I also love seed catalogs!
I also love seed catalogs. They’re coming in now and probably will continue until Memorial Day; Hope springs eternal! I used to get lots more. That was before somebody apparently tipped off Burpee’s Seeds and Plants, Stark Bros, Gurney’s, Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Park Seeds, et al. that I had a particularly virulent “black thumb”. Yes, sadly, for green things large...
No Pun Intended
There are funny things out there, folks. A radio program the other day had on it a gentleman who had just had a new book published; its title was : The Pun Also Rises… a great play on words itself. I’ll have to get it and treat you to some real groaners. The late, great Donn Olin would have...
Omnishambles
Omnishambles. That, declares the Oxford English Dictionary--OED, to friends and family--is the word of the year, 2012, presumably, though it seems to have got its start in 2009 on a British political satire TV show. I’m sure you’ve used it countless times since then, right? It did manage to gain some currency in Europe after Mitt Romney’s goof-prone visit there...
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...
Latest Unlikely News
Ya know, you can’t make this stuff up.... The news is rife with absolutely amazing little bits—factoids, we might call them—about what’s going on “out there”, and I don’t mean outer space. Doesn’t take much more than a skimming of the news to find a fine selection of nutballs running around in front of God and everybody and coming...
Follow the Signs: Part II
We are in the bizarre Disneyland of extraordinary peculiarity with the expressed purpose of buying a Model “A” Ford that was acquired by collector John Smith in 2015. Mr. Smith was a collector extraordinaire of unusual things including, but not limited to, antique cars. His homestead displays his penchant for highway advertising signs which are plastered all over the...
The Big Fandango
So here I am at the BIG FANDANGO at the Longaberger Basket Outlet Store at Aurora Premium Outlets and I’m making a basket…me, Little Miss Craftperson, whose biggest venture into crafts was probably when I used to make molds out of modeling clay and pour plaster-of-paris horse heads, later hand-painted, as gift items for favored individuals (Mom still has...
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...
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...
Misguided Cats
Maplewood, beware! I’m thinking that the cats—at least some of them—need occupational/vocational counseling. One of the guys(It’s always the guys)apparently thinks that he is a watchcat, protecting us all from dangerous gray tiger cats out on the back porch. He pays no attention at all to the calico incipiently-maternal feline that appears on the front porch. When he spots this gray...
Party On!
Well, yes, it IS that season of the year when all sorts of disparate groups have their annual Christmas parties. The barrage has begun already. Hiram College hosted a seasonal soiree last week for Friends (That’s Friends, with a capital F), faculty types and festive individuals of all stripes, featuring a number of tours de force by AVI, their supplier...
Treating Your Employees Well
You might think that, with currently high unemployment rates, it will be an employer’s market forever. But, you would be wrong. Even today, as unemployment remains stubborn, some industries are having difficulties filling their job openings. Today, your industry could be in a buy or sell mode as far as attracting top employees is concerned. But there will come a...
Dad Deserves the Best: Father’s Day Gift Ideas That Will Impress
Many families have their own unique Father’s Day traditions, but it’s not uncommon for those rituals to cross familial lines. For example, gift-giving is one popular Father’s Day tradition many families share. With that in mind, anyone looking for the right gift for Dad this Father’s Day can consider these ideas. Personalized Photo Album: Gather cherished family photos and create...
Friendly People…
My! There are so many really friendly people on the internet. An individual named Trixie--doesn’t she sound friendly already--lets me know that somebody wants to meet me. Well, doesn’t everyone? An individual…or corporation, after all, the Supreme Court says that corporations are people too, which is part of the reason you’re getting all of those dreadful election-year ads on your...
Spice of Life
Sometimes bon appetit, the 0h-so-upscale cooking magazine, is just too much. They just assume that everyone has access to—and a budget for—artisan cheeses and spirits, baby organic lettuces, at least four different varieties of milk…and we don’t mean simply whole, skim, 2% and buttermilk…oh no. You’re deprived unless the shelves boast the lactic fluid of cows, goats and maybe the...
