Mark Knows It All

One of the frustrations of Christmas is trying to match the hype with the reality of what is a very emotional holiday. Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post gave us the first visual of what Christmas was supposed to be. In the golden age of television, it got worse. How could you compete with a Cleaver Christmas, or a Perry Como Christmas, or an Andy Williams Christmas? Television movies took it a step further, going to both extremes from "miracles in the snow" to "Griswold Christmas fiascos". And now we wax nostalgic with Ralphie in the modern day classic "A Christmas Story", which will be run on a cable channel for 24 hours on Christmas Day. The reality is Christmas is the most stressful time of the year. It is spelled W-O-R-K for most of us. Another spelling might be M-O-N-E-Y, also for most of us. Then there are the crazy family members coming out of the woodwork, some you can dispose of, others you are stuck with no matter what you do. On a sa...

A quote attributed to Teddy Roosevelt has been making the internet rounds over the past several weeks. It is provided below. Before printing it here, I researched it. He actually did write this on January 3, 1919, three days before his death, to the President of the American Defense Society. Americanization was a favorite theme of his after his Presidency. I like the quote because it is right on point to the most dangerous threat this country has faced from within for a long time. My wife was born and raised in a little town outside of Mansfield, Ohio. When she first came with me to Youngstown to live, she was continually asked "What are you?" She always replied "an American." When pressed, she would add "from Mansfield." It took her awhile to realize that Youngstown locals wanted to know her ethnic extraction. (It is German, English, Irish, Welsh, with a touch of American Indian. Anyone want to open a Casino?) All four of my grandparents were from Italy. ...

The best commercially baked Italian cookies that I have ever tasted anywhere, bar none, were purchased at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Italian Festival over these past several summers. Joyce's Cookies operated a huge stand at the festival that was usually mobbed by people with fists full of money lined up to buy these wonderful confections. They weren't cheap, and neither were the ingredients. You could tell by the flavor and texture that no corners were cut in baking these outstanding cookies. I am cookie freak at Christmas time. This year I told my wife, instead of getting our cookies at the place we normally patronize (good, but not great), we should buy some Joyce's Cookies instead. The hunt was on. The only thing I knew about Joyce's Cookies was that it was based in McKees Rocks, PA. This is an old mill town along the Ohio River, about 5 miles from Pittsburgh. You get to it by taking PA Route 51 off of I 79. It is the back way into Pittsburgh. I call ...

The Butler Institute of American Art is the oldest museum in the United States dedicated solely to American artists. One of the gems of the Mahoning Valley, it has expanded several times through stunning additions to its main building, and the purchase of the surrounding historic buildings and churches. One of the mainstays of the Christmas season for years has been Christmas at the Gallery . This was a high end craft and artisan show. EVERYONE in the "see and be seen crowd" shoved their way into the opening night gala, and returned the next day to purchase their stuff. And it had some really nice stuff. This year, I couldn't find Christmas at the Gallery anywhere on the holiday promotional pages of the paper. Nor was there the usual television advertising. I wondered what happened to it as I was one of the regular attendees. Then I saw an ad on television for the " An American Holiday at the Butler ". I looked at the ad, and it hit me. The Butler Art Gallery h...

Years ago, Robert Henderson, the current pastor at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Chagrin Falls, gave a sermon at Zion Lutheran Church in Youngstown, where he was serving as an intern. It is a sermon that has stayed with me over the years, and those of you who know me have heard me quote it from time to time. As we prepare for Thanksgiving during these very scary times, allow me to paraphrase his sermon. It has a message worth repeating. A lady had spent a very long day shopping at the local mall, getting ready for the holidays. Before going home, she decided to rest a bit in the food court, and have a snack. She stopped at one of the stores and bought a dozen cookies. She then found an empty table in the very crowded food court and deposited her bag of cookies, her packages and coat, and went to buy herself a cup of coffee to go with her cookies. Upon her return to her table, she found another gentleman had occupied one of the empty seats at the table she had claimed as her own. He w...

It is the 14th of November. The days are getting longer. The air is getting colder. The Halloween candy is only half gone. Chestnuts are roasting on the open fire. Jack Frost nipping at your nose. Yuletide carols being sung by a choir.... Now I know why we are supposed to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. If you start them in October, somewhere in your seasonal greeting you have to account for Halloween and Thanksgiving. We drove to Sharon for dinner last night. Peeping Tom that I am, I noticed that several houses had their Christmas trees up and lit already. After dinner, we made a trek to Kraynaks, home of the famous, or infamous, Christmas Tree Lane. We have twinkle lights year round on some sort of artificial plant growth thing on our porch, and the lights had burned out. We went to buy a line of lights and ran into elbow to elbow November Christmas revelers buying out ship loads of that cheap, imported Christmas...well...stuff. I wonder if the owners actually select ...

