FairmontWest69.com
SURFING
IN DAYTON ?
?????????
YES!
In July, a Covid-19 outbreak in central Ohio was blamed on holidaymakers returning from Florida and Arizona, two states badly affected by the virus this summer. News such as this has forced many to abandon any out-of-state travel plans.
But for locals missing the sea waves, a new community of surfers has this summer sprung up in the most unlikely of places. In Dayton, Ohio, the pandemic has fuelled an emergent river surfing scene that's drawing adventure seekers down to the Miami and other rivers.
www.surfdayton.com
Report by BBC, Courtesy HMS
That's not Anne Bancroft's leg
It belongs to Linda Gray
(Sue Ellen Ewing on Dallas)
The film made $35 million at the box office the first month in July 1968
{$240 million current dollars}
A lifetime domestic gross of
$105,000,000
Casting
The New Your Times printed a small article that despite a nationwide talent search, the filmmaskers casting The Graduate were coming up empty-handed. The article was picked up and they were inundated with mail. Over three hundred amateurs personally contacted casting. But none got a screen test.
Those actors getting a screentest incuded:
Robert Redford
Charles Grodin
Tony Bill
Rob Lipton
and
Dustin Hoffman
The screentest with
Kathrine Ross
After the audition, matters got worse, Hoffman said, "The idea that the director was connecting me with someone as beautiful as her, it became an even uglier joke. It was like a Jewish nightmare."
Before the film's release, when Ross was asked about her costar she gave it straight,
"He looks about three feet tall, so dead serious, so humorless,
so unkempt"
Director Mike Nichols said "Grodin got very close...But he didn't look like Benjamin to me."
However, when Mike Nicols approached Dustin about auditioning for the role of Benjamin Braddock, he instantly felt that "this is not a part for me. I'm not supposed to be in movies. I'm supposed to be where I belong.
An ethnic actor is supposed to be in ethnic New York in an ethnic Off-Broadway show. I know my place."
Dustin was cast to play "Benjamin Braddock."
The role of Mrs. Robinson, the desparate housewife who begins her seduction of Ben on the night of his homecoming, was considered from the start the film's most bankable.
Doris Day was approached early on. Day has long maintained that she turned the part down because it offended her values. But when they sent her the novel her husband and manager, Terry Melcher withheld it from her.
They met with Ava Gardner who was forty-four. But decided she was perhaps not mentally up to the part when she tried to phone her old friend Ernest Hemimgway, who had committed suicide five years before.
The idea of Jeanne Moreau was floated, in keeping with the French cinematic tradition of sophisticated older women initiating naive young men into sexuality.
However, it was decided that The Graduate was an all-American story, so she was never offered the role.
Supposedly Anne Bancroft only accepted the role after being talked into it by husband Mel Brooks.
Dustin Hoffman's old pal Gene Hackman, only seven years his senior, would be Mr. Robinson, the cuckolded husband of Ben's paramour.
Then, when cast and crew seemed to be coming together nicely, Gene Hackman was suddenly fired from his role as Mr. Robinson. Nichols quickly replaced him with actor Murray Hamilton.
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Mayor of Amity
Jaws
Italy
Japan
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France
Denmark
Poland
Finland
Germany
Spain
Lego
Slovenian
More to Come
Wayne Beats Fairmont
September 25
Christian Rand intercepted a pass in the end zone in the final seconds to preserve a 31-24 victory for Wayne over Fairmont on Friday night.
Fairmont (1-4 Greater Western Ohio Conference) had rallied from a 24-7 second-half deficit and faced a third-and-seven at the 8-yard line when Male’k Hilton’s pass was intercepted.
Fairmont Wins
Friday September 18
Box Score
| 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
F |
| - |
0 |
7 |
0 |
7 |
| - |
7 |
14 |
0 |
21 |
Fairmont 21, Miamisburg 7: Drew Baker rushed for a pair of touchdowns and Tank Gant added a TD run to lead Fairmont to its first victory. Baker finished with 117 rushing yards on 27 carries. Justin Barry threw a 14-yard TD pass to Jackson MaGohan for 'Burg, which dropped to 1-2.
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Obsession interlude: How we spend
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The coronavirus pandemic is having a big impact on the global economy, and a noticeable effect on lots of smaller industries as well. Here’s how what we buy is changing:
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⬆️ Tie dye: Online sales of Rit Dye increased 800%. |
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⬆️ Home workouts: Views of YouTube workout videos increased 200%. |
⬆️ Streaming: Netflix doubled its estimated new subscribers in the first quarter. |
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Our Principal's
first year in that position
Ankney
Janes
McMillan
Stuckey
Zaremski
Future Teacher
Senior Dale Berry
Note
(Mr. Berry served me my first underage mixed drink
a sloe gin fizz.)
Graduation Rates
The Ohio Department of Education released school report cards Tuesday that showed the four-year graduation rate for Class of 2019, by school district.
Dayton ranked second-last in the state in four-year graduation rate (72.2%) for the Class of 2019, while a collection of small rural districts were among those with 100% graduation.
100.0% Newton
100.0% Twin Valley
98.1% Carlisle
98.0% Cedar Cliff
97.3% Bellbrook
97.2% Oakwood
97.0% Bradford
96.9% Miami East
96.8% Troy
96.7% Waynesville
96.4% Vandalia-Butler
96.0% Centerville
95.9% Bethel
95.9% Tipp City
95.7% Lebanon
95.3% Greeneview
95.2% Northmont
94.9% Beavercreek
94.4% Eaton
94.2% Covington
94.1% Yellow Springs
94.0% Valley View
93.8% National Trail
93.8% Preble Shawnee
93.5% Milton-Union
93.1% Brookville
92.9% Miamisburg
91.6% Franklin
91.1% Tri-County North
91.0% Greenon
90.7% Kettering
90.6% Piqua
90.2% Northridge
89.7% Jefferson Twp.
89.6% New Lebanon
89.4% Huber Heights
89.3% Tecumseh
89.1% Fairborn
85.9% Trotwood-Madison
85.1% West Carrollton
81.8% Xenia
81.3% Mad River
72.2% Dayton
Source: Ohio Department of Education
1956 Dragon
Sims
Sultzbach
Tuttle
Vogelsang
Wagner
The main gathering place at
Young’s Jersey Dairy
for countless sticky-fingered, smiling kids
with ice cream cones
in-hand will soon be replaced.
Construction has begun at Young’s near Yellow Springs on a multi-million dollar dairy barn set to be completed next year, most likely in April, Dan Young, Young’s CEO, said Friday. The new structure will cost around $2 million to $3 million, Young said, though the final cost is not yet known. The existing dairy store has been in place for more than 50 years.
1957 Dragon
Principal R. R. Somers
Fairmont v. Greenville
Homecoming
Basketball
T&C
(Where's Willowdale?)
Ban-Lon Polo Shirt
Price Stores in downtown Dayton is closed as it prepares to move to a new location.
Price Stores at 52 S. Jefferson St. is relocating to Centerville, said Edd Wimsatt, the owner, with tentative plans to open its new space in October.
The store will continue to honor existing orders for weddings already on the books, as well as fittings, alterations and pickups, the store shared with customers on Facebook.
Wimsatt, 70, who has owned the business since 1970, said he needs a smaller and more efficient space.
Larry Zusman and his wife Leonore opened the store in 1950 on the bottom floor of the Garfield Building, once occupied by the Ohio Bell Telephone Company.
For decades, Price Stores remained the go-to spot in downtown Dayton for clothing and great service.
YELLOW SPRINGS — Putting into law what was already established practice by the Yellow Springs Police Department, the village council here has voted to decriminalize minor marijuana offenses.
The new law, passed Tuesday by council, will take effect in 30 days.
Individuals found with less than 200 grams of marijuana will be charged with a civil infraction subject to a fine of $50 or less in the Yellow Springs Mayor’s Court instead of a misdemeanor. Patients with medical marijuana cards can possess more than 200 grams and not be charged with a criminal offense.
“I want to emphasize a move to keep people out of a system that we feel is racist and otherwise destroys people’s lives,” said Council President Brian Housh.
According to an analysis published by the American Civil Liberties Union in April, Black people are nearly four times as likely to be arrested in the U.S. for marijuana-possession offenses.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Fairmont West Class of 1970
SAVE THE DATE!!
The Fairmont West Class of 1970 will hold its 50th Reunion on
August 29, 2020, at the Dayton Country Club.
...more details to follow
Saturday, September 4, 2021 at 4:30 PM – 11 PM EDT
The Fairmont West Class of '71 will hold their 50th reunion September 4, 2021. The Saturday event will be held in the banquet hall of the American Legion.
Wednesday after Labor Day
That's when we went back to school
after summer vacation,
elementary, junior high and high school.
Kettering's remote learning started today.
TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT
The Technology Services Department has provided training to our building office staff so that they may assist students and parents in resolving technology issues as we begin our remote learning on September 8. Please contact your child's building or unit secretary with technology issues or questions. If the office staff member is not able to resolve the issue, he/she will enlist the expertise of a member of the district's Technology Services Department to assist the parent/student.
We did not have/need tech support
We did not have to "reboot" our
slide rules
or protractors
It Happened in Ohio
in
1969
Cuyahoga on fire
June 1969
Merry
Big Time
Wrestling
Christmas
July 4th
Fireworks Derecho
Simon & Garfunkel
Set List
November 11, 1969
Miami University
First Man on Moon
Comes Home
Absolutely Not
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2020 Holiday At Home has been canceled.
In accordance with the City of Kettering’s decisions to maintain safety for its citizens, this year’s Holiday at Home committee has decided to cancel this year’s festival. We are looking forward to making 2021 the best festival yet!
1970 Dragon
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1960 Dragon
T&C
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Fans in the Stands at Roush
Fairmont Loses Opener
Centerville special teams coach Adam Taylor is going to have something special waiting for him today during film sessions.
“He’s going to get an extra Bills donut,” Elks head coach Brent Ullery said. “Special teams was a big difference tonight.”
It was THE difference.
Trailing 20-14 after a fourth-quarter Fairmont touchdown, Centerville junior Cam Smith took the ensuing kickoff 95yards for the decisive score in a 21-20 win over the host Firebirds at Roush Stadium in Friday night’s season opener.
The victory came on the heels of last season’s 28-20 win by Fairmont, which was the Firebirds first in the series since a 28-23 win in 1997.
1963 Dragon
Bring on the Funck
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1961 Dragon
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Students Are the Real Key to Fairmont
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The beauty of our campus is enhanced by the charm of our coeds*
*actual yearbook text
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1966
Fairmont Mural
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Mask wearer in third
row precursor of
our current Covid masks
Dayton’s Martin Sheen, Allison Janney and Rob Lowe reunite for special episode of ‘The West Wing’
The cast of “The West Wing” — including Dayton’s own Martin Sheen, Allison Janney and Rob Lowe — will reunite for the first time in 17 years for a theatrical presentation of an episode of the political drama.
“A West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote” will stream on HBO Max this fall with the goal of boosting voter turnout, according to national entertainment publications including Entertainment Weekly and Variety. A date to air has not been determined.
BREAKING NEWS!
Updated Fairmont Football Schedule
Are you at all
familiar with the
Southdale
Musical production?
(1961-1962?)
Featuring:
"Some Enchanted Evening"
"I'm Gonna Wash That Man
Right Outta My Hair"
"I'm in Love
with a Wonderful Guy"
{a 6th grader)
Not actual photo of Southdale production.
In our Oakview production of
a winter tale
I played a caribou.
Not me.
For the first time since its founding in 1947, The Pine Club is offering al fresco dining.
The venerable Dayton steakhouse took the necessary steps to add a patio outside its front entrance at 1926 Brown St. to help it grapple with the restrictions imposed on its seating capacity by the coronavirus pandemic, according to Pine Club General Manager Karen Watson.
The restaurant just reopened for dine-in service a couple of weeks ago on July 29, and its efforts to get back on its feet fully took another hit just two days later when state officials issued a 10 p.m. curfew on alcohol sales at restaurants and bars.
Spot the '69 Dragons
in
the Van Buren Student Council
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Think there's Buettin, Kisling, Maeder,
Shahan, Smith, Ulrich
and more
with Coach Bob Pugh
Remember
Jack Larson?
There were two.
As
Kenny Dexter
"The Dick Van Dyke Show"
&
Jimmy Olsen
Kettering Schools Delay Start
The Kettering school district plans to push its first day of classes back three weeks to Sept. 8, as it considers other potential changes to the school year.
Superintendent Scott Inskeep said in a note to parents Friday that Kettering schools may have to adjust its initial plan for in-person classes this fall, given data on rising COVID-19 cases in Montgomery County.
“This decision will allow us to review our current educational plans for the 2020-2021 school year – including both in-person and online options – in light of the most recent communication from Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County,” Inskeep wrote.
Earlier Friday, Public Health released a recommendation that all county schools begin their school year online.
Kettering schools had planned to be one of the earliest-starting districts, with a first day of classes Aug. 17. Inskeep said the decision to delay came after discussions with parents, guardians, school staff and leadership. That was topped off Friday by Public Health’s data, listing 418 local COVID-19 cases among people age 0-19.
A formal vote to change the school calendar will come at the Aug. 4 school board meeting, and Inskeep said he hopes to have a final decision on the full back-to-school approach by Aug. 7.
“As superintendent of the Kettering Schools, it is my responsibility to make decisions that are in the best interest of the safety, health and well-being of the students, families and staff of our school district,” he said.
July 27, 2020
July 27, 2019
50th Reunion
Pre-Pandemic
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We did not realize these really were
the good old days.
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More from '69 Dragon
Ski Club
(1 of 2)
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If you look closely in Row 4
It goes "Pat Pancoast, Gunvar Lahr"
But why are Mark Brainard and Doug Gage
omitted?
Wrestlers
Kling, Boulter & Williams
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Perhaps the Least Exciting Headline
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We were really ever #1?
Marilyn & Bret think so
Pat cannot be bothered
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Always explaining
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Former Class of '32 President
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Apparently Steve is reading his text messages
Senior Class Play
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Over the years and, especially now,
West's production of
"Life with Father"
remains relevent
and funny!
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From the 1959 Dragon
Although it is blurry, there is a reference to "Fairmontonians"
Guess we could not be that after Fairmont East
The 1951 Dragon Yearbook
You'll recognize a few teachers who
still taught us 18 years later
Not one boy or girl with straight long hair
Ever seen an old Firebird?
How about an old Dragon?
Just kidding!
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1964
1943
1932
1932
It’s been more than 50 years since Dayton fell in love with a thin crust square-cut pizza.
Marion Glass, a scrappy local kid who as a youngster sold peanuts and soda at baseball games, opened the first Marion’s Piazza, a staple of Dayton dining, on Aug. 19, 1965.
Ambition and a solid work ethic put Glass on the path to success.
“My family was poor,” Glass told the Dayton Daily News in 1976. “I dropped out of Kiser High School when I was a junior. I wasn’t afraid to work and I wanted to learn.”
Glass initially got into the pizza business as the owner of three Cassano’s pizza franchises. But he had his own ideas. “I felt that it was time to have a dining room pizza house,” he said.
The community had never seen a restaurant like the one at 460 Patterson Road in Dayton, where a large deluxe pizzas cost $2.50. The restaurant had seating for 200, four pizza ovens and the largest walk in cooler in town, according to a 1965 article in the Dayton Herald.
Glass hired an interior decorator to create the feel of an outdoor café in Italy. Old brick, rustic iron décor, and canvas awnings complemented the look and lent itself to the name piazza, an enclosed veranda.
Marion’s Piazza is not only a Dayton tradition, but was also the site for Wednesday night cast parties, from 1966 to 1995, for the Kenley Players summer stock theater company. Dozens of black-and-white photos of the famous players line the walls today.
Big name stars like Mickey Rooney, Cloris Leachman, Sally Field and Frankie Avalon dined and reveled at Marion’s as did locals Jack and Jackie Hutton. In 1975, Henry Winkler, who played “The Fonz” on Happy Days, drew 2,000 people to the restaurant.
The business has grown to nine locations in the Dayton area. Founder Marion Glass died at age 92 in 2006. Today his son Roger Glass runs the business.
Tipp City Politician
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COLUMBUS —
During a hearing on whether to declare racism a public health crisis, state Sen. Steve Huffman, R-Tipp City, asked if “the colored population” is hit harder by the coronavirus because perhaps they don’t wash their hands as well as other groups.
