“The kids in girl and boy land will have a jubilee, they’re going to build a toy land town all around the Christmas tree.” Staff at The Wolcott House in Maumee have done just that for the museum’s annual holiday guided tours, which started Nov. 18.

This year’s theme is “The Joys and Toys of Christmas Past,” with each room decorated to depict a Christmas of a different era, ranging from the mid-1800s to the 1930s, said curator Marilyn Wendler.
The theme was chosen to showcase some of the museum’s collection that isn’t always seen, said museum store manager Judy Walrod.
“We just started talking about it and we have so many toys that people don’t see,” Walrod said.
Many pieces were taken out of storage to display while others were taken from other parts of the museum and rearranged into Christmas scenes. Displays include children’s tea sets, teddy bears, trains, books, metal toys from the turn of the century and a dollhouse and dolls from around the world, some dating from the 1840s, Wendler said.
One room depicts the 1930s, during the Great Depression, a time period many people have compared to today, Wendler said.
“How did parents cope and manage to buy toys for their children? They had to make do and often hand-made the toys,” Wendler said. “We wanted to try to show what children played with and how they managed to make it during the Depression.”
The Maumee Garden Club decorated a room depicting a turn-of-the-century-era Christmas, including a collection of teddy bears, which became popular during that time because of President Teddy Roosevelt, Wendler said.
Another room, decorated with a Christmas scene from the early Victorian period of the 1850-1860s, features recently installed wallpaper hand-blocked from an original 1930s pattern.
Holiday tours last about an hour and will run Thursday through Sunday at 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. through Sunday, Dec. 19. Admission is $3.50 for adults, $3 for seniors and $1.50 for students. The museum, at 1035 River Road in Maumee.
Also coming up at the museum:
Wednesday, Dec. 1: Christmas Tea in the Wolcott House, 1 p.m., $18, reservations required. Tea and holiday food favorites served.
Saturday, Dec. 4: Holiday Tea and Tours in the Wolcott House, 12:30-3:30 p.m., $3 for adults, $2.50 for seniors, $2 for students. Tea, hot chocolate and sweets will be served.
Thursday-Sunday, Dec. 16-19: Inventory clearance sale at museum store, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
For more information, visit www.wolcotthouse.com or call (419) 893-9602.

Tour the historic homes of Toledo’s Old West End during the holiday event “Tours de Noel.”

Hosted by the Women of the Old West End, the tour features four houses decorated for the holiday season as well as the Mansion View Inn.

Tours de Noel, an annual event started in the mid-1980s, is the primary fundraiser for the Women of the Old West End, said Toni Moore, chairwoman for the event.
“We decided we wanted to do winter tours not only to showcase these incredible houses, but to also let people know Old West End is an incredible neighborhood to live in,” she said. “It is a neighborhood of neighbors. We all know each other down here and we work on many projects together.”
In addition to showcasing the neighborhood, the tour allows visitors to experience and appreciate the history of one of Toledo’s oldest neighborhoods, Moore said. Many of the houses were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
This year, Cheri Copeland and Mike Shull will open their 1895 home for its second winter tour. Copeland, who has lived with her husband in the Old West End for 15 years, said the neighborhood is a treasure.
“I think people don’t always understand or know about the Old West End and this is a great opportunity for us to share,” she said.
The couple’s house will showcase a fully decorated first floor as well as a “Star Wars”-themed Christmas tree in the basement.
Down the street, Dennis Lange’s home will also be on tour. Lange got involved with the tour again to show his commitment to the neighborhood, he said.
“I’m just one of those people who can’t say no,” Lange said.
Lange will have individuals leading tours throughout the first and second floor of his 1892 home. Groups will get to enter the rooms and really see them, he said.
Lange, who has a large collection of Santas, will have more than 300 on display. In addition, he has one yearround Christmas-themed room in his home.
While all the homes are within walking distance of each other, shuttle service is available, Moore said. Shuttles will run from the Park Lane Luxury Apartments, 142 23rd St., to each house.
Tours de Noel is from noon to 7 p.m. Dec. 5. Tickets for the tour are $15 a person or $10 for those 55 and older. Tickets can be purchased the day of the event or by calling (419) 244-4921.
In addition to the tour, a gift boutique featuring 12 different vendors will be setup within the Park Lane Apartments. Vendors will have many affordable gifts including jewelry, candles and homemade soaps, Moore said.
Also at Park Lane Apartments is the annual Arboretum Cookie Walk, benefiting the Old West End’s Agnes Reynolds Jackson Arboretum.
Each year more than 5,000 cookies are made and sold by Old West End residents to help cover the costs of the park.
For more information about Tours de Noel, visit www.womenoftheoldwestendinc.com. O