The most under-reported story of the this past election was the stealth victory for the Republican Party. In their analysis, Fox News, CNN, and the major news networks focused on the Democratic gubenatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia, and the defeat of the Schwartzenegger initiatives in California. Although pundits tried to spot a trend, there was none. Democratic governors in both states were replaced by Democratic governors with the same margin of victory as in previous years, both races extremely close. And California....well....is California. California is a blue state, and short of some cataclysmic politcal event, will contiue to be a blue state notwithstanding temporary aberrations in the the governor's office. The big story is Ohio. No Republican has ever won a Presidential election without carrying Ohio. No Democrat can carry Ohio without winning Mahoning County by more than 64%. Regardless of scandals swirling around Columbus, cointgate, and Governor Taft, reform...

After more than a week of violent riots in the outskirts of Paris, the mainstream media is finally beginning to pay attention. Last night, over 1300 cars were torched, not only in the outskirts, but towards the tourist areas of Paris, as well as other cities throughout the country. Unfortunately, the media, CNN in particular, has sanitized the story in political correctness. France has a population of approximately 60 million people. Its "immigrant" population of makes up 6.3% of its population. Included in that "immigrant" population are over 5 million Muslims , making it the largest enclave of Muslims in Western Europe. It is the young, Muslim, population that is rioting in the streets. After its initial reporting, CNN has ceased using the word "Muslim" in describing the rioters, and has begun to use the word "immigrant". It is so pronounced and obvious, it is clear that the CNN politically correct censors have decided that using the term Musl...

League of Women Voters LINK TO CUYAHOGA COUNTY LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS WHERE YOU CAN LINK TO CONCISE EXPLANATION OF THE ISSUES AND THEIR PROS AND CONS The voters of Ohio are being faced with a plethora of issues on November 8th. These issues are lengthy and confusing. The Mahoning County Board of Elections has published the issues and appropriate discussion in the Vindicator several times, taking up at least 8 pages of extremely small print. The Mahoning County Board of Elections has announced that it will allow voters five minutes to vote on November 8th, and voters should not count on figuring out the issues in the voting booth. In other words, know how you are going to vote before you go in to push the computer buttons. Let's start with Issue 2, which would allow anyone to request a "Mail In" ballot approximately 30 days before the election, and mail his/her vote in instead of voting on election day. I am personally against it as I truly believe voting is a privilege, ...

Let's try to figure this out. Robert Novak wrote a column a few years ago in which he mentioned that Valerie Plame was a CIA agent. Ms. Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, was appointed by the Bush administration to investigate whether or not Saddam Hussein attempted to buy nuclear yellow cake from Niger. Mr. Wilson concluded there was no Niger-Iraq connection, but neglected to report that Saddam did make inquiries as to whether there was nuclear material available. Instead of keeping this information privileged for his employer, the United States Government and the President, Mr. Wilson wrote an Op Ed piece for the New York Times about what he didn't find in Niger. So much for confidentiality of public officials. He then claimed that his wife was "outed" by the Bush Administration as punishment for the Op Ed piece. There is a statute which prevents the outing of our secret agents, but it is highly technical in nature, and involves actual intent. So the Justice De...

President Bush stepped into the big pile with his nomination of Harriet Miers to the United States Supreme Court. Outside of the Iraq War, Bush will be remembered mostly for the mark, or lack thereof, that he will leave on the Supreme Court. Those from the right, who have worked over the years to reign in an activist court, look upon Ms. Miers with dismay. No verifiable conservative credentials raises the fear of the Republican knack of appointing liberals in sheep's clothing to the court, translate Justice Souter and the very late Earl Warren. Those from the left are unjustifiably cackling with glee at the Republican dilemma. After all, Ms. Miers is a born again Christian who has overtly stated she opposes Roe v. Wade, and given the chance, she would vote to overturn it. You got to watch out for those born again Christians. Both sides are pointing to her lack of judicial experience as the pretext to eliminate her from consideration. She is no John Roberts, they say. She needs a cr...