Huffman, an emergency room physician, asked a witness before the Senate Health Committee on Tuesday why COVID-19 is hitting African Americans harder than white people.
UPDATE:
COLUMBUS —
After a state senator used the term “colored population” during a hearing, he has been fired from his physician job, some organizations called for him to resign and the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus called for all 132 members of the General Assembly and their staff to take training on racial equity and implicit bias.
Late Thursday, Huffman posted a lengthy apology on his Facebook page that said in part: “I had absolutely no malicious intent, but I recognize that my choice of words was unacceptable and hurtful. I apologize, and I make no excuses. Those who know me will tell you that I have nothing but love and respect for all people, and I would never intentionally disrespect or denigrate anyone for any reason.”
A TeamHealth spokesman issued a statement: “Dr. Huffman’s comments are wholly inconsistent with our values and commitment to creating a tolerant and diverse workplace. TeamHealth has terminated Dr. Huffman’s employment.”
Black Lives Matter rally set for Oakwood
Thursday June 11th
The rally is planned from 6-8 p.m. at Wright Memorial Public Library, 1776 Far Hills
As of the 2010 Census:
The racial makeup of the city was 95.3% White, 0.9% African American, 0.2% Native American, 1.4% Asian, 0.6% from other races, and 1.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.8% of the population.
2000 Census
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George Floyd's Last Words
PLEASE MAN
PLEASE SOMEBODY
PLEASE MAN
I CAN'T BREATHE
I CAN'T BREATHE
PLEASE
MAN CAN'T BREATHE, MY FACE
JUST GET UP
I CAN'T BREATHE
PLEASE (INAUDIBLE)
I CAN'T BREATHE SHIT
I WILL
I CAN'T MOVE
MAMA
MAMA
I CAN'T
MY KNEE
MY NUTS
I'M THROUGH
I'M THROUGH
I'M CLAUSTROPHOBIC
MY STOMACH HURT
MY NECK HURTS
EVERYTHING HURTS
SOME WATER OR SOMETHING
PLEASE
PLEASE
I CAN'T BREATHE OFFICER
DON'T KILL ME
THEY GON' KILL ME MAN
C'MON MAN
I CANNOT BREATHE
I CANNOT BREATHE
THEY GON' KILL ME
THEY GON' KILL ME
I CAN'T BREATHE
I CAN'T BREATHE
PLEASE SIR
PLEASE
PLEASE
PLEASE, I CAN'T BREATHE
On this day in 1969:
"Sugar, Sugar" single released by The Archies (Billboard Song of the Year 1969)
We deserved better!
OVERHEARD
Anything is perfect I’m not picky
stated a Millennial
It’s been 15 years to the day since YouTube cofounder Jawed Karim uploaded the platform's first-ever video, 18 seconds of him pontificating about elephant trunks at the San Diego Zoo. Here’s a brief timeline on what’s happened since:
2005: YouTube launches its public beta in May, and with $3.5 million from Sequoia Capital it goes beyond beta by the end of the year.
2006: Google acquires YouTube for $1.7 billion.
2007: "Charlie bit my finger” becomes the first viral video, proving babies are cuter than cats, and YouTube goes mobile-friendly the same month the first iPhone hits stores.
2008: "Evolution of Dance" gets a record-breaking 100 million views.
2009: Justin Bieber. Vevo. The music world is never the same.
2012: Psy’s “Gangnam Style” gets a historic 1 billion views.
2014: Susan Wojcicki becomes YouTube’s third CEO.
2017: The “Adpocalypse” and “Elsagate” throw the platform under public scrutiny.
As of last year, 500 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube...every minute. There’s no sign of that number going down, especially amid COVID-19.
Are You Binge-Watching?
By the digits
52%: Share of participants in a 2018 survey who said they had stayed up all night binge-watching at least once
45%: Share of young adults who have canceled plans to continue watching a show
76%: Share of viewers ages 18 to 29 who prefer binge-watching
45%: Share of viewers ages 55 to 64 who prefer binge-watching
160 million: Netflix subscribers worldwide
10 million: Disney+ subscribers on the first day of its North America launch
~20: Hours Americans spend watching TV each week
361,000: Viewers who watched all nine episodes of season two of Stranger Things in the first 24 hours it was available
189 million kg (417 million lb): CO2 produced by the 64 million people who watched season three of Stranger Things, based on the energy required to power routers, data centers, and streaming
What’s the best way to watch?
When Netflix released the entire first season of the political thriller House of Cards in one day in 2013, such an approach had never been done before. “It all felt very experimental,” Beau Willimon, the show’s creator, told the Wall Street Journal. “We were a bit shocked at how quickly the world glommed onto the idea of streaming shows over the internet and binge-watching seasons.” Now that’s the standard on most streaming sites (HBO remains a holdout).
Streaming services like Hulu, Disney+ and Apple TV+ have experimented with releasing episodes on a weekly basis to see if viewers retain interest longer, and as a way to do more with less, in the face of the seemingly-endless amount of content produced by Netflix. Even Netflix, though, has made the occasional exception. In 2019, it released one new episode per week of The Great British Baking Show in the US, two days after each episode originally aired in the UK.
Cable companies are losing subscribers each quarter, but it doesn’t mean they also can’t join the market in new ways to retain the interest of viewers. HBO has created original content that makes it worthwhile for subscribers to pay $14.99 a month. Channels like NBC are creating their own streaming networks, and Viacom has also made content-specific streaming sites.
Brief history
1990s: Entire seasons of television shows become available on box sets of VHS tapes, and binge-watching takes off.
1997: Netflix launches, allowing subscribers to rent DVDs online, receive them in the mail, and send them back when finished. There are no overdue fees, a major change from video stores.
2007: Netflix launches an online streaming service. Other cable companies create on-demand services for shows and movies around the same time.
2011: Netflix begins using the term binge-watch internally.
2013: Binge-watch is shortlisted by Oxford Dictionaries as word of the year.
2015: Collins English Dictionary chooses binge-watch as word of the year.
OBI !
DAYTON —
Dayton Flyers forward Obi Toppin won the John R. Wooden Award on Tuesday, claiming the last national player of the year award of the season.
Toppin, a 6-foot-9 redshirt sophomore forward who’s heading to the NBA after two seasons on the court at Dayton, swept all the major awards, winning the Naismith Trophy and awards from the Associated Press and National Association of Basketball Coaches.
Earlier Tuesday, Toppin won the Karl Malone Award, which is given to the nation’s top power forward.
Season highlights >>> https://www.daytondailynews.com/sports/toppin-completes-sweep-major-national-player-the-year-awards/PWADolJNiulIfGJzQOtvKI/
BOTTOMS UP !
Ohio has seen an increase in the amount of liquor during the coronavirus pandemic, with its biggest jump in March.
More than 1,450,000 gallons of liquor were sold in March, a 26% increase from February, according to data from the Ohio Department of Commerce Division of Liquor Control.
March’s sales were also up 22% from March 2019.
Sales in both March and February this year were higher than their respective months in 2019, but this January saw less than a 1% decrease from January 2019.
On March 15, Gov. Mike DeWine and Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton issued an order closing bars and restaurants to in-house patrons.
Though it is not clear if the order is behind the increase in sales, liquor stores in the Miami Valley saw an immediate jump in customers.
Hours after DeWine announced the order in March, the line at Arrow Wine & Spirits on Far Hills Avenue in Kettering stretched from the cash registers to the back of the store.
Dragon Memories
from
Sophomore Year
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1958
We are not going to go back to life as it was in 2019
Dayton Now Closed
There is a great new
social distancing scoreboard
@
https://www.unacast.com/covid19/social-distancing-scoreboard
Ohio and California are both graded "A"
because Ohio has 40% less traveled and
California has 48% less traveled
Wyoming gets an "F" for 0% less traveled
In developing a social distancing score that most valuable to organizations, especially those unfamiliar with human mobility data, we started with a generalized score that takes into account relevant underlying metrics — each of which explains one facet of social distancing behavior.
For our first iteration, we explored:
- People dwelling at home vs dwelling outside their homes (a proxy for how good an area is at "shelter-in-place" behavior)
- Changes in average time spent in and around home, aggregated over time (a proxy for how much time people spend at home versus other venues)
- Change in dispersion of activity clusters, or how many people no longer gathered in the same location at the same time (a proxy for change in number of encounters)
- Change in average distance traveled
Yes, am depending more on streaming for my shelter in place home entertainment. Never liked navigating Netflix. This app/website gives you a much better tool.
It is free and easy.
You can sort by
New/Date/Rating/Genre/Release Year/Title
Most Netflix users have a queue of movies and TV shows on their watch list, but finding things to put on that list can be a bit of a challenge.
He has been slowly working his way through his Netflix queue. It was a feat he never thought he would finish, but as it turns out all it took was three days and an inability to move for me to watch it all. Now what?
After starting and stopping roughly 10 movies that “looked ok” he tried Flixable, the creation of Reddit user CrazedEll.
A search engine for Netflix, with it you can search all the movies and TV shows on Netflix and Disney+ by Genre, IMDb rating (so you know it’s going to be decent), and release year. You can get your results sorted by release year, rating, title, or when they were added to the streaming site (useful if you’re looking for something “new” to you on the platform).
The result is a lot richer search than you’re able to get on Netflix/Disney+ proper, that surfaces movies and shows you might have not realized we on the platform in the first place. The rating search also gives you a fighting chance at not picking a dud.
www.flixable.com
Anybody want to shop at 7 AM?
CINCINNATI —
Kroger will start offering special hours for at-risk populations next week.
Stores in the Cincinnati-Dayton division will dedicate the first hour of operation, 7 a.m. to 8 a.m., on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, solely to seniors 60 and older and other higher-risk customers, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The grocery chain’s associates will assist anyone who needs additional help while shopping, company officials said today.
“Kroger wants to provide these groups with the ability to purchase the items they need when fewer shoppers are present,” said Erin Rolfes, corporate affairs manager for Kroger’s Cincinnati-Dayton division. “We request that customers respect these hours for the health of our community during this time of uncertainty.”
Rolfes said Kroger is following guidance from federal, state and local agencies, including the CDC and other health organizations.
Kroger is among few stocks that have been up during the markets sharp downturn.
Protect and serve
Sure, bubble wrap is exceptionally good at protecting a thing during shipment. But really, is packaging or popping its highest calling? Children and adults alike obsess over the stuff; it’s had cameos in several films highlighting the simple joy it provides. There are even phone apps that allow users to pop simulated bubble wrap.
Sealed Air, the company that invented the stuff back in the 1950s, branded their creation bubble wrap—a name no other company can use for sheets of plastic studded with air-filled bubbles, though protective packaging companies now sell bubble packing material in mailers, tubes, and rolls of all sizes. In 2015, Sealed Air announced a redesign that made the packaging material cheaper and more space efficient. Though light, rolls of bubble wrap are so bulky that they tend to be expensive to ship because of the space they take up. This new version arrives uninflated, and companies use a custom pump to add the air during packing. It also means that the sheets don’t pop. Elon Musk called the development “a sign of the apocalypse.”
By the digits
$5 million: Annual Sealed Air sales in 1971
$3 billion: Annual Sealed Air sales in 2000
$20 billion: Worldwide protective packaging sales in 2013
6: Patents granted for bubble wrap
384,400 km (238,855 miles): Length of the total amount of bubble wrap Sealed Air produces yearly, which could stretch from Earth to the Moon
560ºF (293°C): Temperature machines reach to create bubble wrap sheets
$24.99: Price of a novelty bubble wrap jumpsuit
1 million: Mugen Puchi Puchis, keychains with eight push buttons designed to simulate bubble wrap popping, sold in two months when it was introduced in Japan
815 lbs (370 kg): Weight of a pumpkin dropped from a 35-foot (11-m) crane in October 2000 to see if bubble wrap could protect the gourd from being smashed—it worked
A lucky mistake
In the mid-1950s, inventors Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes were working on developing a new style of textured wallpaper. In 1957, they put two sheets of shower curtain through a heat-sealing machine in an experiment. They weren’t satisfied with the pattern of trapped air bubbles that emerged from a design perspective, but they did come up with several other uses for the sealing technique, and were granted several patents for embossing and laminating processes.
In 1960 Fielding and Chavannes founded Sealed Air, and soon the new company got its first big break. IBM had recently introduced the 1401 Data Processing System, one of the first computers to be widely affordable and useful for businesses. Fielding and Chavannes pitched bubble wrap as packaging material, making a deal with IBM, replacing wadded up newspaper in cardboard boxes everywhere, and shaping the history of bubble wrap to come.
“Probably the closest humans will ever get to experiencing what popping a robot’s pimples would be like.”
—Loretta Chao for The Wall Street Journal
Big Boy
to the Rescue
Grocery items are available for carryout, drive-through and delivery, restaurant chain says
Frisch’s Big Boy restaurant officials announced this afternoon, March 19, that it has launched a “Big Boy’s Market” that offers staple items such as toilet paper, milk, cereal and other “essentials” for carryout or delivery.
“Frisch’s Big Boy is here for you in these challenging times,” Jason Vaughn, president and CEO of Frisch’s Big Boy, said in a release. The Cincinnati-based chain operates a dozen restaurants in the Dayton, Springfield, Hamilton and Middletown areas.
A Frisch’s spokeswoman told this news outlet today that customers can purchase the Big Boy’s Market grocery items at each restaurant’s drive-through or carryout windows. When placing a delivery order online on a delivery service such as DoorDash, the milk, toilet paper and other grocery items are listed under “pantry” and can be found by scrolling down past Frisch’s restaurant menu items.
Frisch’s restaurants are also offering their menu for carryout or delivery while dining rooms are shut down due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The market items may vary by location, and Frisch’s officials said the offer “may be for a limited time.” But here is a list of the grocery items that Frisch’s officials said are available at Big Boy’s Market:
Single rolls of bathroom tissue, limit four per order
Half gallons of milk and chocolate milk
Breads (white, rye, whole wheat, 12 grain, buns)
12-count dinner rolls
Soft tortillas
Five-pound bags of sugar
Single-serve cereals (Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs)
Produce (celery stalks, tomatoes, broccoli, red onions)
20-ounce Frisch’s Big Boy ketchup
20-ounce French’s Classic yellow mustard
Four-pound container of Frisch’s Big Boy tuna salad
Two-liter bottles of some Coca-Cola products
20-ounce bottles of Dasani Purified Water and Coca-Cola products
Dragon Memories
from
We went all out on this one
Not one, but 2 Kempfers
Did Joe do some
modeling
on the side?
Pretending
to Focus
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HAPPY St. Patrick's DAY!
Was out twice today for groceries then later for pharmacy.
Traffic was light. The first place I stopped had a line of 30 people out the door. I drove to a Safeway. It was busier than usual but not crazy. There were significant out of stocks.
Third store was busy with longer than normal lines.
Later went to Target which had very few shoppers, less than normal. Target will open on Wednesday with the first hour for seniors.
Some have suggested the US peak for cases will not come for 45 days. It would be difficult to continue this for 5 weeks or more.
Bay Area's New Reality
7 Million people here have to shelter in place.
Originally it only applied to seniors.
Did not like the 65 and above staying in.
Yesterdays new world.
Today (for 2 weeks) it's everybody here.
Unprecedented.
There are now 5 Bay Areas deaths. In any other context the reaction seems like too much.
Hope it is effective.
Lets lower the bell curve!
Here's a reality check curve
Work from home ?
but not for
waiters/cooks/busboys/retail clerks/custodians
construction/auto sales/hot tub attendents/et al
Maybe during this
EMERGENCY
TV broadcasters should eliminate commercials
Shut-ins get really sick of them and
most of retail is closed!
The WWE
{World Wraslin' Entertainment}
Canceled its Hall of Fame Ceremony
BUT CHILL
Wrestlemania is still on!
April 5th
CALIFORNIA, USA —
California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday issued a call for all bars, wineries, nightclubs, and brewpubs across the state to close amid concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus known as COVID-19. Unlike other states, Newsom stopped short of asking restaurants to close but did urge operators to cut capacity to allow for “deep social distancing.”
Also, on Sunday, Newsom urged seniors over the age of 65 and people with chronic health conditions to isolate themselves at home in a bid to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. Newsom noted that there are 5.3 million seniors living in California.
