Pam & husband are moving on

Former BJ reporter Pam McCarthy, who retired after a zillion years as Hoover High journalism teacher in North Carolina, is downsizing.

Pam & Ken Pakeham put their house on the market.

Writes Pam:

“It's a great family home and we have been very happy here. But it's time for someone else's kids to grow up in this spacious and completely remodeled home.”

OFFICIAL LISTING website. 1006 Sunset Blvd Southwest, North Canton, OH 44720, 4059 square foot, 5 bedrooms, 4.00 bathrooms, asking price of $247,900 … cutlerhomes.com

Pam’s mother, Charlotte McCarthy; Charlotte’s husbands, James J. Longstreth and Edward J. McCarthy; and Pam’s brother, Steven McCarthy, have passed away.

Still alive are Pam's siblings Karen Uber of Cuyahoga Falls, Kathy McCarthy of Cuyahoga Falls and Jerry McCarthy of Bradenton, Florida.

Michael and Sally Good

World’s most appropriately named photographer: Good

 

Michael Good is running a freelance photography business on Puget Sound. Michael and wife Sally have been living in Seattle since 1998.

 

August 15 will be their 45^th wedding anniversary.

They celebrated Valentine’s Day in Seaside, Oregon.

Sally writes:

“On one of my first dates with Michael, we had our picture taken in a photo booth at Cedar Point. Last year, on our 44th anniversary, we went in a photo booth and another picture taken of us together.”

Michael got the day off from his photography duties.

His wedding photos are so fabulous that he waas Seattle Bride Magazine’s choice for Best of 2009.

Writes Ohio State graduate Michael, who grew up in Ashland, Ohio:

“I am a career photojournalist specializing in weddings, events, portraits, fine art boudoir and nature photography. My story-telling photography artistically captures real moments and heartfelt emotions.”

Mike Needs, daughter Katherine, daughter-in-law Brittney

Mike Needs comes East for family visit

Former BJ Features Editor Mike Needs, usually a Mister Ranger, Sir out West in the park service in Sonora, California, enjoyed a Massachussetts visit with his daughter and daughter-in-law.

Mike all dolled up

Writes Mike:

“Spent a terrific, though all-too-short, weekend with daughter, Kathryn Terzano, and daughter-in-law, Brittney Topel. At the beautiful, old Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton, Mass., just before guitarist, singer, songwriter Richard Thompson's sold-out performance.”

Northampton is home to women’s liberal arts Smith College.

Mike’s other daughter, nurse Elizabeth Needs, whose mother is Rita Terzano, passed away in 2015. She lived in Uniontown, Ohio, south of Akron.

Last year Mike and retired BJ editor Kathy Fraze, who have been together since their BJ days, took a trip to Ireland.

Justice Scalia dies; GOP will stall till November election

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, darling of the conservatives, passed away in his sleep Saturday.

He went quail hunting the day before in the Cibolo Creek Ranch in Texas.

The Republican-controlled Senate is almost certain to delay any confirmation attempt of President Obama’s choice, in hopes of getting a Republican President after November’s election.

With Scalia gone, the court is divided 4-4. So the next Justice will put the conservatives or liberals in the majority.

Ronald Reagan appointed Scalia and Anthony Kennedy.

George W. Bush appointed John Roberts and Samuel Alito, Jr.

George H.W. Bush appointed Clarence Thomas.

Bill Clinton appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer.

Barack Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Kim McMahan grounded in Columbus

Kim Hone-McMahan, who succeeded Jewell Cardwell as BJ columnist, took off from Phoenix, Arizona, where it was 82 degrees.



Kim Hone-McMahan

After circling Cleveland, the pilot announced that the Northeast Ohio weather was too bad to land. So he turned that sucker around and came down at the Columbus airport.

Kim writes:

“Sitting inside plane in Columbus for God only knows how long. Shoot, wish we would have gone back to someplace warm.

“Stay off the roads!”

She may need to rent a snowmobile to get back to Akron.

Kim is married to Chris McMahan.

She has written children’s books, “Vampire Dreams” and “Hoover and Honeybunch (Find Comfort in a Sometimes Scary World),” which was an attempt to help children deal with TV reports about school shootings.

The Brooke McMahan Memorial Invitational Swim Meet at the Ocasek Natatorium at the University of Akron honors their daughter, a 1999 Green High grad, who passed away in 2003 at the age of 23.

 

BJ reunion in Florida

 



John Olesky, Bob Page, Hugh Downing

Dennis Petee, Bob Page, Hugh Downing

Gary from Canton, Frank from Manchester
& John Olesky from Tallmadge and The Villages

 

You can take the golfer out of Ohio, but you can’t take Ohio out of the golfer, even when he is in Florida.

Today I played with retired BJ printer Hugh Downing, former State Desk reporter Bob Downing during my assistant State Desk editor days under Patrick T. Englehart and former Kresge Cuyahoga Falls store manager Dennis Petee.

Petee was subbing for Bob Rossbach, also from Summit County before re-settling into their home in The Villages, Florida with wife Nancy.

