The concept of risk and how it is defined by investors and advisers is something that we’ve discussed before, and which we feel warrants periodic reminders.

Over time the definition of “risk” has changed, thanks mostly to academics who teach finances classes and venerable money managers with advanced degrees (many of whom are now broke). The commonly accepted definition of risk among investors and advisers has essentially been substituted with the definition of volatility.

While there have been many reasons for this change, among them is the fact that volatility is measurable, while risk is not. Additionally, while risk can be conceptualized and considered broadly when making investment decisions, risk is quantifiable. Because of these aspects, methods have been developed for reducing volatility as means of reducing “risk” to investors.

Essentially, this redefining of risk has allowed less confident, experienced, or knowledgeable money managers and investors, who can now quantify “risk” to sleep at night because their portfolios are somehow “safer.”

As James Montier of GMO so perfectly stated in his recent piece, 7 Immutable Laws of Investing, risk isn’t a number, “and it is foolhardy to try to reduce it to a single figure.”

In reality Alpha, Beta, Delta, or any other numerical characteristic of an investment’s volatility is useless in defining risk. A low Beta, for example, really only indicates that investors will lose money more slowly if an investment begins to fall.

The problem is that, in modern finance, risk is inaccurately defined by a measure of volatility; but risk isn’t volatility. Risk is the likelihood that an investment will fall in value; or, to borrow another phrase from Montier: “Risk is the permanent loss of capital.”

Despite the best efforts of academics and quants the world over, lower volatility doesn’t make investments safer. No volatility measure in the world would consider the risk of an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in Japan; or uprisings in Libya, Tunisia, Iran, Syria, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia – much less all of them occurring at the same time.

It is of utmost importance that investors, both professional and part-timers, admit and understand that financial markets don’t operate on mathematical principals. Rather, they are the study of behavioral psychology. As such, they can’t be defined by numbers.

In fact, looking across all the worlds’ markets, there is only one investment that can be simplified to a mathematic formula, and that is the relationships between bond prices and interest rates. Everything else, being unable to be expressed in a simple formula, is only theory.

At the end of the day an investment, a share of stock for example, is only worth what someone will pay for it. Investors use tools like valuation, volatility, and other measures to justify one price or another; but ultimately the decision to buy or sell is still an emotional one.

After all, it should come as no surprise that so many “black box” trading systems have gone broke over the years. Long-Term Capital Management went bust, and almost took down the world’s financial system with it. Portfolio Insurance also failed; black box trading systems are also said to have contributed to the downfall of Bear Stearns.

Lesson of the day: Risk cannot be expressed by a number. Any attempt to do so is useless, and will only lead to one place: bankruptcy court.

Dock David Treece is a discretionary money manager with Treece Investment Advisory Corp (www.TreeceInvestments.com) and a stockbroker licensed with FINRA. He works for Treece Financial Services Corp and also serves as editor of the financial news site Green Faucet (www.GreenFaucet.com) and as a business commentator for the Toledo Free Press (www.ToledoFreePress.com). The above information is the express opinion of Dock David Treece and should not be construed as investment advice or used without outside verification.

There is no contesting that Detroit and Toledo have some major problems in common. Challenged schools, aging infrastructure and most crucially, a declining population, are threatening the long-term viability of two of the Midwest’s greatest cities.
The most recent U.S. Census Bureau count places Detroit at 713,777 citizens, an ongoing drop during the past decade that equates to one person leaving the city every 22 minutes.
The census numbers dropped Toledo below 300,000, to 287,208 people. It’s not hard to see where many of those people are going; while not every Toledo suburb is growing, Monclova Township and Perrysburg saw gains.
The drop below the 300,000 mark is significant, in terms of federal and state funding, representation apportionment and the psychological letdown of seeing milestone numbers recede. It is also important in terms of how the nation (and businesses across the nation) view our city.