The California governor also provided an update on the number of coronavirus/COVID-19 cases in the state. He said as of Sunday there were 335 confirmed cases in California – an increase since the previous number of 288 was given Saturday.
I will not be self-isolating at home.
To Comply with Social Distancing Recommendations:
We suggest you avoid
(or keep ten feet away from)
all Fairmont East
alums and dropouts
Governor Mandates 3-Week School Closure Amidst COVID-19 Crisis
All school events, athletic practices and games, club activities, meetings, etc, are canceled, beginning at 3 p.m. on Monday, March 16, and continuing through the mandated school closure date of Friday, April 3. This will include our planned official designation of the Class of '69 as "Superfine."
Students and staff in Kettering will be on Spring Break next week. Our administration will use this time to finalize plans and information regarding teaching and learning expectations beyond our scheduled Spring Break.
During his press conference today, Gov. DeWhine did say that his office and the Ohio Department of Health will continually monitor the Coronavirus crisis to determine whether this mandated three-week school closure will need to be extended.
We will continue to communicate regularly with our staff, family and community as plans are finalized to make sure that everyone is aware of how they will be impacted by this situation.
Are You receiving email from businesses
explaining their sincere concern and efforts with COVID-19?
Bed, Bath & Beyond A Message to Our Customers about COVID-19
Landmark Theatres A note to Landmark’s guests about the Coronavirus
A note from Best Buy about COVID-19
A Message From Starline Social Club
Papa Murphy's An Important Message To Our Valued Guests
COVID-19 message from Tripadvisor CEO Steve Kaufer
AMC Theatres A Message From Our CEO about "Social Distancing"
Taco Bell A Letter to our Fans
Caesar's Entertainment Our response to Coronavirus (COVID-19)
UD’s season comes to an abrupt end because of Coronavirus
BROOKLYN, N.Y. —
Roni Toppin kept repeating the same three words: “It’s so sad.”
That summed up the day for her, her sons Obi and Jacob, the Dayton Flyers, the Atlantic 10 Conference and all of college basketball. The cancellation of the Atlantic 10 tournament and then the entire NCAA tournament (men’s and women’s) because of Coronavirus fears — stunned everyone on Thursday.
Maybe no one one felt the shockwaves harder than the third-ranked Flyers, whose historic season came to an abrupt end.
“I’m heartbroken,” Roni said. “I’m just hoping they’ll change their minds. I know they’re not going to, though.”
“I wish all of this was just a dream that I could wake up from,” Dayton senior Trey Landers wrote on Twitter. “Wish I could play one more game with my brothers.”
The end of Dayton’s season means Toppin’s college career likely is also over. He has not announced his decision to enter the NBA draft, but that’s just a formality. He’s a likely lottery pick after leading Dayton to a 29-2 record and 20 straight wins to close the regular season.
Coronavirus
The first Ohio high school basketball tournament games with crowd restrictions were played tonight, and the atmosphere was drastically changed.
For example, the Centerville-Moeller matchup in a Division I regional semifinal at Cintas Center in Cincinnati was played in front of a nearly empty arena.
The changes were made after Gov. Mike DeWine recommended indoor sporting events not be played in front of general crowds over concerns about spreading the coronavirus.
For boys basketball tournament games, student-athletes on the school tournament roster (players and cheerleaders) can designate four family members to purchase a ticket for the game.
Coaches for the team can each designate two family members to purchase tickets. School administrators and the bus driver each receive one free ticket for themselves and a guest.
Obi Toppin is Dayton Flyers’ first All-American
in 41 years
DAYTON —
Obi Toppin keeps stamping his name in the Dayton Flyers record book. Every day brings a new honor.
On Wednesday, The Sporting News named Toppin to its All-American first team. Toppin is Dayton’s first All-American since Jim Paxson in 1979.
“Dayton did not play many close games, in large part because Toppin was so much better than the rest of the Atlantic 10 that even the league’s NCAA Tournament contenders couldn’t keep up,” wrote Mike DeCourcy, of The Sporting News. “That game at Saint Louis turned out to be the one great chance there was to prevent an 18-0 Dayton run through the conference, but Toppin’s tip-in with 8:20 left ignited a 29-16 Dayton close to regulation that forced overtime. His 3-pointer just inside the four-minute mark closed the deficit to a single basket. When Duquesne got too close for comfort in the Flyers’ trip to Pittsburgh, Toppin attacked the rim for eight points in the final eight minutes to help preserve a four-point win. He scored in double figures in every game but one and produced eight double-doubles, helping the Flyers to a school-record win total (29) that figures to keep growing.”
Toppin is Dayton’s 10th All-American. He joins Paxson, Alphonse Schumacher (1912, 1913), Don Meineke (1951, 1952), John Horan (1955), Bill Uhl (1956), Bill Chmielewski (1962), Garry Roggenburk (1962), Henry Finkel (1966) and Don May (1967, 1968).
Toppin, a redshirt sophomore forward, was named the Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year on Tuesday. He leads third-ranked Dayton with 20.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game. He ranks fourth in the country in effective field-goal percentage (68.4). He’s shooting 69.8 percent from 2-point range and 39 percent (32 of 82) from 3-point range.
We have more Florida photos
Courtesy of Joyce Levy
All 21 can be seen at "What's New"
Here are some that have been cropped and rotated
Field Club
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Lido Key
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Field Club
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UD Flyers
Win 20th straight game
Perfect run through A-10
DAYTON —
The Dayton Flyers blitzed George Washington in the second half on their way to a 76-51 victory Saturday night at UD Arena, capping an 18-0 run through the Atlantic 10 Conference schedule.
Obi Toppin had 27 points, including several highlight-reel dunks in the second half, and Jalen Crutcher added 21 as the Flyers outscored the Colonials, 50-26, in the second half.
Here’s what Dayton accomplished in its 31st game of the season:
The Flyers (29-2) tied the school record for consecutive victories. The 1951-52 team also won 20 games from January through March.
The Flyers set the school record for victories in a season, passing the 1951-52 team that finished 28-5.
Dayton now has the third-longest winning streak, in one season, in Atlantic 10 history.
Dayton had already clinched the A-10 regular-season championship and the top seed in the conference tournament. It will play in the quarterfinals at noon Friday at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Anyway it was a 6:30 hour night flight. And it was chilly in the window seat next to the fuselage. It was quiet and stewards weren't making round. So when I saw the stern Asian steward dude I got up and asked if I could get a blanket. "We don't have any blankets."
Hmm.
Wait, almost everyone in first class was using an Alaska blanket! None for even Premium seats? When I exited the tiny, cramped lavatory, no body in the crew was there. On the empty first class seats at the bulkhead were two airline blankets, wrapped in plastic wrap. Looked around and took one. I felt better and warmer to be sure. Unlikely anybody would even see it over at the window seat in the darkened plane. Got away with it. Left it at my seat.
Hope he found it there.
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Friday at Field Club
This was taken shortly after sunset and only includes the early Dragons
Can you detect the differences between
Lynne's flattering portraiture
and my snaps ?
Here's more from Lynne
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Pam and Scott
Unknown Party goers
Gayle, Diane and Robert
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Cindy, Deborah and Joyce
Here are three great close-ups courtesy Lynne Wagner
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Brad, Joni & Joe and Debbie
Steve, Karen Sue and Deborah Ake (in the hoodie)
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Leslie Joni and Gayle warming by the fire
Diane Lynne and Cindy
Obi Toppin scores 20 points on his 22nd birthday
KINGSTON, R.I. —
As one famous Dayton Flyers fan likes to say after every victory, “The show goes on.”
And what a show No. 3 Dayton delivered Wednesday at the Ryan Center. Obi Toppin scored 20 points, two short of his age on his birthday, as the Flyers routed Rhode Island 84-57.
»RHODE ISLAND COACH: ‘I don’t know that I’ve seen a better team’
Dayton (28-2, 17-0) won by 27 points on the same court where it won by 29 points a year ago. It may have been even more dominant in this game. The Flyers shot 40 percent from 3-point range (8 of 20) and held a 49-38 rebounding advantage.
Responding to some light teasing from the Rhode Island student section, Toppin threw down a tomahawk jam at the peak of Dayton’s dominance in the second half. It was his 100th dunk of the season. He had several other dunks, though his brother Jacob stopped one with a foul.
»OBI TOPPIN ON NBA DECISION: ‘I’m not ready to say it’
Jalen Crutcher added 17 points. Trey Landers scored 14. Ten different Flyers scored, including walk-on Christian Wilson, who made a 3-pointer in the final minVideo: David Jablonski - Staff Writer
Here’s what the victory means for Dayton:
• Dayton tied the school record for victories in a season. The 1951-52 team finished 28-5.
• Dayton won its 19th straight game. That’s one short of the school record for consecutive victories in one season. Dayton won 20 straight games from January to March in 1952.
• The 19-game winning streak is the longest in the A-10 since Saint Louis won 19 straight in 2013-14, and it’s tied for the fifth longest in conference history.
• Dayton became the first team since the A-10 returned to an 18-game schedule in 2014-15 to win 17 games.
• Dayton joined Gonzaga (29-2), San Diego State (28-1) and Liberty (28-4) as the only teams in the country with 28 victories.
HALFTIME RECAP
Jalen Crutcher, Obi Toppin and Trey Landers all scored in double figures in the first half as the third-ranked Dayton Flyers built a 46-30 halftime lead against Rhode Island on Wednesday at the Ryan Center.
Dayton outscored Rhode Island 11-3 in the last 4:03, thanks in part to a four-point possession. Rhode Island guard Fatts Russell picked up a technical foul after Toppin was fouled. Crutcher made two free throws, and then Toppin made two.
Crutcher scored 12 points and made all six of his free-throw attempts. Toppin had 10 points, including two dunks on his 22nd birthday. Landers scored Dayton’s first five points and had 10 in the half.
Dayton shot 50 percent from the field (16 of 32) and made 14 of 25 2-point shots one game after making 27 of 28 in a victory against Davidson.
Much like the first game between these two teams, fouls mounted fast in the first half. Dayton made 12 of 13 free throws. Rhode Island made 9 of 16.
Toppin, Crutcher, Ryan Mikesell and Dwayne Cohill all picked up two fouls in the half.
Rhode Island shot 29 percent from the field and 23 percent from 3-point range (3 of 13).
MORE COVERAGE
SUNNY and COOL
The forecast was correct.
Northerners vacation in Florida in the winter because it is sunny and warm.
Twelve of the first twenty-four days in February have been in the 80s in Sarasota. The average daytime high for February 28-29 is 74 degrees.
We will not likely experience those warm temperatures. The current forecast high for February 28th is 62 degrees and for February 29th, Leap Day, is 65 degrees. So be prepared with jackets and layers.
I accept full personal responsibility for the below average temperatures on behalf of my vacation weather karma. Like my two most recent vacations to Palm Springs and Las Vegas the temperatures will be high before I arrive, dip below normal, and then back up as soon as I leave.
University of Dayton Flyers
Men's Basketball Ranked #3!
Dayton's magical run in the Associated Press top-25 poll continued Monday when it climbed from No. 5 to No. 4. It's a special season when Dayton fans can complain about not being ranked third, but many thought they should have jumped Gonzaga and San Diego State.
Dayton extended its winning streak to 16 games by winning 66-61 at Virginia Commonwealth on Tuesday and beating Duquesne 80-70 on Saturday at UD Arena.
As Steve Kisling can attest many fans celebrate post-game at
the crowded Oakwood Club
Prior to this season, Dayton had not ranked in the top 10 since 1967
and had not ranked in the top five since it reached No. 2 in 1956. Dayton is the highest-ranked Atlantic 10 Conference team since Saint Joseph’s, which reached No. 1 in 2004. That was the last A-10 team to reach the top spot. Dayton has never ranked No. 1.
This is the first time since the 1955-56 season that Dayton has been ranked in 13 straight weeks. The 1955-56 team was ranked all season in 15 polls. That team finished 25-4.
Cheerleaders!
Brief history
1923: Women are allowed to cheer for the first time, at the University of Minnesota.
1948: Lawrence Herkimer launches the National Cheerleaders Association.
1968: Becky Spahr, Lynne Wagner, Sandy Stimmel, Marilyn Blesi, Suzi Willig, and Barb Getty
1971: Herkimer invents and patents the pom-pom.
1974: Jeff Webb starts the Universal Cheerleaders Association (UCA), which will later become Varsity.
1980: UCA holds the first National High School Cheerleading Championship in Orlando, Florida.
1986: Herkimer sells the National Cheerleaders Association for $20 million. Varsity buys its parent company, National Spirit Group, in 2004.
2000: Bring It On comes out, shining a spotlight on the sport of cheerleading.
2004: Varsity launches the nonprofit International Cheer Union, the self-proclaimed “recognized world governing body of Cheerleading.”
2016: The International Olympic Committee grants cheerleading provisional recognition as an Olympic sport.
In the late 1800s, groups of young men at Ivy League colleges formed “yell teams” to cheer on the sidelines of football games. These were the ancestors of today’s cheerleaders, and the sport was considered a man’s activity because it put a premium on traits typically associated with masculinity, like the ability to lead a crowd. During World War II, when young men left school to go off to war, women started joining cheerleading teams, and the stereotype of cheerleaders as all-American-girls-next-door largely replaced the previously male standard.
By the mid-1970s, almost all cheerleaders were women. In 1968 Yolande Fulton, Kathy Finke, Jan Windsor, Connie Thompson, Peggy Mathes, and Marty Hart were cheerleaders for West.
In 1972, the federal government passed Title IX, a civil rights law that barred discrimination in publicly funded education institutions on the basis of sex, including in athletics. The courts ruled that cheerleading didn’t count as a varsity sport, meaning it wasn’t subject to the same equal opportunity requirements and didn’t qualify for the benefits of being a Title IX sport. According to Jaime Schultz, associate professor of kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University, that’s when “girls and women began to turn away from cheerleading.”
“In response,” Schultz writes, “leaders of the emerging ‘spirit industry,’ who sought to expand and profit from the activity, made it more athletic by encouraging the use of acrobatic stunts and tumbling.” At the same time, men started rejoining the sport, making it broadly more co-ed. Despite the athleticism required, cheering is still considered a “student activity, not an interscholastic varsity sport” according to USA Cheer, and thus not held to Title IX standards.
With some of the finest, whitest sand in the world, this beach attracts sand collectors from all over. Siesta Beach has clear, warm waters ideal for swimming. The beach is hundreds of yards wide in the shape of a crescent due to anchoring of onshore rocks to the south.
From the 1800s and early 1900s, Siesta Key was known by a variety of names, including “Little Sarasota Key” and “Sarasota Key.” The first attempts to develop the key was by the Siesta Land Company in 1907 consisting of Harry Higel, Captain Louis Roberts, and E.M. Arbogast. The company platted the northern end of the key as "Siesta on the Gulf" as well as dredged bayous and built docks. The only access to Siesta Key was by boat or ferry until the first bridge connecting it to the mainland was completed in 1917. The bridge was later replaced in 1927 along with an addition of a second bridge located on the southern end of the key. The entire key was officially recognized as "Siesta Key" by 1952.
Looking for Traffic?
Always Available on
Hungry
(or even hangry)
for a deep fried hot dog and other drive-in treats while in Sarasota?
1701 N Washington Blvd, Sarasota, FL 34234
Still enjoy episodes of
and more
Have a grateful appreciation
for
Fantastic favorites like
All about the 60's
60 Years Later
You might enjoy feeling younger in the elderly population of Florida's Gulf Coast.
Sarasota’s history began over 10,000 years ago, with research showing that native people occupied it. Europeans first discovered the area in the early 1500s. In 1539, the city was named “ZaraSota” by Hernando de Soto. At this time, Sarasota was not settled but was instead a place for fishing camps.
There are more females than males, making up 52% of the population. About 30% of the people in Sarasota County are at least 65 years old, making up the largest age group. Over 70 years old 20%. Just 17% are under 18 years old. Am comfortable here because 40% of males have never married like me and Nish.
First visited Sarasota in the early 60s on our family vacation. Driving down I-75 in a station wagon like many Buckeyes. We went as a family a few times and just the guys for spring training one year. Dad was born in 1918 in New Port Richey, north from Sarasota, and our grandmother lived there in the family house her carpenter husband built. He had brothers and sisters in Sarasota. And we had five male cousins.
