Just in time for its 11th
anniversary, Michigan-based
craft beer bar HopCat rolled
out a new name for its award-
winning Crack Fries on Jan.
14. The newly deemed “Cos-
mik Fries” were the center of
anniversary celebrations Sat-
urday, during which free fries
and a fries eating contest were
offered at each HopCat loca-
tion.
According to Joe Sonheim,
director of marketing for Bar-
Fly Ventures, the decision to
change the name was made in
early December by executives
at BarFly Ventures, the parent
company of HopCat. Although
the name Crack Fries was
originally meant to be clever,
executives realized it could be
insensitive towards the crack
epidemic and drug addiction,
Sonheim explained.
“When we started the com-
pany, ‘crack fries’ was certainly
meant to be a tongue-in-cheek
reference,”
Sonheim
said.
“But as the company grew and
expanded into different mar-
kets, such as Detroit, we’ve had
to figure out who we are in the
community. We’ve gotten good
feedback from the community
… based on that feedback, we
decided it was the right thing
to do to change the name.”
Despite the name change, a
December statement by Hop-
Cat assures customers the
ingredients and recipe of the
fries, named one of the ten best
French fries in America, will
remain the same.
The new name for the signa-
ture side — Cosmik Fries — is
inspired by the song “Cosmik
Debris” by Frank Zappa, one of
founder Mark Sellers’s favor-
ite musicians. Featuring lyrics
about a mystery man selling a
magical substance made “with
the oil of Aphrodite” and “the
dust of the Grand Wazoo,” he
says the song, and thus the
new name, is more reflective of
HopCat’s image.
“A big part of HopCat is our
relationship to music,” Son-
heim said. “(The song “Cos-
mik Debris”) is a little weird,
a little out there, definitely fun
and we thought it was a pretty
good tie-in to who we are. It
speaks to the culture and vibe
of our HopCat restaurant.”
The
name
change
has
received much attention, even
receiving coverage by nation-
al platforms like Fox News.
Online reactions to the new
name have been mixed.
Some customers expressed
the move conforms to a trend
of political correctness. In one
tweet which has been liked by
500 people and retweeted 48
times at the time of publica-
tion, Liv Brosofske, a student
at Western Michigan Univer-
sity, claimed the name change
is another example of oversen-
sitivity.
On Wednesday, the University
of Michigan’s Barger Leadership
Institute invited Zilka Joseph,
internationally acclaimed poet,
author and teacher, to lead a
poetry
workshop
in
Weiser
Hall for advanced fellows in a
BLI cohort called the Mindful
Leader
Program.
Joseph’s
seminar focused on channeling
creativity to engage with our
lives and work.
The Mindful Leader program
is a contemplative practices
program
composed
of
a
10-person cohort. The cohort
engages in mindfulness-related
discussions,
workshops
and
other immersive and experiential
learning
opportunities.
It
provides
participants
with
diverse approaches to cultivating
mindfulness, along with the
language and skills to practice
habits of mindful leadership.
BLI
Director
Ramaswami
Mahalingam introduced Joseph
to the cohort and praised not
only her poetry, but also her
ability to immediately connect
to students and explain nuanced
poetic concepts efficiently.
GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
INDEX
Vol. CXXVIII, No. 50
©2018 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 B - 6 B
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
GOVERNMENT
BEN ROSENFELD
Daily Staff Reporter
HopCat renames its signature side,
celebrates over a decade of operation
Local restaurant gives out promotional fries, goes from ‘Crack’ to ‘Cosmik’
BLI poetry
workshop
examines
creativity
CAMPUS LIFE
Acclaimed author, poet
Zilka Joseph oversees
mindfulness discussions
NESMA DAOUD
Daily Staff Reporter
See WHITMER, Page 3A
Follow The Daily
on Instagram:
@michigandaily
Whitmer’s
directives
target bias
on the job
New orders to protect
members of LGBTQ
community, women
Since her inauguration on
Jan. 1, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
has taken action to reform and
increase access to institutions of
government for minorities and
women, particularly through the
use of executive directives.
In the last several weeks, two
directives in particular have
generated
conversation
over
their potential impact on the
economy and people of Michi-
gan.
The first directive, signed Jan.
7, prohibits any discrimination
or withholding of opportunities
from government employees on
the basis of sexual orientation
or gender identity. The second,
signed Jan. 8, intends to limit
wage inequality by prohibiting
state agencies and employers
from asking about applicants’
previous salaries until a job and
salary offer has been made.
These orders are among ten
signed by Gov. Whitmer in her
first several weeks in office,
aimed
towards
demonstrat-
ing her administration’s intent
to resolve social disparities in
income and employment.
EMMA RICHTER/Daily
HopCat, located on Maynard Street, enters its 11th year of business in Ann Arbor.
CLAIRE HAO
Daily Staff Reporter
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
Though
marijuana
is
now legal in Michigan, the
Department of Licensing and
Regulatory Affairs does not yet
provide commercial licenses
for
recreational
marijuana
dispensaries.
Following
the
Dec. 6 legalization, local and
out-of-state
businesses
have
identified a gray area in the law,
allowing them to gift marijuana
with the sale of other products
such as sweets, snacks and even
art.
Smoke’s
Chocolate,
an
Ann
Arbor-based
business
created
by
Marc
Bernard,
has capitalized on the period
between
legalization
of
marijuana and the opening of
recreational
dispensaries
in
Michigan, according to Jack
Groom, Business senior and
head of development at Smoke’s
Chocolate.
“On the day after legalization
(Bernard) put his website up,
just taking advantage of the way
the law is written and how it
exists, relying on precedent out
of several different states where
people have employed a similar
business model,” Groom said.
According to the Michigan
Taxation and Regulation of
Marihuana
Act,
gifting
of
marijuana is permissible in a
restricted amount and manner.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Thursday, January 24, 2019
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Businesses
offer gifts of
marijuana to
customers
VP of Government Relations talks
strategy, forming relationships
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Vice President for Government Relations Cynthia Wilbanks discusses getting acquainted with new members of congress in an interview with The Daily Monday.
BUSINESS
Smoke’s Chocolate finds loophole in
regulations using medical cannabis
ATTICUS RAASCH
Daily Staff Reporter
The Daily sits down with Cynthia Wilbanks to discuss lobbying efforts
LEAH GRAHAM
Daily News Editor
ALYSSA MCMURTRY
Daily Staff Reporter
See GOVERNMENT, Page 3A
the business b-side
The Michigan Daily sat down with
Cynthia Wilbanks, vice president of
the Office of Government Relations,
to discuss the University of Michi-
gan’s efforts to work with officehold-
ers and agencies at the local, state and
federal level. Wilbanks and her office
manage interactions with govern-
ment officials in regard to legislative
and regulatory policy that affects the
University and its programs.
Organization including corpora-
tions, political action committees and
nonprofits hire lobbyists to influence
government officials and agencies by
advocating for or against certain poli-
cies. Wilbanks said the University’s
strategy for working with lawmakers
and government agencies takes a per-
sonal approach.
“In this office, it’s relationships
that are really the foundation of
our work,” Wilbanks said. “We use
opportunities that are both formal
and informal to establish those rela-
tionships and they come in lots of dif-
ferent settings, so it’s not always going
up to the state capital, it’s not always
visiting with offices in Washington.
It’s a variety of ways that we work
on those relationships and the same
is true for the community relations
work.
See POETRY, Page 3A
See HOPCAT, Page 3A