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said he plans to challenge the numbers, citing the U.S. Census Bureau history of undercounting urban centers.
Detroit contested the 2000 count, and was rewarded with a number revised to more than 950,000. Bing has said there could be as many as 40,000 uncounted Detroit citizens, each of whom would bring “approximately $10,000 to Detroit over the next decade for schools, roads, hospitals and social programs.”
After the last Toledo census also dropped Toledo to under 300,000 people, then-Mayor Carty Finkbeiner and the city hired a law firm that appealed and was rewarded with a revised count of 317,000.
It was initially reported that Mayor Mike Bell would not challenge the numbers, but during a March 23 conversation with his office, Toledo Free Press was told that may change. The Bell administration says it is considering a challenge, as it evaluates the numbers on a block-by-block basis.
There is a tremendous amount to gain by appealing the numbers and forcing an accurate census, and we urge Mayor Bell to seriously look at what investment it would take to get a revised count. There may be no question that Toledo has lost residents, but a nearly 30,000-person drop is doubtful and should be challenged.
One fellow who would not challenge the population drop is Toledo native P.J. O’Rourke. O’Rourke is a respected political analyst and writer who is often asked to return to Toledo to speak. But one of his recent efforts, a Newsweek column that refers to “failed Toledo” as a “junkyard of American capitalism,” was a harsh and mean-spirited essay about our city’s historical and social travails.
“Toledo is a failure,” he wrote. “Actually, Toledo always was a failure.”
O’Rourke has every right to his opinion, and as a man who operates in a ruthless arena, he undoubtedly understands there are consequences for expressing that opinion when it comes at the expense of others. So the next time a local group brings O’Rourke in to speak, as a few groups have done in past year or so, remember his thoughts about you and your city.
O’Rourke has long been absent from Toledo’s census count, so it shouldn’t be an issue if he is not paid to return for a while — say, until we can get that population count back up to 400,000 or so.

Thomas F. Pounds is president and publisher of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Email him at tpounds@toledofreepress.com.

Editor’s Note: Toledo Free Press, United Way of Greater Toledo and 13abc’s “Bridges” with Doni Miller are profiling 12 education initiative programs in Northwest Ohio. This is the 11th story in the series.

The Learning Club of Toledo helps about 250 struggling students succeed in school each year, building students’ confidence along the way.
Through seven programs at various locations throughout Toledo, the Learning Club fosters a sense of accomplishment and pride in what students can contribute by becoming independent learners, said Executive Director Deborah Apgar.
Apgar is also the director of the program, which is housed at the Zablocki Senior Center on Lagrange Street. Each site is set up the same way, from the table arrangement to the schedule of the session to the soothing classical music, she said.
Apgar said she tries to create an environment in first grade through high school where students can thrive, based on social and emotional learning.
“From the moment they walk through the door, it’s all about choices and consequences,” Apgar said.
Children earn points for their work, tests and bringing in their report cards and progress reports. They can then use those points to “shop” at the store — a table set up with different items that interest the students.
That connection between earning and learning provides a jump-start for students who are falling behind in school because of a lack of basic skills and a lack of motivation.
Even though the store is available at the end of each session, students who save their points to buy the more expensive things can earn interest points, similar to a bank account.
The more correct math problems and properly spelled words, the more points a student will receive.
“It is the driving force initially, but as they [progress], they become self-motivated,” Apgar said.
Shane, a fourth-grader who has been coming to the Learning Club for several years, said he likes the Learning Club better than school because at school there is “too much talking and too much fighting at recess,” he said.
He only has 55 points now, but he said, “I want 1,000.”
Each program serves 28 students. All five sites — Redeemer Lutheran Church, Warren AME Church, Imani Learning Academy, Monroe Street United Methodist Church and the Zablocki Senior Center — donate the space for sessions held two nights a week.
“It’s a beautiful story of all these faith communities working together,” Apgar said. “They all work together to serve kids in the community.”
Each program has state-licensed teachers, education majors from the University of Toledo and student tutors to monitor and help. They try to have a 1-3 teacher/student ratio.
“So many diverse people coming together through one purpose — helping children succeed,” Apgar said.
The Learning Club uses an individualized approach, starting with a skills assessment so that students are given books to work at their own level. The books are numbered, but the numbers do not coincide with grade levels so students do not know what grade level their book represents.
This method lets students feel proud knowing that they have mastered their book and can move on to the next one, without worrying about what books their peers are on. Since each student works independently, each can work at his or her own pace.
“It starts changing your attitude about yourself,” Apgar said. “It builds confidence.”
Even though most children who come have some behavioral problems, Apgar said, the problems work themselves out as the children continue with the program.
“We stress attitude a lot,” she said. “That’s why they are greeted at the door. That sets a tone of ‘Hi, I’m happy to see you. We’re a team.’ It’s a very supportive program.”
The Learning Club’s goal is to see each child’s aptitude level in math and reading increase at least one grade level.
Last year, students exceeded the organization’s goal. The average grade level increase in math and reading was 1.25.
Through constant repetition of material, one fourth-grade student who came in at a pre-kindergarten level has now moved beyond her grade level, Apgar said.
“There’s nothing better than to see a child get out of their book,” Apgar said. It’s exciting to tell them “throw it out. You don’t need it anymore!”
One-third of funding for the program comes from United Way and the other two-thirds from foundations, corporations and individuals, or, as Apgar said, “wherever I can find a way of figuring out where it will come from.”
The Zablocki Senior Center program is funded separately through the Mental Health Recovery Services Board because many of the children there use its services.
About one-third of students come back to the Learning Club after their first year. Many times, once parents see what it has done for their child, they want to continue seeing that growth. Plus, if students come early, they can receive homework help.