We loved the white sandy beaches and warm Gulf water. When we realized our cousins were playing in the Gulf water with the spring training ball a player gave to us that my brother and I prized, it was clear we would not be close with cousins Richard and Ralph. Anyway I have pleasant memories of Florida in the 60s.
My partner, Ellen, and I one Thanksgiving (1978) met my father and mother for Thanksgiving weekend in an A-frame right on the soft sand on Siesta Key. Wonderful weather and a great, memorable time for everyone.
Have enjoyed years of camaraderie in Sarasota with Steve & Ann, Brad & Linda, Gary & DeeDee as well as the slow traffic on the Trail and long traffic lights. Better weather than February in Northern California. Filled with sun and laughs and dining out. Our visitors have included my late father, Pat Pancoast, Dick Dormitzer and Dave Chambers.
Am looking forward to another our upcoming gathering. Hope to see many Dragons I have never seen in Florida.
Should be another goodtime.
The Stivers Class of 1964 Will Not Be There!
Class of '69 Dragons
Gathering in Sarasota
Live music, food and drinks
Academy Awards 2020
"American Factory"
Wins the
Documentary Feature
Oscar!
Yellow Springs filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar won their first Oscar tonight for locally-made documentary “American Factory.”
Reichert: “Even before that envelope got opened, just being in the presence, in the company of our sister and brother documentarians who risked their lives making stories, bringing stories to us about hospitals being bombed in Syria, about Brazil, about Macedonia, we were so proud. We are inspired by you guys. Our film is from Ohio and China. Go Buckeyes! Sorry. But it really could be from anywhere that people put on a uniform and punch a clock, trying to make their families have a better life. Working people have it harder and harder these days. We believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite.”
Bognar: “Thank you, Academy! Thank you to everyone who trusted us to tell your story. Junming Wang, thank you to our unstoppable crew, our beloved friends and family, Jeff Liu, our unstoppable editor Lindsay Utz, and to those big-hearted people at Netflix, Participant Media, Higher Ground Productions, and the tough, inventive, great people of Dayton, Ohio.”
Acceptance speeches are a rare peek beyond the highly filtered veil of modern celebrity. The moment of surprise that comes from winning a major award like an Oscar or an Emmy can throw some stars off so much that they’re left speechless, say too much, or have the kind of awkward moments created by the pressure of live television.
For nominees who are contenders for major awards, like the Oscars, acceptance speeches can boil down to a science—interweaving humility while pleasing the Academy with acknowledgement to the community. Other performers use their platform to make a political statement, bashing politicians, advocating for diversity, or protesting war. The best get clever, with a sonnet, a freestyle, or a Jane Austen homage. Here are some words for the people who really matter, you the readers (and our agents).
By the digits
5 minutes and 30 seconds: Longest Oscar acceptance speech, given by Greer Garson for Best Actress for the film Mrs. Miniver in 1943
582: Words in Halle Berry’s Best Actress Oscar acceptance speech for Monster’s Ball in 2002, when she became the first African-American to win the award
45 seconds: Maximum length of Oscar acceptance speeches now
10: Seconds Fred Rogers asked the audience to think about people who have “loved us into being” during his 1997 acceptance speech for a lifetime-achievement Emmy
2: Words in 16-year-old Patty Duke’s acceptance speech for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for The Miracle Worker in 1963: “Thank you”
12 minutes: Length of the standing ovation Charlie Chaplin received for his honorary Oscar in 1972
19: Nominations it took soap-opera legend Susan Lucci before she got to accept an Emmy
14: Lines in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s 2016 Tony Awards acceptance speech for Best Score for Hamilton, in the form of a sonnet
Most unbelievable moments
Strange and downright cringey off-script moments during acceptance speeches abound. Here are some of the weirdest:
Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV VMAs
Jack Palance doing push ups on stage
Roberto Benigni standing on seats
Melissa Leo’s F-bomb slip
Angelina Jolie professing her love for her brother
James Cameron’s “I’m King of the World”
Adrien Brody kissing Halle Berry
Christine Lahti in the ladies room when her award was announced
Remember "Bucky" Bockhorn?
Arlen Dale "Bucky" Bockhorn (born July 8, 1933) is a retired American basketball player. He was a guard for the National Basketball Association's Cincinnati Royals from 1958 to 1965. He played college basketball at the University of Dayton and is a member of Dayton's Hall of Fame and All-Century team.
Dayton legend Bucky Bockhorn recovering after back surgery
DAYTON —
This Dayton Flyers men’s basketball season has had everything — the program’s best-ranking in more than 50 years, the best start in league play in 16 years, a player earning more national attention than perhaps any player in school history — but has lacked one thing: the presence of a legend or The Legend.
Nineteen games into the season, Bucky Bockhorn has yet to call a game on WHIO Radio alongside his longtime partner Larry Hansgen. Bockhorn underwent back surgery earlier this season and has been on the mend.
“Let’s put it this way,” Bockhorn said Thursday. “I haven’t had dress pants on in about 10 weeks.”
However, there’s good news that goes along with that. Bockhorn, 86, said the surgery wasn’t as bad as he thought and took care of some his pain. He had his last appointment in the first phase of his rehab recently, and now Hansgen is going to take over the rehab at Bockhorn’s home.
Bockhorn said he gets questions all the time about whether he’s going to return to radio this season and wants everyone to know he hopes to do a couple of games.
“Give me about two more weeks,” Bockhorn said, “and I may think about coming to do a game.”
» MORE ON BOCKHORN: A-10 honors him in 2017 | Still making a difference for UD
Even though he hasn’t been at UD Arena or at road games, Bockhorn has kept up with the No. 7 Flyers (17-2, 6-0), who won their eighth straight game Wednesday, 88-60 over St. Bonaventure. He can identify with what they’re experiencing. He was a senior on the last Dayton team to be ranked in the Associated Press poll for eight straight weeks.
Dayton won 15 games in a row to climb as high as No. 8 in the 1957-58 season. Bockhorn averaged 10.8 points that season and finished his career with 941 points in three seasons. He was recently passed by Crutcher on the scoring list.
Sometime soon Bockhorn will get to see Crutcher in person again. When he does call a game, it will be the 51st season he has done so at UD and
his 37th with Hansgen. Few teams have been as strong as this one.
OBI!
{Bockhorn spent a year at the University of Dayton and two years in the U.S. Army before becoming a starter for three National Invitation Tournament (NIT) teams at Dayton, beginning in 1955–56. As a sophomore at Dayton, Bockhorn was on a team that had a 25-4 record, finished third in the final Associated Press poll and was runner-up in the NIT. He averaged 10.7, 11.8 and 10.8 points in his three UD seasons, averaging 12.4 rebounds in 1957–58 when he was the team's most valuable player. In his three seasons, the Flyers were a combined 69-17.
Bockhorn has the distinction of being one of three brothers to play on one varsity major college team, in 1957–58 with brothers Terry and Harold, one of the few times this has happened in Division I history. Brothers Matthew, Thomas and William Brennan also played together in 1957–58, for Villanova University. The two trios of brothers were the last to play together in Division I for 54 seasons until Miles, Mason, and Marshall Plumlee played for Duke University in 2011–12.}
“I’ll tell you one thing, this team is enjoyable to watch,” Bockhorn said.
Since Bockhorn hasn’t been able to provide analysis on radio, here are his takes on this team:
On the team in general: “What impresses me is it seems to me — and even when I was watching practice this summer — the camaraderie is really good. … This team reminds me of our ‘57-58 team when I played. We went on that winning streak. We were not supposed to be very good that year.”
On the offense: I’m just amazed at how well they pass the ball and hit the open man. I haven’t seen one guy that’s greedy and looking for shots.”
On Obi Toppin: “Obi’s sensational. He just amazes me sometimes. He’s probably right there in the top five or six spots (in Dayton history), somewhere in there. I go way back, but I don’t think you can take the old guys and make comparisons. Don May was an absolute beast. We had some good ones. Johnny Davis and Donald Smith from back in the old days. Brian Roberts was a great shooter.”
On Jalen Crutcher: “That’s my man, Jalen. I love that kid. You can print that. I really believe he’s made more clutch shots than anybody who’s played at UD. Maybe not. But I enjoy watching him play.”
On the Toppin-Crutcher connection: “Obi and Crutcher work so well together. That pick and roll, those long passes on run-outs. Deadly.”
On the seniors: “The unsung heroes of this team are Ryan Mikesell and Trey Landers. They’re blue-collar guys who get it done. They’re showing great leadership with this team, too.”
SUPER BOWL
Miami, FL
February 2
San Francisco 49ers v. Kansas City Chiefs
My seat cushion from 1989
Miami Super Bowl
The road to sobriety is paved with good intentions
The American experiment with prohibition, which began on January 17, 1920, and ran through 1933, gets a bad rap—perhaps undeservedly. The US temperance movement was never about banning alcohol consumption; by banning sale, manufacture, and transportation, it targeted the liquor companies that preyed on the poor and the states that relied on alcohol taxes for income. Drinking itself and home production remained legal, though consumption of course fell, a phenomenon that persisted well after Prohibition’s 1933 repeal.
The US isn’t the only country that has banned the sale of alcohol. Many European countries experimented with bans around the same time. Today, there are about a dozen countries—all majority-Muslim—that have nationwide bans, although some have exceptions for non-Muslims. Indian states have tried bans with results as mixed as they were in the US. Time to take a tipple.
30: Times advocate Carrie Nation was arrested from 1900-1910 for smashing up saloons with a hatchet
>1,000: People killed by mafia violence in New York City during Prohibition
$100 million: Amount gangster Al Capone raked in annually in the mid-1920s
35 million: Gallons of moonshine produced annually in the US by 1934
30,000-100,000: Estimated number of speakeasies in New York City during Prohibition
<40%: Distilled spirits’ share of US alcohol consumption before Prohibition
>75%: Distilled spirits’ share of US alcohol sales by its end
60 million: Gallons of industrial alcohol stolen annually during Prohibition
An offer mobsters couldn’t refuse
According to Las Vegas’s Mob Museum, “Prohibition practically created organized crime in America.” Before, criminal gangs were usually street thugs extorting local businesses and running gambling rackets and brothels. But gangsters quickly took control of the entire alcohol supply chain, reaping huge profits that allowed them to consolidate power and necessitated greater organization.
Since supply chains were interstate or even international, mobsters set aside territorial squabbles and syndicated. In 1931, Charles “Lucky” Luciano created “the Commission,” a board of directors for organized crime in the US; it lasted until the late 1950s. To launder profits, mobsters began investing in Las Vegas casinos after Nevada legalized gambling in 1931. They also funneled money through Swiss banks.
The mafia’s rise helped bring about Prohibition’s demise. The murder of seven of Al Capone’s rivals in 1929, known as the Valentine’s Day Massacre, swayed public opinion toward repeal. Though the feds couldn’t nail Capone for the massacre—perhaps because he didn’t do it—or his bootlegging activities, he was convicted of tax evasion in 1931 and died in prison.
A brief history of global prohibition
🇷🇺 1914-1925: The tsar bans the manufacture and sale of alcohol in Russia; the Bolsheviks continue it.
🇮🇸 1915-1922: All alcohol is banned in Iceland. Wine imports are legalized in 1922 and liquor imports follow in 1935, but beer above 2.25% alcohol content is outlawed until 1989.
🇳🇴 1916-1927: Prohibition in Norway.
🇨🇦 1918-1919: Federal prohibition outlaws the importation, production, and interprovincial trade of alcohol in Canada.
🇭🇺 1919: The Hungarian Soviet Republic’s prohibition, or szesztilalom, lasts from March to August.
🇫🇮 1919-1932: Prohibition in Finland.
🇺🇸 1920-1933: Nationwide prohibition in the United States. Mississippi is the last to fully end a state-wide ban on alcohol in 1966.
Just an update on the
Florida get together.
There will be a dinner party beginning at 6:00 PM on Saturday, 2/29 at Sun and Surf Club, 1148 Ben Franklin Drive, Lido Beach 🏖 Sarasota. Sun sets at 6:30 PM.
Average high in Sarasota those days 74 degrees/ low 55, average Kettering high 44 degrees/ low 27. 🔅😎🔆
We also plan to have a cocktail party 🍷🍸🍻🍹🥂 on Friday evening, 2/28 beginning 6:00-7:00 PM but are still deciding among several venues. Will provide that location once a decision has been made. There will be no charge for either event.
A number of classmates have already indicated they will be attending (Joyce Levy Jordan, Gayle Shepherd, Leslie Williamson, Cindy Shahan, Brad Buettin, Debbie Ake, Cindy Brock, Diane Kempfer, Pat Pancoast, Lynne Wagner, Pam McCoppin and Jim Wick) and we need to hear from anyone else who will be attending so we can plan accordingly.
My Future Transportation
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Segway’s newest self-balancing vehicle won’t require you to stand up. Dubbed the S-Pod, the new egg-shaped two-wheeler from Segway-Ninebot is meant to let people sit while they effortlessly cruise around campuses, theme parks, airports, and maybe even cities — all of the same places you’d expect to see one of the company’s iconic (if still a bit dorky) stand-up vehicles.
The S-Pod is powered by basically the same gyroscopic self-balancing technology as a traditional Segway. But unlike a traditional Segway, which is driven by leaning forward, backward, and to the sides, the S-Pod is controlled using a little joystick on the right side of the seat. Segway says its self-balancing technology will always keep the chair level and that the two-wheel setup will allow for quick changes in direction even while stopped. (That said, there are three more small wheels visible on the underside of the chair, presumably for moving the S-Pod while its motors aren’t on.)
DAVID LLOYD CHAMBERS
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aka
"The Humble Meandering Scholar"
has written two books
As the clock chimes midnight and the calendar turns to Palm Sunday, April 9, 1865, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ravaged by almost a year of near daily combat with Ulysses S. Grant's Union armies, rests fitfully around the headwaters of the Appomattox River. Lee, aggressive as always, hopes to escape his pursuers and plans to give battle at first light. Grant, despairing of Lee ever surrendering, fears that either he will have to order an Armageddon, annihilating Lee's outnumbered, outgunned, and famished troops, or that Lee will release his men from command and they will disperse into the woods and hills to fight on in a guerrilla war. The Union Commander in Chief, Abraham Lincoln, is in Virginia sailing down the James River and heading back to Washington. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the rump of his cabinet, having abandoned their captured capital, Richmond, are a government in exile, temporarily housed in private homes in Danville, Virginia. Around the village of Appomattox Court House the weary soldiers, North and South, have brothers, friends, sons, and fathers on the other side. Many of the generals, Union and Confederate, have known one another since their days together at West Point and in the antebellum U. S. Army.
Palm Sunday: April 9, 1865 - Ante Meridian unfolds, hour by hour, from midnight to noon, interweaving the true events of one of the most important days in the history of America with the stories of a small handful of fictional characters, most prominently an African-American Union soldier and his former master in Confederate Gray. Grant, Lee, Lincoln, Davis, and the great generals of both sides, Longstreet, Sheridan, and Custer, all make significant appearances in the first volume of this unforgettable novel of the day the American Civil War affectively ended.
AVAILABLE NOW ON AMAZON.COM
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1733341404/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
SPEED READING
If you want to read faster than most other people, there are plenty of books, classes, and videos offering to teach you how. Speed reading has been an international fascination since the 1950s, when American school teacher Evelyn Wood created a system teaching students how to read thousands of words per minute. She called it “dynamic reading,” but “speed reading” is the name that caught on.
The premise is simple: Using a few basic techniques, like eliminating distractions and reading large numbers of words at once, you can move through a text much faster, without sacrificing comprehension. That makes it possible to read hundreds of books per year, and speed through work much more efficiently.
Assuming, of course, that it really is possible. For decades, scientists have argued that people aren’t capable of reading thousands of words per minute without skimming and missing details. They refer to extensive research about how our eyes and brains work together to glean meaning. But some researchers say that even if many speed-readers are frauds, it is possible to read significantly faster than the average person. It just requires the proper practice. Let’s read on.