Russ Franzen, veteran journalist and accomplished writer, has moved onto songwriting and performing as a way to share the history of the Great Lakes region.
“There’s so much history out there. Some of the stories are so good they just beg to be told,” Franzen said.
The release of his third album, “Songs of the Great Lakes,” marks the fifth year of his foray into the music realm.
“It’s more fun,” Franzen said of why he’s switched from writing books to songs. “I’m having too much fun writing songs and performing.”
Franzen said his folk songs percolate in his mind before, eventually bringing stories of the Great Lakes waterways to life.
One of the inspirations for a song on Franzen’s new album is docked in the Maumee River. Now known as the S.S. Willis B. Boyer, the ship was formerly the Col. James M. Schoonmaker. The Schoonmaker, dubbed the “Queen of the Lakes,” set sail on its maiden voyage in 1911 when it carried 12,650 net tons of coal from Toledo to Sheboygan, Wis.
“When I first decided I was going to write a song about it, I was trying to think, ‘What rhymes with Schoonmaker?’” Franzen said.
When Franzen realized the ship was now called the Boyer, he said his job got a lot easier.
“Some songs just write themselves,” Franzen said.
While Franzen was able to write a song about the discovery of the shipwrecked L.R. Doty within a week, he worked on “The Indian’s Great Season” for two years.
The sunset at the South Haven Pier Lighthouse inspired Franzen to write a song about young lovers who made their home on the lake-shore, and is one of the few stories that Franzen embellished.
“It was one of the few stories I made up. Every time I go, there’s couples there, holding hands— they stand out to me. I didn’t want to write about history, I wanted to write about the romance I saw there.”
He calls it “filling out the facts.”
“You find that in folk songs all over the place,” Franzen said.
One of Franzen’s friends asked him to write a story about the S.S. South American, a passenger steamboat from the early 1900s. Although Franzen didn’t know specific details about the history of the ship, he wrote about activities he knew happened on cruise ships of that era, like couples strolling hand-in-hand down the deck. When he performed the song and sang that lyric, his friend broke down and cried.
“Apparently, her parents were one of the couples strolling hand-in-hand on the deck,” Franzen said.
The Toledo Harbor Lighthouse was recently picked as a featured lighthouse for the 2011 Great Lakes Lighthouse Festival. Franzen had previously written a song about it, and said he looks forward to performing it at next year’s festival.
“If I do a song, I want to sing it at the place I’m writing about,” Franzen said. “What I do is a little niche in the music world. Lighthouse people are a lot of fun. There’s so much material: Every lake boat, every lighthouse has a story, and music is a fun way to tell it.”
Franzen attributes his foray into the world of music to his wife, Ruth.
“We went up to Northern Michigan with the expressed interest of talking to lighthouse owners,” Franzen said.
After a three-hour conversation with a widowed woman who believed her husband haunted her home at the Presque Isle Lighthouse, the woman said to Franzen, “In all those years we stayed there, it was our honeymoon cottage.”
The moment particularly struck Ruth. She wrote the memory into a song, “The ghosts of old Presque Isle,” and gave it as a Christmas present to Franzen.
“I wanted to sing it at the lighthouse,” Franzen said.
Franzen performed his first 45 minute set at the Presque Isle Lighthouse during a festival and was very well-received, he said.
“Once I got the bug, it just never went away,” Franzen said.
Franzen’s career began when he dropped out of college to manage a cable TV affiliate. He shortly went back to his radio roots and landed a full-time job at a station in Michigan. After stringing features and columns together for the Detroit News and the Plymouth Journal, Franzen took a job at the Lapeer, Mich. District Court as the magistrate.
In 1987, there was a controversy over the construction date of the Lapeer Courthouse. The editor of the local newspaper wrote a blurb that said, “Why does no one know why the courthouse was built?” Franzen said he thought this was ridiculous too.
“It was then that I started looking deeper in to the story of the courthouse and I found the story of the courthouse was really the story of the county,” Franzen said.
His intense research led to his 1990 book, “Squabble City: The Story of the Court House War and the People Who Fought It.”
Tired of questions from police officers and citizens about what to expect in the courtroom, Franzen decided to write a book to help people through the process. After authoring “Your Day in Court: Navigating Your Way Through the Courts” in 2000, Franzen soon turned back to journalism and writing. The Wayne, Mich. media group was home to many of Franzen’s columns, for which he was honored by the Michigan chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
“I didn’t get tired of the writing, I got tired of the accounting,” Franzen said, explaining why he dropped out of the newspaper business.
He now is the assistant store manager of the Toledo Barnes & Noble.