“Parents really value this service,” Apgar said.
As the end of the school year nears inside the Zablocki Senior Center, it’s difficult to believe that some students there have severe neurological and emotional issues. It’s a calm room where teachers play classical music; students sit at tables doing their work without talking to one another and patiently raise their hand when they need help.
One is an autistic second-grader who once needed constant attention. Another young student used to be so afraid that he would hide underneath tables. Now, both sit and work independently and quietly.
“It takes this whole little room of nurturers to make them feel comfortable,” Apgar said.

Editor’s Note: Toledo Free Press, United Way of Greater Toledo and 13abc’s “Bridges” with Doni Miller are profiling 12 education initiative programs in Northwest Ohio. This is the 12th story in the series.

Dr. Michael Stubblefield

“Can you please fix my teeth?” the little girl asked the dentist who had come to her school, and he was happy to oblige. It’s times like those — a recent exchange with an area kindergarten student — that remind Dr. Michael Stubblefield why he does what he does.
“She had 12 to 13 areas of active decay, easily twice as many as I usually see, and she knew she had issues,” said Stubblefield, public health dentist at the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department, which operates a mobile dental program at low-income schools. “It’s almost heartbreaking when you see a child that small and they have serious issues.”
The health department’s mobile dental program has two parts: a school-based sealant program and a school-based clinic program. The programs set up portable dental offices inside a school, where they remain for a few days to several weeks, depending on the size of the school and response from parents.
The 23-year-old sealant program, which places sealants on molars to help prevent cavities, operates in about 60 Lucas and Wood county schools, including 36 Toledo Public Schools (TPS) elementary schools, seven TPS middle schools, eight Washington Local schools and two charter schools, said Dental Program Supervisor Barbara Stichter. It recently expanded for the first time into Rossford, Oregon and Springfield schools.
The 10-year-old clinic program operates in TPS schools, providing services like X-rays, cleanings, fillings, fluoride treatments and simple extractions. In 2010, the mobile clinic program saw about 1,200 students, Stichter said.
The programs are funded through Ohio Department of Health grants. To qualify, 40 percent or more of students must be eligible for free or reduced lunches. If a school qualifies, all students are eligible for dental services. About 50 percent of students elect to participate, Stichter said. The services are free to students, but Medicaid and other insurances are billed to help cover the cost.
“The whole benefit of what we’re trying to do for that family is introduce them to dentistry and lead them to a dental home,” Stichter said. “We’re not trying to be in the schools to be their dentists. We’re trying to take care of immediate problems, get them used to seeing a dentist and then get them into a stable dental home where they can go every six months to get cleanings.”
Tooth decay is the most common childhood disease, Stubblefield said.
“It’s something that even with advances in prevention, the decay rate has actually gone up,” he said, a likely factor being poor eating habits, especially excessive consumption of pop and candy.
Poor dental health can affect a student’s performance in school, Stubblefield said.
“A toothache is one of the worst pains you can imagine and you’re expected to function in class, which is next to impossible,” he said.
By providing school-based dental care, more children receive needed services, stay in school and have greater academic success, Stichter said.
“It boils down to a kid that feels well stays in school and if a kid can’t concentrate because of their health, they’re certainly not going to do well,” Stichter said. “A kid that’s not in pain means better attendance and that is going to make for a better student.”
Children from low-income families miss nearly 12 times as many school days because of dental problems compared with children in higher-income families, said Kate Sommerfeld, health specialist at the United Way of Greater Toledo.
Other local agencies, including the Neighborhood Health Association and the Dental Center of Northwest Ohio, also play important roles in connecting kids to dental service, but the health department’s program is noteworthy because it is school-based, Sommerfeld said.
School-based programs override the common barriers of cost, transportation or not knowing where to go, Stichter said. Some parents think it’s not necessary to care for baby teeth. Others have lost jobs or insurance.
“It’s hugely important because a lot of these kids just plain and simple don’t go. I’ve had lots of teachers approach me about kids in pain for months. They’re missing entire days of school,” Stichter said.
Oral hygiene is also reviewed with each student, Stubblefield said.
“A lot of these kids were never taught the right way to brush and floss,” he said. “My ultimate goal is to not be needed. I doubt that’s going to happen, but you do the best you can.”

