Posted in Uncategorized on November 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This is where I live…in Boardman, Ohio, a suburb of Youngstown, in a neighborhood surrounding West Blvd. Elementary school.
This area sprung up in the early 1950s as mill workers were moving their families away from the crowded conditions of city mill housing. This neighborhood has always been decidedly working class. The homes are modest ranches [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged green team, mccain, Obama on November 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
This morning I’m feeling, admittedly a little gloaty over the Obama win. Give me a break. I supported both Gore and Kerry, so I deserve this one. However, this morning when I left my house to go to the grocery store at 8:30 I noticed something peculiar. The McCain signs in my neighborhood were gone, including [...]
Posted in the burb life, tagged kid stuff on May 13, 2008 | 7 Comments »
I always say that I was born too late. I wish I had been parenting when my parents were parenting. I long for the poker-for-pennies parties when the Strohs flowed freely, and we kids used to swirl our hands in the blue haze coming from an ashtray the size of a hubcap.
It was the seventies [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on April 22, 2008 | 2 Comments »
CNN.com today reported that presidential candidate Senator John McCain kicked off the “poverty” leg of his campaign. We’re mentioned, right along with the ninth ward of New Orleans. fabulous.
Here are the Youngstown-relevant sections of the article:
Sen. John McCain launched his week-long journey to poverty-stricken areas of the nation Monday with language that would have [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on April 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The Children’s Museum of the Valley held its Spring Fling today–not much spring (40-something degrees-brrr) but plenty of fling. There were bees, butterflies, owls, and of course, the Green Team. The butterflies were a pick-me-up. This gray can’t last forever, right?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged activism, oakland, rosetta, theater on April 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
What a show! What a night! We started with dinner at the Rosetta Stone (yummy Portabella Ravioli), and then we walked over the Oakland for Out on the Town. I was in the company of some amazing Ytowners–two city school teachers, an attorney (and Youngstown blogger), a social activist, her bright and funny daughters, and [...]
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged arts, oakland, uuyo on April 1, 2008 | 1 Comment »
This Saturday, a small group of friends from the UUYO church and I are heading out to the Oakland Center for the Arts to see Out on the Town, a performance to benefit Dreams of Hope, which describes itself as a “gay/straight creative and performing arts youth group.”
I’m proud to be a part of a [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on March 24, 2008 | 2 Comments »
This past week has been one of the most mixed I’ve experienced in a long time. In theory, we said goodbye to winter and hello to spring (my eight-year-old daughter yelled at the snow, “I am sick of the color white!”). But symbolically, at least, many of us celebrated the coming spring or the renewal of [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on March 20, 2008 | 11 Comments »
In the film Good Will Hunting, there is this moment when the Robin Williams character confronts his former friend and better-known academic colleague about their respective careers. The better-known academic, the film makes clear, has completely lost touch with his students and has become obsessed with status and recognition. By contrast, the Williams character teaches [...]
Posted in Uncategorized on March 13, 2008 | 2 Comments »
This morning, I forgot to bring my MP3 player when I went to work out at the Davis Family YMCA. During my forty-minutes on the treadmill, in my line of vision was a bright yellow sign with one word…RESPECT. I found myself pondering respect and my community, my beloved hometown.
It is easy to disrespect Youngstown [...]
