Here’s Your Chance!
Here’s your chance to investigate the Mpemba Effect. There’s a video of some Canadian dude on the internet performing this interesting experiment. He takes a hard plastic water gun (A Nerf weapon would probably not work; you’ll see why)sucks up boiling water into it (That’s why you use hard plastic) and squirts the water out into the air. The...
In Transit
June 5, 2012. LOOK! Up in the sky! Nah. It was not Superman. He’s out making movies with the other Superheroes. It was the transit of Venus…and don’t think that if you missed it last week, you’ll just see it the next time. Because of the way that Venus and the Earth orbit around the sun--not in the same plane but...
Henry V
So...I’m sure that everybody gets the reference, right? Oh yeah, we all go around quoting Shakespeare to all and sundry who will listen. Anyway, what came to me as I sat down to take quill in hand to write about what’s going on, was this famous line from the Bard, encouraging his soldiers to take heart, make the great...
Ha Ha!
`You thought that spring had come, just because you looked at a calendar and got out your flip-flops and sunscreen (I wear sunglasses all year, so that’s really no indication), not to mention making pool plans. Think again, Hummingbird-watcher. I DID hang out four loads of wash on the line to dry; they didn’t even freeze. Planted several new flowers--I...
Well… That Was Fun
No, Really. I enjoyed myself immensely. Not everyone would enjoy having people–some known, some unknown–coming through their home for seven hours a day, looking around, commenting on everything in sight, wondering about what’s not in sight, asking questions about stuff that had been answered back when they hadn’t been listening. But I’m not everyone, and I had a fine...
Sic transit gloria mundi
“Thus passes the glory of the world” Have I used that line before? How about “Time flies when you’re having fun.”? Well, both apply just now, as regards the latest project which I am involved in. That is to say, cleaning out Mother’s house. Bless her heart, now that she’s gone, I can write about her...things that she never would have...
One Down!
Whew! Do you remember a TV program from ages ago called TW3 (That Was The Week That Was)? Well, tweak it just a little to That Was the Week-end That Was and you’ve got November 4th, 5th , 6th and 7th , 2010 at this establishment. It was --literally and figuratively--really cool! Thursday, the evening candlelight tour opening date of...
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...
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...
Boaty McBoatface
Always be careful of what you wish for; you may get it. A warning nicely illustrated by a recent item on various news media. It seems that some British outfit called the National Environmental Research Council, preparing to launch a brand-new $287 million—aw, let’s call it $300 even, like all of those government project go—polar(south) research vessel, thought it would...
Final Bow
“Bow”…as in “leave the stage while acknowledging applause after an excellent performance.” Everybody knew Barry, Barry Vancura…and he knew everybody (If he did not, he’d continue talking until something or somebody clued him in as to who furnished the other side of the conversation, and went on from there--it was a gift.). Barry was the consummate retail guy. He knew...
Comet ISON
AND…just in case you’ve been obsessing about the Comet ISON(International Scientific Optical Network—used by some Russian astronomers to first locate this fast-moving wonder) the one thing that most astronomers actually agree on is that it is highly unlikely to slam into the Earth, smashing us all to smithereens…that and the fact that nobody around right now is likely to...
Another Centennial
August 30, 2020--Geauga County Airport, Middlefield, Ohio--Where else can one go to watch airplanes take off and land, while listening to the clip-clop, clip-clop of passing horses and buggies…and spot an Amish family off at a distant picnic table watching it all?The windsock was blowing, the sun was out and so were air enthusiasts of all ages who had...
Serving Fun and Community Impact: Grand Opening of Pickleball Courts and Several Upcoming Fundraising Events Around the Area
This was a “Really Big Dill”…the Grand Opening of the Park Avenue Pickleball Courts at the Craig Moser Park on Park Avenue across from the Y. This was to officially launch the use of the newly-created facility. This event was organized and attended by members of the Garrettsville Pickleball Association, as well as numerous individuals interested in learning more...
Baaahhhh
Actually, it’s been a sort of wet-wool period so far. No little lambies gamboling in the green grass to usher in the Vernal Equinox, a sort of prediction for a snowflake or two, 50% rain for the Road Apple Roubaix (Those people will ride in anything…and boast about it afterward.), sunshine for a few days, rain for a few...
Thoughts From the Big Store
Every so often I make my way out of town(Somebody else is in charge as soon as I cross the village limits, just so everything does not “go to hell in a handbasket”. So far, so good.)and I frequently take the opportunity to “people watch” –especially when I go to one of the “BIG” stores, where there are a...
