101 Things You Didn't Know About Ann Arbor, Michigan: (But Are About to Find Out)

After you've browsed through this little book, you will better understand why Ann Arbor has a greater quirk quotient than most places. To prove his point, your curious author has dug up bits of esoterica - odd, amusing, and little-known strands that make up the city's variegated fabric. Sure, you live here, but how much do you really know about Ann Arbor? Can you name your hometown football legends, Playboy Magazine playmates, 1960s radicals, NASA astronauts, the local boxer who fought Jack Dempsey, the brainy UM graduate who attempted the perfect crime, or the local girl who flirted with Humphrey Bogart in "The Big Sleep"? Who was the native industrialist who helped build the Panama Canal? Or the Ann Arborite who created the world's largest technology company? How did a border dispute lead to the greatest rivalry in college football? Where is the city's only Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house? What is Ann Arbor's connection a Presidential assassination? Readers learn the answers to these intriguing questions and much, much more. Fascinating tangents and tidbits in purposely random sequence (with generous cross-references) create a ready-to-explore trail of knowledge about Ann Arbor and its environs, informing and entertaining, correcting myths and misconceptions, mostly revealing an unexpected treasure trove that brings a culture and a place into sharp focus.