When presidents sit down in private with congressional leaders, particularly those from the opposing party, there’s often a heaping helping of bland talk about working together — spiced with the occasional red hot chili pepper.

There’s no telling when those rare moments of candor may occur. Or when the public will get the full story of what went on behind closed doors.

Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich, during a 1996 government shutdown caused by a budget stalemate, admitted in a White House meeting with President Bill Clinton and fellow congressional leaders that he’d blown it. “We made a mistake,” he said, according to Clinton’s memoir. “We thought you would cave.” Unsurprisingly, that’s nothing like what he said in public.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, during a White House meeting the day after the 9-11 terror attacks in 2001, advised President George W. Bush not to use the word “war” — a suggestion that Bush had no intention of adopting. That didn’t come out until a few weeks ago, in Bush’s new memoir.

President Jimmy Carter in 1979 told congressional Democrats over breakfast that if Sen. Ted Kennedy challenged him for the presidency, “I’ll whip his ass.” That leaked out immediately and provided a big morale boost to White House staff members, as Carter recalls in his recently published diary.

On Nov. 30, President Barack Obama was set to meet with congressional leaders from both parties as he tries to build a new working relationship after midterm elections that handed control of the House to the Republicans and pared down the Democratic majority in the Senate.

“It’s not just going to be a photo op,” Obama pledged, calling for substantive talk “about how we can move the American people’s agenda forward” and what the current lame-duck congressional session can accomplish.

Obama’s invitation list for Tuesday’s meeting includes eight legislators: the top two Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate.

While Obama has met with all these congressional leaders in the past, it’s clear he still has work to do in creating a good working relationship with the Republicans, especially after the rancor of the midterm elections and now that the GOP wields more power.

House Speaker-in-waiting John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, for example, said during the campaign that he feels no connection to Obama.

“When I talk about the real world, it doesn’t seem to register” with Obama, Boehner complained in one television interview.

Former presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer, who sat in on plenty of meetings between Bush and congressional leaders, says that typically the more participants involved, the less of importance that gets done.

Put the president in a room with 10 or 12 congressional leaders, Fleischer says, and “it’s often a series of speeches and very little interaction.”

“If you really want to trade ideas and start to figure out the parameters of what can be done, the smaller the meeting the better,” he said.

Even when opposition-party legislators express a genuine willingness to work cooperatively while they’re in the Oval Office, that impulse often begins to fade when they hit the White House driveway, says Mike McCurry, who served as Clinton’s spokesman.

After Gingrich met with Clinton, McCurry says, the president often would relate to his staff the progress that they had made. But then “when Gingrich was surrounded by Dick Armey and some of the other Republican leaders, he wasn’t nearly as forthcoming as he had been in some of the private conversations,” McCurry added.

“That’s where it gets difficult,” McCurry said. “They have to continue to fly the flag afterward, and that is one of the reasons why it’s hard to make progress.”

The fact that Obama’s meeting with congressional Republicans is such high-profile news is a sign itself of how things have changed, and not for the better.