Win two tickets to Bob Seger’s March 31 show at the Huntington Center! Send an email with the subject line “Seger” to news@toledofreepress.com by noon March 28

Related story: “Thanking Bob Seger” by Michael S. Miller

Kris Kristofferson called at 1 a.m.
“Bob? This is Kris. I’m going to be in Detroit next month and I wanted to talk to you about a benefit concert I’m putting together.”
The voice on the Blissfield end of the phone shook off the rust of sleep.
“Well, this is a Bob Seeger, but I’m not the Bob Seger,” the man said.
Kristofferson apologized, saying he got the number from an operator.
“It’s a lot of fun,” being named Bob Seeger and living in Southeast Michigan, the Blissfield resident said. He said hopeful musicians send him CDs and tapes, hungry for a break, and he has fun with people’s reactions when he “calls for dinner reservations or a dentist appointment.”
Kristofferson may have dialed the wrong number, but he tapped into a strong local connection with one of Michigan’s most enduring musicians.
For more than four decades, rock singer Bob Seger has brought attention and glory to the region. From high school dances in Tecumseh to department-store openings in Detroit to concerts at Toledo’s Sports Arena to worldwide fame, Seger has never lost touch with his blue-collar roots.
He will play two concerts at Toledo’s Huntington Center, March 26 and 31, his first Toledo appearances since 1996.
In 2004, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll  Hall of Fame, joining the pantheon of his heroes, including Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly.
On the eve of that ceremony, I interviewed Seger for The Daily Telegram about his Lenawee nights.
“I played so many places there,” the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter said. “Devils Lake Pavilion, Wampler’s Lake, high schools, Irish Hills, Jackson, Hillsdale College.”

Bob Seger (AP)

