Someone who has your back when it comes to families and mental illness
Amanda speaks thoughtfully and softly. She is very wise for one so young. She has been through more than her share of heartache, with mental illness in her family and recently a cousin completed suicide. She’s strong in her knowledge about how to help her family and she’s sharing that education as a teacher for the Portage County Family-to-Family Education...
Curiosity and Caffeine: Flight 93 National Memorial
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Al Qaeda terrorists in an organized attack against the United States hijacked four commercial airliners. Two planes were flown into the World Trade Center’s twin towers in New York City -- one at 8:46 am and the second at 9:03 am. A third plane was purposely flown into the Pentagon in Arlington,...
Begin the Beguine
“Begin the Beguine” was a popular song written by Cole Porter in 1934. To my father, it was yet another one-liner he’d toss into conversation for dramatic effect. My dad may have been an absent-minded professor, but he was a very intentional father. He never missed the opportunity to instill in us five children the high virtues of hard work,...
Giving Back Gives Back to You
For my family, summer means daytrips to the Lake Erie’s many shores and beaches as often as we can manage it. And while you can’t beat a day at the beach enjoying the sun, the surf, and the sand, one thing we don’t enjoy much is the trash we often find there. A Rochester Institute of Technology study notes that...
Mantua-Shalersville Fire District News
Mantua - At the last regular meeting, Chief Matt Roosa informed the Fire Board that the department would be holding emergency vehicle driver training class in mid September. The education and training team from Volunteer Firemen’s Insurance Services, Inc. (VFIS) will facilitate the two-day event. This annual training exercise will include classroom work and hands-on driving training exercises, according...
That was a fine old time!
That was a fine old time! Well, if you weren’t trying to get anyplace in a hurry, that is. The annual Garrettsville community garage/yard/porch sale seems to have attracted quite a crowd for most of the weekend. Some of the narrower thoroughfares were a challenge for those just trying to get into their own driveways. Down Park Ave. some savvy...
Quick, check the calendar! Is it winter yet?
Wholeeee Snowleee! When the real thing hits, It’s gonna be “Bessie bar the doors!” if this is just the preview. Wouldn’t you know that this exercise in inclemency--weather division--happens in the year that the powers-that-be down in Columbus, where the sun never sets, have decreed that there will be only three snow days. Kiss the early end of school...
Whadda Prize
It’s awards season just about all of the time now. There are awards in television, for the theatre, for movies, for sports of every stripe and description, for just about every genre of music that one can think of( and some that I don’t really classify as music, but, rather as “entertainment”)—country, pop, rap, classical, you name it. But...
“I need a book with instructions on hemming blue jeans; it is getting too costly to have someone else hem them for me. I would also like them...
The staff of the Newton Falls Public Library has their own memories of children complaining about the appearance of clothing after shortening or alterations, and can understand a mother wanting to be frugal. We found a variety of instructions for hemming different types of clothing and fabrics in sewing books on our shelves, such as the “Reader’s Digest Complete Guide...
Thinking Spring!
Another weekend, another home & garden show! Getting to the John S. and James L. Knight Center in downtown Akron is not real tough, although the predominance of one-way streets does sometimes make it a little tricky if you should happen to miss a turn. There’s a parking garage nearby too but I won’t even tell you how many turns...
Tell You What – An Editorial
Tell you what…. Let’s have everyone who says, “Why don’t they…(whatever it is about the rebuilding needed on Garrettsville’s Main St.) or “They need to…(suggestions for operations to be carried out to restore Main St.) or “They ought to…(directions on how to accomplish the rebuilding of half of Garrettsville’s business district), everyone who utters one of these or similar...
Making Time for You
Being a small business owner is both rewarding and challenging. While handling finances, marketing, inventory, sales and a million other responsibilities, it’s easy to neglect taking care of yourself. It’s crucial to prioritize your well-being for your business’s long-term success and health. To get you started, here are a few tips. Define Your Work Hours: By setting clear start and...
No Computer! Received via email — Thank Goodness!
So…the lightning storm took out the computers—desk top, laptop, probably the remote control for the alarm clock, for all I know—and the Villager deadline is looming on Monday. What to do? What to do? The schedule is filling up : The computer guru who is working on the problem will be arriving with his bag of magic spells and incantations,(...
Is a Home Equity Loan Right for Me?
Taxes are becoming an ever-increasing burden to Americans. Through the Tax Reform Act of 1986, Congress reduced or eliminated many of the ways that taxpayers can lower their taxes. Interest deduction is one of the areas that has been strongly affected by this tax reform legislation. Since tax year 1991, interest on consumer debt has not been deductible for income...
My Kind of Month
October is my kind of month. It’s interesting. The harvest is winding down; those shocks of corn so prized by decorators are actually passe’ . Nobody uses them any more, unless they’re Amish, of course. Corn pickers are where it’s at as far as harvesting corn is concerned. They’re also one of the reasons why farming has always ranked as...