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...
Vermiform
I’m thinkin’ that I may have worms. Now, now, you can stop planning to boil the cushions on the sofa where I last sat at your house. I’m talking about “earworms”, you know, those tunes that get stuck in your brain and won’t go away, even if you don’t really like the music, it’s just there and repeating,...
Merrily We Roll Along…
Well, sorta… “Merrily” might be overstating just a tad, but I sure did some rolling. First off, was the trip to Kentucky–Glasgow, Kentucky, to be specific, a trip of some seven or so hours, making good time. The high-rollers on the JAG Quiz Bowl team made the trek down to the Bluegrass State at the invitation of the Jesse Brown Small...
‘Tis the Season?!
“Tis the season! For just about everything, I guess. The other day, a container of blueberries and two squash magically appeared on my front porch sitting on some literature from the Jehovah’s Witnesses or some other well-meaning group and next to the comic strip umbrella from the AB-J. Tasty stuff! Then the model neighbors on the corner (You know who...
In addition…
In addition to pareidolia, I occasionally suffer(if that’s the right word) from bouts of mondegreen; I don’t think that it’s covered by any reputable insurance(though it’s likely on the docket for some fly-by-night, blood-sucking outfit from the late-night TV)but it can be sort of debilitating when you’ve got it. Pareidolia, as you must recall, is usually seeing significant images in totally random contexts, like the guy down in Louisiana who cut open an eggplant and beheld the word “God” spelled out in seeds. Elvis and the Virgin Mary are apt to turn up anywhere, from a toasted cheese sandwich to pictures in mildew on old walls.
No “Farmer In The Dell” Here
I’m thinkin’…. A rough estimate of the cost of the strawberries (2) that I have got so far, from the pots which I have planted this year alongside the house, is somewhere around $15.87, each. The plants themselves look fine—plenty of big green leaves, plenty of blossoms–however, the end result appears to be kind of paltry. No shortcake happening...
A Pretty Fair Day
Have I got a deal for you! IBM (Irresponsible Bad Mamma) cat had kittens on the back step, in a specially-designated box—with lining and cover, and just as the little mites were beginning to open their little eyes, she hauled them off somewhere unknown and they were not seen or heard from again. End of story? Not on your tintype! I...
Flipped WHAT Bird?!?!
All of a sudden the avian population seems to be catching my attention. First it was the “sitting duck” mamma down at the Rite Aid in the landscape mulch, then it was the geese and goslings, duck and ducklings down on the creek behind the house, then it was the blue heron below the dam, which has been replaced...
The Muse Is Angered
Well, I just hate it when electrical things get weird and I have to do something about the situation without having a CLUE as to how to approach the problem. So, I go to start writing another of my pieces of deathless prose for inclusion in The Weekly Villager ( This is something that I do on a regular basis...
Up, Up and Away!
Wasn’t that a song some time back? “Up, up and away in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon”...or something like that? Goes on to say, “Would you like to ride in my beautiful, my beautiful balloon?” Catchy tune. Google says that The 5th Dimension and Dionne Warwick got the most play with it. Anyway… Saturday last I was engaged in my...
Party Central
There’s got to be a time limit of some sort on Spring Cleaning. I just finished mine…in time for Party Central in the neighborhood. Whoo-whoo! Luckily, the rain held off until after the throngs had ebbed and the clean-up crew was packing up the detritus left by the crowds in attendance. Said crowds were able to sit on chairs that...
Curses!!
Curse that groundhog! Well, it does depend on which groundhog you are going to believe. The storied Punxsutawney Phil, of Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania, according to his “handler” (like a sports agent, I guess) interrupted his long winter’s nap, peered out of his burrow and predicted six more weeks of winter. This would NOT be hard to do, given our experiences...
A Bad Spell
It wasn’t pretty. The brain trust here at the Weekly Villager sallied forth to adventures in orthography by participating in the22nd Annual Community Spelling Bee for Literacy, co-sponsored by the Portage County Literacy Coalition Community Partners at the NEOMED Conference Center on Friday, May 24, 20013. And fourth…maybe fifth… was about where we wound up…out of five. Like lots of vital...
Hug That Tree!
Awww, g’wan...hug the tree. It deserves a little attention. After the bushwhacker weather situations we’ve had around here the last couple of weeks, maybe we’d ought to pay a bit more attention to the greenery instead of taking it for granted all of the time. Many real estate agents will tell you that one of the things that will sell...
