we were out in the middle of the roundabout for long enough to see people we knew drive by. And Zachary Branigan's Talk also touches briefly on his work with Habitat for Humanity.
15 February 2009
(Annie Get Your Totter)
The Burns Park Players production of "Annie Get Your Gun" over the last two weekends provided a couple of connections to the teeter totter, some more direct than others.
First off was Tom Bourque's portrayal of the famous Sioux chief, Sitting Bull.
Tom was one of the first people to sit on the totter with me -- way back in 2005.
Next up was Eva Rosenwald's portrayal of Annie. Her connection to the totter is through the last person to ride the totter with me, Christopher Taylor. Eva is married to Chrisopher. This year's show is now over, so you've missed it just as sure as Annie missed her shots in the final shooting match against Frank Butler. But the Burns Park Players will perform again next February with a new production. 
And finally, the young woman who provided some background juggling in the show, is connected to a trio of totter alums, if only through the fact of her juggling: Bruce Fields, Dave Lewis, and Sara S.
I met those guys at last year's juggling festival put on by the Ann Arbor Juggling Arts Club. This year's spring event on 16 May 2009, is approaching faster than you'd think. Details under the previous link.
8 February 2009
(Taylor on the Totter)
Christopher Taylor, one of two Ann Arbor city council representatives for Ward 3, rode the totter a couple of weeks ago. His conversation is ready to read.
I would highlight the discussion of city-university relations as a topic of broader significance. For details, read Taylor's Talk.
Other topics on the totter included the orange mug he drank from on the occasion, the CTN mugs from his recent appearance on CTN's Conversations, getting stuff done at the individual constituent level, snow removal in Ann Arbor, and how Taylor came to live in Ann Arbor.
With Christopher Taylor's participation in Teeter Talk, the voting block on city council consisting of totter alums has been restored to its peak of 5 (of 11) current members. To be clear, I am in no way suggesting that alums of the totter on council represent a coalition of any kind or that they lord their participation in Teeter Talk over other non-tottering councilmembers.
Taylor also joined a select subset of totter alums that is likely tracked by few people other than me. Call them the "Orange Mug Gang," or O.M.G. for short.
15 January 2009
(Telephone Totter)
On Tuesday of this week, the totter returned to action after a long period of inactivity. We reprised a theme with some previous history on the totter: real-time parking data. This time around, the live-data feed on parking space availability, which is streamed to the web by Ann Arbor's Downtown development authority, has been piped into a telephone system.
The guy who did that: Fred Posner. He doesn't work for the city of Ann Arbor, the Downtown Development Authority, or Republic Parking. To get a little insight into what led him to undertake such a project, and if you want the number to call, you're going to have to read Fred's Talk. [Here's documentation on how he accomplished the data-to-telephone part].
Apologies for the illegible titles in the video. The whole thing lasts less than a minute, and is, I think, worth suffering through the awful titles.
9 December 2008
(The Totter Turns 3)
Since helping Mary Morgan launch The Ann Arbor Chronicle in early September of this year, the ups and downs of the teeter tottering board have slowed their pace. But tottering has continued and the intent is that it will continue, I think, until I die.
In the last few weeks, I've received a couple of useful leads from readers for prospective riders. For that I'm grateful, because I have not been as attentive to rider recruitment as the enterprise currently requires--the project has not yet reached the point where folks are just queuing up to ride. Readers who have specific suggestions for how Teeter Talk could achieve that kind of appeal, or who have names and contact information for folks who could be coaxed into riding, or who would like to step forward to claim a spot in the pantheon of the community that totter alums define, are encouraged to send an email to homelessdave@homelessdave.com
To get a quick overview of that group, I constructed a single page with all the portraits.
If you scroll all the way to the bottom of that chronologically sorted list, you'll see the first alum of the totter: Rene Greff. Note the date on that ride. Today, thus marks the third anniversary of Teeter Talk. Thanks to all the riders and the readers alike, who've made this possible.
20 November 2008
(What Rhymes with Potter?)
Many readers of
Teeter Talk will have surely seen Yourist Pottery Gallery's sign from the Plymouth Road side as they've headed into or out of Ann Arbor across Broadway Bridge.
