CBC

I could have made to work but whats the point on sitting in my car (with carpool mate of course) for 2 hours when I have VPN and cn do the same thing sitting at home on my couch underneath my Ninja Turtle snuggie infront of my roaring fireplace (ok its a woodburner with a blower, so its really humming more than roaring).

It's not a beauty contest people, shovel it and fuckin go! There is more snow coming tonight.

That's called the too many small children in your life bubble. Blizzard of the century? Huh, I was looking for the missing Disney DVD...and why are there cookies stashed under the end table?

More snow than I originally thought here on the westside and lakewood. There is some drifting going on at my house but I am guessing we got between 5" - 8". I made tlhe half hearted effort to make the commute to Akron today but turned around when we saw that the freeway was not moving.

Ok.I really don't want to talk about this anymore either, so last post and I will shut up. Part of it might be an age thing because I was in my early 20's when I lived in Columbus and now I am in my 30's in full family mode , but it seems that the short north's status as a "Gay Mecca" (whatever the fuck that means) tends to attract people who move there and act "more" (key word) stereotypically gay. I think it's the same way that a lot of people who move to LA think they need to act like rockstars or people that move to BK need to act like hipster A-holes. Lakewood seems to attract locals who are just looking about for a place where they can go about there business , not get hassled and be schlubs like the rest of us. It also attracts a lot of gay couple looking for a tolerant environment to raise their kids. Most of my gay friends now are either neighbors or people I met through my kids activities. One list we can agree on Cleveland is 1# in professional sports misery. Compliments of WFNY. http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/2011/01/extreme-wfny-part-1-is-cleveland-americas-current-worst-sports-city/

Youtube failed me... I was going to insert the scene from Chasing Amy where Jason Lee looks around at all of the women kissing and realizes that the Kit-Kat-Klub is a lesbian bar and goes "Aha!" I have lived in Victorian village, German Village and Lakewood. There really are no equivalent Gay-borhoods in Cleveland to the Short North/Victorian village and to lesser extent the gentrified German Village of today. Yes there is a sizable gay population in Lakewood but there are just a lot of people period and besides a small concentration at Clifton and 117th area, very little of it is concentrated in one area. More like a gay couple or two on every street. Ignorant Clevelanders can go on and on about how Gay Lakewood is, but they are going more on hearsay than actual experience.

And yet you were still there....JK.. Probably another contributing factor to the reduce numbers eating lunch on the mall besides the HQs leaving, I would imagine is the make up of the workforce in the office buildings. It has changed signficantly over the last 30 years. Huge decreases in admin staff such as secretaries, mailroom and typists pool, the kind of people more likely to pack a lunch and eat outside. Now its more people just as likely to eat at their desk as they work through lunch. FWIW. When I worked down there I would find myself gravitating towards the fountain on mall A when I ate outside at lunch. I never found a space that was all that comfortable on the current mall B. I also liked sitting on the benches on mall C and looking out over the lake.

I watched "Network" for the first time on Saturday night, it's now on Netflix. What a great movie, still timely today. Seems like certain Media personalities have stolen the schitck from the film and ran with it today.... "I am mad as Hell and I am not going to take it anymore!"...Sounds very familiar.

X, sorry to hear that. As far as the asshole cyclists go, can somebody explain to me the fascination for some cyclists to wear complete racing uniforms when out for a training ride or a leisure ride? I really can't think of any other sport or activity where this is as prevelant as cycling.

That sucks. Sorry to hear that. Just because I love the ghetto bird doesn't mean I'm going to eat at EVERY establishment, ESPECIALLY Flavor Flav's. I'm ghetto but I'm not THAT ghetto! I'd savor the Flava if I didn't have to go to Iowa to get it...