200-400: Words per minute that most college-educated adults can read and comprehend
1,200: Words per minute US president John F. Kennedy was said to read
500-600: Words per minute some experts estimate he read with good comprehension
>1 million: People who took some version of Evelyn Wood’s speed reading course, Reading Dynamics, between 1959 and 1980, including US president Jimmy Carter and actor Charlton Heston
$395: Price of the 7-session course in 1980
2,700: Words per minute that Wood claimed to read
3.5-7: Minutes it should take most college-educated people to read this email
2.5: Minutes it would take Kennedy, according to expert estimates
30: Seconds it would take Wood, assuming her claim is true
The mechanics of reading
When you read, your eyes pause every few characters, before moving quickly to the next point and then pausing again. These pauses are called “fixations,” and they last just long enough to process what we see. The rapid movements in between are called “saccades.”
Reading also involves auditory processing, because even when we read silently, we pronounce each word to ourselves. That inner speech is called “subvocalization.”
Both processes are critical to comprehension. They also limit how fast you can read; according to cognitive neuroscientist Mark Seidenberg, the eyes take in seven to eight letters in each 200- to 250-millisecond fixation, adding up to 280 words a minute. Your eyes need to pause a certain amount of time to recognize and understand what you’re reading, and your inner speech can only pronounce words so fast.
Anyone can read a little bit faster by eliminating distractions, so you don’t keep reading the same sentence over and over again. But when it comes to mental processing, there’s a trade-off between speed and accuracy. This applies to basically everything your brain does: When you try to go faster, you do a worse job at it.
Evelyn Wood’s “dynamic reading” courses teach you to make fewer fixations, and eliminate subvocalization entirely. This would obviously help you read a lot faster: Reading is slow because you have to recognize and pronounce all the words. If you could just recognize large chunks of text at once, and you didn’t have to worry about pronouncing anything, you could breeze through a test incredibly fast.
The question is whether that’s actually possible. For most people, subvocalization is a core part of reading. For speed-readers, it’s a bad habit we pick up as children, when we first learn to read aloud—and one they claim we can break.
But really, is speed reading possible?
There’s hardly any published research suggesting speed reading is possible. The scientific consensus has long been that it’s impossible to read anywhere close to 1,000 words per minute, and anyone claiming to do so is merely skimming—speeding through a text to get the general idea, without worrying about processing each word.
But researchers at the University of Wuppertal in Germany think the scientific community has been off-base about speed-reading for decades. They’re working to prove that you can in fact learn to read faster, using a few basic strategies: organize your reading, speed up gradually, keep moving forward, start recognizing larger chunks of text so you can make fewer fixations, and stop subvocalizing.
All of this is highly controversial, and the lab is years off from publishing any of its results. But the researchers said all the participants in their first study have learned to read faster—sometimes dramatically so—without losing comprehension.
If they’re able to prove speed reading is possible, the next step would be to understand how it works. So they’re collecting eye-tracking data to see how people’s fixation patterns change as they speed up their reading. One day, they hope to put super-fast speed readers in a functional MRI machine to study their brains as they read. That could give clues as to how they process information at speeds most of us would find impossible.
The Quotes of Steven Wright:
I'd kill for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.
Half the people you know are below average.
82.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
All those who believe in psycho kinesis, raise my hand.
The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
I almost had a psychic girlfriend, ..... But she left me before we met.
How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink?
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm.
When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
Hard work pays off in the future; laziness pays off now.
I intend to live forever ... So far, so good.
If Barbie is so popular, why do you have to buy her friends?
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
My mechanic told me, "I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder."
A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch up.
If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
Thanks to David Younkman
OHIO STATE WINS BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP
34-21
Next up Clemson
Ohio State and the Cincinnati Bengals won!
If you're still interested
has arrived
OK Boomer
Beware, millennials! Thanks to the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, dismissing an over-40 co-worker with an “OK, Boomer” insult could get you fired.
Millennials have taken to using the “OK, Boomer” line to be dismissive of criticisms from the Baby Boomer generation (1946-1964).
But the Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits discrimination against people 40 and over.
Use of the phrase could be considered to create a “hostile work environment,” according to Inc., which constitutes “behavior that violates the law-such as age, race, or sex discrimination.”
Bachelorette Parties
$1,400: Average price of a destination bachelorette party in 2018
40%: Share of bachelorette party attendees who spend $200 or less on the event
10: Average number of attendees at a bachelorette party
5: Average number of cocktails consumed per day on a three-day bachelorette party
56%: Share of brides-to-be who celebrate their bachelorette parties for two or more days
$300 billion: Value of the global wedding industry
$14.99: Sale price of a “Happy Penis” piñata on Bachelorette.com
The first last hurrah
Long before armies of women in matching outfits took over Nashville bars, men were celebrating bachelor parties. In the 5th century BC, Spartans held toasts and feasts where “the soon-to-be-wed pledged his continued loyalty to his brothers-in-arms.” Fast forward to 1896: P.T. Barnum’s grandson’s Herbert Barnum Seeley attracts police attention for allegedly booking nude belly dancers at his brother’s stag party, dubbed the “Seeley Bachelor Party Orgy.” In 2003, Thomas Bruderman, then a trader for Fidelity Investments, was investigated by the SEC for paying for a lavish three-day bachelor party on Fidelity’s dime—complete with illegal drugs, prostitutes, and a person with dwarfism booked for entertainment purposes.
For women, “bachelorette parties” came much later. Up until the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, women were celebrating their upcoming marriages with tame affairs like a wedding shower or brunch, and even if the dress code didn’t call for a hat and gloves, Grandma was usually present. The advent of male strippers, most notably Chippendales in 1979, helped usher in the era of bachelorette parties, and also set their tone. In 1976 the Times of London first used “hen party”; in 1981 “bachelorette party” appeared in The New York Times for the first time, in a story about the “21” Club in Manhattan, where the soon-to-be first lady of New York State had held hers. Sheila Young, a British researcher who studied hen parties for her PhD, tells HuffPost that hen (and stag) dos didn’t start becoming blow-out rituals until the 2000s.
While the explosion of the wedding industry (and reality TV) has ushered in an era of extravagance in which luxurious accommodations, custom gear, and wild expectations often mark the occasion, bachelorette parties are also a ritual highlighting sexual and financial independence. “As the sexual double standard lost some of its power and as women’s rights and freedoms became more pronounced, it has become more socially acceptable for women to acknowledge that they, too, are entitled to a ‘last night of freedom’,” writes sociologist Beth Montemurro.
Satisfaction Living in Dayton
Dayton residents are split about the quality of life in the city, with satisfaction levels on big-picture issues hovering around 50%, according to the annual Dayton Survey commissioned by city government.
There’s slight positive movement from previous surveys on the percentage of people who plan to stay in Dayton and on whether the city is moving in the right direction. But there’s also some frustration with some aspects of city life, such as street paving and water quality.
The timing of the 2019 survey is important to consider, given the February water crisis, a hate-group rally downtown in May, a massive tornado outbreak, and an Aug. 4 mass shooting. The survey was conducted from May 12 through July 30.
May 27, 2019
Big-picture issues
The same four big-picture questions have been asked each of the past four years.
- About 51% of respondents said they are satisfied with Dayton as a place to live – slightly higher than any of the past three years, when the percentages were 48-50-48. That’s about double the 26% who said they were dissatisfied.
But that 26% dissatisfied number is also higher than any of the past three years (24-24-25). More people felt strongly one way or another, as the percentage who said they were neutral or not sure declined from 28% to 23%.
- Fifty percent of residents said they felt “things in Dayton are heading in the right direction,” up from 47% in 2016 and 2018, and equaling the recent high mark set in 2017. About 28% of responding residents said things are heading in the wrong direction (one percentage point less than last year), and 22% had no opinion.
- The percentage of people who said they “are likely to remain living in Dayton for the next five years” hit a four-year high at 58%, after sitting at 54-55% each of the past three years. The percentage unlikely to stay stayed at 17%, tying a four-year low.
- About 46% of respondents said the amount of taxes they pay seems reasonable, given the services the city provides, while 39% say taxes are too high. That’s a more favorable response than last year — when both numbers were 41%. And this year’s answers are closer to the way respondents felt in 2016-17.
Struggling areas
- Residents’ disappointment with the condition of paved streets grew for the second year in a row, as 65% of respondents said they were either dissatisfied or very dissatisfied. That’s up from 57% in 2017 and 60% in 2018, and by far the area where residents were most unhappy.
The dissatisfaction could show residents’ impatience, as an income tax hike that took effect in 2017 designed to funnel millions of dollars toward street repair, but improvements are not yet widespread.
- Residents’ “confidence in the purity and cleanliness of Dayton’s tap water” dropped this year. In June, Montgomery County officials raised concerns about the impact of per- and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) contamination in city water. A total of 30% of respondents were not confident in tap water purity, up 7% from last year and hitting a four-year high.
Satisfaction, improvement
- Multiple measures of resident safety hit four-year high points, having improved each year. While 60% of respondents are still very or somewhat concerned with neighborhood gun violence, that rate has dropped each year from 66% in 2016. About 56% say they feel safe outside in their neighborhood at night, up 8% over four years. The percentage who say they would feel unsafe downtown at night is only 40%, an 8% improvement over four years.
- Several city departments saw satisfaction rates much higher than dissatisfaction. Fire/EMS services had a 70% satisfaction rate and only a 3% dissatisfaction rate. In waste collection, the ratio was 68-12 in favor of satisfaction, and the city’s recycling services drew a 60% satisfaction rate and only 11% dissatisfaction.
Hilary Browning, a management analyst in the city’s Department of Procurement, Management & Budget, said full results will be available via a new online dashboard Dec. 2, allowing residents to analyze the data. She said city officials are still troubleshooting that feature.
According to city officials, more than 10,000 survey packets were mailed to randomly selected Dayton households by OpinionWorks, LLC, receiving 1,590 responses. Another 400 residents completed a public online survey.
Demographic data shows that 51% of 2019 survey respondents were white and 37% were black, very close to past surveys’ racial makeup. But respondents were more wealthy than usual. The 23% who reported gross household income over $75,000 marked a four-year high, and the 20% under $25,000 were a four-year low.
Thought bubble
Some of the earliest mentions of baths in human history come from an ancient Indian book of Vedic domestic ceremonies called the Grihya-sutras, which recognizes bathing as both a hygienic necessity and a rite of purity. Over the centuries, different cultures developed their own bathing rituals, from Japan’s hotspring steam baths to Turkey’s hamams, yet the basic act of submerging oneself into water to soothe aches, wash off grime, and even to socialize with fellow bathers has remained essentially unchanged for millennia.
In the 20th century, soaps manufactured with foaming agents called surfactants—short for surface active agent—which create the pillowy tufts of bubbles now near-synonymous with bath time, caused a splash. Today, bath gels, salts, milks, soaks, and even fizzy baking-soda-based bath bombs promise bathers an increasingly luxuriant experience. Are we living in the golden age of bathing culture? Let’s sink in and see.
2.7 million kg (6 million lbs): Weight of the baking soda LUSH North America used to manufacture bath bombs between July 2018 and June 2019, according to LUSH
454,000: Number of Instagram posts tagged #bathart
$20 million: Annual revenue for Da Bomb Bath, a bath bomb company founded by two preteen sisters in 2015
45: Minutes Glossier beauty company founder Emily Weiss claims she spends soaking in an extra-hot bath every night
$55: Price for an 8.4-ounce bottle of the Santa Maria Novella bubble bath Weiss favors
$36 billion: Estimated size of the global bath and shower product market by 2023
$1,950: Price for a Bluetooth-enabled air bathtub that shoots jets of air, rather than water
15: Men interviewed about feminism while bathing for the Men Who Take Baths project
Welcome to the age of #bathfluence
Rachel Syme coined the term “bathfluencers” in the New Yorker, capturing the rise of social media influencers who create aspirational bathing experiences involving elaborate, ritualistic elements that make your average morning shower look about as glam as a cold spray from the hose. We’re talking candles, we’re talking bubbles and a few hunks of aura-cleansing rose quartz for good measure, we’re talking so many fresh flowers floating in the tub that your plumber could make potpourri after dredging your pipes.
While it’s very possible to dump $25 worth of potions into your bathtub at a go, in the age of luxury wellness products the bath trend is appealingly democratic—anyone can enjoy one, given time, a tub, and a few scoops of Epsom salts. “A lot of what is out there in the wellness world can feel inaccessible,” Brooklyn bathfluencer Deborah Hanekamp tells Syme. “A bath doesn’t feel too far out.”
Bath-related industries are soaking in the spoils. LUSH saw sales of their extremely fragrant bath bombs increase 71% between 2015 and 2018, linking the uptick in part to the rise of the #bathart hashtag used alongside mesmerizing videos of bath bombs dissolving. The National Kitchen and Bath Association’s 2018 Design Trends study reported that 87% of industry professionals report freestanding tubs “are an important component of the surge in self-care rituals.”
Are baths actually good for us?
Sure, baths feel nice—but do they really have any health benefits? In short, yes. There are reasons hydrotherapy has been practiced for centuries. Soaking in warm water can be a great way to boost blood circulation, lower blood pressure, and calm the nervous system. Breathing steam clears out your sinuses, and as anyone who went too hard at the gym can tell you, hot water can take the edge off sore muscles. And, it just feels good.
Snow in Ohio
Monday: Another winter storm will bring rain showers in the late morning with most seeing a transition to a wintry mix to snow showers around noon. Snow showers will continue throughout the remainder of the day and overnight. In all, due to some melting early, Dayton will likely see an inch or less of snow accumulating.
Finishing up the season 4-1 after starting 0-5
Set your clocks back?
In 2017, three American scientists won the Nobel Prize for their work on the molecular foundation of circadian rhythms. We don’t just wake up when it’s light outside out of habit; our daily relationship to the sun is encoded on the cellular level. Our biological clocks tell our bodies when to start calming down for the night and when to wake up in the morning, and influence a host of other functions including body temperature, blood pressure, and hormone levels.
24.2: Average period, in hours, of the body’s circadian rhythm
50-70 million: Americans with chronic sleep problems; data from some sleep apps suggest that people in other countries sleep even less
25%: Share of sleep time humans spend in REM, the deepest state of sleep
5-10%: Share of sleep time other primates spend in REM
3 million: Workers in the UK with overnight or non-traditional work hours
20%: Share of workers in the US with overnight or non-traditional work hours
10-40%: Share of shift workers who suffer from shift work disorder
7: Minimum hours of sleep adults are recommended to get per night
3-5: Nightly hours of sleep that Margaret Thatcher, Thomas Edison, Boris Johnson, and Donald Trump have claimed to need
Every day, our bodies go through a set routine—wake up, do things, go to sleep, wake up and start all over. Every cell in our bodies has a biological clock, so the body’s processes occur at regular intervals each day. This is true for all multicellular organisms: A protein called PER cyclically accumulates and then degrades in cell nuclei, keeping the clock in perpetual motion.
These clocks operate on a regular cycle of about 24 hours, keeping time to a beat known as our circadian rhythms. For instance, when it gets dark, our bodies produce melatonin, a hormone that makes us sleepy. And in the morning, light inhibits melatonin synthesis, so we wake up.
Circadian rhythms affect virtually every part of the body—from our ability to focus to our susceptibility to heart arrhythmias. Circadian rhythms dictate how hungry we are and how fast our skin repairs from damage.
Our circadian rhythms are incredibly important, which is why it’s so dangerous to mess with them. Many of us do anyway—we work odd hours, stay up late, drink coffee or alcohol, stare at our phones before trying to fall asleep, take sleep aids and other drugs. But we pay the price: Disturbing your circadian rhythms is correlated with depression and other mental health disorders, as well as obesity and a host of health risks.
There’s a wide range of normal metabolic activity, but here’s a “typical” 24-hour circadian cycle, and how it affects sleep and alertness.
6am: Body starts releasing cortisol
7-8am: Melatonin release stops
10am: Peak alertness
Noon: Elevated mood
3-4pm: Improved reaction time
5pm: Elevated muscle strength and flexibility
7pm: Body temperature peaks
9pm: Body starts releasing melatonin
2am: Deepest sleep
4-5am: Body temperature drops to lowest point
Circadian types
Night owls naturally stay up longer at night and also wake up later, potentially due to genetic wiring.
Morning larks naturally wake up earlier and go to sleep earlier as well, which tends to peak in early and late life.
️Short sleepers need less than 6.5 hours of sleep per night. Most of the time, this is not innate; it’s due to anxiety, insomnia, or work or family obligations. Natural short sleepers are exceptionally rare, and researchers are only beginning to understand them.
Long sleepers need more than nine hours of sleep per night to be at their most productive, and may struggle with the demands of a normal daily routine. They haven’t been studied yet, but researchers looking at familial natural short-sleepers are confident they exist.