A smaller number will have seen the signage from the more lightly traveled Broadway Street side. And some readers will have also seen the place from the inside. Last Friday, I took the totter to the potter: Kay Yourist.
Navigating a 12-foot long board amongst some really pretty pottery is not for the faint of heart. But we managed to do it without wrecking the place, preserving the perfect safety record of the totter to date.
Skeptics who think I must have busted a pot or two are invited to verify for themselves that the floor is not littered with shards of broken pots--when Yourist Pottery hosts its annual holiday sale. The opening reception for that (including wine and appetizers) is Friday, 5 December from 6pm-9pm. 
Off the totter, Kay related a great story about her first wheel--she bartered it away when she was short of the cash that she needed to
pay the entry fee to the Ann Arbor art fair. But clearly, she's got it back now--that's the wheel in the photograph included here. For details on how she got it back, ask Kate herself. (Note: The pot she's throwing as a demonstration in the photo is visible only to the pure of heart.)
On the totter, the potter talked about the new kiln that has to be closed and opened one brick at a time, plus the teapot (it's functional) shown here, and her first wheel, which I was delighted to discover is human-powered.
In the Talk you can also read about and see a photograph of a first-time ever execution on the Teeter Talk totter of a perfect float.
16 November 2008
(Gearing up to Feed the Hungry: What are you Crankful for?)
Fresh off organizing a Halloween-themed alley cat bicycle race (Night of the Living Tread III), alum of the Totter, Jimmy Raggett, sent along an announcement of another local alley-cat style race coming up on Sunday, 23 November (signup at 3:00pm at the Main Street entrance of Bandemer Park): Cranksgiving.
This is the second year of Cranksgiving in Ann Arbor, which Andy H. has organized to benefit Food Gatherers. And that should please another alum of the Totter, Eileen Spring,
who directs that non-profit.
For readers unfamiliar with alley-cat style races, the concept is somewhat like a scavenger hunt on bicycles. In the case of Cranksgiving, the items to be scavenged are non-perishable food items purchased at various local grocery retailers. Participants will need to spend $10-20 in order to make all their purchases to prove they visited the stores on the race route. At the finish line, the food gets handed over to Food Gatherers.
Participants will need a way to carry a modest quantity of food. (I don't think it's going to to fit in the cargo pockets of your knickers, not matter how stretchy they are). For citizen folk in Ann Arbor area grocery stores on Sunday afternoon, if there's a guy behind you in line wearing a bike helmet who's about to cough up a lung from the physical effort of pedaling around town trying to win cool prizes and benefit Food Gatherers at the same time, well, maybe think about letting that guy go ahead of you. He'll be crankful for the gesture.
13 November 2008
(Human Scale)
Regular readers of this website seem to be exactly that: readers as opposed to visitors looking to do something besides spending some time reading. I figure those readers spend little time watching television, which is a shame, because there's so much awfully great stuff to watch that I wish I had more time to watch TV. It's a disappointment to me that this fall season I haven't had a chance to watch a single episode of the Cute GirlRobot Show (a.k.a. The Sarah Connor Chronicles ... seriously, where did you think the inspiration for the name came from for the other publication I work on?)
But I did have a chance to turn on the TV recent long enough to see an ad for Shazam, a company that seems to have partnered with iPhone to help people figure out what song it is they're listening to. Here's how it works as near as I can tell: let your iPone listen to some music and SHAZAM it tells you what song it is ... and where to buy it.
This will all sound familiar to the real readers of Teeter Talk--the dedicated souls who've read every word from the very beginning almost three years ago. They will remember Steve Glauberman talking about exactly this sort of thing on the totter ... in 2005. It could well have been Shazam that Glauberman was talking about.
But my point is not that Teeter Talk gets you all your tech-innovation news before anyone else. It's that Shazam is pretty much the opposite of everything that Teeter Talk stands for. Teeter Talk is not about letting a software algorithm figure out what song you're listening to. Teeter Talk is about getting some dude who knows what song it is to tell you what song you're listening to. Best possible case scenario is when you have the guy who's playing the song sitting right there in front of you on your teeter totter and you just ask him, "What the hell was that?" Robert Droppleman (bagpipes) and John Floyd (violin) were both happy to oblige with the answer.
