JULY 24, 2026 ON MY CORNER MEET YOUR VENDOR I love public television I love watching public television like Detroit PBS. It is very relaxing and soothing to watch. Sometimes I take a break from watching and just listen to what is on. Public TV has interesting and educational shows. I like children and adult shows, some cartoons, the news and cooking shows. Public TV has my favorite children’s shows like “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.” It is a favorite cartoon of mine Joe Woods, Groundcover vendor No. 103 In one sentence, who are you? I'm a chameleon; I can adapt to any situation. When and why did you start selling Groundcover? I started selling Groundcover in 2011 because I needed to make some money! Where do you sell? Fourth Ave. and Washington St., outside Literati Bookstore. What is your favorite place in Ann Arbor? Liberty and Main Streets and the Michigan Theater in the evening. What is something about you that someone on the street wouldn’t know? I like to go to the Comedy Showcase. What motivates you to work hard selling Groundcover News? I thrive to be number one. What's the best/worst thing about selling Groundcover? The best thing about selling Groundcover is meeting new and interesting people. And the worst thing is dealing with the elements. If you had to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Chicken, collard greens, macaroni and cheese and cornbread. If you had a warning label, what would yours say? Proceed with caution: I go with 1 to 100 in 0.1 second. What words do you live by? Progress has no ending just the beginning. What is the most impressive thing you know how to do? Adapt. because it is about the work of Mr. Rogers. I enjoyed “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” when it was on. I also enjoy watching “Molly of Denali.” The show reminds me of my friend, and vendor at Groundcover, Panda. I like to watch shows about Native American people. Another children’s show I love to watch is "Carl the Collector." It is about a raccoon with autism who likes to collect things. It is a new show, but it has been on for a little while. It is fun and interesting. It is about friendship and sharing. I think the show is great for kids and adults. I like to watch the news DENISE SHEARER Groundcover vendor No. 485 programs on public TV. I like to know what is happening in the whole world. I turn the news on about twice a day, mornings and evenings, just to see what is happening. When I watch the news I feel different types of feelings. Sometimes I feel sad or scared, but when I hear good things happening in the world it makes me feel good. I watch both local and international news on PBS. I like some of the travel shows. They show beautiful scenery. I like watching travel shows because I can see beautiful places without traveling far. I would love to travel up north some day in the summertime right here in Michigan. I like to watch cooking shows about Julia Child or BBQ or diners. In the past I have tried to cook one of Julia Child’s soup recipes. I took her idea of taking lots of onions and putting them into a chicken soup I was making. It came out tasting good! I appreciate learning new cooking skills and how to flavor food. When PBS used to play music from the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s I liked that a lot. I liked hearing the different doowop music because I think it is soothing. This type of music would help put me to sleep when I had trouble falling asleep at night. Christian music does the same thing for me. Finally, I like to watch certain documentaries on PBS. enjoyed watching Ken Burns’ I “Country Music" documentary. I just learned that Ken Burns grew up in Ann Arbor! It makes liking this documentary more special because it was made by someone from where I live. I love public television and I hope it stays forever! Editor's note: Public television and other public broadcasting was federally defunded by $1B in July 2025. Of Water and the Spirit Recent escalations in a now-prolonged military conflict between The United States of America and Iran have sparked a number of theological dialogue-style debates, of late, between practitioners of Judeo-Christian and Islamic faiths. These seem quite productive until foundational matters such as, oh, the very nature of God are evoked. On this matter, it is affirmative that the two sides do not see eye-to-eye about the fundamental nature of a Supreme Being to which both sides ascribe the title God. In the Judeo-Christian view, God has a TRIUNE nature. Known in Christian parlance as The Trinity, it encompasses a mystery that allows for Three parts (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) to make up the One personage of the God (head) of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — YAHWEH. Islam, on the other hand, believes in monotheism. One KAHLIL MUHAMMAD Groundcover vendor No. 691 Supreme Being — ALLAH — whose name in Arabic means ‘The God.’ Though both religions are of the lineage of Abraham, adherents to the Islamic faith believe themselves to have been established more directly in the line of Ishmael — Abraham’s first-born son — whereas Christianity would fall in line with Isaac. Without regard to genealogy and even theology, the seemingly unresolvable contradiction is, upon further meditation, quite subject to clarification. The chemical formula for WATER is H2O. That is, the water molecule is composed of two hydrogen atoms covalently bonded to one oxygen atom. Two hydrogen and one oxygen gives us THREE parts that make up ONE water molecule. Thusly, if those of us in my ‘neck of the woods’ are accustomed to referring to an essence as Water, with those ‘across the tracks’ preferring to refer to that selfsame essence as H2O, it could be noted the manner in which the views are nearing to one another. The tragic irony of it all ... humankind has spent centuries, millennia even, disputing, conflicting, fighting and warring over religious semantics. The next time you hear one person say "Water" and then another person say "H20," feel free to remind the both of them that they are indeed talking about the same thing. GROUNDCOVER NEWS 3
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