Mark Knows It All

Our periodic loss of freedom check has a number interesting entries. 1) TRASH TALKIN’ COMPUTER CHIPS : The City of Cleveland has just invested $1.5 million of stimulus money in garbage cans with micro chips. City trash collectors are supposed to use scanners to see who is putting out recycling cans, and who is not. If it appears that a city resident is not putting out the recycling containers with recyclable trash, the garbage collector is supposed to knock on the resident’s door and make inquiries. If the resident continues to refuse to recycle, the resident can be fined up to $500.00. City fathers claim the amount of recyclable versus non-recyclable trash directly effects their landfill cost/reimbursment rates. Maybe so, but I smell a do-gooder. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. 2) PHILADELPHIA BLOGGER POLICE : Several bloggers in Philadelphia made around $50.00 in miscellaneous Google ads (see: adsense) and foolishly reported the income on their city income tax. The city is...

Last week my wife and I, on the advice of one of the musicians in the show, drove to Salem to see Meshuggah-nuns at the Salem Community Theater. It was a fluff piece, another in the Nunsense series of musicals featuring singing and dancing nuns. The story centered around a cruise ship that was staging a production of Fiddler on the Roof , and all of the cast became ill except for the guy that played Tevya. The cruise company, in turn, hired the Little Sisters of Hoboken to join the Jewish lead in an ecumenical extravaganza of Catholicism and Jewry. The show was a lot of fun, especially the Say It In Yiddish song which compared Latin and Yiddish, the most expressive language known to man. Here’s the thing. The cast was good. The production values were good. The musicians were outstanding…and the theater was packed. I mean packed. All of the shows were pretty much sold out…in Salem, Ohio….in August….on a beautiful, sunny evening. So what gives with community theater? Why the attraction...

I went to Zoar this past weekend. I didn’t know Zoar existed until Friday night, when I mentioned to some friends that my wife and I were looking for a day trip destination for Saturday. My friend said: “Why don’t you go to Zoar?” Whoa !!! My mind was immediately filled with visions of far off planets and big breasted women, like some bad 1950’s space movie. Zoar Lives!!!; Revenge of the Zoar Women; The Attack of the Amazon Zoarites. He quickly advised me no such luck. Zoar is a village located in Tuscawaras County south of Canton. Tuscawaras? Wait a minute. Tuscawaras Bimbos v. The Mutant Zoars. Get the popcorn quick!! Is Raquel Welch anywhere? How about Jane Fonda? Watch Barbarella do here thing. STOP! So we took my friend's advice, and got in our car and trekked our way to where no man has gone before. Zoar is actually a really nice little village. It was founded in 1817 by a group of German separatists who attempted to establish a communal community ala the Shakers or any o...

Music is the great joy in my life. Songs give all of our lives time and place. Some I take with me through life, others I discard because the memories are too painful or too poignant. Carmen Ohio, for example, is bittersweet with memories of my best years at Ohio State. When I hear the Best Damn Band in the Land play chimes, I mentally turn the music off because it reminds me of one too many birthdays!!! This year, my Seraphim Chorus’ spring concert will be entitled “ 1969 – The Summer of Love .” Like the title says…where were you in 1969…and what music were you listening to? There is all sorts of wonderful music from that era. I was going to Youngstown State at the time, and white soul bands were all the rage. Lots and lots of trumpets and saxaphones! The hippie/freak music was also popular. It was the intent of the director to focus on Haight-Ashbury San Francisco flower power tunes. That music was smokin’ in more ways than one. I volunteered to look for some music from the era, and ...