But how do you scale up that method so that it works anytime that anybody needs an answer? Answer: you don't. It doesn't scale. Which is exactly the point. The approach is fundamentally on the human scale. It doesn't scale, because a teeter totter is not, ahem, a scale, even though it resembles one and could be adapted to weigh stuff.
In conclusion, the human scale enforced by the teeter totter has the somewhat unhappy effect that the cute girlrobot from the Sarah Connor Chronicles is not a candidate for a teeter totter ride. But that still leaves plenty of other human folks who would be great candidates.
9 November 2008
(Diversity on the Totter)
With the departure of Stephen Kunselman, Joan Lowenstein, and Chris Easthope from Ann Arbor's city council, the ranks of totter alums on that body were halved. Remaining are Leigh Greden, John Hieftje, and Stephen Rapundalo. But Carsten Hohnke, newly elected representative for Ward 5, boosts the number of totter alums on council back to four.
Percentage-wise,
though, the slide from six to four means that totter alums no longer represent a majority on council. And that means that we've got a majority of folks on council who may not have any sense of balance. I am deeply troubled on behalf of our community by this trend.
I would feel more comfortable if everyone on city council were an alum of the totter. I don't think it would be such a bad idea to think about adding an 
eligibility requirement: candidates for any local Ann Arbor office are required to ride the teeter totter.
But in looking to the future, I'm not going to make a concentrated effort to recruit the seven non-teetering councilmembers to ride--they're plenty welcome, don't get me wrong. But I think I'll heed the caution that Joan Lowenstein gave at her final council meeting. The makeup of city council, she said, doesn't necessarily reflect the diversity of the Ann Arbor community and those who serve on that body need to be mindful to represent those whose experiences they might not necessarily share. The ridership of the totter is meant to reflect as much as possible the rich diversity of the community. So I'm not going to focus on "completing the set" of councilmembers, but rather on working towards the goal of conversations across the whole community.
I'm going to begin by reflecting on the fact that I have afforded the chicken a privileged status on the totter over the last year. What if anything, I wonder, do I have against other farm animals? The included photo (from heiwa4126's Flickr photostream) of the teetering cow is a small step towards rectifying this apparent prejudice. [Thanks to Bill Tozier for sending along the photo.]
With Thanksgiving on the near horizon, I think it'd be fun to ride with a turkey--a turkey totter, if you will. So if there's any readers out there who can hook me up with a turkey, I'd sure appreciate a heads up. And no, I'm not kidding.
31 October 2008
(Ward 5)
There's an Open Totter policy for Teeter Talk, which means that I'll pretty much totter with anyone who's willing. When political candidates totter during an election, I try to make sure that there's equal opportunity for tottering all around.
Having tottered with Carsten Hohnke back in September, it was thus fitting and proper that I took a turn with
John Floyd a couple of weeks ago. While I'm satisfied to have tottered with both Ward 5 city council candidates before Election Day, I'd like to extend my apologies to readers for not turning around the transcript for John's Talk in a more timely fashion. As a way of partly compensating for the delay, that Talk includes a rare departure from the usual text-only practice: some bonus audio of John's fiddle playing right there on the teeter totter.
Note:
As a matter of practice, Teeter Talk has never endorsed candidates for political office, and The Ann Arbor Chronicle continues this approach. For additional information on the two candidates, visit their websites:
Carsten Hohnke's campaign website
John Floyd's campaign website
30 October 2008
(Colon Cancer)
Back in the early days of Teeter Talk, I did a "virtual totter ride" with a guy out in California named
Scott Schnaars. We conducted the Talk via Yahoo! chat, because that's the company he worked for at the time. Now he works for Socialtext. Not very long after Scott's virtual ride, his wife, Holly, was diagnosed with colon cancer. After
aggressive surgical treatment and chemotherapy, Scott and Holly had a sigh of relief after the latest round of test results from August of this year.