The two Bobs, Hugh and this John play golf together every Thursday in The Villages.

Dennis was a K-Mart store manager for 28 years, seldom staying more than a few years in each town.

He was a paid vagabond who was the best golfer in our foursome today.

Even though he hasn't completely recovered from the shoulder injury when he fell off his latter while trimming a tree on his Villages property, Hugh had the best score among Ol’ Blue Walls Escapees at 37 on the El Diablo course, the most challenging executive course that I’ve played in The Villages because there is water and/or beaches (sand traps) on every hole.

Bob and I followed with 39s, which is my 2016 Florida average.

Sunshine (of course) but temperatures in the high 50’s and low 60’s.

And the second day of winds that were mild instead of whipping the golf ball back in your face the way it did earlier in the week.

Bob, who left BJ for the ministry and is associate pastor in The Villages, re-married in January.

Bob’s first wife, Linda, was with him on Sackett Avenue in Cuyahoga Falls and their Barberton home before he left the BJ (1968-73) to study for the ministry.




Bob is an associate pastor at the Live Oaks Community Church in The Villages.

Bob met his new wife, Vicky,  through his congregation.

His first wife passed away several years ago. Vicky and Bob had a mini-honeymoon just south of St. Petersburg that caused Bob to miss last week’s Thursday outing that Hugh lines up each week.

A week ago I wound up with Gary from Canton and Frank from Manchester.

A lot Ohioans prefer not to shovel when they can play golf in Florida.

LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE

Kasich claims get an “F” in math

The Washington Post exposes the fallacies of presidential candidate Gov. John Kasich’s “good” education record.

Since Kasich’s 2011 administration began, Ohio has gone from 5^th to 23^rd in education rankings of the states.

Ohio is 9^th in reading gap between its highest- and lowest-performing schools, 2^nd high achievement gap in map and 4^th largest gap in high school graduation rates.

Traditional public schools, which educate 90% of Ohio’s children, are getting $515 million less per year under Kasich while charter schools are getting 27% more taxpayer money.

When Ohio applied for federal funding, there were 10 times as many failing charter schools as the state listed in its request, and half as many successful charter schools as the state claimed.

To read the skewering of Kasich’s boasts that made him second in New Hampshire’s Republican primary, click on https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/02/10/the-education-mess-in-ohio-under-gov-john-kasich/

Vandals destroy 10 O.C. Barber century-old walnut trees

Vandals cut down 10 century-old black walnut trees planted by O.C. Barber in Barberton.

The wood is sprawled over the site near the wishing well. The tree trunks are 30 inches across.

Barberton Historical Society owns the property.

O.C. Barber owned the Diamond Match Company, which once controlled 80% of the match sticks market. It made 250 million matches A DAY.

He had a 52-room mansion on his 3,000 acres in Barberton.

Eight of the structures on Anna Dean Farm survive.

The O.C. stands for Ohio Columbus. Honest.

To read Paula Schleis' BJ article, click on http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/vandals-cut-down-historic-barberton-trees-1.661068

Dick McBane neither mugged nor dead

 

Former BJ reporter Dick McBane was NOT mugged in Turkey and in desperate need of money to get back to Lilburn, Georgia.

He’s the latest BJ retiree to be hacked in an attempt to get friends and family to send money, probably to Turkey or Nigeria.



Dick McBane

Newsroom retire Charles Montague was a faux “victim” in the Philipines a few years back.

The scam email read:

Hello!
I'm sorry you're getting the mail from me at this Point in time, my family and I came down here to Antalya,Turkey for a short vacation unfortunately we were mugged at the park of the hotel we stayed,all cash credit cards and cell were stolen off but luckily for us we still have our passports with us.

I have been to the embassy and the Police here but they're not helping issues at all and our flight leaves pretty soon from now but we're having problems settling the hotel bills and the hotel manager won't let us leave until we settle the bills.Please be so kind to reply back so I can tell you what to do and how to get some cash to us.

I'm freaked out at the moment

Dick

Dick added:

“Apparently we are now squared away, but some electronic remnants may still be in Turkey or other unknown locations. Hopefully this will reach you without any unwelcome hitch-hikers or stow-aways.”

At least this time Dick isn’t listed among the deceased, as he was in 2014, when the “Timeline of the Beacon Journal history” published Sept. 12, 2014, finished with:

— Compiled by Beacon Journal librarian Norma Hill, and the late reporter Richard McBane.

So Dick isn’t dead or mugged in Turkey.

He came to the BJ from the Marietta, Ohio Times after a brief, youthful fling with the Garrettsville Journal during his Hiram College days.

Dick and wife Marylyn have been married more than a half-century. They moved to Georgia in 2004.

Dick’s book, “A Fine-Looking Lot of Ball-Tossers: The Remarkable Akrons of 1881,” was published in 2005. Dick is an expert on minor league baseball.

Dick and the late Don Bandy both retired from the BJ June 11, 1997. Don passed away in 2011.