I am not sure where to put this so this as good as anyplace. Apparently Flavor-Flav has opened his first chicken joint, right next to a KFC no less. CDM time to pack the bags for Clinton, Iowa and get the scoop for us as the UO resident fried chicken aficionado. http://www.theatlantic.com/food/archive/2011/01/flavor-flav-vs-kfc-a-dispatch-from-flavs-fried-chicken/70313/# Flavor Flav vs. KFC: A Dispatch From Flav's Fried Chicken Jan 27 2011, 1:37 PM ET By Joe Fassler Co-founder of hip hop group Public Enemy and reality TV star Flavor Flav opened his new restaurant, Flav's Fried Chicken, in the unlikely location of Clinton, Iowa, at 4:00 PM on Monday. I made the trek from Iowa City to Clinton—where locals waited outside for hours in frosty weather—to see the restaurant, have some dinner, and find out how on earth this happened. For 51-year-old Flav, it's always 4:30—at least, that was the time his huge clock pendant read throughout Monday night. Here's how my minutes went.

I really think it's a problem that goes both ways. It reminds me a lot of the housing prices, everybody knew that they were rising too fast but everybody kept buying in despite the risk for personal gain. But collectively we pushed it too hard and what we ended up was a collapse instead of what have been a period of price correction 2 to 4 years earlier. If this spending and lending orgy had been able continue we were probably going to see a collapse of several universities or even statse university systems . Luckily the recession and state budget crises probably kept this from happening due to budget cuts. Now the universities are going to have get creative getting the most out of these stranded investments. Probably by closing older facilities and selling off some other assets if possible to minimize operating costs. Another fact pointed out in the OU article that I linked was that often the approval of these decisions are made by an ever revolving staff of Administrators and a student senate who seldom are there to see such a large capitol project, as the student center, open and have little concern for the potential long term negative consequences. They can get press on the positives a when they approve it and leave the mess for the next guy. The accountability is not there in most cases. The one prof points out that the main justification for the student center was increasing applications and there by selectivity, but at the time they approved the project OU applications were at an all time high and they were one of the most selective state school. So why build this huge new student center instead of something more reasonable if you are already achieving the goals?

From the state tax FAQ: http://tax.ohio.gov/faqs/Estate/estate.stm#11 11. Are life insurance proceeds taxable? Insurance on the life of the decedent, payable to a beneficiary other than the estate, is not includible for Ohio estate tax purposes. Insurance payable to the estate and insurance contracts, such as matured endowment or supplemental contract wherein the insurance or risk feature ceased prior to death, are includible for Ohio estate tax purposes

We report, you decide! Younger Kucinich vs. Younger Kasich Older Kasich vs. Older Kucinich Thanks Rider, for doing that for me!

Yes! You watched it! Haha This is my favorite scene. Embedding is disabled, just click "watch on youtube" when it says that. Hot Tub Time Machine "What Color is Michael Jackson?" I may just watch it again this weekend. they just nailed the little details of a great comedy like Lou jamming out to Motley Crue's "Home Sweet Home" in his car and he does the Tommy Lee motion of throwing the drum stick up in the air catching it and then continues air drumming. I must say as a skier they were a coupl of years too soon with so much neon in ski wear, 1988-1990 you probably would have been close to the levels in the movie. I actually had a pair of Kastle GS skis that were flourescent yellow-green on the tops and the bottoms.

Cool set on Flickr, link courtesy of Frowns sportsblog (Clevelandfrowns.com). There are some random Maple hts pics mixed in but there are other gems like Halle's last days and a post card highting the Lakeview Terrace projects (?) KJP the second pic is right up your alley, the Freedom train as it steams by the old Muni stadium in 1975 (http://freedomtrain.org/american-freedom-train-timeline.htm). http://www.flickr.com/photos/27484989@N08/sets/72157611381993522/ Cleveland Memory pool on flickr, it's probably a repost but it can't hurt. http://www.flickr.com/groups/13603077@N00/