Summarized that way in two sentences, Holly's story is neat and tidy and has a happy end. Since Holly's diagnosis, I've had on my mental white board of potential totter guests someone who would climb aboard--not just virtually--and talk about colon cancer. I didn't have a particular person in mind. But that person turned out to be
Bridget Weise Knyal.
Bridget's story of her husband Jarrett's illness is neither neat nor tidy, nor did it have a happy end a little less than a year ago. Part of that story involves the binder of explanations of benefits received from the Knyal's health insurance company along the way. Part of it involves looking back at the why's and the what-if's. Part of it involves looking forward to a future returning to the workforce. The important part, though, is now, whenever now happens to be.
The now of two weeks ago was tottering with Bridget (and Violet) on my front porch. This Talk is like all the rest of them--not neat and tidy, served up rough edges and all. And now that the Talk is published, readers can read about that now.
17 October 2008
(Youth Council)
If Dawn Lovejoy's Talk was sponsored by the letter "Y", then the Talk with Neal Kelley and Jameson Tamblyn was sponsored ... also by the letter "Y". Neal and Jameson are both seniors at Huron High School in Ann Arbor, yet found themselves over on the western part of town last Sunday in front of the new YMCA. That's where the Youth Council meets, a body they co-chair. Don't know what the Youth Council is? Read their Talk and find out.
14 October 2008
(Dawn Lovejoy)
If Elizabeth Parkinson's Talk was sponsored by the letter "Q", then it's fair to say that Dawn Lovejoy's Talk was sponsored by the letter "Y". Read her Talk for more insight into that, plus get a possible answer to the question: What serves as the true motivation for some bicycle racers? Here's some choices to mull over before reading Dawn's Talk:
- fame and glory
- cash money
- fruit confections
- fear of humiliation
- a brand new car
Plus, I'd like to thank Dawn on behalf of The Ann Arbor Chronicle for walking the course with me during her team's race at the Priority Health Cycling Classic on Sept. 7 and providing much of the insight that went into the Chronicle's write-up of that event.
13 October 2008
(Connections to the Totter)
As a preview to the next Talk, (which is not being published today) I offer a random connection made in the 
last month to a previous Talk. This connection was made at the Priority Health cycling race held in downtown Ann Arbor on 7 September.
I was busy documenting the road rash sustained by Laura Johnson (on the left in the photo) during her race when one of her teammates asked me, "Are you Dave?" After confirming my identity, Laura's teammate went on to explain that she was friends with Dale Winling and Kate Bosher, two alums of the totter. But the random connection to the totter goes a little deeper than just being friends with Dale and Kate. Laura's teammate, Ms. Ferris (on the right in the photo), called Kate during Kate's ride, which is faithfully transcribed as a part of Kate's Talk. So, as Ms. Ferris put it, "I'm in there!"
I refer to Ms. Ferris with this stilted formula of "Ms. Ferris" only because I think that if readers are curious to know what her first name is, they should go to the trouble to review Kate's Talk. That link takes modern browsers directly to the point in the Talk where the phone call arrives.
11 October 2008
(What are the Financial Markets Doing?)
As reported in the Ann Arbor Chronicle, last week a dozen distinguished alumni from the University of Michigan Department of Economics gathered for a panel discussion to discuss the current financial crisis. What was crucially missing from the article published by The Chronicle was a characterization of current market conditions made by Linda Tesar, chair and professor of economics at the University of Michigan.
How did Professor Tesar conclude her statement?
- roller coastering along.
- swinging back-and-forth.
- yo-yoing up and down.
- sliding into oblivion.
- pogo-sticking along.
- none of these.
The correct answer is (f.) none of these. And I figure nobody reading this publication really needs to be told what she said.
8 October 2008
(Elizabeth Parkinson)
Conan Smith tottered with me the day after Christmas in 2005 and at the time he was the County Board of Commissioners' representative to the Washtenaw Development Council, which was then merging with SPARK, another economic development entity. Because I figured Conan might have some clout on this issue, I suggested to him on the totter that the name SPARK could be changed to SPARQ. I think pretty much anything with a "K" or a "C" sound could be improved by replacement with a "Q".