Teenagers go through hormonal changes that tend to delay sleep, making it hard for students to get a full night’s rest and wake up in time for school.
Another Fairmont Victory!
Fairmont 28, Lebanon 8: Tank Gant racked up 144 yards on the ground with two touchdowns and Male’k Hillon added 118 rushing yards with one score for Fairmont, which finished 4-6 after an 0-5 start to the season. Keith Farr had the lone touchdown for Lebanon in its last Greater Western Ohio Conference game.
Revenge of the Millennials:
Urban Dictionary:
When a baby boomer says some dumb shit and you can't even begin to explain why he's wrong because that would be deconstructing decades of misinformation and ignorance so you just brush it off and say okay.
YES!
Firebirds do shoot the Beavers!!!
Fairmont 35, Beavercreek 0
Male’k Hillon tallied 165 yards on the ground with two touchdowns to pace Fairmont. Tank Gant, Trey Baker and Logan Adams each added a rushing score.
Sarasota
Sarasota, variously spelled Sara Zota, Sarazota, and Sarasote, appeared on maps in the 1700s, but the origin of the place-name is uncertain; one explanation is that it may have been derived from a Spanish term meaning “a place of dancing.” The first settler arrived in 1856 and planted orange trees.
Dragons in Sarasota
February 28 & 29 (Leap Day!)
March 1
2020
We will not be able to visit
the
Dog racing has been outlawed in Florida
From our visit in 2017
$.50 for a PBR
$.50 for a hot dog
Time to Shoot the Beavers!!!
Another loss to Wayne.
///////////////////////
I could stop taking naps but
I'm not a quitter!
FANTASTIC FAIRMONT
Fairmont 28, Centerville 20
CENTERVILLE —
How long has it been since Fairmont beat Centerville?
Well, gas was $1.20 a gallon.
Fairmont’s 28-20 win over the Elks Friday night was nearly identical to their 28-23 win in 1997.
“This is a rivalry game,” Fairmont coach Dave Miller said. “It was a great gut-check win for the kids.”
And, it tested Miller’s gut as well.
The Firebirds’ coach didn’t get a chance to exhale until Garrett Danielson picked off Centerville’s Chase Harrison at the goal line with 20 seconds remaining to preserve the win.
“They had just made a big catch to set them up again, just like they did last week,” Miller said. “And, I knew I had seen them do this before, got Garrett got that interception. He’s not the most athletic kid on the team, but he is a student of the game and he busted his butt and it was good for him and good for our team.”
And it finished off exactly what Centerville coach Brent Ullery had warned his team about during the week.
Last season, Fairmont entered their week nine game 6-2 and headed for the playoffs while Centerville was battling through a 0-8 start.
The final: Centerville 17, Fairmont 0.
“We told them all week,” Ullery said after his team fell to 4-3 and 2-1 in the Greater Western Ohio Conference American Division. “We knew they were going to come in hungry, well coached with a lot of ability and that’s a recipe for a long night.”
From the start, it didn’t look like the Elks were going to have many problems with the Firebirds.
Centerville took the opening kickoff and marched 71 yards to take a 7-0 lead on 4-yard pass from Harrison to Connor Walls.
Fairmont, which had thrown just 10 passes in six games, got on the board on a 58-yard pass from Male’k Hillon to Garrett Baker to tie the game.
“If you don’t defend those passes, you are going to give them up,” Ullery said. “With a triple option team, you know those passes are there and they are not going to be short gains, they are going to be big.”
Fairmont pushed the lead to 21-7 on a 9-yard Hillon run and a 24-yard run by Tank Gant.
“We used some different formations and sets after that first drive,” Miller said. “We knew we had to keep them off-balance.”
The Elks got a field goal just before the half and trimmed the deficit to 21-17 when Bryce McMahon bulled his way in from 6 yards out.
Hillon added the final points on a 46-yard run with 8:40 remaining, setting up the wild final two minutes.
“With our start (to the season), for our kids to come out here and persevere and do this,” Miller said. “I am so proud of them.”
Centerville held a 20-9 advantage in first downs in compiling 355 yards while holding Fairmont to 265.
Harrison finished 19 of 29 for 158 yards, but threw two picks while McMahon had 146 yards on 25 carries. Brendan Salo booted two field goals.
Hillon was a perfect 4-for-4 throwing the ball for 115 yards and also led the ground attack with 79 yards on 11 carries. Trey Baker had an interception, forced a fumble and recorded 13 tackles to lead the Firebird defense.
Two Dragons in Turlock, CA
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Division I
1. Springboro (6-0): d. Northmont 27-21; hosts Springfield (5-1).
2. Springfield (5-1): d. Beavercreek 61-0; at Springboro (6-0).
3. Centerville (4-2): d. Wayne 27-21; hosts Fairmont (1-5).
Do you understand and enjoy today's music?
Do you rap along to today's urban, hip hop music?
Or do you react the way our parents did towards rock 'n roll?
Frank T. McAndrew October 7, 2019
When I was a teenager, my dad wasn’t terribly interested in the music I liked. To him, it just sounded like “a lot of noise,” while he regularly referred to the music he listened to as “beautiful.”
This attitude persisted throughout his life. Even when he was in his 80s, he once turned to me during a TV commercial featuring a 50-year-old Beatles tune and said, “You know, I just don’t like today’s music.”
It turns out that my father isn’t alone. As I’ve grown older, I’ll often hear people my age say things like “they just don’t make good music like they used to.”
Why does this happen?
Luckily, my background as a psychologist has given me some insights into this puzzle.
We know that musical tastes begin to crystallize as early as age 13 or 14. By the time we’re in our early 20s, these tastes get locked into place pretty firmly.
In fact, studies have found that by the time we turn 33, most of us have stopped listening to new music. Meanwhile, popular songs released when you’re in your early teens are likely to remain quite popular among your age group for the rest of your life.
There could be a biological explanation for this. There’s evidence that the brain’s ability to make subtle distinctions between different chords, rhythms, and melodies gets worse with age. So to older people, newer, less familiar songs might all “sound the same.”
But I believe there are some simpler reasons for older people’s aversion to newer music. One of the most researched laws of social psychology is something called the “mere exposure effect.” In a nutshell, it means that the more we’re exposed to something, the more we tend to like it.
This happens with people we know, the advertisements we see and, yes, the songs we listen to.
When you’re in your early teens, you probably spend a fair amount of time listening to music or watching music videos. Your favorite songs and artists become familiar, comforting parts of your routine.
For many people over 30, job and family obligations increase, so there’s less time to spend discovering new music. Instead, many will simply listen to old, familiar favorites from that period of their lives when they had more free time.
Of course, those teen years weren’t necessarily carefree. They’re famously confusing, which is why so many TV shows and movies—from Glee to Love, Simon to Eighth Grade—revolve around the high school turmoil.
Psychology research has shown that the emotions that we experience as teens seem more intense than those that comes later. We also know that intense emotions are associated with stronger memories and preferences. All of this might explain why the songs we listen to during this period become so memorable and beloved.
So there’s nothing wrong with your parents because they don’t like your music. In a way, it’s all part of the natural order of things.
At the same time, I can say from personal experience that I developed a fondness for the music I heard my own children play when they were teenagers. So it’s certainly not impossible to get your parents on board with Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X.
Fairmont Firebirds Victorious!!!
Fairmont 14, Miamisburg 7: Keon Wright hauled in two touchdown passes from Male’k Hillon, including the game-winner late in the third quarter for Fairmont. Braden Barr scored on a seven-yard scramble for ‘Burg.
Curses to cursive!
Cursive is cool!
In the age of keyboards, touch screens, and voice commands, penmanship has become a polarizing issue. Anti-cursive campaigners argue that slavish adherence to centuries-old writing standards is a waste of time and can even erode student confidence.
There’s an equally ardent cadre of educators, politicians, and scientists who have been lobbying for a revival of cursive penmanship, citing a range of neurological and psychological benefits. Cursive’s defenders suggest that putting pen to paper increases comprehension and information retention, improves fine motor skills, and fosters self-discipline.
This struggle isn’t new. Time magazine points out that hating on cursive goes back to the “days of typewriters, shorthand, telephones, and dictaphones.” In fact, cursive writing is routinely deemed obsolete, anachronistic or archaic, every time a new type of recording technology emerges.
~3200 BC: Sumerians develop cuneiform, among the earliest writing systems.
8th century: Benedictine monk Alcuin of York creates Carolingian Minuscule, a legible calligraphic script used for religious manuscripts. It becomes the basis for present-day Roman upper- and lowercase type.
16th century: An efficient style called Secretary Hand becomes the business standard in the UK.
1570: The first printed handwriting manual in English, A booke containing diuers sortes of hands, is published.
1815: Fifteen-year-old Platt Rogers Spencer begins teaching penmanship courses in Ohio. The sinuous style called “Spencerian Script” becomes the dominant writing style in the US and is used in the original Coca-Cola logo.
1894: Austin Palmer publishes Palmer’s Guide to Business Writing, a manual for a simplified cursive script that becomes the most popular style in the US.
1935: Time magazine publishes a story suggesting the decline of penmanship in the US is nothing short of a moral crisis.
1977: January 23 is designated as National Handwriting Day in the US. The date coincides with the birthday of John Hancock, a signatory of the Declaration of Independence with a particularly elegant scrawl.
2013: US treasury secretary Jack Lew presents a new and improved signature to be used on banknotes. President Barack Obama jokes that Lew promised to make his inscrutable autograph more legible “in order not to debase our currency.”
2015: German typographer Harald Geisler and Harvard-trained physicist Elizabeth Waterhouse develop a typeface based on Albert Einstein’s penmanship. Geisler is currently translating Martin Luther King’s handwriting to a font.
2016: California educators kick off the “Campaign for Cursive,” an initiative to encourage kids to learn cursive handwriting.
“Write legibly. The average temper of the human race would be perceptibly sweetened, if everybody obeyed this rule! A great deal of the bad writing in the world comes simply from writing too quickly.”
—Lewis Carroll, Eight or Nine Wise Words about Letter Writing
Hidden messages
The point of penmanship is to standardize the way we form letters for greater legibility, but we all put our own stamps on our handwriting. Train 10 students to write in Palmer script and you’ll end up with 10 different variations. Handwriting experts believe that you can glean some 5,000 personality traits from our individual takes on penmanship. Analyst Marc J. Seifer told Quartz that president Donald Trump’s jagged, loopless signature indicates someone who has an “aggressive nature and [has a] tendency to see things black or white, one way or the other, with little room for compromise.”
Graphologists like to point to other quirks as indicators of personality. Among the most common is the so-called “felon’s claw,” a letter stroke that goes below the baseline and resembles a claw—which they believe, is an indicator of a backstabbing traitor wracked by guilt. There’s no firm scientific basis for handwriting analysis, and it is becoming increasingly maligned as a forensic tool, though it’s certainly fun to wonder what a graphologist would make of your signature.
33%: Share of adults who have trouble reading their own handwriting
18: Number of US states where cursive writing is taught in public schools
$32,350: Average annual income of a calligrapher in New York City
$2.70: Average price calligraphers in the US charge to address a wedding invitation
1-1.5 inches (2.5-3.8 cm) from the tip: Recommended pencil grip for a left-handed writer
7,000: Estimated number of preventable deaths in the US healthcare system each year caused by sloppy penmanship
5,000 rupees ($70) each: Fine the Allahabad High Court charged three Indian doctors in Uttar Pradesh for bad handwriting in 2018
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13 |
34 |
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7 |
Springfield (3-1): d. Northmont 28-17; at Fairmont (0-4)
Springfield is ranked No. 2 in DDN Power Rankings
DAYTON —
UPDATE @ 10:45 p.m.:
Police responded to the homecoming dance at Stebbins High School Saturday night after hearing reports of false threats.
“There was a rumor of a threat which was not true, and we are working with authorities to address the issue,” said Chad Wyen, Superintendent of Mad River Schools. “The students involved with starting the rumor will be disciplined. Riverside police department was at the dance prior to the rumor as an added layer of security.”
INITIAL REPORT:
Multiple law enforcement units have been dispatched to Stebbins High School following text message threats, according to Huber Heights dispatch center.
Police are investigating the situation further.
We will update this story as we learn more.
Firebirds Football
Box Score
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14 |
24 |
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7 |
15 |
KETTERING —
Fairmont High School sophomore Tank Gant was born with the ultimate running back name. At a chiseled 6 feet 3 and 215 pounds, he ably fulfills that role, too.
“When I was born, they gave me to my mom and she said, get this tank off my chest,” said Gant.
That’s what a lot of Fairmont opposing defenders are likely thinking, too. Gant has become the main option on Fairmont’s run-heavy option attack. He had 34 rushes and put 110 yards rushing on Lakota East in Week 2. He topped that with 36 carries for 144 yards and a touchdown in Week 3 at Northmont.
That durability and productiveness despite being marked has landed him fifth among all Greater Western Ohio Conference rushers. That also stamps him as a developing player to watch and his recruiting interest should soar.
But that hasn’t meant success for Fairmont (0-3), yet. More realistically, the Firebirds should be a GWOC and Division I playoff contender the next two seasons. If that sounds familiar, it should. Loaded with outstanding underclassmen when head coach Dave Miller took over, Fairmont dipped to 1-9 in 2016, then qualified for the D-I playoffs the last two seasons.
“That’s a fair comparison,” recalled Fairmont senior linebacker Trey Baker, a rare four-year starter whose father David Baker is a Firebirds running back/receivers coach. “Our seniors are taking us in the right direction to prepare us for the future. We like to do what we do.”Fairmont is loaded with experienced senior linebackers Garrett Baker, Trey’s cousin, Evan Overholser and Zack Snodgras
Fairmont and Wayne (0-3) are the only winless GWOC teams, and there’s no letup in Week 4 matchups. Fairmont will host Trotwood-Madison (2-1) at Roush Stadium on Friday and Wayne hosts unbeaten Springboro (3-0), the No. 1 team in the Cox Media Group Ohio power rankings. Trotwood defeated Wayne 40-28 in Week 3.
Fairmont sophomores Tank Gant and QB Keon Wright are promising Firebirds underclass players.
Fairmont also dropped its opener to unbeaten Alter after taking out the Knights the previous two seasons.
Male’k Hillon and Keon Wright have shared taking snaps for Fairmont and both are sophomores. Gant has quickly won Miller over.
“He’s special,” Miller said. “What’s great about him is as good as a player he is, he is a great young man. His mom has done a superior job of parenting him. He is so bought in and he’s one of our hardest-working kids. You have that going on with his ability and the sky’s the limit.”•
1920: Edwin Perkins invents Fruit Smack, a fruit-flavored liquid concentrate.
1927: Inspired by Jell-O, Perkins creates a powdered version of Fruit Smack and calls it Kool-Ade.
1934: Perkins trademarks the name and spelling Kool-Aid.
1953: Perkins sells Kool-Aid to General Foods, since merged with Kraft Foods.
1954: Marvin Potts creates Pitcher Man, the precursor to Kool-Aid Man.
1974: Pitcher Man is rebranded as Kool-Aid Man.
1983: Marvel Comics creates a comic series called The Adventures of Kool-Aid Man. Mattel also made a Kool-Aid man video game for Atari 2600 in the same year.
1998: Kool-Aid is named the official state soft drink of Nebraska, and the town of Hastings, its birthplace, launches Kool-Aid Days, an annual weekend-long festival.
2000: Kool-Aid Man leaves his footprints in front of Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
2011: Time magazine names Kool-Aid Man as one of the creepiest product mascots of all time.
2013: Kraft Foods rebrands Kool-Aid Man with a more personable and less aggressive personality.
Edwin Perkins was an entrepreneur, chemist, and inventor who sold a wide variety of household goods, including face cream and medicine, through a network of door-to-door sales and a mail-order catalogue. One of the most popular items in his inventory was Fruit Smack, a liquid drink concentrate. A fan of Jell-O since his father stocked it in the family’s small general store, Perkins was determined to find a way to sell Fruit Smack in powdered form—the glass bottles the concentrated liquid came in were expensive and problematic to ship. In 1927 he started selling Kool-Ade, with the promise that each 10-cent packet would yield 10 glasses of refreshment.
