Mark Knows It All

Jim Traficant has been in the news lately as he will be returning home in September after his unfortunate incarceration. I read all sorts things about the man in the Vindicator. He certainly is unpopular with certain Vindicator columnists. The radio commentary seems to be mixed. And no one knows what the impact will be on the local political scene when he gets back. The Scrappers scrapped a Traficant Release Night. But the welcome home dinner seems to be close to sold out if not sold out entirely. I only voted for Traficant once. I thought he was an embarrassment to the community. He certainly got this area some notoriety, lots of it bad, from his bad hair and television tirades. No one, including me, condones any illegal behavior while he was in office. As a lawyer, I certainly question his judgment on his decision to represent himself in his last legal entanglement that ended up with him in jail. Not a good thing!!! But in light of what has been going on in Congress, I have been thin...

My wife is a gardening dynamo. She loves to get out and dig in the dirt. Some of the plants and shrubs around my house have been moved so many time they keep teeny tiny bags packed right next to their stems. “Taking root” is not an understood concept among our fauna population. That being said, we take great pride in our back yard. It backs up to small woods which we have landscaped. It has a lot of old growth trees and shade, so getting anything to grow means manipulating branches and scarce sunlight to hit just where you want. It is a continual work in progress. I am always amazed at how the garden grows. It is fairly bleak and glum during the winter. Because of falling branches and trees, many of our new evergreen plantings have been damaged. It really shows in the winter. But the critters love them so we leave them alone. At the beginning of March, I look at the barren yard and wonder will anything grow this year. Then comes mid-March, and the little shoots start to poke their head...

What does one do with Andy Warhol, aka Andy Warhola, aka Andy Varchola? Such a talent! Such a life! Such a perversion!! This past weekend my wife and I visited the Andy Warhol Museum, operated by the Carnegie Museums, on Pittsburgh’s north shore. It took us about 2 ½ hours to get through the thing, and mostly wife told me to get that look off my face. Let’s start with the facility itself. Costs $15.00 per person to get in (not worth it) unless you are over 55 making the cost $9.00 (worth it) or a member of the Carnegie Museums…free and worth it!! It is in the old Volkwein’s Music Publishing Building on the north shore. There is a parking lot cattycorner with a $6.00 fee unless there is a sporting event at either the baseball or football stadiums about 3 blocks away, then the fee goes to $12.00. The museum occupies the top four stories of the seven story building, with offices and restoration facilities occupying the bottom three floors. Elevators are available to get you the top. There...

This past weekend some friends of ours asked them to join them at the Mount Carmel Festival at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church. They picked us up, and my buddy took Market Street downtown driving through Youngstown’s South Side, and the Uptown district. It was pitiful. Outside of government buildings, a random well fortified convenience store, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Buildings, it was void of much of anything. Empty storefront was followed by empty storefront. Scary people walked on the sidewalk. Sitting on the stoop of one vacant building was a lady dressed in pink…obviously stoned out of her mind. It was fairly depressing. Looking at this mess, it struck me why I am a conservative. Youngstown has an unemployment rate of about 12%. Right now, it is a little higher than usual, but not by much. Since the mills closed in the late 1970’s, our unemployment rate has always been high. What is disturbing is that many of these folks are not only unemployed, but unemployable. They have b...

I was raised Roman Catholic, and my wife was raised Lutheran. Back in 1972 when we got hitched, mixed marriages were still frowned upon, and we were met with raised eyebrows by skeptical family members. My cousin telling my wife that non-Catholics are heathens and going to hell is one example. My wife’s uncle telling me the only good fish-eater is a dead-fish eater is another…so much for the ecumenical spirit. Looking for common ground, my wife and I stumbled across the Episcopal Church and found a home. I loved its rich and beautiful liturgy and music, while its protestant attitude was comfortable to my wife. We attended an Episcopal Church for the next 28 years. It is a relatively small United States denomination (2.1 million members) with its roots in the Church of England, separated by revolution. It believes in apostolic succession (the laying on of hands in an unbroken chain from St. Peter). Because of the American Revolution, the Church of England refused to consecrate American ...

