The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, June 10, 1981-Page 3
CALABASH PIPES, OLD HA TS TA TTOOS, AND FL YING SAUCERS
Specialty shops a local specialty
By JOHN ADAM the rush of expensive cigar purchases for the Rose Touch - I'd seen its ads in the paper, and I was
y stafBowl last year, or about the Turkish monopoly on curious. On the door's window panes were the words,
Daiyiafepri~precious meerschaum and the "coolies" who mine "ANew Girls, New Girls, New Girls." I went up the.
"You know, Sherlock Holmes never really smoked the stuff on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. diw Girway torask Nbw G irls p
that kind of pipe, the calabash," the proprietor of A- It's like that in a lot of specialty shops around town; dimly at stairway of ask stabr a massage. Two girls
Square Tobacconist said with the smile of someone these places are, in fact, Ann Arbor's own specialty. corridor., walking along a dark
who knows. "In his books, he smokes a bent briar Here the pleasure is found not so much in the pur- tondBoth were i loose shorts, one weareg a
pipe, not a calabash." chase, but in the act of purchasing. tube top, and the other in a shirt that looked more like
He went on to tell me that the gourd, not the meer- I've spent several afternoons lately looking into a night slip tucked n at the top of the stairway lies
schaum, imparts the unique smoking taste. A these shops, never making a purchase - although I the anger's ofice. "Wet-p-l,"he sai whes
customer walked in, fat cigar hanging from his will probably return to some. the manager's office. "W-e-l- 1-1,' he said when he
mouth, and I took the opportunity to browse over the ONE OF THE MORE inexpensive places I hit was saw my youthful face. It didn di tho tell him I was
various brands of tobacco, with names like "Pride of Second Hand Rose, a small thrift shop near City Hall. from the Daily. 'Last this (provided in-.
Copenhagen" and "Pride of Istanbul." It has.a surprisingly good selection of jackets and formation) with the Michigan Daily they totalyo
THIS LITTLE specialty shop is the home of "a vests, old hats, ties, and dresses, all at bargain me over. I don't want anything to do with them. So, I
couple of thousand pipes" ranging from a $2 corncob prices.
to a $400 carved Turkish Meerschaum. Even non- A little ways up the price ladder, and with There's one place I know I'll never have trouble
smokers would be interested in the anecdotes about something radically different to offer, is the Velvet See ANN, Page 6
Crime fighting
program focuses
on awareness
By ANN MARIE FAZIO
Daily police reporter
Detective Bernie Price, head of the
Ann Arbor Police Department's Crime
Prevention Unit, is also the unit's only
member.
Police Chief William Corbett con-
cedes that because of short staffing, the
police department can't combat crime
on its own.
"A LOT OF crime prevention is just
educating the public," Price said. For
this reason, the idea behind the Crime
lrevention Unit is community
awareness-involving and educating
members of the community to protect
themselves.
"A police department can only be as
effective as the community wants it to
be," Corbett said.
And, according to Price, the com-
munity wants it to be very effective,
judging by the enthusiasm shown by
participants in the crime prevention
program.
THE PROGRAM is what Price calls a
"one-man-show." It consists, basically,"
of his presentations to groups and in-
dividuals on three phases of crime
prevention: Neighborhood Watch,
Operation Identification, and a security
survey.
A neighborhood watch is exactly
that-getting the people living on a
block or in an apartment complex to
watch the area for strange persons or
vehicles, paying special attention to the
homes of people who are away at the
time. "Getting neighbors to function as
neighbors, not individuals," Price ex-
plained.
Although the program is primarily
directed against the prevention of
burglaries, when a neighborhood
begins a watch people look out for all
types of potential criminals.
WHEN A crime prevention program
of any type is started, Price said, "you
reap benefits in all aspects."
Operation Identification is a process
of inscribing valuables with the owner's
drivers'- license of Michigan iden-
tification number. This insures that
recovered stolen property will be
returned.
Price goes to individual homes and
businesses to conduct the security sur-
vey, making recommendations or con-
structive criticisms about the security
devices they are using.
THERE IS also a rape prevention
See CRIME, Page 11
Uaily Photo by JACKIE BELL
DET. BERNIE PRICE, head and sole member of the Ann Arbor Police
Department's Crime Prevention Unit, explains that educating the public is a
major factor in crime prevention.
Alvin Neff
diseusses 50
years at
Areade
By PAM FICKINGER
Daily staff writer
Imagine standing in Nickels Arcade for about nine
hours a day, six days a week. Come January, Alvin
Neff will have been doing exactly that . . . for 50
years. Alvin sells magazines there and, he says, the
Arcade "hasn't changed at all."
But Alvin will tell you about plenty of other things
he's seen change in that time. He can remember
when The Bivouac and Drakes Sandwich Shop were
banks, and when Follet's was a drugstore.
"I REMEMBER," he said, pointing from his
newsstand in the direction of Angell Hall, "when
Haven Hall burned down a long, long time ago."
But the biggest change, he says, has been in the
students-they aren't as friendly as they used to be.
He fondly recalls a football player who used to stop by
to see him every day, years ago.
Another change Alvin has seen in the students is
their dress: they "now come in jeans," whereas in
years past there were a lot more ties and suit coats.
They even pack their clothes differently now-in
suitcases, rather than the trunks he remembers wat-
ching them lug around.
A 66-YEAR-OLD native of Ann Arbor, Alvin got
started in the magazine business by helping his
brother, Floyd, and then taking the stand over when
his brother retired.
In the beginning, the two had only a small stand set
up in front of the Arcade. Today, Alvin sells more
than 20 different magazines, from Scientific
American to Penthouse.
He used to sell newspapers, but he says he stopped
because they were a "nuisance."
Cosmopolitan and Glamour are big sellers, Alvin
says. "You know, the girls buy those a lot."
Men, on the other hand, buy Playboy and Pen-
thouse. Why? "I don't know," Alvin says. "Some of
the girls will come in and buy Playgirl or Playboy,
See ALVIN, Page 5