Meetings between presidents and congressional leaders of both parties used to be humdrum, says Calvin Mackenzie, a presidential historian at Colby College.

“Lyndon Johnson would sit down with (Senate Minority Leader) Everett Dirksen at the end of the day. They’d have a drink. They’d do business together and that was the norm,” says Mackenzie. “Now those norms are out the window. We have a much more divided set of institutions.”

In today’s highly partisan environment, says Mackenzie, talk about working together for the common good “evaporates very quickly” once the meeting ends.

In one recent high-profile meeting, the good will didn’t even last that long.

In September 2008, as U.S. financial markets were seizing, Republican presidential candidate John McCain made a dramatic call for a break in the campaign so that he and Democrat Barack Obama could meet with Bush and congressional leaders.

With the candidates, congressional leaders and administration officials all crowded into the Cabinet Room, Bush opened the meeting by stressing the urgent need for legislation to bail out the financial industry. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson spoke about the volatile financial markets. Obama spoke next. Then, the president called on McCain. He passed.

From there, Bush wrote in his memoir, “what had started as a drama quickly descended into a farce. Tempers flared. Voices were raised. Some barbs were thrown. I was watching a verbal food fight, which would have been comical except that the stakes were so high.”

By Nancy Benac
Associated Press

The new kid in town is 107.7 FM WPFX, filling the airwaves with a music-driven, country-variety format.
That means more Toby Keith, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Rascal Flatts and many more. The Wolf, 107.7 FM, is proudly locally owned and operated by Toledo Radio LLC. This is Northwest Ohio’s answer to the increasingly large demand for country music.
The Wolf is based in the heart of Downtown Toledo. In order to make this happen for Toledo, Toledo Radio LLC, donated its original transmitter, tower, antenna and land in North Baltimore to the University of Findlay. This allowed the university to upgrade its noncommercial station, WLFC, from a mere 155 watts to a whopping 4600 watts and allowed WPFX to move its 107.7 frequency to Toledo. Its current tower is located in a prime location along Interstate 75 just south of Perrysburg.
Dan Dudley, co-owner and president, has been instrumental in the history of Toledo broadcasting. He was involved with the development of stations like WIOT, as well as breaking in new markets like the mid-’90s success Buzz 106.5 FM— a perfect example of Dudley leading his team ahead of the curve and taking risks that have paid off for Toledo and surrounding areas.
Even Kid Rock contributes some of his rise to success with his first multiplatinum album to the local support of stations like the Buzz. For those of you who remember, Kid Rock was local here. (Yes, Kid Rock was spinning records and slinging his tapes right here in Downtown Toledo, our own backyard.)
After Dudley’s decades of success in radio and after the Buzz was sold in 2000, he decided he would retire. This retirement didn’t last and as we tune in on our FM dial, Dudley didn’t walk away.
Dudley saw and claimed an excellent opportunity he couldn’t deny and picked up a frequency that could move from Findlay to Toledo. Knowing he had a successful staff from The Buzz he could still count on, Dudley decided to give Toledoans something he claims they haven’t had for 20 years — a country-variety independent radio station, 107.7 on the dial, Wolf.
Real country variety isn’t something new to radio but it is new to Toledo and has already made quite an impact. The Wolf hit the airwaves early in November and strategically started its broadcast by playing 10,000 songs back-to-back to boast its more-music-less-talk broadcast, delivering 50 minutes of music every hour.
Craig Snyder, the Wolf’s premier radio personality is glad to be with the Wolf. Snyder worked 10 years with the other country station in Toledo, before taking a chance with the new alternative station, WBUZ, beginning a gratifying relationship with Dudley. Snyder is now again on a team with Dudley, led by Laura Hart, 107.7 FM’s general manager. Hart started working in radio in the early ’90s with 94.5 FM and eventually, as careers developed, decided to make her move with Toledo Radio’s 106.5 FM and her success continues with Toledo Radio, LLC. Hart knows Toledo, and knows it is a very competitive market and loves what she does. She is confident that with the talent and staff at the Wolf that Toledo will be rewarded with a quality station once again.
To ultimately guarantee success, WPFX takes guidance from Rusty Walker, a 25-year veteran and seven-time Country Consultant of the Year. Walker is labeled as possibly country radio’s greatest programmer and is also on the Country Music Association Board of Directors. With his guidance 107.7 FM is guaranteed to be a contender in the consistent battle for ratings among stations.
Country currently leads, holding 14 points in this market, almost twice the points of the next station. The Wolf gives 50 minutes of music every hour and still handles all your traffic, news and weather. Take a minute to check it out on your FM dial or tell a country-loving friend; good things are happening for Toledo.
WPFX 107.7 FM is located at 720 Water St. 4th Floor. O