In the wake of Delphi Corporation's bankruptcy, it is time for the United States government to get its head out of the sand and begin to address the issue of a declining American manufacturing base. In a brutally frank news conference on October 13, Robert "Steve" Miller, Chairman and CEO of Delphi, spelled the problem out in frank terms, the truth of which was as refreshing as it was disturbing. Those of us with political science backgrounds tend to be free traders. The number 1 rule in political science is free trade promotes peace and prevents wars. That was the lesson of World Wars I and II. And those of us with rudimentary backgrounds in economics believe in Adam Smith's invisible hand in matters of free enterprise. One can make the argument that free trade and free enterprise are proper approaches when dealing with Japan, Europe, possibly India, and other areas of the world. China is a different ball game. There is no way the United States can compete with China...

My wife had some surgery very early in the morning this past Friday. It was performed at St. Elizabeth's Hospital. As she was wheeled into the operating room, I was directed to the surgical lobby. This 1958 modern, boat shaped addition to the front of the original hospital looked much the same as it had through the 40 something years my father was on the hospital's dental staff. Not much had changed. It is a huge space that defines kitsch. It had the same Crucifix, the same 1950's style furniture, the same reception desk, the same wall clock. The elevators to the rest of the hospital were a marvel of lights on a panel showing which of the many elevators was on which floor, a technological wonder. The only thing missing was Dr. Kildare and Ben Casey. Of course now they had several televisions connected to the myriad of channels offered by Time Warner Cable. I took a seat so I could watch one of them awaiting the completion of the surgery. But the seats close to th...

Do you ever wonder what things actually cost? Sounds like an easy question...just look at the price tag. Walmart has the little yellow bouncing ball showing that its prices are continually going down. That will stop when the Chinese discover trade unions. The government tells us on a monthly basis that there is no inflation. This is demonstrated by the CPI, the Consumer Price Index. The only problem is that when the government figures it out, it removes the "volatile food and energy prices". Huh??? What a novel way to stop inflation: just remove the things that cost too much!!! A case in point is my mother, who had me buy her a Sunday Vindicator for $1.25. She buys it for the coupons, and after using the clipped coupons at the grocery store, the cents off coupons more than pay for the Vindicator. So the Vindicator cost her...nothing. Then she goes shopping at Giant Eagle, and uses her cents off coupons to get discounts on everything from napkins to Campbell Soup. So her groc...

I watched the Emmy Awards on Sunday night. Other than the Tony's, I am not an award show fan. But I wanted to see Ellen DeGeneres, who now that she has gotten over her "coming out" issues, is one of my favorite television personalities. (I really like her American Express commercials. She has me dancing in the elevators!!!) Unfortunately, most of these types of shows have taken on a political tone which takes the fun out of them. Case in point, Miss America was "politically corrected" to death. At the end of the day, I really don't care if Miss Arkansas has 3 graduate degrees and spent 5 years in Africa. I just want to see some "T and A". The network did try to suppress the political harrangs that have become common place in Hollywood award shows as of late. (Didn't Marlon Brando send some Indian, excuse me, Native American, chick, I mean lady, to accept his Academy Award years ago?) To some extent, the network succeeded this year. But what was...

When I brought my wife to Youngstown for the first time in 1971, the first place I showed her was the Brier Hill Route 422 corridor, and the drive along the Mahoning River through Youngstown, Campbell and Struthers. US Steel, Republic Steel, Youngstown Sheet and Tube and Commercial Shearing were among the largest of the companies. Medium size companies such as Aeroquip and Wean United were sprinkled in for good measure. One could look right into the blast furnaces from the Center Street Bridge, and the fire would light the night sky. Then came September 17, 1977, better known as Black Monday, Lykes-Youngstown, the old Sheet and Tube, announced it was closing its Youngstown operations. 25,000 jobs were lost. Mill after mill after mill followed. Company after company closed. When it was said and done, the primary job loss estimates reached upward to 75,0000. 24 blast furnaces were located in the Mahoning and Shenango Valleys in 1968. There are none today. In the carnage, people lost ever...

How much does America expect from its government? Apparently a lot. In the coverage of Katrina, it has been comical to watch the various media outlets querying whether FEMA could have done more, or did Governor Blanco freeze, and of course, the whole thing is the fault of George Bush. The truth is that the blame for the hurricane rests squarely on the shoulders of Mother Nature. The breach in the levees is just one more in a long series of man-made follies trying to defeat her....and failing. We live in a world of instant gratification and solutions. Two hundred and fifty five cable television channels blaring 24/7 have taught us that most problems can be solved in an hour, with the more serious problems taking the length of a mini-series. We have totally lost our ability to be awed by forces larger than ourselves. That is, of course, what has made America great. No job is too big. No work is too hard. There is no task that can't be accomplished. We demand perfection in all our ins...