Last week, I had the occasion to have dinner with a group of my family members. Included in the group were my Aunt Rosemary who was married to my father’s deceased brother Lou; my Uncle Bud who was married to my mother’s deceased sister Dee; and Jerry who was married to my late cousin Marilyn. Of course, my mother and father are both deceased. So there we sat in the Springfield Grill having a wonderful time. Although I come from a rather large extended family, my mother and father, Rosemary and Lou, Dee and Bud, and Marilyn made up my core family. These are the folks with whom we would spend most of the holidays and celebrations. My mother and father did a fair amount of traveling with Dee and Bud (belonging to my mother’s side of the family) and Rosemary and Lou (belonging to my father’s side of the family). Marilyn, Dee and Bud’s daughter, and I were raised in a duplex and viewed ourselves more like brother and sister. It dawned on me, looking around at these folks last week, that th...

One of my favorite stories stems from my being a member of the Board of Directors of a certain organization that has a kitchen facility attached to it. Money, as is everywhere, is tight. Capital improvements are always an issue, and the club has a rule that any expenditure above a certain dollar amount has to be approved by the Board. At a meeting last year, it was brought to the attention of the Board that the deep fryer in the kitchen was kaput, and the kitchen needed a new one. The cost for a commercial fryer would be in the $2,500.00. A spirited discussion ensued. It was noted that the deep fryer was located in an inconvenient location in the kitchen, and that it probably would do everyone well to move it closer to where the chef said it ought to be. But when they measured the space, the counter was to cramped to move the fryer to the ideal location. It was suggested that the fryer could be accommodated if they could add some additional counter space. Of course, that would involve ...

If you are to pick one thing that is wrong with America, I would start with the Michael Jackson story that has developed over this past week. His untimely death has certainly dominated the news cycles. While you were moon walking, American troops pulled out of Iraqi cities while sectarian violence escalated; there was a coup in Honduras that overthrew a left wing president who was acting in violation of the Honduran Supreme Court orders stating he could not run for a third term and to vacate the office; and the House of Representatives passed the Cap and Trade bill which will raise the cost of utilities in all of our houses by as much as $1800.00/year. Michael Jackson was a great entertainer. In his earlier years, I was a fan. But over the years he came to represent all that is wrong with America. His celebrity became a tragic joke filled with unending cosmetic surgery destroying his face and body; the whitening of his skin; his obsession with toys personified at the Neverland Ranch; h...

The American Revolution is not my most favorite period of history. But I do know that it is considered to be the Conservative Revolution. It was not a revolution rooted in the misfortune of the downtrodden like most such events, most notably the French and Russian Revolutions. The American Revolution was rooted in the privileged classes. It was a revolution to preserve property rights for those whose wealth was being taxed away without representation by an oppressive British Crown. Our founding fathers considered themselves to be proud British subjects who had recently participated with the mother country in defeating the French in the French and Indian War, establishing Britain as the primary European power in North America. These guys wanted to remain British subjects, but were faced with a King whose main goal shifted from the war toward paying off the government debt incurred thereby, as well as all of the other wars in which Britain was involved. How to do it? Disenfranchise the c...

Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dads!! Days like Father’s Day or Mother’s Day are no-brainers for writers like me. Pull out the schmaltz and throw in some hearts and flowers…we can have our readers crying in their coffee mugs in 2 minutes. (C’mon, you know I can do it!). But me being me, I view Father’s Day as a chance to vent my continual frustration about the diminishment of the roles of fathers, and men generally, in our society. Watch television and the talk shows. The media likes to portray men as sperm donors first, and dumb and stupid second. Female celebrities are continually impregnated by men to whom they are not married, and to whom they may or may not marry at some time in the future, while they parade their “baby bump” in skin tight tops strutting up and down Rodeo Drive or as they go clubbing at night. It diminishes men. It diminishes the miracle of child birth, and it diminishes the mothers…and I use the term loosely. Let’s not even go to the single women who traipse ar...

