Mark Knows It All

I am always amazed when life goes full circle. In my Youngstown Eats blog, I wrote that I had had contact with a gentleman named Howard from California who was originally from Youngstown. He said he was a graduate of YSU, and was putting together a reunion for his ZBT fraternity. On his web page, he was posting pictures of old restaurants and was wondering if I could get him one for the old 20th Century Restaurant on Belmont Avenue. He and I talked quite a bit, and I was successful in procuring him photographs with the help of a friend of mine. In conjunction with my trip down memory lane with Howard, I wrote a blog about old Youngstown restaurants which turned into one of the more popular things I had written. Get into the Wayback Machine with me and travel back to the mid 1960’s. My cousin Debbie, who was two years older than me, married a guy named Bob Turner when they were very young. Bob was a nice enough guy, and there was a big wedding on the way to happily ever after. Unfortuna...

We have a problem. I got home from work yesterday and found out that the United States had launched a Connecticut Military Operation. The television dude the reason they did this is that Congress would never approve a Declaration of War. I would hope not. What’s wrong with Connecticut? President Obama says that this operation is necessary to protect the civilian population. From whom do they need protecting? Supposedly its against the leader of the state. I looked it up. Her name is M. Jodi Rell. She must be pretty bad because even the Arab League is upset with her. Maybe she had snow removal issues this past winter. Or maybe they want her to wear a burqa. Gee, I hope she doesn’t get caught by any Egyptians. The Drudge Report said the army was given protesting women virginity tests. Yikes. I don’t think Obama is really into this Connecticut invasion. He is looking to hand it off to somebody else. I am guessing that New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island aren’t interested in taking ov...

I usually try to vary topics for the Mark Knows It All blog. I know I wrote a local arts column last week, which for people not from this area, and some that are, is probably B-O-R-I-N-G! But sometimes things just need to be said, and this is one of those of times. The Oakland Theater is among my favorite venues in the area for live theater. Its intimate space lends itself to smaller, edgier pieces. Many of them are controversial dealing with subjects that would make some feel uncomfortable. But the productions are ALWAYS top notch quality, well conceived and well produced. Some of the productions don’t appeal to me, and I don’t go to see them. But many do, and they just keep getting better and better. Those of us who enjoy theater are fortunate to have these kinds of offerings available to this area. Over the past two weekends, the Oakland hit a home run with its production of the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning play by Doug Wright “I Am My Own Wife.” Not only was the Oakland s...

Tonight I experienced again why this is a great place to live. Stambaugh Auditorium, a local treasure in its own right, showed off its own masterpiece: the newly renovated 3600 plus pipes Skinner organ. The renovation literally was finished this morning, and a dry run free concert was offered by Organist Dr. Edward Moore, originally from Girard, and now a world renowned organist and professor at Catholic University of America. It was a stunner. Like most of you, my experience with organs has mostly been in churches. Those organs range from barely working old pipe organs, to newly installed new fangled pipe organs, to electric organs that sound like pipe organs. We semi listen to a church prelude, and then sing a couple of versus of Rock of Ages, with the pipes of the organ decoratively gracing the rear wall of the church balcony. That isn’t what this is. It was build in 1926 as an integral part of the newly constructed Stambaugh Auditorium. Pipes range from pencil thin to 32 feet tall....

My choir director teaches as an adjunct music professor at a local college. At a recent rehearsal, he told us a story about one of his students whose assignment was to read an article about music outreach. The young lady came across a magazine article about community choruses such as the one I sing in and my director directs!! In her comments about the article, the young lady opined that she would not want to be involved with one of those old people choruses. My director said he let the young lady know in no uncertain terms that her comments were inappropriate, and that sooner or later we all end up at the far end of life. He then listed the virtues of the old people’s chorus, the loyalty of the members, their work ethic, and their dedication…those things that sometimes seem lacking in the young folks of today. She should be so lucky to be involved with an old people’s chorus. But even with our director’s kind words, it still gave me pause, and brought a tear to my eye. When did I beco...