A couple of weeks ago, I took another shot at the name change while tottering with Elizabeth Parkinson, who is Managing Director of Marketing and Public Relations for SPARK. Long story short, that's a name change that's not going to happen. But we did talk a lot about names on the totter--nicknames, company names, event names. We covered everything from Kentucky Fried Chicken (Elizabeth Parkinson used to work on their account) to SPARK's Entrepreneur Boot Camp.
Elizabeth seemed open to the possibility of re-naming the Boot Camp to something else. So that's where readers of Teeter Talk and The Chronicle can help. Come up with an alternative name for Boot Camp. Here, I'll get things started: Entrepreneur Boot Qamp.
18 September 2008
(Carsten Hohnke)
I met Carsten Hohnke for the first time back in the spring when he was walking the street collecting signatures so that he could appear on the ballot for the Ward 5 city council primary election. You don't get to visit my street with a clipboard without my trying to harrass you into riding my teeter totter. Carsten stopped by again later in the campaign and had actually noodled through a set of different spots around Ann Arbor that might have some symbolic value for a possible Totter 2.0 on-location ride.
In the end, we opted for my front porch. As for the other locations, I'll leave Teeter Talk readers to speculate on those that Carsten proposed. Or if you bump into him, that can be an opening conversational gambit: "So, Carsten, where did you wanna totter?"
We talked about process engineering, flying airplanes, doodles on ballots ... and zeitgeist. Read Carsten's Talk.
8 September 2008
(Tottering to Continue)
Publication of new Talks will resume shortly. I needed a short respite to launch The Ann Arbor Chronicle. That's an ambitious project: local news, not just about teeter totters, brought to you in an online format on a daily basis. Mary Morgan, who inspired the tune, Teeter Totter Bride (available on CD with a bunch of other novelties) and is in fact my actual bride, will be providing adult supervision at The Chronicle.
2 September 2008
(Four More Years)
The teeter totter that I call Totter Classic turns 4 today. Happy Birthday to you, Totter Classic. When you were first born, you thought it was just going to be an occasional ride by Mary and me. But a little over a year later, you were pressed into service for Teeter Talk. And you've held up under the collective weight of over 150 different riders, with only minor squeaks of complaint. That's something like 9 metric tons worth of butt you've supported, without shedding a splinter into any of them--as far as I'm aware. Good job. (So far).
29 August 2008
(Michelle Obama)
It's been a quiet week on the teeter totter in my backyard. So a visit from Michelle Obama was just what I needed. But I didn't get a visit from Michelle Obama. Totter alums Nyima and Josh Funk
did, though. Holy crap! They were at the Democratic National Convention performing with Second City when Michelle Obama just happened to drop by, and started handing out hugs.
Stuff like that never happens to me.
But if it does, I can tell you one thing: I'm not going to try to run away from Michelle Obama like Nyima did. Check out the hold that the next First Lady has on Nyima's shoulder. The caption on that photo should read: "Squirm though she did, Nyima just couldn't escape the vise-like grip of the next First Lady." I'd put that caption right on there, except that formatting captions by hand in HTML takes more effort than this juvenile little joke of mine is worth.
And except for the fact that it would mean indulging in the political-wanker-speak "next First Lady". That's a way of saying, "I'm supporting Obama," without actually saying it. So I'm not gonna do it--wouldn't be prudent at this juncture to talk about this election as a foregone conclusion. Because the more we do that, the more Ann Arborites will just stay home, figuring that Ann Arbor will show a plurality for Obama. So it would be a shame if that plurality wasn't big enough to put Obama over the top for Michigan and Obama lost the overall election because of it.
A real shame. Because now that a totter alum has been hugged by Michelle Obama, a loss for Obama would mean my loss, too ... at a legitimate shot for only 3 degrees of separation from a sitting president.
That would really put Bill Clinton's participation in Teeter Talk in perspective. If you're keeping score, there's a multiplier for sitting presidents that on the 'Cool Kids Thermo-meter' [rhymes with 'teeter'], makes 3 degrees separated from a sitting president worth like 10 times as much as 1 degree from a former president.
TT Log Archives
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available in the TT Log Archives are just the log entries.