Requiscat in pace…I guess
All of you Latin scholars out there no doubt recognized that phrase, often abbreviated as R.I.P. and translated as Rest in Peace. Well, it’s had an outbreak here at the ranch; our feline population has undergone some major changes. Boy, has it ever. First off, Ruffian, of the inside cat contingent, took off one day and could not be persuaded...
Spring Things
How’re you liking Spring so far? Yes, indeedy, the official astronomical beginning of Spring was on Wednesday, March 20 at 7:02, EDT ( Or 11:02, UTC). Actually, I lied; according to the Farmer’s Almanac there is no “official” start to any of the seasons. That all depends upon the climate of an individual country. It IS, of course, the Vernal...
News Flash!
Here’s a news flash : Tbilisi, Georgia (the former Soviet Union region, not the Peachtree State): “Sausage-wielding extremists” (There’s a phrase to ponder, right?) invade a vegan café –Café Kiwi--during a film festival in the neighborhood and proceeded to fling meat and fish at the café patrons. The ten to fifteen men, wearing sausages around their necks and waving skewers...
Treatise on Spell Check
Spell Check can’t do everything. I was at the Farmers’ Market at Robinson the other day. Small but interesting; an assortment of vendors with good stuff. Dave Stotler had Lodi apples, good for the first apple pies of the season. A lady from Randolph was there with a food truck that had been featured on WKSU’s “Quick Bites”. Great Harvest...
Coming This Summer….
So, vacation time is here. What to do? Where to go? How about museums--educational, right?--of culinary phenomena? You could start with the National Mustard Museum( formerly the Mt. Horeb Mustard Museum) in Middleton, Wisconsin, found on the National Registry of Hysterical Places, perched atop the Condimental Divide. It features over five thousand various mustard-filled items from some sixty countries and...
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock!
Here comes the Crocodile! In my role as drama critic for the Weekly Villager (No rest for the wicked, as my father used to say), I recently took in the Baldwin Wallace University Department of Theatre and Dance’s production of J. M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan”. Quite an evening! One of the motivating factors for this drama excursion was, of course, the...
Notes From The Vineyard
It’s been a good year, actually, let me rephrase that – it’s been a GREAT year! Sure, this year has definitely put up a good fight for us... we’ve survived some bad economic times, we’ve dealt with a loss of crop from a late freeze last year, we’ve dealt with losses of loved ones this year but as I...
Caution ~ Auction!
The Kiko folks have taken to putting up signs of this nature along roads where one of their commercial activities is going on, and with good reason. These secondary highways are plenty full of just plain drivers, let alone the avid auction-goers looking for a place to park--without sliding into a ditch or quicksand (as I found to my...
“It is not fit for man nor beast outside”
The first time I heard that saying was when I was a little kid, it was 15 below, the wind howling, snow blowing and I was freezing. I wondered how the animals, insects, and plants were able to survive these harsh conditions. I was able to bundle up in layers, go inside and sit by the fireplace, or get...
Easy Riders?
Well, they did it again. They came. They saw. They caught a break in the weather and had a very successful Road Apple Roubaix on Saturday (March 4, 2023) in Garrettsville…and surrounding locales, as they took to the roads, out-and-about, returned to Slim & Jumbo’s and generally made a day of it. Numerous bike-friendly businesses–Eddie’s Bike Shop, Mountain Road Cycles,...
It Must Be February
Must be February, the Easter candy is on the shelves. And the “cabin fever news stories” are circulating. That’s what appears when all of the news outlets are sick and tired of going hysterical about the weather—record-high snowfall, record-low temperatures, funny (or not-so) pictures of people digging out, names for the storms (How about Hortense? We haven’t seen that name...
Fa-la-la-la-la and All That
Guess what holiday is coming up. Go ahead, guess. There have been candy canes hanging around since somewhere around July Fourth, Santa Claus began flying in earnest somewhere around Labor Day and the lay-away departments must be stuffed to overflowing by now. Speaking of something similar, what’s this latest scam, “Buy now, Pay later? Like they always say, “If it...
Choosing The Right Caregiver
As medical science continues to find ways to help Americans live longer, it also requires us to examine some of the challenges of people living longer lives. The biggest, from both an emotional and financial point of view, may be providing ongoing care for a disabled adult. By the numbers According to the Family Caregivers Alliance National Center on Caregiving, 34...
Avoiding Common Furnace Issues
Taking care of your furnace is especially important over the winter season when your unit is working its hardest to heat your home properly. Knowing what winter furnace issues to look out for, and how to fix them, is key to keeping your family safe and comfortable. As a homeowner, there are a few steps that you can take...
The Old Road: “I Need A Christmas Tree Truck”
“Could you fellas find me an old truck, actually maybe two or three of them, to put on my Christmas tree farm? They don’t have to run at all. I want to create an old time atmosphere and experience for my customers. I’ll have Wintergreen Tree Farm stenciled on the sides. I want things to look rustic and old,...