When the Great Depression hit in 1929, Perkins lowered the price to five cents a packet, marketing it as “the Budget Beverage,” an attainable luxury in a cash-strapped era. Perkins kept the price throughout the Depression and for several years after, and Kool-Aid has remained a budget-friendly staple in many households since.
“Kool-Aid seems to make everyone happy. Whether it reminds them of some long-ago family picnic or using the stuff to badly dye their hair in high school, it weirdly connects to so many personal memories. It’s kind of a mutant version of Proust’s madeleines.”
—Matt from Dinosaur Dracula, speaking to The Takeout
Those colorful packets seem to inspire creativity in the kitchen and beyond. Alternative uses for Kool-Aid touted by superfans include:
Hair dye and Easter egg coloring
Toilet cleaner—the citric acid in the lemon flavor in particular supposedly removes stains and can freshen a washing machine or dishwasher as well
An ingredient in brightly-hued pickles (Koolickles, if you will), marshmallows, ribs, and fruit-flavored popcorn
Lip gloss
The Jonestown massacre is the source of the saying “drinking the Kool-Aid,” to indicate someone who is going along with a questionable idea or belief. In 1978, more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple, a cult in Guyana, drank a grape-flavored drink laced with cyanide, Valium, and other chemicals. The fatal cocktail was not made with Kool-Aid, but rather Flavor Aid.
The song that took over the world
John Lennon once claimed that The Beatles were "More popular than Jesus.” According to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, there’s one song that’s way more popular than anything The Beatles ever wrote—more widely performed, in fact, than the works of The Beatles, Beethoven, and Bach combined. It’s a song that even small children around the world know by heart, and the only song that’s ever been performed on Mars (at least as far as we know).
That song is “Happy Birthday to You.”
“Happy Birthday” is the most-sung ditty in the English language, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. And while it may seem hard to imagine a world without the tune, it’s a relatively recent invention.
In 1889, Patty Hill, a Kentucky educator, and her sister Mildred, who would go on to become an ethnomusicologist, teamed up to write songs for children. “Happy Birthday,” their greatest hit, went on to become the standard song for celebrations across a wide variety of countries and cultures. Close your eyes and make a wish.
1889: Patty and Mildred Hill begin composing songs for children.
1893: The Hill sisters publish the tune, with the words and title “Good Morning to All,” in their songbook Song Stories for the Kindergarten. The “Happy Birthday” lyrics are included as an alternative.
1912: The lyrics to “Happy Birthday” appear—accompanying the tune to “Good Morning to All”—for the first time in a piano manufacturer’s book of songs.
1933: “Happy Birthday” is featured in the world’s first singing telegram.
1935: The copyright to “Happy Birthday” is issued to the Hill sisters.
1955: Composer Igor Stravinsky writes “Greeting Prelude,” based on the “Happy Birthday” melody, for the 80th birthday of French conductor Pierre Monteux.
1962: Marilyn Monroe delivers her historically seductive version of the song to John F. Kennedy on his 45th birthday.
1969: Composer Aaron Copland writes an orchestral arrangement of “Happy Birthday” in honor of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s 70th anniversary.
1988: Warner Music Group acquires control of the song as part of a $25 million deal.
1996: Reports circulate that Girl Scout troops are avoiding “Happy Birthday” ‘round the campfire because they’re worried about getting sued, prompting public outcry.
2002: A Saturday Night Live skit features Jack Black attempting to overthrow “Happy Birthday” with a hard-rock alternative involving riddles, a witch, and an epic quest.
2012: The Free Music Archive and New Jersey radio station WFMU sponsor a contest to replace the “Happy Birthday” song with a new tune that’s not ensnared in legal problems.
2013: The Mars Rover hums a hopeful “Happy Birthday” to itself, alone on the red planet.
2016: A US district judge approves a settlement that puts “Happy Birthday” in the public domain.
What did people sing on their birthdays before “Happy Birthday”?
For the most part, nothing at all. As George Washington University law professor Robert Brauneis explains in a paper on the song’s history: “According to scholar Elizabeth Pleck, birthday parties did not become common even among wealthy Americans until the late 1830s; modern birthday cakes emerged after 1850; and peer-culture birthday parties, involving children of the same age as the child whose birthday was being celebrated, emerged between 1870 and 1920, after American urban public schools became age-graded.”
Medieval Germans and British Victorians were known to celebrate children’s birthdays, but birthday parties really went mainstream in the 20th century, buoyed by factors including the relatively recent cultural celebration of childhood and the prosperous post-World War II era. (It’s worth noting, too, that given sky-high child mortality rates across cultures for most of history, celebrating birthdays may have seemed like tempting fate.)
As birthday recognition increasingly became the norm, so too did “Happy Birthday” become woven into the fabric of festivities, popping up in singing telegrams, plays, films, and more. A 1941 article in the New Yorker notes, however, that Patty Hill refused to license its use in swing music: “It was swung once on a Jack Benny program and she didn’t like it.”
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) – Grammy Award-winner Smokey Robinson is performing at Kettering Medical Center Foundation’s Heart to Heart on
Wednesday, September 25 at 8:00 p.m.
at the Benjamin and Marian Schuster Performing Arts Center.
https://my.ticketcenterstage.com/5985
CLAYTON —
Senior quarterback Keaton Kesling had four touchdown passes, including two to junior Marcus Allen, in leading Northmont to a 28-14 Week 3 defeat of visiting Fairmont in a high school football Greater Western Ohio Conference crossover game matchup on Friday night.
The win was the second straight for Northmont (2-1), which is at Springfield (2-1) in Week 4. Fairmont (0-3) will be looking for its first win next week against visiting Trotwood-Madison (2-1).
Sophomore Tank Gant scored on a 5-yard run midway through the second quarter to pull the team even at 7-all. Colin McLaughlin also scored in the final two minutes on a 1-yard run for Fairmont.
Friday September 13
Fairmont
(0-2)
@ Northmont High Thunderbolts
(0-1)
KETTERING
An effort is underway to crack down on illegal massage businesses all over the area.
News Center 7’s Sean Cudahy is in Kettering, where a new law is in the works in the name of public safety.
Experts said most people who have gotten a massage don’t know if that place was licensed. It’s the reason city leaders in Kettering are working to finish writing a new law, which they said would help make the city safer.
When students and staff at the Dayton School of Massage in Kettering go into a room to work with a client, they take with them countless hours of training.
They practice with a strict code of ethics, and the intent to help heal.
But massage therapist, instructor and industry expert Jennifer Cull said all too often, places posing as massage businesses are actually doing things that are sexual and illegal.
“They’re fronts. They’re fronts for sexual services, human trafficking,” said Cull, who also is president of the American Massage Therapy Association.
In Kettering, there are 40 massage establishes in the city.
They include places that have seen four arrests since 2014 and two more are under investigation.
The city of Kettering is looking to join Springboro, Centerville, West Carrollton and Huber Heights, among others, with new, tougher laws. Miamisburg is working on it, too.
Kettering wants everyone practicing massage to have a license.
“The biggest thing is public safety. The general public does not know the difference between someone who has proper education, has had received formalized training, has taken a national test,” Cull said.
State leaders also are working to strengthen regulations on massage businesses across Ohio.
“It was just an awful neighbor to have for five years.”
That’s what a neighboring business owner told Miami Twp. trustees in the spring about a suspected human trafficking operation authorities said was posing as a massage parlor in state Route 725.
“It’s as simple as this,” Cull said. “Do you have a license? Let me see it. If you do not, then you cannot perform massage.”
Cull is among those pushing for the state law to require everyone to be licensed. She said it’s also about getting dangerous businesses out of shopping centers we all visit.
“They don’t want these sex businesses. They don’t want it in the city. We don’t want it in the state of Ohio,” she said.
CINCINNATI
A popular amusement park plans to get rid of all of its rides.
Coney Island has announced it will remove all amusement park rides at the end of September.
According to a press release, the park intends to instead focus on the Sunlite Pool and other water-related recreational amenities.
"All of our consumer research, all of our consumer feedback, and all of our in-park data shows that the vast majority of our guests come to Coney Island because of the fun they have while in the Sunlite Pool area," said Rob Schutter, Jr., president and CEO of Coney Island, in a press release.
The press release said over the past few years, Coney Island has split its focus and resources between the rides and the Sunlite Water Adventure area, but have decided to switch gears to focus exclusively on the waterpark area moving forward.
The park said it also plans to create additional spaces for popular events like the Appalachian Festival and Summerfair Cincinnati, to provide event spaces for other community festivals and events in the future.
The final day guests will be able to enjoy the rides at Coney Island is Sept. 21.
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CENTERVILLE
A driver smashed through a window and into a swimming pool at the Centerville LA Fitness location Monday afternoon, injuring two people.
The crash was reported at the fitness center at 45 West Alex Bell Road around 2:55 p.m.
A person swimming was injured as the car landed in the pool and the driver also was taken to the hospital. Police described their injuries as “non-serious.”
Investigators are still working to determine exactly how the crash happened, but they do not believe it was a result of any medical conditions.
Two other people who were in the swimming area were not injured, police said.
“It definitely could have been a lot worse,” said Centerville police Sgt. Jeff Kaercher.
Xenia resident Jim Lee was at the fitness center working out when he saw all the commotion.
“I was just working out and then I saw a bunch of people running toward the locker room,” Lee said. “I walked out and there’s a car in the pool.”
Lee said he was thankful more people were not in the pool area, because he has seen as many as 30 to 40 people in the pool during water aerobics classes.
Fairmont 6
Lakota East 14
Trey Baker struck first with a two-yard run for Fairmont, but Lakota East rallied with a pair of short TD runs from T.J. Kathman to pull ahead. Tank Gant racked up 110 yards on the ground for Fairmont.
DAYTON
Cincinnati Bell is partnering with the Oregon District Business Association to donate upfront charges to install free public WiFi.
The Smart City solution includes installing fiber optics for free public WiFi in the Oregon District and software to support local businesses and help drive economic development, Cincinnati Bell announced in a news release.
Public WiFi will extend on Fifth Street from Wayne Avenue to Patterson Boulevard.
Cameras also will be installed throughout the business district, alleys and parking lots to support law enforcement safety initiatives.
“Cincinnati Bell is committed to supporting the city of Dayton and Oregon District Business Association,” said Jason Praeter, president and general manager of Cincinnati Bell’s entertainment and communications business. “As a lifelong Dayton resident currently residing in Bellbrook, I am especially proud that Cincinnati Bell is a part of this important project.”
Cincinnati Bell is donating the upfront charges for the Smart City solution over the next to to three months.
“We are so incredibly grateful for Cincinnati Bell’s generosity,” said Kyle Babirad, president of the Oregon District Business Association. “The importance of connectivity within the Oregon District cannot be overstated. Cincinnati Bell’s work with us improves our ability to connect with each other and with the broader Dayton community.”
Fairmont faces the Lakota East Thunderhawks on Friday, September 6th
Lakota East High School is a high school in the Lakota Local School District which comprises both West Chester Township and Liberty Township in a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio.
BTW
Alter plays its home games at Roush Stadium
Alter (1-0): d. Fairmont 21-7; hosts Thurgood Marshall (1-0) at Fairmont.
See Video of the Parade crowd
3+ minutes of the folks along Far Hills watching the parade
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfJVuMCikss
September 2, 2019
KETTERING, Ohio (WDTN) – More than 200 community organizations and businesses took part in the Holiday At Home parade, Monday.
After the parade, community members enjoyed food, games, music and crafts all evening.
The theme was “Hit it out of the park” and organizers encouraged residents that didn’t have plans for Labor Day to not settle for a boring day off.
Most activities took place at or near the Fraze Pavilion.
With seats lining the streets of Kettering for the parade, it was easy to see why people call this community home.
“It’s a nice neighborhood. People are great. Everybody is friendly” said John Michael, a Kettering resident.
For many watching the parade, it was a moment to reflect on their younger days when they, themselves were in it.
“It just gets everybody together. It gets everybody outside before winter sets in. Everybody comes out to have fun and listen to music,” said Heather Douglas, a Kettering resident.
First Holiday @ Home 1959
Good News about next week's football opponent:
La Salle 31, Lakota West 7:
Alex Afari’s 35-yard punt return score was the lone highlight for Lakota West.
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Quick Dates
- Annual Gala: Saturday, August 31, 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM
- Arts & Crafts: Sunday, September 1, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Monday, September 2, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM
- Auto Show: Sunday, September 1, 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Monday, September 2, 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM
- Children’s Zone: Sunday, September 1, 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM and Monday, September 2, 11:00AM to 5:00 PM
- 5K Race: Monday, September 2, 8:00 AM
- Parade: Monday, September 2, 9:55 AM to 12:00 PM
DAYTON
The Gem City Shine benefit concert raised nearly $70,000 for the Oregon District Tragedy Fund.
The Dayton Foundation received $68,634 in contributions from thousands of residents who attended the concert last Sunday.
Firebirds Lose to Alter
“They did to us what we’re supposed to do to people,” Fairmont coach Dave Miller said. “We didn’t do anything on offense. We have to get a lot better. We’re going to look at ourselves, learn from it and move on. That’s what you do.”
Fairmont drew even at 7-all on Colin McLaughlin’s one-yard run late in the first quarter. Linebacker Trey Baker recovered a red-zone fumble to set up the Firebirds’ only score. Baker was outstanding with a game-high 13 tackles, including 12 solos.
KETTERING
Kettering schools had a soft lockdown Thursday morning after a staff member found a “statement with a threatening bent to it” written on a bathroom wall.
District spokeswoman Kari Basson said students were kept in their second period classes for about 45 extra minutes.
She said Kettering police investigated and found the threat not to be credible.
Basson said at 10:40 a.m. that students were about to be released from those classrooms to move on with the rest of their school day.
Police and school officials have not yet been able to identify who wrote the threat, but school resource officers continue to work on it, Basson said.
“We take these types of situations very seriously, even when the threat proves to be non-credible,” she said.
Close to 200 middle school students were in the high school at the time, attending advanced classes.
Basson said a “one-call” message was being sent to all parents of high school and those middle school students who were at the high school, explaining the situation.
Fairmont Firebirds
vs.
Alter Knights
Thursday
August 29
Cox Media Group Ohio Top 5
Division I
1. Springfield (9-3 last season): at Hilliard Bradley (9-2).
2. Northmont (10-2): hosts Dublin Coffman (11-2).
3. Miamisburg (7-3): hosts Cin. Walnut Hills (4-6).
4. Springboro (5-5): at Mason (8-3).
5. Fairmont (7-4): hosts Alter (13-2) on Thursday.
American shopping giant Costco got an unexpectedly frenzied welcome from zealous Chinese shoppers.
Costco opened its first warehouse club in China today (Aug. 27), in a suburb of Shanghai. Just a few hours into business, it had to shut down in the afternoon because of overcrowding, according to screenshots of messages sent to customers around 2pm circulating on China’s social media Weibo. Local media reported that local residents swarmed to the store—with cars queuing up to enter half a kilometer (0.3 miles) away, footage from news portal Sina showed.
Cars apparently had to wait for three hours to get a parking spot.
Even with 22 counters open for check-out, customers still needed to wait for more than half an hour to be rung up, Sina reported. On Chinese social media, many raved about the prices of grocery and other items. A Shanghai-based Weibo user was excited about the 32.9 yuan ($4.60) price for nearly 4 liters (about 1 gallon) of milk.
It’s also opening in the middle of the escalating US-China trade war, that has made consumers more cost-conscious and raised the prices of imported goods.
One day after the star-studded Gem City Shine event was held to reclaim the Oregon District, Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley said she was grateful for the “very Dayton” event.
“It was very diverse, very Dayton,” Whaley said.
Whaley said at one point she went to the second floor of the Dublin Pub and looked out on to the thousands of people gathered for the block party.
“Just seeing the sheer number of people who had come together was the most amazing thing,” Whaley said.
Whaley said she heard police estimates of between 30,000 and 35,000 people who came to the Gem City Shine event.
Gem City Shine was a successful event.
Here's the set list:
Stevie Wonder was the Headliner
Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart also addressed the crowd.
"Dayton, Ohio, you have reclaimed this area," Stewart said.
Over 20,000 people are expected to pack the Oregon District Sunday evening in the Gem City Shine party and benefit concert, aimed at taking back the Oregon District following the mass shooting that took place three weeks to the day.