Hi everybody I highly suggest reading the linked article. I just got back from Ohio U. in Athens. My wife and I went down to see Ben Folds (always an excellent show) and to visit some old watering holes. Neither of us had been back there in a number of years and spent this morning walking around town and visiting some new additions to campus. Ironically enough we scoping out the new monstrosity of a student center when this article in one of the students publications caught my eye. It pretty much lays out the exact same arguments made in the linked articles and upstream conversations in this thread about how amenities are driving up the cost of education. This articles puts actual numbers to the abstract ideas, and gives the impacts at OU such as forcing budget cuts and other unintended consequences, such as impacting uptown businesses that have been there for years. I am probably on the record somewhere on this forum supporting the project, unfortunately I was in the unquestioning majority, swayed by shiny and new, that did not critically think about the impacts of this project. Yes, OU needed a new student center but unfortunately it did not need this project which will be a financial cross to bear by the university for decades to come. There is one particular design issue I would like to call bullsh!t on. First its now possible for students to go from West Green /lower campus to uptown/College Green by cutting through Baker and taking 3 or 4 escalators up and not walking up Athens (in)famous hills or taking stairs.The second part of my gripe is that there are no stairs immediately adjoining the escalators (think something like the tunnel to Terminal D at CLE), meaning even if you were health conscious, it's harder to take the stairs. T Baker or Bust By Stephanie Stark With a snip from the celebratory scissors, the big red ribbon was cut. President Roderick McDavis, surrounded by architects, builders, administrators and students gave a golf clap, oohing and ahhing at the unveiling of Ohio University’s newest ornament at the end of South Court Street: the new Baker University Center. Simultaneously, the citizens of southeast Ohio saw the first escalators in the area. But gliding stairways and shining pillars aside, the new Baker Center hid something beneath its gloss and glamour: a stairway to monstrous debt.Students are increasingly paying more in tuition, room and board and fees to cope with OU’s growing $13.5 million deficit while simultaneously dealing with less available resources. Students, faculty and administration have been dissecting each dollar paid and spent at the university, from Intercollegiate Athletics to the Buddhism program (or lack thereof). While the parties involved continue to eye one another in spending habit suspicion, there is a failure to acknowledge the recent $65 million investment that increasingly engulfs student pocketbooks whilst decreasingly accommodating the student body. Four years after OU’s student center spending spree, the university’s governing bodies are forced into lesser-of-two-evils debates that reach to every corner of the university, yet fail to recognize the colossal rift they walk every day. Read more at: http://backdropmag.com/feature/baker-or-bust [/i][/i]

Totally off topic on any policy discussion, but am I the only one that thinks Kasich looks like he could Dennis Kucinich's brother?

The more that I read into this it seems that the student loan industry is really to blame for this. They are fueled by public policy made by lawmakers who don't have a better answer to the question of what to do with the larger pool of the population that has been left behind by the US economy's move from traditional manufacturing to information/service/highly automated manufactiring than everybody goes to college. What is the real answer? I have no idea but it appears that a large number of people are attending college because they have no other idea what to do and they feel it is what is expected of them. Things change. I do think the commentors in the NYT do have rose colored glasses on when looking back at the past. The younger generation always has it easier.

Reminds me of this classic from Major League. "And if the ump are watchin' me real close, I just rub a little cayenne pepper up my nose and get it runnin' real good" "You put snot on the ball?" "Yep. Gets me another 3-4 inches of drop on my sinker."

Please, I had a hat, gloves, thermal running tights and shirt. I have five routes I do and today I literally ran to Morningside Park, the wind hit me I then ran past Mr. & Mrs. Thing 2's crib and ran back home. And Prada sunglasses even though it was still dark outside... :) Yeah the wind is a killer when it's cold out. Even worse is wind plus waiting for the stupid cross walk signal to change when you are already sweaty. I used to be one of those that wouldn't run in the cold but I read a great article about embracing the challenges of the different kinds of weather, sometime last year. Now I am out running 4 or 5 times a week even in January.

Ran at 11:00, it was around 17 here in Akron so it wasn't too bad under all of my layers. It helps that where I run on the towpath is pretty protected from the wind. Layers are the key MTS. You should probably leave your short-short vollyball shorts at home when running in winter..

^Intestinal parasite?

Only the second time?

Philosophical issues aside, my biggest issue is that brunt of the burden of repealling the State Estate tax is going to fall on local budgets, not the state budget since something like 75% of the collected estate tax gets passed through to the local entities.