I took my car to Big Jim’s the other day for a wash and wax. Big Jim’s has been a fixture on Route 224 for years and years, and the people who Big Jim’s employs have worked there just as long. I got my formica card showing the type of wash I was getting; watched the carpet guys clean the mats and vacuum the floor, then went to pay my 12 bucks. I handed my car wash card to the cashier, and she asked, “Are you a senior?” I was taken aback. Something was askew. I’m not a senior. I don’t look like a senior. I don’t think like a senior…well…maybe. I feel like a senior!!!! But as Fernando said on Saturday Night Live years ago, it’s not how you feel,it’s how you look, and I look maahhhvelous!!! Maybe not marvelous!! Those bags under my raccoon eyes are a little disturbing. I asked her to define senior. “Are you 60?” she asked. No, I am 59…six months to go. “That’s okay, honey, I will give it to you anyway.” She replied. A reprieve!!!!! Such a deal!!! Not sixty, but I still get the discount!!!...

Okay…so my 23 year old son comes home from Columbus last weekend and sees two pink tickets sitting on the counter for the Seraphim Spring Concert…an ice cream social entitled in The Good Old Summertime . He queried: “What in God’s name are these…and what is an ice cream social?” I explained to my progeny of the computer age that an ice cream social is just that. The Methodists among us know that in the summer, occasionally one goes to church on Sunday evening for some entertainment and ice cream…kind of like a Strawberry Social or a Cake Walk. A what???? I told him it was like The Music Man sociable at the end of the movie. My comments were met with a blank stare as he text messaged his friend on his cell phone. When this program was first proposed, I had some issues with it. It was too old. It was too dated. It didn’t attract young people. Even more frightening, it contained a whole lot of barbershop music, a new genre for our chorus, and difficult to sing if you want to do it right....

We all know the old joke about Ohio’s four seasons: Almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction. Yes, it’s a groaner. But for the most part, it’s true; especially the construction part. For the past years, the construction season has been particularly aggravating, and it is getting worse. For the last five years, there hasn’t been a summer when I have had to dodge major construction projects getting from my house to work. I have reached the limit. The root of the problem is in the bridge improvement projects that seem to be multiplying like rabbits. For awhile, the bridges were collapsing around us. Now, they are in a continual state of repair. Not that that is a bad thing. After all, who wants to go wahoo off a bridge if it collapses? But can’t they get some sort of a plan where they don’t detour you from one bridge repair to another bridge repair to an intersection widening to a sewer project? Last summer in particular, you just couldn’t get anywhere from here…or there...

When I started writing my web page articles several years ago, there would be weeks where I would have to struggle to find a topic. Political discourse was routine stuff, and much of it was boring. No more. America is changing before my eyes, and its citizens are blind to the dangers as long as the change is done to rock beat bumper music. If my generation screamed for drugs, sex, and rock n’ roll, we should be happy. That is all that will be left. The headlines are scaring me. When I hear Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, commenting on CNBC that he is scared, then there is reason to be concerned. What would have been taboo just a year ago, is the norm today. America voted for “change” this past election, but I don’t think it will like the change that it gets. Frightening headlines are ignored by the body politic. "FEDS TELL BANK OF AMERICA TO CHANGE ITS BOARD." "OBAMA FIRES GM CEO." "AUTO ADVISORY BOARD TELLS CHRYSLER TO CUT ITS ADVERTISING BUDGET BY...

I received an email from a friend of mine last week reminding me to visit Poland Woods…NOW…because the Blue Bells were in bloom, and the peak time was limited. I have heard about this event for a number of years, and never remembered or had the chance to check it out. I had never even visited Poland Woods. I have to tell you, it was a real treat. My wife is the nature person in my family. For me, the outdoors is nice to look at through picture windows. Even when we go to Florida, the beach is best viewed from the balcony of a room serviced hotel room. But I have been feeling a tad blue (no pun intended) lately, and my wife said it would be good therapy to get some fresh air. What a treat it was. Poland Woods itself is a picturesque place complete with a suspension foot bridge over a lovely creek. We paid our respects to Mother Nature on Saturday morning, and pretty much had the entire place to ourselves, except for the guy walking his very large dog. To get to the Blue Bells, you have ...