Seger said his manager, Punch Andrews, has kept a file of every concert Seger has played, and that during his late ’60s time in  Michigan, “We played about 250 nights a year. If anyone in   Southeast Michigan liked music then, they probably saw me somewhere.   You could say I was omnipresent.”
Seger’s telephone voice gave no hint of the raw, throat-tearing power behind “Old Time Rock and Roll” and “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man.” He was a mellow conversationalist, quick to let loose a hearty, deep laugh that rattled the phone line like a drum solo.
Seger said the fans in Lenawee County “were and are unbelievable. We would go back to the same spots, and see so many of the same faces; they just supported us. We were working musicians, and we made our money playing at night. We built a lot of history and good will there.”
Seger laughed at Blissfield Bob Seeger’s Kristofferson story.
“There are a lot of Bob Seegers in Michigan,” he said. “I have a cabin in Harbor Springs, and there’s a neighbor a quarter-mile down the road whose name is Bob Seeger, with the three e’s,” Seger said. “He has his name on his mailbox, so everybody walks right past my place and visits him.”
He laughed again, sweet soul music vibrating through the phone.
Tecumseh footprints
Like a larger-than-life behemoth from another era, Seger left large footprints in Lenawee County.
Jan Hunt of Tecumseh was treasurer of Tecumseh’s Teen Club in fall 1968 when her group hired The Bob Seger System to play the school’s winter dance.
“I wrote him a check for $1,000, which seemed huge then,” she said. “We went to the principal of the high school to get permission to have the dance in the gym.”
Hunt said people were charged $1 for the event, and even at that low price, the group made a profit on the show; almost 2,000 people attended.
“I remember, they had the huge sound equipment, and they played ‘Heavy Music’ and ‘Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man,’ which were my two favorites,” she said. “He played two sets, and we all danced; his music was great dance music.”
John Rains of Tecumseh took a date to that winter dance.
“I had never heard of them before that night, and really didn’t like them that much; I thought they were too loud, but in all fairness, they were playing in a gym,” he said. Rains began to appreciate Seger after seeing him a few times at Devils Lake.
“I often think of Seger and bands like Ted Nugent and the Amboy Dukes when I shop at the grocery store (Tibbs IGA) that used to be the Pavilion. The stage used to be in the same area where the produce area is today,” he said. “It was pretty cool to be there in the early stages of his career and then see him have so many great songs over the years.”
Jamie McWilliams of Tecumseh was the guitarist/singer for The Contempts, a band that played between Seger’s two segments at the  Tecumseh dance. The Contempts played songs by The Byrds, The Young Rascals, Creedence Clearwater Reviva and other pop bands of the era.
“What I remember most,” McWilliams said, “was the drummer, Pep Perrine, who had two elbows from industrial heat ducts, with bass drum covers, and he played them with mallets. Seger was a good stage band, and put on a nice show. It was a real coup for Tecumseh.”
We’ve Got Tonite
Seger said his formative years were a series of dances, parties and concerts.
“One of my band members, Craig Frost, lived near Temperance, and we would go there to warm up for tours, so we always had a presence [near Lenawee County],” he said.
Seger’s time in those days was not spent on contemplative songwriting.
“I was more of a performer than a songwriter then,” he said. “There was no time to write songs. We were playing or driving to the next gig.”
His Southeast Michigan concert days sharpened his performance skills, Seger said.
“It was there that I learned how to read an audience and what they like,” he said. “What is valuable, when you play that much, I learned, even before the Silver Bullet Band formed, was the importance of playing a lot of nights, being there, developing a language with your players, playing as a unit.”
Turn the Page
Brenda Zimmanck and Peggy LaFollette, both of Blissfield, recount a memory that still lights them up like the high school juniors they were in 1978.
The two best friends drove to Toledo to see a Seger show at the Toledo Sports Arena.
“After the show, we hung around for a while, then went to the bathroom,” Zimmanck said. “When we came out, the doors were all locked.”
As they wandered the arena looking for help to get out, they bumped into members of the Silver Bullet Band backstage.
“They wondered what we were doing there, and we told them about getting locked in,” Zimmanck said.
“We were looking over their shoulders to see if Bob was still there, but they said he had gotten into a limo to see his mother in Detroit,” LaFollette said.
The girls talked to band members for half an hour, and Zimmanck struck up a conversation with drummer David Teegarden.
The band signed autographs on a piece of notebook paper, and on the back, Teegarden wrote down his hotel and room number. Zimmanck followed up with Teegarden for a few weeks, but said, convincingly, that he treated her in a gentlemanly manner.
“I went to see him twice while he was in Toledo,” Zimmanck said. “But all we did was talk. We talked about the band and being on the road and music, and what I wanted to do with my life.”
Before he left, Teegarden gave Zimmanck a gold chain with gold drumsticks on it. She said she wore the gift for a while, then put it in a small cedar chest with other mementos of that era.
“We still dance to his music every chance we get,” LaFollette said.
Roll Me Away
As he prepared for his entry into the Rock and Hall of Fame, where he would be inducted by Kid Rock, Seger said he was excited and relieved to be enshrined.
“All the guys I golf with are in their halls of fame, football, baseball, hockey, music, whatever,” Seger said. “They kid me about it, but after this week I can finally say I’m in.”
Seger said when he gives advice to young musicians, he often reflects on his early concert work.
“I tell them, if all you do is play in your basement, you’ll never know what you have until you get in front of people, no matter how small the crowd. Then you’ll know; then you’ll have someplace to build, you’ll build up good will by coming back,” he said. “I tell any young artist, if you are successful, go back to where it started; the audience loves it when you come back.”

