In no particular order. Incomplete. Probably inaccurate.
Used to get dinner every payday at Manali Cafe in Ann Arbor, but sadly it closed in 2000. The best Indian food anywhere, heavenly delicious.
The Ethiopean place along 30th street just south of Pearl, Boulder. Hard to say weather this or the Ethiopean place next to where Manali Cafe was, is the best. For now, the Boulder one is 1400 miles closer, so i tend to visit it more often.
Also in Ann Arbor, also great Indian food - Earthen Jar along (??) just south of (???) (i haven't been in Ann Arbor for so long, i can hardly remember any road names. but i remember they had a drive-through beer store.)
Belian Art Center, Square Lake Rd & Rochester, in Rochester Michigan. op art by Vaserely, local artists, glass pieces, eclectic variety. Owned by Zabel and Garabed Belian. In the same building Gary works as a dentist. how often do you visit a dentist in an art gallery? He should look at my broken molar someday.
Bloomfield Hills Public Library - great collection of reference material, gobs of books, spacious, nice architecture, meeting rooms and special programs of all kinds for area residents.
Farmington Hills Public Library - another excellent library. Of course, i don't go there or to the Bloomfield one very much any more, now that i live in Colorado.
Boulder Bookstore - they have a better offering of books on architecture, construction, renewable energy, and sustainable living than either of the big chain bookstores.
Nonprofits, churches, schools, secret underground spy complexes...some of which i have personally visited, others i have not been there but have some connection with, and some i have only read about
Inst. of Noetic Sciences - exploring spirit, subtle energies, freedom of thought and worldviews employing the rigor of science. I have been a financial contributor in the past. (Feb 2007: Currently i am hoarding my money for natural home workshops and construction, not chipping in for operating non-profit orgs. for now.) First heard of IONS while browsing books in Indiana University's undergraduate library. A book with a collection of essays, i think - one chapter described astronaut Edgar Mitchell's psi experiements during the moon mission. Ed was a navy pilot.
Theosophical Society in Detroit - i've enjoyed many friday evenings attending presentations by all kinds of healers, teachers, professors, scientists, on all kinds of topics in spiritual practice, ancient wisdom, art, science of mind and matter, energy medicine, philosophy and plenty of et cetera. I joined the Detroit Lodge and participated in the members' meetings where we'd study in-depth the classic writings of Theosophy and discuss metaphysics. Great solstice celebrations, with all vegan food. I don't go any more only because i live in Colorado. The popular notion of Detroit is ghettos, defunct car factories, and big city politics - but there are a surprising number of people in and around Detroit with a serious interest in metaphysics and the healing arts. The TS is maybe the best-run organization i've enjoyed being a member of.
Barbar Sher's Forums - as a Scanner, as Barbara calls us, i find the scanner forum of special interest.
Wet Canvas for artists. Great place to ask questions about tricky painting techniques, make a point about pencils, sprinkle some thoughts about sand. Having been active in POSA (i'd put a link here if POSA had a site) as an artist, helping to set up shows in malls and running a co-op gallery, i can actually answer some questions in this forum. I don't spend enough time here.
Digital Mars - C++ forums - since i sometimes create simple windows app and DLLs, using DM's C++ compiler and utilities. I come here to ask questions when i get stuck trying to do things i probably shouldn't. DM has great tools - i've been a fan of its ancestor Zortech since 1990 or so. It was the only decent way to do 32-bit software development on those creaky old MSDOS and Windows 3.0/3.1 systems. Walter Bright is indeed - bright!
POV-Ray Newsgroups - formerly entirely on Compuserve, which i don't know even if exists anymore, now best made use of by web browser. A lively place for everyone using POV-Ray. Most of my activity, at least during those spells i visit, is either answering beginner questions if by some rare chance the more active participants haven't already, or discussing technical internal povray matters in the programming or unofficial patches forums.
...more to come, as i remember them...
last updated 2007-Feb-16