Rants in My Plants
Weeding and quite a number of other garden/lawn tasks are so essentially mindless that they offer “quality time” for pondering totally unrelated topics that may have “gotten under my skin”, “stuck in my craw(What IS a craw, anyway?)”, “graveled my gizzard”, “frayed my last nerve”…whatever idiomatic expression you might prefer. So I’ve been using the time, perhaps not wisely,...
Notes From The Vineyard
All of this talk about Champagne last week really put me into the holiday mood and the best way to celebrate the season was to go out and find some champagne to recommend for your holiday parties. I selected two bottles from the label of Domaine Ste Michelle which is located in the Columbia Valley in Washington State. During...
Law & Government
A friend recently had a fire at her home. Fortunately, no one was injured. It did cause lots of damage and has left our circle of friends all pitching in to untangle an insurance claim. Few things in my legal career have been as frustrating as insurance claims. The following should help if you ever have a claim. 1. The...
Winter Prep
So…I missed the Rotary meeting on the 24th. They were working away at their Reverse Raffle and Silent Auction…as they have been for some time; get your tickets now. The array of donated items and services should make for spirited bidding and a good time for all. It’s a regular social event around these parts, starts off the holiday...
That Red Buckeye Is A Show Off!
My Red Buckeye is showing off this year—full of blossoms and looking like it ought to be the guest star at the Home & Flower Show. Stop in some time and take a look. And if you’re walking around the estate, say “Hello” to the critter who seems to me to be the one munching up my...
Life, Art and Cookies
Recently, I heard an interview with a writer in Nebraska, who compared this winter’s polar vortex conditions to the ninth circle of hell mentioned in Dante’s “Inferno”. That reference brought to mind a quote by writer Oscar Wilde, who said, “Life imitates art far more than art imitates life.” Lately I’ve realized that this is not the case, at...
Puppy Tails
The bustle and rush of the holidays were done and Doodle Dog was excited for the brand new year full of days to enjoy, chances to play, people to meet, and adventures to be had. He knew the children would be going back to school soon and downtown was growing quieter and not as crowded since the hurrying holiday...
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...
When Investing, Make The Best Use Of Time
When you’re investing for retirement, it’s best to have time on your side. The sooner you begin investing, the more time your retirement fund has to potentially grow. Case in point Jill begins investing in a retirement account when she’s 30.* She invests $200 a month in the account for 35 years, until she’s 65, for a total investment of $84,000....
If It Weren’t For Bad Luck…
Well. It’s official : If it weren’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have any luck at all...when it comes to gambling, that is. On all other fronts I’d say that I’m ‘way ahead of the game. The LAF/SOMe expedition to the Bright Lights/Big City bus trip to Wheeling Island ( O.K., I lied about the big city part) Casino and...
The Wheels On The Bus…
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go…. Wait! We’re not moving. So that was one part of the saga. Wait until you hear the rest of it. Our intrepid band of Quiz Masters (James A. Garfield’s Academic Challenge team) was off to...
You Missed It…
You missed it! You missed the LAF/SOMe bus trip to the Dunham Tavern Museum and the West Side Market. What a hoot! The museum was neat; it’s an oasis of green on concrete and steel Euclid Ave. With the main building, a reconstructed log cabin, a barn suitable for larger group activities and actual garden space out back and at...
Ya Shoulda Been There!
Ya shoulda been there! “There”, in this instance was actually two places where it was all happenin’ last week. Not genuinely related places, really, but there were similarities, fo’ sure. The first one was the business-to-business open house at Facet Salon and Day Spa on Tuesday, August 6. The parking lot at the TLC was hopping and they weren’t all in...
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...
Haunts At Home
With Halloween coming up and all, I think that I’ll have to admit that I think that the house seems to be haunted. Not just by the bats who make periodic appearances (Though not—can I hear some knocking on wood out there—just lately) thupp-thupping around inside the place, from living room to dining room to kitchen and...