There isn't anyone in the entire country who could have watched the suffering along the gulf coast without wondering why our government didn't respond sooner than it did. The good news is that once it responded, it did so magnificently. The bad news is that people died during the 24 hour delay. There is plenty of blame to go around between the Democrat Mayor of New Orleans, a total zero; the Democrat Governor of Louisiana, clueless; and Republican George Bush, who, for reasons known only to him and God, flew to California for a fund raiser and speech on Iraq while New Orleans drowned. Much has been written about the failure of the government to build the levees so that they could have withstood the storm. In the blame game, that discussion will probably not be as intense as the one surrounding the 24 hour delay, but will figure prominently in the debate over how to rebuild New Orleans. Adjectives I have heard on the issue so far are short sightedness, cheapness, pork spending, ...

Driving home from work tonight, I was stopped at a traffic light waiting to make a left turn. The left arrow from the cross street was green, so I decided to count the number of cars turning left in front of me while I was waiting for the light, and to count how many people driving the cars were on cell phones. I counted 11 cars. 6 of the drivers of those cars were on cell phones.That made my cell phone experience driving home today more exasperating as at least two cars cut into my lane while the drivers were on cell phones. And at least one car had traffic backed up in the left lane of the main drag while he dialed his cell phone, and dialed, and dialed. At the restaurant tonight, a lady was on her phone while waiting for a table as her 5 kids ran wild around her. At least I know that there were 5 times she wasn't on the cell phone, or maybe she was. One never knows. She was on the phone as she walked to her table. She was on the phone when her husband put in his appearance. She ...

I am tired of learning new things, and it is getting scarier by the day. I remember a time when I wanted to listen to music, I would either turn the knob on the radio or put a record on the phonograph. You could even listen to several records by stacking them on the spindle and they would drop down when the previous record was over. Now THAT was technology. I remember when my son was younger, his friends visited our house. They were just amazed as to how that worked. They stood and watched it over and over and over again. And laughed at me over and over and over again. On television last night, they told me that if I want to listen to music in the future, I am going to have to download the music to my MP3 player off my broadband connection and subscription music service, plug the player into my computer, plug something called a router into my computer, plug a comparable router into my stereo receiver, turn on the stereo receiver and tell the computer what songs to play from the MP3 pla...

I can give many reasons why we need to police ourselves better. At the top of the list is the jerk who ran the red light at the Route 224-Tippecanoe Road intersection, making a left turn, as I proceeded into the intersection in the opposite direction. I duly noted the name of the company on the side of the truck, owned by a friend of mine, and will make appropriate telephone calls tomorrow. It was some kid driving the truck while jabbering on his cell phone. It was close. In tonight's paper, however, it was reported that Mayor Melfi of Girard and his city council, in a 4-3 vote, are moving forward with its plans to put cameras on the streets to monitor speed. The fine for going over 25 mph in Girard: $170.00. Really makes you want to go to Girard, huh? I wonder how long the citizens of Girard will tolerate the demands of having to drive perfect 24/7 before they get tired of what is nothing more than a tax on themselves. Let's face it. How many people actually drive 25 mph throu...

The local news reported last night that an electronic law enforcement equipment company made presentations about its latest "gotcha" camera for monitoring your behavior. This gizmo is a traffic control radar device that can monitor 3 lanes of traffic simultaneously, take pictures, and then issue appropriate citations and fines to speeders and do the collection to boot. All of this is done at "no expense" to the governing authority. One can assume that the company is paid by either keeping all of the fine or a percentage thereof. The selling point is that this "frees" law enforcement officials to do serious police work. In our area, local news is reporting that Youngstown, Warren, and of course, Girard, are considering this system. The Ohio State Legislature has a different view of things, and has recently passed legislation that would make it illegal to operate a "red light running camera" without the presence of a law enforcement officer on the ...

I am one of the few people who think Richard Nixon was a good president. He ended Lyndon Johnson's war, ended the draft, improved relations with Russia, and opened the door to China. Many of today's environmental programs are directly descended from the Nixon Administration. He presided over a country filled with upheaval and social change and provided visible stability through scary times. After thirty years, however, it has become clear that his presidency marked the beginning of the end of any degree of civility in the American political process. I suspect that history will show that Watergate is certainly not a high watermark in our political process. But it will also show that Nixon probably didn't do anything more or anything less good or bad than any of his predecessors. Nixon's biggest mistake was to underestimate the righteous indignation of a left leaning press that exercised a virtual monopoly over the sources of information of the American people. Cloaked in...