The legend of ‘Fire Lake’

"Fire Lake"

The Urban Legend: Bob Seger wrote the top 10 song “Fire Lake,” from the 1980 album “Against the Wind,” about Devils Lake in Lenawee County. The legend says that during the early-’80s era of the music industry’s crackdown on violence in music and “devil worshipping” bands, nervous executives at Capitol Records asked Seger to find a more radio-friendly title. The song, which romanticizes girls, gambling and “gypsy leather,” was supposedly drawn from Seger’s many visits to Devils Lake.
The Verdict: “Not true,” Seger said. “It was written about Silver Lake in Dexter, about being in the Pinckney-Hell-Dexter area.”
Seger does have a personal connection to Devils Lake.
“When I was young, my mom’s best friend had a cottage on Devils Lake, and I learned to swim there,” he said. “I’m really fond of that area.”
Seger said he still takes his motorcycle for a ride to Devils Lake every summer. How does one of Michigan’s most famous celebrities manage to ride his motorcycle through the county without being recognized?
“I wear my helmet,” he laughed with great force. “Nobody knows it’s me.”

It’s not very often that people are given an opportunity to thank their pop culture idols. I’ve captured that lightning in a bottle twice.
While living in Washington, D.C., I reported on a Smithsonian Institution tribute to George Lucas, the creator of the innovative and checkbook-draining “Star Wars” movies. I did not have much time with Lucas, but I passed him in a lobby and was able to talk with him just long enough to thank him for the kick-start his films gave my young imagination. My creative horizons expanded with the energy and vision he captured.
Lucas was demure and appreciative; he has undoubtedly been cornered like that thousands of times by thousands of fans, but he still played along and expressed gratitude.

In 2004, while serving as news editor of the Daily Telegram in Adrian, I conducted a telephone interview with rock singer Bob Seger. Quotes from that interview, reprinted with kind permission from the Daily Telegram, allowed me to settle another longstanding debt.
As a teenager, my interest in women far exceeded my experience, knowledge and communication skills with them. As I entered what should have been the prime of my learning curve, I lacked the confidence to establish a comfort zone with the female classmates who caught my eye, selectively defined as “every single one of them.”
I played football for four years, but even at my most lean and active, I possessed a body fairly described as candy-coated, and while my face has never frightened small children, it hasn’t landed any modeling offers, either. The resulting confidence deficit kept me from asking women for dates, attention or anything more interactive than sharing air in the same ZIP code.
Then, one Friday evening just past my 16th birthday, riding in a car tuned to WIOT 104.7 FM in Toledo, I heard a glorious noise that changed everything.
It started with a clunky crash of percussion that laid the foundation for an organ and driving guitar. The singer attacked the song with an energy and conviction that demanded my attention, so I reached over and turned up the radio, rattling the car’s overworked and inadequate speakers.
“Yeah, I’m gonna tell my tale come on, come on, give a listen,” he sang. It sounded like Bob Seger, but I had never heard the Seger of “Night Moves” and “Against the Wind” sing anything as primal and raw as this.
“I was just 13 when I had to leave home/Knew I couldn’t stick around, I had to roam,” the voice confessed, and I was hypnotized by the roughness of the sound pouring out of the strained-to-their-limits speakers.
I was primed, paying full attention, for the next words I heard:
“Ain’t good looking, but you know I ain’t shy/Ain’t afraid to look you girl, right in the eye.”
The rest of the song blurred by — and didn’t matter. The clouds had parted, the world faded away, and those words gathered speed in my head, clinging to brain cells and etching themselves onto my DNA.
“Ain’t good looking, but you know I ain’t shy/Ain’t afraid to look you girl, right in the eye.”
There it was. The answer. In a 1969 rock song.
And what a song, what a record! “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man” stands beside Joe Turner’s “Shake, Rattle and Roll” and Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” as rock’s greatest musical celebrations of slinky, melting, single-minded, joyous, testosterone-driven young lust. It is the essence of the original salacious meaning of the phrase “rock ‘n’ roll.”
I think I howled with capering glee at being given the keys to the carnal kingdom, even if the howl never left my throat.
A decade later, grizzled actor Jack Palance would sum up the philosophy in an after-shave commercial: “Confidence,” he half-purred, half-growled, “is sexy.”
But it was Seger who inspired me to adopt a damn-the-torpedoes approach to dating and mating, and during my subsequent collegian conquer-and-divide days, I brandished Seger’s words like a flaming sword.
After finishing my 2004 interview with Seger and thanking him for his time, I drew upon that confidence to tell him I wanted to specifically thank him for something, and I related a Reader’s Digest version of my tale.
His delighted laughter confirmed he understood, and he offered a hearty, “You’re welcome!”
Seger was still laughing as we hung up the phone.
And that, my friends, is rock ’n’ roll.
Postscript: While writing this article, I discovered that the official lyrics are “Ain’t afraid to look it girl, hear me out,” not “Ain’t afraid to look you girl, right in the eye.”
Doesn’t matter. I’m sticking to my version, and my memories.