Now for my anti-socialist rant. How much of your life are you willing to give to the government? The news I read about General Motors today was only given cursory attention by the press. Yet, it is probably one of the most profound events in our history. General Motors offered the government controlling interest in the company (that’s more than 50% of the common stock) in exchange for cancellation of GM’s $10 billion debt to the US Treasury. The balance of the company would be split up mostly to the UAW, and a small portion to the bond holders. What does this mean? It means that GM’s management has given up. It is walking away. And the once proud US automaker will be owned and run by the government and the unions. Does that mean anything at all to you? It is the signature event of our times: Americans are capitulating their freedom to the government. As we sit idly by, Big Brother is moving towards a centrally planned economy…forcing its way into the banking and manufacturing sectors o...

I opened up my email last week, and tucked in between the email from the Zappo’s wanting to sell me a pair of shoes and Citibank offering me another “got to have” low interest credit card was an email from a law school chum of mine that I talk to several times a year. He was passing on a message from another of my law school classmates that it was time to plan for our 35th class reunion (Ohio Northern Law School/Class of 1975) in spring of 2010. Ouch. 35 years? Hard to believe!! It sure doesn’t feel like 35 years, but then again…. I have never been a fan of school reunions. My insecurities float to the surface like scum on a pond. Believe me, there is a lot of scum. I looked at myself in the mirror: my balding head, my expanded girth, the rings under my eyes, my sagging chin (not that I ever had one to start with), and the various wrinkles and growths that magically have appeared on my face over the years. As a comedian once said: How did a hair grow there? All I could think of is that...

With spectacular sets, pimped up music, and lighting alone that is worth the cost of admission, American Idol has topped American television ratings for the past 8 years. It is a star machine, producing Oscar, Grammy, and CMA Entertainer of the Year award winners. Are you an American Idol fan? I am. In an era of recession, shrinking 401(k)’s, and “big brother” government pounding at the door, it is a treat to sit back and watch talented young people try to grab the brass ring. If you haven’t been watching, this year’s group of singers is probably the best group presented in the past several years. The last couple of seasons were a tad dicey to the point where I was tuning the show out. Not one of them was particularly outstanding. But this year…there are several who are on the road to show biz success whether they win the competition or not. At the end of the day, this is basically an old fashioned variety show. There is a certain comfort level for those of us who grew up watching The...

I was thumbing through Business Week the other day, and came across an article about the new Verizon wireless home telephone system called the Verizon Hub. It claims that the home phone has been reinvented. Wow! I was SO impressed. This baby is a wireless console that you use in place of your land line because, as you know, people are deserting land telephone lines in droves. Millions upon millions of people are canceling their land lines every year. This Verizon console integrates all of your wireless functions, including your Blackberry, your broadband, and of course, you wireless telephone. In addition, you can watch movie trailers, buy movie theater tickets, monitor traffic, monitor your “little darl’ins”, send photos and videos, and keep you calendar….all from the Verizon Hub. And you don’t need a telephone line. Technological nirvana has been achieved. I don’t know about you, in my purpose driven life, the purpose for using the telephone is to call somebody to talk, and hopefully...

I don’t know where to begin to comment watching events unfold between General Motors and Barack Obama. Where does the Federal government get the authority to fire a CEO of a major corporation? I know. I know. “Thems that pays the piper picks the tunes.” And I know that General Motors approached the Feds for money. And I know that for all intents and purposes, but for the Feds, GM would be bankrupt. Nonetheless, there is something unseemly and inherently un-American about what is happening. Let’s start with GM itself. It has had long standing quality problems and union contracts which would sink a battleship. Its cars were…let’s just say…bad. They rusted within two years. They rattled. They were in constant need of repair. And GM, as well as Ford and Chrysler, were blown away by the engineering and galvanized steel of the Japanese imports. GM is currently carrying legacy costs which, in effect, change the nature of what it is. GM no longer makes cars to make money. It makes cars to pay ...