Mark Knows It All

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, ...