Kc Saint John is a glass artist and fire-breather who enjoys teaching and creating with a focus in glass. He works to develop talent and promote unity and information within the community.
He is a former Chicago WEA A&R Rep and major label multiplatinum talent manager of Chicago’s infamous cabaret Metro Smart Bar and is now back in Toledo’s Old West End, “Enjoying Toledo and all it has to offer.” Kc owns Lost Peninsula Arts & Glass; a music/art school and gallery and manages The Glass Dojo, a collaborating artists’ group. Visit www.kcsaintjohn.com.

“Surely, you can’t be serious.”
“I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.”
— Robert Hays and Leslie Nielsen, “Airplane,” 1980

In the time since news broke of Leslie Nielsen’s passing on Sunday at the age of 84, fans have taken to the web to pay their respects to the actor, frequently citing moments and quoting lines from his work. The exchange above, however, has proven far and away the most oft repeated of them all.

Small wonder. That simple, two-line piece of comic dialogue has long since gained its place in the pantheon of classic film moments. Long in the future, fans of movie comedy will still speak of Buster Keaton on the train, Harold Lloyd on the clock, Charlie Chaplin boxing, Woody Allen and the spider as big as a Buick, Christopher Guest and his amp that goes to 11, and Leslie Nielsen’s protest to not be called Shirley.

Looking at the exchange in print doesn’t do it justice. Indeed, the line in lesser hands would be hokey and weak. It would produce a bad laugh, if it got a laugh at all. The fact that it will stand the test of time is a tribute to the comedic talents of the actors delivering it — Nielsen in particular.

I’ve watched that moment countless times in the years since I was first exposed to “Airplane” at the tender age of seven. Exposure to the broad-yet-hilarious comedy helped shape my sense of humor. And as I grew, I found that while most of the movies I laughed at and loved as a child aged poorly, this one still holds up as a rare comedic gem — as have most of the films by its makers, Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers.

The ZAZ team, as they were called, had many techniques that distinguished their work from the run-of-the-mill satirists that dominated Hollywood then and still dominate now. ZAZ movies weren’t just content to put one joke on screen at one time — they filled their frame with visual and background gags, so the audience would always have to pay attention. They increased the pace, so the audience was never sure when the next joke might hit. They were fearless, and didn’t care how obvious or silly a gag might be.

And they were smart enough to fill their movies with good, dramatic actors, instead of well-known comedians. Under someone else’s supervision, one of the old guard of show biz comics could easily have been given Nielsen’s role in “Airplane.” Henny Youngman, perhaps, or maybe Buddy Hackett. But this would have been fatal to the role, the film, and that line.

When you watch the movie, you never see a moment where someone is straining for comic effect. No one looks at the audience for a wink, or pauses to build up the joke. Nothing is delivered with traditional “timing.” Indeed, Hays and Nielsen say their lines completely straight, never even hinting that they might be funny. This, of course, makes them funnier still.

“Surely, you can’t be serious,” Hays intones dramatically, after the doctor has asked him if he can fly and land the plane. “I am serious,” a grave-faced Nielsen says in a somber tone. After all, they have a plane full of passengers dying of food poisoning. “And don’t call me Shirley,” he adds, with the same grave-face and tone. Because, after all, he called him Shirley.

Nielsen’s early career as a straight-laced and handsome actor made him wildly unlikely to become a buffoonish comedy legend, but then again, it also made him perfect for the role. He was willing to laugh at himself, but still acted as though every line had been penned by Tennessee Williams himself. Like Peter Graves, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges and others, his ability to see the humor without seeming to see the humor, honed through years as a basic “dramatic” actor, reintroduced Nielsen to a whole new generation of fans who had never even heard of his earlier work.