Comedian and Yellow Springs resident Dave Chappelle is scheduled to host the event, which will run from 4 pm to 10 pm. According to organizers, Gem City Shine will “honor the lives lost and to reclaim the community’s favorite places to shop, dine, and enjoy time with family and friends.”
The window to buy tickets for the event closed Wednesday night.
Local and national acts are expected to take the stage, which will be located on near Fifth Street and Wayne Avenue, with performances both in the later afternoon into the evening.
Oregon District stores and restaurants are expected to be open for patrons to shop and dine at throughout the night. Food vendors and beer trucks will also be on hand. For $20, commemorative t-shirts will be sold with the proceeds going to the Dayton Foundation’s Oregon District Tragedy Fund. The parking lot next to Omega Music near the intersection of Fifth and Patterson will be home to a food pavilion and family entertainment area. This area is where community members are encouraged to participate in a community art project.
Located at several locations around the Oregon District throughout Gem City Shine will be beer trucks, soda/water stations, t-shirt stations, and donation stations.
There will be multiple places and opportunities around the Oregon District for patrons to give to the Dayton Foundation’s Oregon District Tragedy Fund.
Guess Who May Be There?
Lady Gaga
Bradley Cooper
Comedians include:
Michelle Wolf
Chris Rock
Michael Che
Aziz Ansari
John Mayer
Kanye West
John Legend
Broadway may soon get its own “Soul Train.”
A new musical inspired by the long-running music and dance variety television program, which showcased black music and culture for an audience of millions, will center on Don Cornelius, the former disc jockey who created the show in 1970. Producers are aiming for a Broadway premiere in 2021.
Soul Train is an American music-dance television program which aired in syndication from October 2, 1971, to March 27, 2006. In its 35-year history, the show primarily featured performances by R&B, soul, dance/pop, and hip hop artists, although funk, jazz, disco, and gospel artists also appeared. The series was created by Don Cornelius, who also served as its first host and executive producer.
The origins of Soul Train can be traced to 1965 when WCIU-TV, an upstart UHF station in Chicago, began airing two youth-oriented dance programs: Kiddie-a-Go-Go
and Red Hot and Blues
These programs—specifically the latter, which featured a predominantly African-American group of in-studio dancers—would set the stage for what was to come to the station several years later.
Don Cornelius, a news reader and backup disc jockey at Chicago radio station WVON, was hired by WCIU in 1967 as a news and sports reporter. Cornelius also was promoting and emceeing a touring series of concerts featuring local talent (sometimes called "record hops") at Chicago-area high schools, calling his traveling caravan of shows "The Soul Train". WCIU-TV took notice of Cornelius's outside work and in 1970, allowed him the opportunity to bring his road show to television.
In 1973, Dick Clark, host and producer of Bandstand, launched Soul Unlimited — controversial for its pronounced racial overtures — to compete directly with Soul Train. Cornelius, with help from Jesse Jackson, openly accused Clark of trying to undermine TV's only Black-owned show. Agreeing, ABC canceled it after a few episodes. Clark later agreed to work with Cornelius on a series of network specials featuring R&B and soul artists.
Soul Unlimited
Three prominent black women in contemporary theater will form the core creative team. Dominique Morisseau (“Skeleton Crew” and “Pipeline”), a 2018 MacArthur grant winner, is writing the script; Camille A. Brown (“Choir Boy”) will choreograph; and Kamilah Forbes, the executive producer for the Apollo Theater, will direct.
Ahmir Thompson, a.k.a. Questlove, the drummer for The Roots, is an executive producer alongside Don Cornelius's son, Tony Cornelius; Anthony E. Zuiker; Shawn Gee and Devin Keudell. Matthew Weaver, Jeffrey Tick and Richard Gay are general producing partners.
“Soul Train,” which left the air in 2006, played a significant role in bringing the music and dance of black America — particularly R&B, soul and hip-hop — into the cultural mainstream, featuring guest musicians like James Brown
Aretha Franklin
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and Marvin Gaye.
Arguably, the program is best known for the “Soul Train” line: performances by in-studio dancers, many of whom had their careers kick-started by appearing on the show, including Rosie Perez and Carmen Electra.
“To me, ‘Soul Train,’ is the story between Don Cornelius and the dancers that built that show,” Ms. Morisseau, who is still working on the script, said in an interview. “I thought it would be so interesting to tell the story of the dancers and Don, in connection and in contrast and in contradiction and in conflict with each other.”
Cornelius stepped down as host in 1993. In his later years, he struggled with his health and experienced intense headaches, occasional seizures and social anxiety. He died in 2012 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at his home in Los Angeles. He was 75.
“Don Cornelius, to me, is like Hamlet,” Ms. Morisseau said. “He is his best friend and his own worst enemy.”
But his work left a lasting impression on the playwright, who remembered tuning into “Soul Train” every Saturday morning as soon as she was old enough to watch, finding in the series “a sense of pride and self-affirmation for who I was in the greater American culture.”
“The thing that excites me,” Ms. Morisseau said of the new musical, “is the way that we can make this an explosion, celebrating the origins of dance culture and the black cultural experience.”
It’s difficult to write a sentence without using the word “the,” yet this generic three-letter formulation is now appearing on trademark registration applications. The Ohio State University is the latest brand to seek a claim to this utterly indistinct word, but it’s not the first.
The university is, perhaps unsurprisingly, a little bit behind fashion designer Marc Jacobs. The high-end clothing brand, which isn’t a staid institution like the university, filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to trademark “the” in May. The designer’s application got preliminary approval, but it is still under review. It will have priority over OSU, meaning that Marc Jacobs’ claim to the word, filed earlier, could delay review of the OSU application—and if Jacobs gets the trademark, OSU may have to fight the registration in order to secure protection for its own use of “the.”
In both cases, a grant of the trademark registration wouldn’t mean much to users of the English language. Even if brands can register the word, limitations on its use would only apply in specific contexts, in association with a logo or brand name, and any alleged infringements would have to be policed by the trademark holder.
Josh Gerben, a trademark lawyer, who tweeted about the university’s application, explained, ”In order for a trademark to be registered for a brand of clothing, the trademark must be used in a trademark fashion. In other words, it has to be used on tagging or labeling for the products. In this case, just putting the word ‘the’ on the front of a hat or on the front of a shirt is not sufficient trademark use.” The attorney predicts that Ohio State’s application will be rejected but suggests that the university could amend its filing so that its use of “the” in association with the university’s name or a logo might qualify for protection.
The Ohio State University spokesman Christopher Davey says the school intends to use the mark in a distinctive manner. “This only would apply for usage of ‘The’ in ways that clearly signify association with Ohio State and its brand, like for example a scarlet and grey T-shirt with ‘The’ on the front,” Davey told CNN.
If the USPTO ends up approving a registration for use of “the,” albeit in a specific context, it will still be up to the brand with this commonplace trademark to police its usage, which is a near impossible task. And that brand will have a difficult time convincing any court that its use of “the” has somehow become so unique and distinct that anyone else’s reliance on the word creates true marketplace confusion.
Ohio State has already run into obstacles in its ownership efforts. In 2017, the school sought to register “OSU” but ran into opposition from Oklahoma State University. Now, the two schools have an agreement stating that they can both use the acronym OSU. Presumably, however, if the USPTO ultimately approves Ohio State’s registration to trademark “the,” the school will seek to refer to itself as the one and only “The OSU.”
50 Years Ago Today in the Journal Herald
"American Factory"
is now streaming on Netflix
It is a documentary about Fuyao transforming the Moraine GM plant into an auto glass factory.
Fuyao has invested over $600 million and now employs over 2300 in the Dayton area.
Critics Consensus
American Factory takes a thoughtful -- and troubling -- look at the dynamic between workers and employers in the 21st-century globalized economy.
97%
TOMATOMETER
Total Count: 32
American Factory is one of the year’s best docs
The fly-on-the-wall look at a former GM factory in Dayton bought by a Chinese company is a fascinating peek into the challenges of globalization.
American Factory
The premise: In December 2008, the last truck rolled off the assembly line of the GM plant in Dayton, Ohio. Thousands of people were out of work. Then in 2014, a Chinese company reopened the factory and rehired a workforce to make automotive glass. American Factory is a documentary about the factory’s reopening, and the cultural clashes that put some bumps in the road. (It’s also the first film from Higher Ground, Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, which has partnered with Netflix to distribute a slate of programming.)
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
What it’s about: Directed by veteran documentarians Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert, American Factory follows along — mostly in a fly-on-the-wall fashion — as the closed GM factory in Dayton is reopened as Fuyao Glass America, the US branch of a Chinese company that manufactures automotive glass. Daytonians who struggled after they were laid off from GM rejoice when they are rehired by the new company, but soon find that their expectations about labor practices and corporate culture clash with the new management’s ideals.
The film tracks American and Chinese workers and managers through a years-long period of adjustment, some of it quite rocky. At times, it’s a bit humorous; differences in American and Chinese ideas about loyalty to your employer, safety on the factory floor, working overtime, and much more come to the foreground. And when the workers at Fuyao Glass America decide to unionize, trouble is ahead.
Reichert (whose 50-year career in documentary film has often examined the American working class) and Bognar knew what they were doing in choosing this factory for the film. They live in Dayton, and in their 2009 short documentary The Last Truck, they captured the closing of the GM plant and its effects on the community, mostly through interviews with workers who were losing their jobs.
So it was familiar and personal terrain to them, and they spent years on the floor at the factory with their team to capture a well-rounded view of what happened that neither demonizes nor glosses over the conflicts. They train their cameras on not just the people but the tasks and materials of the job, giving audiences less familiar with the factory floor an idea of just how complicated and difficult the work is, and how valuable skilled labor is as well. American Factory tackles the challenges of globalization with much more depth and nuance than most reporting on the topic, precisely because it steps back to watch a story unfold over time and resists easy generalizations. It’s both soberly instructive and fascinating.
The New York Times
'American Factory’ Review:
The New Global Haves and Have-Nots
A documentary looks at what happened when a Chinese company took over a closed General Motors factory in Ohio.
“The most important thing is not how much money we earn,” the Chinese billionaire Cao Dewang says in “American Factory” soon before we see him on a private jet. What’s important, he says, are Americans’ views toward China and its people.
In 2016, Cao opened a division of Fuyao, his global auto-glass manufacturing company, in a shuttered General Motors factory near Dayton, Ohio. Blaming slumping S.U.V. sales, G.M. had closed the plant — known as the General Motors Moraine Assembly Plant — in December 2008, throwing thousands out of work the same month the American government began a multibillion dollar bailout of the auto industry. The Dayton factory remained idle until Fuyao announced it was taking it over, investing millions and hiring hundreds of local workers, numbers it soon increased.
The veteran filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, who are a couple and live outside of Dayton, documented the G.M. plant when it closed. They included the image of the last truck rolling off the line in their 2009 short, “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.” That crystallizing image also appears in “American Factory,” which revisits the plant six years later. The feature-length story they tell here is complex, stirring, timely and beautifully shaped, spanning continents as it surveys the past, present and possible future of American labor. (This is the first movie that Barack and Michelle Obama’s company Higher Ground Productions is releasing with Netflix.)
“American Factory” opens with a brief, teary look back at the plant’s closing that sketches in the past and foreshadows the difficult times ahead. The story proper begins in 2015 amid the optimistic bustle of new beginnings, including a rah-rah Fuyao presentation for American job seekers. Bognar and Reichert, who shot the movie with several others — the editor is Lindsay Utz — have a great eye for faces and they quickly narrow in on the range of expressions in the room. Some applicants sit and listen stoically; one woman, her hand over her mouth, gently rocks in her seat, tapping out a nervous rhythm as the Fuyao representative delivers his pitch.
With detail and sweep, interviews and you-are-there visuals, the filmmakers quickly establish a clear, strong narrative line as the new enterprise — Fuyao Glass America — gets off the ground. The optimism of the workers is palpable; the access the filmmakers secured remarkable. Bognar and Reichert spent a number of years making “American Factory,” a commitment that’s evident in its layered storytelling and the trust they earned. American and visiting Chinese workers alike open their homes and hearts, including Wong He, an engaging, quietly melancholic furnace engineer who speaks movingly of his wife and children back in China.
His is just one story in an emotionally and politically trenchant chronicle of capitalism, propaganda, conflicting values and labor rights. As the factory ramps up, optimism gives way to unease, dissent and fear. Some workers are hurt, others are at risk; glass breaks, tempers fray. Both the Chinese and American management complain about production and especially about the American workers who, in turn, seem mainly grateful for a new shot. A forklift operator named Jill Lamantia is living in her sister’s basement when we first meet her. A job at Fuyao allows her to move into her own apartment, but like everyone else she struggles with the company’s demands.
By the time the documentary shifts to China, for a visit by American managers to the Fuyao mother ship, it has become clear that something will have to give. The American subsidiary is losing money and Chairman Cao, as he’s called, is not happy. His frustration can seem amusing, but as his dissatisfaction mounts, the temperature grows colder and management becomes openly hostile. For viewers who have never peered inside a Chinese factory, these scenes — with their singalongs, team-building exercises and extravagant pageants — may seem strange or perhaps a gung-ho variation on contemporary corporate management practice (cue the next Apple confab).
“American Factory” is political without being self-servingly didactic or strident, connecting the sociopolitical dots intelligently, sometimes with the help of a stirring score from Chad Cannon that evokes Aaron Copland. The filmmakers don’t villainize anyone, though a few participants come awfully close to twirling waxed mustaches, like an American manager who jokes to a Chinese colleague that it would be a good idea to duct-tape the mouths of talky American workers. It’s a shocking exchange — only the Chinese manager appears concerned that they’re on camera — simply because of the openness of the antagonism toward the company’s own labor force.
It’s these men and women — Timi Jernigan, John Crane, Shawnea Rosser, Robert Allen and so many others — whose optimism and disappointment give the movie its emotional through-line and whose stories stand in contrast to Cao’s own self-made tale. He recalls that the China of his youth was poor; now he is, according to Forbes, one of “China’s richest” and his hobbies include golfing and collecting art. You see the fruits of his endeavors in “American Factory,” in scenes of him relaxing and pontificating. And working too, of course, always working, including in a luxurious office where a couple of socialist realist paintings show him against the sky like a sleekly updated Mao — an image that the filmmakers linger on, letting its meaning bloom like a hundred flowers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m36QeKOJ2Fc
Remember Plant-Based Eggs?
"Now, the humble mung bean has set up camp in the egg section, and it’s starting to make some noise."
Tried it this morning
So many ingredients in JUST Eggs
Mostly cooked and looked like liquid egg
Texture satisfactory
Taste not bad but not there
$6.00 for 8 servings
They'll have to improve it for me
EMOJI
The earliest known mobile phone in Japan to include a set of emoji was released by J-Phone on
November 1, 1997
By the digits
176: Original assortment of emoji, including a heart, an umbrella, and a full set of zodiac symbols
3,019: Emoji in the Unicode Standard as of March 2019
7%: Share of people who use the 🍑 emoji as a fruit
5 billion: Emoji sent daily on Facebook Messenger
346: People and smiley-face emoji
7%: Rotten Tomatoes rating on The Emoji Movie
92%: Share of all people online who use emoji
>50%: Share of Instagram posts that contain emoji
110%: Purple Dragon emoji
17: Default date on the emoji calendar 📆
1, 2, 3: Rank of 😂, ❤️, and 😍 as most used emoji in 2018
A 2016 study found that people who rated themselves as agreeable were more likely to use emoji on social media sites. The study also found that people who commonly used emoji were more socially receptive and empathetic. Researchers in Colombia found the use of emoji faces produces neural responses similar to those observed in face-to-face communication.
Ryan Kelly, a computer scientist at the University of Bath, told Wired that emoji help create an "ambient presence" when words aren’t appropriate. He found that when messengers end their conversation, they often trade a few emoji as a “nonverbal denouement.”
Purple Dragon emoji
“After millennia of painful improvement, from illiteracy to Shakespeare and beyond, humanity is rushing to throw it all away. We’re heading back to ancient Egyptian times, next stop the stone age, with a big yellow smiley grin on our faces.”
—Art and design critic Jonathan Jones 2015
Facebook and Twitter replace all Unicode emoji used on their websites with their own custom graphics.
Research has shown that emoji are often misunderstood. In some cases, this misunderstanding is related to how the actual emoji design is interpreted by the viewer; in other cases, the emoji that was sent is not shown in the same way on the receiving side.