Their son, Roderick McBane, lives in Pearland, Texas. He is assistant head of the math department at Houston Community College.

Another son, Lachlan McBane, is an Atlanta Symphony violinist who lives about a block from his parents.

The McBanes have six grandchildren.

Mobiles becoming money-makers for advertisers

Mobile users are spending more and more with advertisers, according to Cory Bergman, general manager of NBC's Breaking News mobile startup.

Digital accounts for a third of the New York Times advertising revenue and mobile is 22% of the digital revenue generated.

Mobile rates hover at a modest $3 per 1,000 impressions. But the volume makes the revenue add up.

Most newspapers, which missed getting in on the ground floor of the Internet birth, still are porting over desktop products and business models and failing to realize the mobile’s potential.

Click on http://www.poynter.org/2016/mobile-users-may-be-as-valuable-to-advertisers-as-desktop-facebook-results-suggest/395092/ to read the article.

Photographer more stressful than reporter

Being a newspaper reporter is the 10^th most stressful job in America, according to CareerCast.com.

Photojournalist is 9^th most stressful. Don Roese and Ott Gangl will be happy to know that they had more stress than I did.

The first five are rather obvious.

1.Firefighter

2.Enlisted Military Personnel

3.Military General

4.Airline Pilot

5.Police Officer

6.Actor

7.Broadcaster

8.Event Coordinator

9.Photojournalist

10.          Newspaper Reporter

 

To read the article, click on http://www.careercast.com/slide/most-stressful-jobs-2015-10-newspaper-reporter

Dawidziak’s 13^th book will crowd the shelves

At this rate, you can have a home library of nothing but Mark Dawidziak books.

His 13^th will be "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in The Twilight Zone: A Fifth Dimension Guide to Life," to be published by Thomas Dunne Books, January 2017, with a foreword by Anne Serling, Rod Serling’s widow.

Mark’s other books include “Mark Twain’s Guide to Diet, Exercise, Beauty, Fashion, Romance, Health and Happiness,” “Mark My Words,” “Mark Twain on Writing,” “Grave Secrets,” “The Columbo Phile: A Casebook,” “The Night Stalker Companion,” “The Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair Companion to Dracula.”

Mark is justifiably in the Cleveland Press Club’s Journalism Hall of Fame.

Family reunion for John Dunphy

 

1970s State Desk reporter Cathy Strong, the kinetic kiwi, isn’t the only on gadding about the country seeing relatives.

Another former State Desk reporter, and part of the Pulitzer team for BJ coverage of the 1970 Kent State killings, John Dunphy, who lives in Lakewood, California with wife Rebecca Allen, is in Seattle.

 

His landing target: Three sons, seven grandchildren and two brothers.

 

John’s brother, Steve Dunphy, lives in Seattle.

John’s sons are Brian, Michael and Kevin.

John’s siblings are Harry Dunphy, Stephen Dunphy,  Pat Maureen Dunphy Welling, Peter Dunphy, Dennis Dunphy, Christine Dunphy Barnett and the late Paul Dunphy.

John has been dealing with esophageal cancer for 3 years. The survival rate averages about 5 years.

 

Wide income inequality leads to revolutions

$15 mimimum wage better for America than millions for the rich

Seattle, Washington billionaire Nick Hanauer explains why the income inequality that is savaging America’s middle class is bad for America.

In his 2012 speech, plutocrat Hanauer explains that the economy and the country prosper more if the poor and middle class incomes increase than if the incomes of the 1% get larger.

It’s simple math: 100 million people making $50,000 a year buy more products than 100 billionaires. For example, the 50K folks buy 100 million pairs of pants. Hanauer and his fellow plutocrats can’t possibly buy and wear even 1 million pants.

Seattle increased its minimum wage to $15 an hour. Instead of creating job layoffs, it became the fastest-growing major city in America.

Trickle-down economics is about as effective as a king pooping on his subjects.

Hanauer was on the ground floor of Amazon.com and other ventures and hands out a lot of his fortune to Washington state charities and to support public education, which is better for America than buying another yacht or airplane, which Hanauer already has.

To read this remarkable blueprint for helping America thrive, an avoiding the pitchforks and “off with their heads” that happened throughout history when a few have so much more wealth than the many, click on http://www.ted.com/talks/nick_hanauer_beware_fellow_plutocrats_the_pitchforks_are_coming

 

The richest cities in America are great for the rich, but a terrible gauntlet for those less fortunate.

1.   San Francisco — You'd need $124,561 to live comfortably. 50K a year wouldn’t come close.
2. San Jose —$115,515.
3. Washington, D.C. — $108,092.
4. Seattle — $93,634.
5. San Diego —$101,984.
6. Boston — $106,082.
7. New York City —$131,365 in Brooklyn, $169,639 in Manhattan, $116,907 in Queens.
8. Los Angeles — $102,061.
9. Denver — $82,036.
10. Austin — Surprisingly, in spite of the high percentage of people earning more than $150,000, you'd need only $72,912 to be comfortable in this Texas city.