As usual, our cartoonist is given to hyperbole, as he should be.Approx. 1 hr. 45 min. Not rated.
As the poll is about to close, we are noticing a sudden flurry of voting activity.Karen Wintrow is probably the most dedicated and hard working person on behalf of the village there currently is. Just one example of the competence she brings to everything she does for Yellow Springs is the way she organized the recent Spring Street Fair, which was not only the biggest and best yet, but also the most logistically challenging. She puts the same kind of effort and dedication into her role on Village Council. So, I was disappointed when I read in the News this week that Wintrow is not yet committed to running this fall for a second council term.
I can understand that with her two demanding positions as Chamber Coordinator and Village Council Member she must be stretched to the limits (She is also a wife and mother.). But in a conversation during a chance meeting in town recently, I urged her to run for reelection. With her common sense, pragmatic and business oriented approach to carving a direction for this town, she provides a balance that is needed on council. Her collaboration on behalf of the Chamber with Kids Playhouse, the Arts Council and other arts groups around town in promoting Yellow Springs is an outstanding example of how she has the eagerness and ability to forge a coalition that recognizes that in this village art and commerce are often one.
It would be a mistake for anyone, no matter what their vision for the future of this town might be, to think that the best way to govern this village is with an unfettered council that is entirely of one mind on virtually every issue from the day-one drop of the gavel. Wintrow and Kathryn Van der Heiden, who, the News reported, is also undecided about a second council term, have been providing that balance on the current council. It would be a shame to lose either one of them. But I am singling out Wintrow here, because of the way she has brought a diverse Chamber membership together to promote Yellow Springs as a destination. She brings that same consensus building ability to her seat on Council.
So, if you see Karen on the street, please thank her for all she does for this village and tell her we need her on council for another four years.
Three urns are displayed on a shelf next to a period sink in the kitchen of the 1908 Westcott House.
Yellow Springers and Springfieldites alike were in abundance at the opening reception last night.
Naysan explained the process and thanked the volunteers who helped him with the firing.
The house offers many nooks and shelves for display.
The reception spilled out into the garden at the rear of the house.
Bill Mullins serenaded wife Shirley during part of their trumpet duet.
Jim Felder crooned a love tune.
Mark Crockett and Friends got down and bluesy.
The buzzards sang barbershop quartet with a quintet.
The Madrigals performed an original piece by Kitty Jensen.Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, these are the ones that are hot now. Before them there were Ringo and Multiply. There are plenty more I don't remember or don't know about. And sites that were created for more limited purposes, such as Yahoo Instant Messenger, auction sites, blog providers, are subtly, but surely, being converted to look more like their social networking peers. One of the local news channels will be airing a report on the evening news about how texting has contributed to a rise in automobile accidents. New elbow and shoulder injuries are popping up due to excessive cell phone use. Have we lost our minds? Doesn't anyone crave just one moment of solace anymore?
I know what you're thinking. Isn't Hervey just as guilty as the rest by virtue of maintaining the Blog and by his very posting of this message? Actually, I think you have hit on something.
If I were writing this for publication in a traditional print newspaper, I doubt that anyone would confuse what I was doing with social networking in the modern sense (although an argument could be made for that). So what is the difference when I write it for a blog? The answer is interactivity. When media becomes interactive, it invites participation. This is probably what has set the Yellow Springs News apart from other print newspapers for many years. Even though it is a hard-copy news source that comes out only once a week, it invites, and gets, reader participation with its community forum (formerly known as letters to the editor). The News, it seems, invented social networking long before the Internet.
Look at any of the online news outlets that allow for reader comments. The inevitable responses to even the most innocuous of stories are mind-boggling. Those posting comments frequently address one another argumentatively. I guess that while I am lamenting the loss of anonymity, privacy, and civility that has come with our ubiquitous electronic media, I have to admit that I am doing my share of enabling. I have to add here that I am extremely grateful for the way the Blog's readers have been respectful of the fact that I have chosen not to moderate reader comments and allow anonymous posting.
It's hard to escape it. Every time I open my Yahoo email, I am greeted with the gleeful announcement that those in my address book with Yahoo accounts can now tell that I am online and we are free to send each other instant messages. I constantly get email messages from people I barely know, asking me to be their friend on sites I have never heard of. Do they really want to be my friend? Or did some piece of software somewhere out in the ether go through their email addresses and decide to buddy them up with every name it found. How should I respond? I don't want to seem unfriendly. If I should forget to shut down Skype after Amy has been talking to her sister in Malaysia, I might later return to the computer to find instant messages from women I do not know, who want me to view them live on x-rated websites. Is this stuff permanently stored on my hard drive, I wonder. What if the FBI were to find this..? How would I explain?
What if I want to be an old poop and not network? What if I long to be a Garbo? Being a luddite (a nod to Ralph Keyes here) is probably the only answer. Call it the firewall of ludditism, if you will. Shut off your cell phone; turn off your computer; lock yourself in a room with no TV (Yes, even they have gotten into the interactive act, encouraging readers to report news and send photos and videos via their websites.) and just be alone. It could be very refreshing.
Missing Budgie
At Victoria's Inner Harbor
Greetings from the Pacific Northwest. All this week we have been in Seattle and Vancouver. It has been a wonderful vacation in two cities that are mirror images across our northern border. Highlights have been a train ride from Seattle to Vancouver and a day trip to Victoria, BC, where on the 35 mile ferry ride we saw the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen.
Click on image to enlarge.
One year I over heard a visitor telling a friend that the Yellow Springs Street Fair is the best.
And every year seems to be bigger and better than the year before.
But this year... Wow! It took me 20 minutes to get from Dayton and Corry to the front steps of US Bank.
Thanks to Karen, the Chamber staff and all those volunteers! This truly was the best and a logistical marvel.
In 23 years, Rita Caz Jewelry has moved just twice. The first move was from 108 Dayton Street, where Design Sleep is currently located, to a shop in Kings Yard, where proprietors Mark Crockett and Gail Zimmerman did business for 21 years. This spring they took over the largest space in Kings Yard, where Roger Hart had his gift shop. The new space is right next door to the old one.
The "Caz" in the store's name was composed of the initials of the last names of the three original partners, Gail explained. Rita is not anyone in particular. It is a name they came up with after much deliberation.
Mark did his first jewelry apprenticeship in Yellow Springs, where he was raised, with Norman Mahan. That was in 1969. His co-apprentice at the time was Cary Moore, former husband of Marsha Walgren of Ohio Silver. He also apprenticed in Dayton and Phoenix, Ariz. and worked for Cab-N-Facet in Springfield for 14 years, before venturing out on his own.
Click on image to enlarge.
This is the vacant lot at 102 Dayton Street, the proposed site for the new Center for the Arts. Formerly the site of the Linkhart Grain Elevator, which was razed a few years ago, the land was purchased by developers who hoped to create a strip of buildings to house retail and office space. Recently, it has been used as an impromptu parking lot. According to Bob Baldwin, he has a 99 year lease on eight parking places on the lot for his office building next door at 108 Dayton. But on any given day, 20 -30 cars can be found parked there. So when does the sign come down?
We had an early lunch at Clifton Mill this afternoon. I have to get a dose of the Mill every-now-and-then. It's more about the ambiance and the view than it is about the food. Today, I had my usual, a turkey, lettuce and tomato sandwich. Amy had soup and a salad. The sandwich was very good. The salad was okay and the soup, ham and bean, was dismal. You have to know what to order.
On the way in, we noticed this man working on the covered bridge. So, I asked the waitress who was doing the work.
Click on image to enlarge.
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