And now, an entire generation of actors — comedic and dramatic alike –  could stand to learn from Nielsen’s example. So many people in entertainment today take themselves way too seriously, and could stand to take a few jabs at their public image once in a while. And so many comic actors feel the need to overplay every line to excess, mugging at the camera and generally acting like they just downed forty shots of pure caffeine just before the camera rolled. Their work may be popular short-term, but nine times out of ten, it will be forgotten as soon as the movie ends. The straightforward, understated yet still incredibly goofy “Don’t call me Shirley” will live forever.

Raise a glass and tip a hat to the man who made that moment work, and work brilliantly. You will be missed, Mr. Nielsen.

John Skelton, the father of the three missing boys in Morenci, will be charged with three counts of parental kidnapping, in connection to the boys’ disappearances.

According to the Morenci Police department, Skelton has been released from the mental health facility where he’s been staying the past few days and is now in the custody of FBI agents in Toledo.

Alexander William Skelton, Andrew Ryan Skelton and Tanner Lucas Skelton

During a press conference, on Nov. 30, Morenci Police Chief Larry weeks said he doesn’t expected the four-day search for the boys to have a positive outcome. Weeks said this conclusion is based on information provided to officials by the boys’ father.

The chief didn’t comment on what specific information lead to this conclusion however, because the situation is ongoing.

An Amber Alert is still in effect for Andrew Ryan Skelton, 9, Alexander William Skelton, 7, and Tanner Lucas Skelton, 5, who were reportedly last seen Nov. 25 in their father’s backyard at his home in Morenci, Mich.

The missing children are all described as white males. Andrew is 4 foot 1, weighs 57 pounds and has brown eyes and hair. Alexander is 3 foot 9, weighs 45 pounds, has brown eyes and hair and has a scar at his hairline and on his chin. Tanner is 3 foot 6 with blue eyes and blond hair.

Police are still seeking information on a 2000 blue Dodge Caravan, that may have been in the Pioneer, Unity, West Unity, Holiday City, Ohio areas between 2:30 p.m. Nov. 25 and 1:30 p.m. Nov. 26.

Anyone who may have seen the vehicle or the boys is asked to call the Morenci Police hotline: 517-458-7104.

