“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...
Dragons
Who needs to watch Game of Thrones to see dragons, just go out to the nearest meadow, stream or pond and you will be amazed to see all sorts of dragons flying around…dragonflies that is. Worldwide there are more than 5,000 known species of dragonflies, all of which, along with damselflies, belong to the order Odonata, which means “toothed...
“I’m trying to remember the name of a drug store chain from the 1950s, 1960s…”
“I’m trying to remember the name of a drug store chain from the 1950s, 1960s. There was one near where I lived in Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., and I remember there was also one in Youngstown. The one in Washington was replaced by Gray Drugs. Can you find the name of the store for me?” Questions such as...
O Spring
O.K., it’s Thursday, this must be springtime. Holy cow! What a wild one! Haul out the long johns, Maudie, the daffodils done froze! And what does the Old Farmer say? Not much. But you’ll be happy to know that on April 18, 2009, Aaron Caissie set a world record by balancing 17 spoons on his face. Now there is a...
A Fungus Among Us
The computer strikes again! Here I am typing away at my keyboard-in-the-corner, writing what I’m hoping will be more-or-less reproduced below and—WHAM! It all disappeared. Gone! Gone! Nowhere to be found(Not that I could find it anyway, technological klutz that I am). Nearly a page of deathless prose lost into the ether of cyberspace. What’s REALLY irritating about it...
May You Live In Interesting Times
There is , allegedly, an ancient Chinese curse, which says, “May you live in ‘interesting’ times”. Last week was really interesting. First off.... I have been waiting for and keeping an eye on the paw paws on the finally-mature paw paw bush on the east side of the house. There are only two bushes and only one of them had fruit...
40-Something is the New 20-Something
I’m beginning to think that 40-something is the new 20-something. And no, it’s not because of medical miracles, cosmetic surgery or skin cream. Rather, it’s a strange convergence of rising college costs, a constricted job market and renewed outlooks as a result of the first two economic realities. Middle age used to be a locked-in stage of life where home,...
Sentinels in the Snow
Viewing the winter landscape does not have the brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows of fall. It does not have the subtle shades of green we see in the summer. It looks naked, barren, and bleak. But tucked away along streams and rivers is one magnificent tree that really struts it stuff even on the bleakest winter day; the North...
Forget the Memoir
Everybody is writing memoirs lately. It’s the literary style du jour in all of the magazines and reviews. So I’m thinking, hey, my memories are as good as anybody’s, why not hop to it and make the big bucks? One reason may be that my memories are certainly just fine, but getting them to show up on cue is...
Cicadas Back by Popular Demand… Not!
As we make the transition from spring into summer, the wildflowers are fading, flowering trees and shrubs are ablaze in color, and the mosquitoes, deer flies, and other insects are making their presence known in one way or the other. We are all too familiar with the biting and blood sucking insects that cause us so much irritation, but...
Time Flies
My, how Time flies! Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana. So, if the line above is an example of a “garden path sentence” or syntactic ambiguity or a pun, a double entendre or an antanaclasis—well, it would be, wouldn’t it—possibly by that great linguist, Groucho Marx, these recent weeks have been an example of pandemonium! (from the...
Oxford English Dictionary and then some
The Oxford English Dictionary has just come out with its quarterly revisions and additions. Some nine hundred new words and phrases have now been deemed worthy to grace its pages, some of them pretty far out there. How often do you wish to know the meaning of Empedoclean? ( Don’t go there. It’s about some Greek philosopher dude named...
Excitement!!
Pretty generally, my cats are NOT about excitement. Mostly, they’re about conserving physical resources, i.e., lazing around, with as little movement as possible. Oh sure, there is the occasional wrestling match, when one of the “guys” has to show how tough he is(This is the same one who is afraid to go outside when the door is open; he...
Turnpike Proud!
Well, that was interesting...and informative...and fun too. The Ohio Turnpike had an Open House on Saturday, October 24, celebrating its 60th Anniversary; it officially opened on October 1, 1955, all 241 miles of it. The construction took 38 months, in sections, employed some 10,000 workers—and 2300 bulldozers—at a cost of some $326 million, give or take. It connected to the...
Lights Out!
And speaking of eclipses…. Isn’t everyone? It’s all over the place, and with pretty good reason, since it’s been quite some time—38 years isn’t it—since the last total eclipse of the sun was visible over significant portions of the United States. It’s also the first since 1918 to be visible from coast to coast, AND the first since 1776 to...
