Today's newsstand review looks at the set of free publications I've collected over the past week, featuring three Chinese language papers available in Ypsilanti and copies of the Daily Northwestern brought back by a friend who went to Chicago.

emYOU The Magazine, December 2009. Collected in Ypsilanti's Depot Town, this issue includes their "Best of" series. The Sidetrack Bar and Grill wins best burger and best happy hour; Normal Street is best street to party on; and best vegetarian is the Green Market Bistro in Eastern Michigan's Student Center.

The Ypsilanti Courier was also collected in Depot Town. My Jan. 28 issue features a cover story on game show contestant Dustin Howard and a Community section with a story by Laura Bien in her "From The Archives" column on the scandalous behavior of female Normal School students in 1911.

I picked up three different Chinese language papers at Hua Xing, the Asian grocery in Ypsilanti Township. The Greater Detroit Chinese-American News is printed in Canada and has 16 pages in Chinese, mostly advertising from businesses in Washtenaw, Wayne, Macomb and Oakland County. The Michigan Chinese American News from Ann Arbor has 28 pages in two sections, again mostly advertising and with the same geographical reach. The Epoch Times is from Chicago, and its 24 pages in two sections leads with a Jan. 29 story on the Toyota Corolla recall; inside, there are ads for businesses from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.

Imported for me from Chicago's northern suburb of Evanston are two copies of The Daily Northwestern. The 8-page Feb. 3 edition features the Wildcats "decisive" 67-52 win over the Michigan basketball team the night before, with a photo of freshman forward Drew Crawford who led all scorers with 17 points. The 8-page Feb. 4 edition has an 8-page "The Weekly" insert, asking what happens with Facebook and MySpace accounts after you die. Tania Karas's story notes "In a world where our digital lives are just as real as those offline, a person's Facebook profile postmortem is a virtual open casket."

A detour into Yost Arena on a blizzardy night netted a copy of Michigan Hockey. The 44-page Feb. 8 edition has sections on amateur hockey, youth leagues, boys and girls high school and the Red Wings. Larry O'Connor writes up the Jan. 15-17 Michigan Pond Hockey Classic in Whitmore Lake, noting that the annual outdoor ice contest used portable lamps used for highway night construction to light the ice for its first ever outdoor night games.

Edward Vielmetti reads newspapers for AnnArbor.com. 734-330-2465