Individuals will experience ancient Egyptians’ approach to life and the afterlife as they explore the Toledo Museum of Art’s (TMA) exhibit, “The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb.”
“The reason we’re doing this exhibit is people keep asking ‘Where are the mummies?’” said Sandra Knudsen, the exhibition’s curator. “This is an art museum and for the last generation or more art museums have hesitated putting human remains on view because they are not works of art and they deserve very special care and consideration.
“However, when I was asked this question one more time by Rod Bigelow, then active director, I said we could probably put them out if we very carefully managed to put them into context; so the mummy itself is the kernel where the vast amount of ancient Egyptian funeral objects, architecture, coffins, rituals, prayers and ancestor practices all are displayed around it.”
Egyptians wanted to live forever and to guarantee eternal life they built themselves graves, tombs and pyramids where their families could continue to visit and offer gifts, Knudsen said. As long as their names lived on, they would live forever, she said.
“Here in Toledo, every time we repeat [the individuals featured in the exhibit’s] names, according to their own beliefs, we strengthen their existence,” Knudsen said. “So, they are living forever. They’re just doing it in Toledo, Ohio, not in Egypt.”
The exhibition’s artwork ranges from the time of early Egyptians, before the pyramids were built, to the early
Christian period.
“Ancient Egyptians had a series of interesting ways of thinking about death and immortality, which began long before the pyramids were built and you can still find strong evidence of this thousands of years later,” Knudsen said. “You can see some of the early images of the way they represent themselves, the way they talk about their bodies and their souls and follow through [the exhibit] and see how it becomes more sophisticated and more complex over time.”
The exhibit is designed to showcase how architecture and objects inside tombs were intended to make the mummy comfortable, Knudsen said. Tombs could be laid out like homes with storage rooms and some of the most elaborate tombs even had bathrooms, she said.
Egyptians would also be buried with objects that may be used in the afterlife, including jewelry, makeup instruments and toys, Knudsen said.
In The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb, patrons will wind their way through the exhibit, encountering 12 individuals, different architecture and various objects along the way.
Upon entering the exhibit visitors will encounter false doors from a mastaba tomb at Giza. Between the false doors is a slit that will peer onto serdab statues.
“Inside a tomb, there would be a place that looked like a door that was believed to be the spiritual door where the Ka of the dead person literally could communicate,” Knudsen said. “Sometimes it was a closed door, sometimes you had a statue of the deceased there and sometimes you had a window. Where the statue, in a hidden room call the serdab, could look out through the slit and commune with people and receive the aromas of the good food that had been cooked.”
Elsewhere in the exhibit is a hole in the wall that peers into a mural of the tomb chapel of Aket-hotep. Two reliefs, pieces of the wall, from the chapel will also be on display.
Toward the end of the exhibit, is an interactive display of the Hall of Judgment. Individuals will hear the 42 questions of the gods for which Egyptians would have to offer negative confessions to before entering the afterlife.
These negative confessions Egyptians would have to be able to state to enter the afterlife include: “I have not stolen”; “I have not killed”; “I have not blocked a running stream”; and “I have not eaten the cakes of the dead,” Knudsen said.
The exhibit will also feature TMA’s two mummies with information from forensic and radiological studies that tell about their ages, genders and lifestyles.
One mummy is unwrapped, but is displayed inside a 42-inch tall sarcophagus, giving individuals the option to not view the body.
Some of the objects in the exhibition are owned by the TMA, with many acquired by the museum’s founder Edward Drummond Libbey on his trips to Egypt. Other objects on display are on loan from various institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Indiana University Art Museum, The Field Museum and the Oriental Museum Institute of the University of Chicago.
The 18-month exhibit opened Oct. 29 and has exceeded attendance expectations, said Teri Sharp, public relations manager for the museum. More than 500 museum members toured the exhibition during its pre-exhibit party the evening before the display opened to the public, she said.
The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb is a ticketed exhibition. The exhibit is free for museum members and children younger than 6. Prices for nonmembers are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and $5 for students.
The museum encourages individuals to become members and see the exhibit as many times as they’d like.
“Like all your favorite T.V. shows, you can enjoy it on multiple levels,” Knudsen said. “We hope some will say ‘I remember this’ and someone says ‘I don’t, let’s go back and see it again.’”
Membership to TMA is $75 a family, $60 for senior couples and $55 for individuals. For more information on memberships, visit the TMA website at www.toledomuseum.org.
In addition to the exhibit, the museum will feature a number of Egyptian programs during The Egypt Experience: Secrets of the Tomb’s 18-month run.
“Our goal is to create the kind of programs that complement the exhibition and bring people in, something they would like to do,” said Judy Weinberg, program coordinator at TMA.
Programs include hands-on activities, films and lectures.
The classic film, “Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy,” was shown Nov. 26 and more mummy-themed movies are scheduled to come.
Hands-on activities included “Secrets of the Mummy,” the chance to create a mini sarcophagus, on Nov. 26.
Families with children 10 and younger can also participate in hands-on activities during “I Want My Mummy,” at the Family Fun Center the week of Dec. 26.
Children will also be able to create a mini sarcophagus during this time. The center is open from noon to 5:30 p.m. Sunday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday.
“Hands-on activities are geared toward everybody. If you’re a child you can do it on one level, but if you’re an adult you can do it on another level. They are really fun,” Weinberg said.
All programs are free and open to the public.
Also running concurrently with the special exhibit is “Travelers Through Ancient Lands,” featuring paper artworks of Egypt. This exhibition is free and open through Feb. 6.
TMA is open Tuesdays to Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday noon to 6 p.m. The museum is closed on Christmas. Admission to TMA is free.
During December if patrons spend $25 in the museum gift store, or café, their parking is free.
For more information about upcoming events, visit www.toledomusuem.org.

