Sam (archaeologist, not dog) got me started on liberries libraries and actually, we had one of the coolest libraries on earth up there in the rugged outpost of Sault Ste. Siberia (er, Sam grew up near Lansing and I didn’t know her until college so we didn’t share libraries but that’s a whole ‘nother story). Anyway. Did/do other Carnegie libraries have lions? Ours did! I am pretty sure that the Carnegie Library down here on the Planet Ann Arbor did not have lions. The A2 Carnegie Library was never any more than a facade during my time here, as far as I know (I may be wrong). I can’t believe there was enough space between the library and Huron Street for lions and a big elegant staircase. It was embedded in a now demolished building that once housed Ann Arbor High and then became a U of M building. One that housed our own favorite Trueblood Theatre, where our own A2 Young Actors Guild used to perform their final summer theatre camp plays. I have so many good memories of helping to manage play productions in that un-air-conditioned place during the A2 Art Fair but they’ll have to wait for another post. That building has been torn down by the university, which has built some kind of uber dorm or whatever, I can’t exactly remember. My kids lived in rather shabby dorms over at K-College but they got a wonderful education out of it all (I think that is the point, I mean they grew up in this shabby little ticky-tacky west-side Planet A2 house) but that all is also a whole ‘nother story. Bottom line, the UM managed to incorporate the Carnegie Library facade into the new luxury dorm.

I don’t know how many Carnegie Libraries had lions out in front but ours did and I loved playing on them. The building *is* still there. It is now the office for the Eastern Upper Peninsula Intermediate School District. The building is being used! Yay! I got out at 6AM or so on Friday morning and got a bunch of pictures of Sault Ste. Siberia. Starting with sunrise going down Prospect, then some houses in the area of the library and the library itself and then I walked down near Brady Park and took pictures and I forget what else I included in the slide show, if anything. Click here or on the pic…

Oh yeah, speaking of bears, our northern correspondent, Paulette, has had a bear hanging around. She knows more or less where it lives. Moominbeach folk, think left of tunnel road somewhere. That didn’t make much sense! Right of tunnel road if you are going *down* the hill. She has implemented bear avoidance deterrence strategies.

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