Michael S. Miller is editor in chief of Toledo Free Press and Toledo Free Press Star. Email him at mmiller@toledofreepress.com.

When Ben Taylor decided to go into the family business, he knew expectations would be great.
He’s the son of James Taylor and Carly Simon.
And the tall, slender singer-songwriter-guitarist not only resembles his father, he sounds like him, too.
“I imagine there are probably obvious pros and cons about it,” Taylor said of having superstar parents. “It doesn’t do me much good to dwell on the hard stuff. It’s definitely opened up opportunities for me that wouldn’t have been there any other way.”
Taking the stage with his dad is one such chance.

Ben Taylor

“[My dad’s] an immaculate professional, as a performer and as a musician, period. So I wanted to make sure that if I was going to bug him to let me come out and introduce me to his fans and such, I wasn’t going to be terrified and green,” Taylor said. “We both figured it would happen organically if it was ever going to happen, and this is when it happened.”
The Taylors will play a sold-out show at 8 p.m. April 2 at Stranahan Theater.
“It’s a fully integrated set. We’re both going to be onstage all night, playing and singing on all my songs. I’ll sing on all his, and in some cases we even perform each other’s songs,” Taylor said during a call from Tulsa, Okla., where he and his father were rehearsing for the tour last month.
The 34-year-old shared how his dad prepared him for the music business.
“He said music is a blue-collar job; don’t get into this game thinking that it’s going to be easy. It’s going to be hard, hard work, and it’s going to require plenty of steadfast dedication to be able to make it,” Taylor said.
And what advice did he receive from his mom?
“She wrote me a book, like a songwriting instructional manual,” Taylor said and laughed. “She said it’s just like poker: Jacks are better to open; don’t start with a boring line.”
Not only is music in his DNA, Taylor’s environment was filled with it growing up.
“My parents’ music was always around being performed live, and we’d hear the stuff that was in the works. But also my parents both have very good taste in music,” he said. “My dad turned me on to Steely Dan and a lot of Frank Loesser show tunes, you know. We’d drive from New York to Connecticut and listen to ‘Guys and Dolls’ in the car and Cole Porter and Gershwin.
“My mother’s a big Gershwin fanatic, too, and Rodgers & Hammerstein and all those classic sort of old jazz standard songs. And also my mom turned me on to The Beatles and The Stones, and my dad turned me on to Howard Tate and Wilson Pickett and Otis Redding. So I love Motown; both my folks love Motown — Marvin Gaye, Al Green, Bill Withers.”
When he was a teen, he heard hip-hop
“When I was 14, that’s when The Roots came out with their first album, ‘Do You Want More?!!!??!’ And that completely blew my mind,” Taylor recalled. “Here’s these guys doing live hip-hop music, live drums and being so intelligent and so poetically inventive, so that sort of opened my eyes to what was going on in the urban music world.”
His forthcoming disc, “Listening,” features guest rappers.
“I’ve got John Forté on there a couple times, King James rapping with me, Jon Dolan on one track,” he said. “I collaborate with hip-hop musicians to whatever extent I can without feeling as though I’m being disingenuous. Obviously that’s not in my background, and I would have a hard time making a hip-hop album and being authentic about it.”
Taylor’s 2003 debut, “Famous Among the Barns,” featured folk and funk. On “Another Run Around the Sun” from 2005, he sounded a lot like his father with reflective, acoustic songs. And he mixed it together for “The Legend of Kung Folk: Part One (The Killing Bite)” in 2008.
“We’re living in a time now where 90 percent of the songs that you hear on the radio only have three or four chords in them. So I kind of go back and forth between these influences of early Rodgers & Hammerstein, really sophisticated music, and Wu-Tang Clan, which basically just plays the same two chords on a loop for an hour,” he said.
“I think there’s a lot to be said for both. There’s a lot to be said from not distracting from the lyrics with too much musicality, and there’s also a lot to be said for not distracting from the music with too much cognitive dissonance.”