Curtis Martin, Jerome Bettis and Marshall Faulk, three of the top 10 rushers in NFL history, are among 26 semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s class of 2011.

Two other star running backs, Terrell Davis and Roger Craig, are on the list released Nov.28.

Martin retired from the New York Jets as the No. 4 overall rusher with 14,101 yards in 11 seasons. One of the most consistent backs of his era, he ran for 1,000 yards in 10 straight seasons.

Bettis ranks fifth at 13,662 yards in 13 seasons, three for the Rams and a decade with the Steelers, with whom he won the 2006 Super Bowl in his final game.

Faulk is 10th in rushing with 12,279 yards for the Colts and Rams and won the 2000 Super Bowl with St. Louis. A a prime receiver out of the backfield, Faulk was the 2000 NFL MVP.

Davis also was a league MVP, in 1998 with Denver, and won two Super Bowls with the Broncos. Craig won Super Bowls with San Francisco in 1985, 89 and ’90.

Cornerback Deion Sanders also is on the list and, like Martin, Bettis and Faulk, is in his first year of eligibility. Sanders scored nine times on interceptions, also played offense at times, and is a former major league baseball player. He won the 1995 Super Bowl with San Francisco and the 1996 game with Dallas.

Top receivers Cris Carter, Tim Brown and Andre Reed are among the semifinalists, along with tight end Shannon Sharpe; offensive linemen Willie Roaf and Dermontti Dawson; defensive linemen/linebackers Charles Haley, Chris Doleman and Kevin Greene; defensive tackle Cortez Kennedy; defensive end Richard Dent; cornerbacks Aeneas Williams and Lester Hayes; punter Ray Guy; former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue; former Browns and Ravens owner Art Modell; former 49ers owner Ed DeBartolo Jr.; former Giants general manager George Young; former Cardinals and Chargers coach Don Coryell; and NFL Films originator Ed Sabol.

The list will be cut to 17, including senior committee nominees Chris Hanburger, a Redskins linebacker from 1965-78, and Les Richter, a Rams linebacker from 1954-62. Between four and seven enshrinees — no more than five modern-day nominees can make it — will be announced Feb. 5, the day before the Super Bowl.

The actual enshrinement will be in August.

Police are still searching for three young Michigan brothers who haven’t been seen since their father tried to hang himself, and investigators unraveling the man’s strange story have extended their search into Ohio.

Alexander William Skelton, Andrew Ryan Skelton and Tanner Lucas Skelton

At the heart of the investigation was an account by the father, 39-year-old John Skelton, who told investigators he’d left the boys in the care of a woman, Joann Taylor, with whom he said he had an online relationship with. Yet, officers had no luck finding the woman. On Nov. 29 it was reported that the information Skelton gave the authorities on the woman was false.

Skelton has been treated at a hospital in Ohio for “mental health issues’” since Nov. 27, one day after he tried to kill himself, said Morenci Police Chief Larry Weeks.

Skelton told investigators Nov. 26 that he didn’t want the boys in his house when he committed suicide, so he asked a woman named Joann Taylor to take them to their mother, who is separated from Skelton. Weeks said Saturday that officers haven’t been able to confirm that Taylor exists.

An Amber Alert was issued on Nov. 26 for Skelton’s sons: 9-year-old Andrew, 7-year-old Alexander and 5-year-old Tanner.

When asked if Skelton was a suspect in the boys’ disappearance, Weeks said: “We haven’t ruled anything out, yet.”

Skelton had earlier said he met Taylor several years ago and that the two had been involved in an online relationship. She was believed to live in Jackson or Hillsdale counties in southern Michigan.

But officers had no success tracking down a woman by that name or the silver van Skelton said she was driving. They have now expanded the search area into Ohio and are seeking a 2000 blue Dodge Caravan, that may have been in the Pioneer, Unity, West Unity, Holiday City, Ohio areas between 2:30 p.m. Nov. 25 and 1:30 p.m. Nov. 26.

Anyone who may have seen the vehicle or the boys is asked to call the Morenci Police hotline: 517-458-7104.

Associated Press contributed to this report.