Blogs List
On Second Thought...
 Fran Aiello |
I only dance at weddings and in other countriesWed, September 3, 2008 @ 9:51PM I can't dance. I might want to learn though. When I was in college at Point Park, which has quite a good dance program, everyone was walking the dorms in tutus and dance shoes. It seemed like everyone could dance but me. I couldn't tango or even just bust a move in Costa Rica with the other students, but I really enjoyed watching the movement. The other day at work I felt like dancing. I don't know why, sometimes I just want to move. It may be unnatural but even when there is no music I could just swing my arms or something unnoticeable. I would ask if you know what I mean but you would invaraiably look at me sideways and want to just have me go away. So for all those people out there on the dance floor doing the sprinkler, or breakdancing or the tango, that is just great. I hope, if you want to, that you have at least one good time on the dancefloor. I never have.
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This just in...
 Lydia Cottrell |
An honor and privilegeTue, September 2, 2008 @ 10:20PM As a newspaper reporter, I realize that it is not proper to become close to the people I interview for stories. However, as a writer, I believe getting to know someone is crucial to writing a great story. This internal conflict was ever so prevalent during my interview with Bill Buvoltz and Kerry “Red” Hensley for the story entitled “A friendship forged in war lives in peace” which appeared in the Tuesday, September 2 edition of the Times Observer. I went into the interview with little knowledge of what I was getting into. Bill welcomed me into his home with open arms. As I sat down with the two vets, I turned on my voice recorder and thought about how the story may and the questions I needed to ask. With almost no prompting, Bill and Red dove into a heart-wrenching story about friendship, hardship and loss. The stories came out in a flood of emotion. I began to feel guilty for my inability to console the two men. There was so much they
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Seemingly random thoughts
 Brian Ferry |
If news is a stream, this is The TrickleFri, August 29, 2008 @ 3:44PM Sometimes, in my line of work, you come across something that is fun and interesting, but just not quite right for publication in the daily newspaper. And I'm not just talking vulgarity. An email that showed up in my inbox recently contained these words: "Remember that the laboratory does not like maggots." Meetings of the Warren County Board of School Directors are not hours of bland. Well, not all the time. During a recent meeting, an administrator owned up to forgetting to add something to the board's agenda. "That would be my mistake - first two weeks on the job," she said. The board, her boss, was amused. "Fired," one board member said. She got to keep her job. "Kidding," the board member later clarified. And, not everyone who addresses the board is 100% serious about it. An administrator making some requests of and presentations to the board at a recent meeting came to the podium twice. The second time he spoke about a grant for the Student As
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 Chuck Hayes |
Not so StrangeWed, June 25, 2008 @ 5:24PM Remember the late Frank Strange? I sure do. When I moved to Warren County 35 years ago, I didn't know a soul — not an ideal situation for a newspaper reporter. I had some reporting experience in Pittsburgh, so I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that most of the public officials in this part of the state had an “open door” policy. If you wanted to talk to a county commissioner in Pittsburgh, you could arrange that, if you called ahead a few weeks and made an appointment. Oh, and make sure to wear a tie. Not in Warren County. If you wanted to talk to “Doc” Rice or any of the commissioners, no problem. Just show up at commissioners' office, pull up a chair and you could talk to them about anything on your mind. They might even decide to talk about what was on their minds. That “open door” policy extended to the Warren Borough Building. Frank Strange, the borough manager, almost always had a few minutes to talk — walk-ins welcome. What Frank often wanted to
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Gastronomy
 Eric Paddock |
Culinary DarwinismWed, August 6, 2008 @ 11:50AM I saw a barbecue apron the other day emblazoned with this: “I didn’t fight my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian.” Now, I have nothing against vegetarians, unless they try to convince me to join their ranks while I’m enjoying a medium rare Delmonico or extracting the last bits of heaven from a baby back rib. I am convinced that human beings are omnivores, the result of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. Had we been destined for herbivore status, our mouths would be filled with teeth that look like those you find in horses or cows. We would be able to digest cellulose. We might have ended up ruminants. Now wouldn’t that make for a lovely scene at Thanksgiving as each of us in that Norman Rockwell depiction chewed, swallowed and then regurgitated to chew and swallow again...several times? Don’t get me wrong, I believe vegetables are important. I always try to include them with almost every meal. I like them, with notable exception of bru
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This and That
 Tom Schultz |
Mower MadThu, June 26, 2008 @ 2:09PM When will you finally say the price being charged for a gallon of gasoline has gone too high? For me, it depends on the circumstance. Where do I need to go? If you ask me while I’m filling the gas tank to go visit my granddaughters in Rouseville or Michigan, my answer will be it can’t go too high. I’ll wince as the numbers spin on the pump, but I’ll pay it. I won’t like it, but I really like who’s waiting at the other end of my trip. But if you had asked me last Sunday, I would have screamed, “Enough already! Stop ... I surrender!” What was my “tipping point”? Filling the gas can for my mower. My 2.5-gallon gas can. The gas can that sucked in $11 worth of gas. The gas can THAT DIDN’T COST $11!!! I can remember not too many years ago stuffing $3 into my pocket, grabbing the same gas can and heading out for a refill ... and anticipating returning home with some change. Then I needed to take $5 ...
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