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...
Weekend Travels
Well, that train left the station without me aboard. I had been planning to take the Portage County Farm Tour but it turns out that it was held on Saturday instead of Sunday and my schedule was all wrapped around the Aurora Band show, Thunder Over Aurora, so it was a setback to open the Record on Sunday and see...
Christmas Walk Finale
The Christmas Walk must be over; a cat just upchucked on the carpet. They’ve been ticked off for two week-ends now at being shut down in the basement. The saying is that “revenge is sweet” but that’s not quite how I’d describe this ( I’ll spare you how I would describe it.). All-in-all, that’s pretty small potatoes compared to what...
Six Reasons A Real Estate Deal Can Fall Apart
You fell deeply in love with an updated Victorian, knocked a few grand off the asking price, and maybe even bought a spiffy camelback sofa for your new living room. Sweet! Still, until you close and the keys are in hand, there’s a sliver of dread in your mind: What if your dream of homeownership falls apart at the...
Plate City
Once upon a time, specific clerks dealt with specific operations and the issuer of license plates might be snowed under with people waiting and waiting, while the driver’s license clerk was able to sit at her leisure to examine the new nail color that she had chosen and tempers tended to shorten as the wait time lengthened. Well, that’s done with…and none too soon.
Yes Virginia, There Really Is A Spring
So.... I’m walking along early in the morning now and there are more and more bird sounds out there to be heard. During the winter there are always a few--cardinals, goldfinches, the ever-present sparrows, miscellaneous die-hards who have memorized the locations of every birdfeeder within several hundred yards. You also get the occasional Wrong Way Corrigan who wandered here...
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...
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...
“I’m interested in railway to bike trails…”
“I’m interested in railway to bike trails; the ones that are constructed along abandoned railways. Can you find me a map of the railroad that used to run north and south through Newton Falls?” The Newton Falls Public Library staff knew that the tracks ran along River St., next to where the former railroad station stands. We searched the Internet,...
Business Plan?!?!?
Awwwrighty-tighty, here’s the plan. Dick, Larry, Casey…. Listen up! What you need to do is put the entire village of Garrettsville under roof, hire all or nearly all of the inhabitants and you can play in the big leagues with the Hartville Hardware which just had its grand opening last weekend. Holy Schmoley! The place needed a map to direct customers to...
Rambutan? Huh?
Please pass the rambutan. Right. I didn’t know what it was either but it was mentioned in a recent filler article in the R-C. I’m not sure what’s behind it but there seems to be a rash of “record-setting” events and/or activities of all kinds that seem to be, basically, pointless. I imagine that the folks down at Guiness must...
Christmas Shopping
I sure hope that I get the hang of this “Christmas shopping” thing soon. I always think that I will get a head start on it --August, say--and have gifts all wrapped and ready, tucked away somewhere (Attic? Basement?) so that the holiday rush will be a thing of the past. Well, so far what’s...
Reflections…
Heroes have been celebrated in song and story for generations and millennia. One local hero has lately left us--too soon--and three songs/poems come to mind. #1. Gilbert & Sullivan’s 1879 “Pirates of Penzance” contains a “patter song” titled “The Major-General’s Song” in which the gentleman referred to sings, ”I am the very model of a modern major-general.” Now Craig Moser would...
St. Fiacre
So…I’m thinking that my gardening endeavors are in need of divine intervention—for the fungus or whatever it is that’s devastating the hollyhocks and the tomatoes, the slugs and/or whatever is feasting on the berry bushes, the infant poison ivy that seems to be popping up all over the place, the ”sweet violets”, AKA Chameleon plants that are sending out their smelly but vigorous roots everywhere but in the “dead zone” where I’d like them to move in—and I was reading a murder mystery involving a public garden with a statue of a holy fellow called St. Fiacre(Irish--Fiachra, Latin—Fiachrius) patron saint of gardeners (…and maybe cab drivers…who knew?). Why not give him a shot?
After The Flood
We think that the second dove has not returned to the boat (Genesis 8:6-14) so we might be able to begin thinking about returning to what passes for normal around here.Normal is a pretty flexible term. It included the annual academic awards program, recognizing just rafts of outstanding individuals, many of the usual suspects who’ve been raising the bar...