For four years, former University of Toledo football star Chuck Ealey dominated the football field during an undefeated college career. Now he is using that success to help local youth gain an “undefeated spirit.”
Ealey was in Toledo on March 22 to receive a resolution from Toledo City Council honoring his work with the Chuck Ealey Foundation. The foundation is a nonprofit organization focused on establishing mentoring programs at local schools.
“I was raised by a single mom back in Portsmouth, and she always stressed the value of a good education,” Ealey said. “I am just trying to pass that message on to today’s youth.”

Ealey

The foundation has set up mentoring programs at the high school (St. John’s Jesuit) and elementary (Rosary Cathedral, Queen of Apostles, and Lake Erie Academy) levels in Toledo.
“The program is in its infancy stages, but we focus on pairing kids up with faculty members or other qualified individuals to be mentors to kids in their schools,” Ealey said.
The former Rocket said the idea for the program comes from his mentor, former baseball player Larry Hisle.
“Larry really took me under his wing when I was younger,” Ealey said. “He really helped me out with dealing with many things in life.”
While Toledo is not the first city to benefit from Ealey’s foundation (he also has started similar programs in schools in Mississauga, Ontario), he sees it as an opportunity to give back to his adopted hometown.
“Toledo has become my home away from home,” he said. “My wife is from Toledo, and so is her family. Plus I spent four great years here, so I needed to give back.
“It’s a duty to give back, period, and I really enjoy working with youths.”
Ealey’s message is simple: Get a good education.
“Today, kids are too focused on things that aren’t realistic,” he said. “They don’t realize that only a small fraction of people are ever good enough to make it professionally.”
Ealey talks about his own career in the Canadian Football League. While it was successful, the former quarterback only played for seven seasons.
“Once your career is over with, the question then becomes, ‘What do I have to fall back on?’”
Ealey said unfortunately, most haven’t thought that far ahead.
“There are so many issues that people aren’t equipped to deal with in their lives. How many of these former pro athletes are broke now?” he said. “An education is the foundation to being able to succeed, and that’s what our mentors try and stress to the kids.”
After his career, Ealey went on to become a successful financial adviser and motivational speaker, and he credits his education at UT with making that possible.
“I went to Toledo for a solid academic foundation first, and football just became a byproduct of me going to school there.”
While there are a limited number of students who could make use of Ealey’s program, he said he feels all kids could benefit from having a strong mentor.
“I think all kids are at risk without the right information. There are kids that show wonderful leadership qualities but without fostering them along, they could go in the wrong direction.”
Ealey has not forgotten his alma mater. He also announced that women’s basketball senior Melissa Goodall will receive the “Undefeated Spirit” Award for this season. It is an accolade that Ealey is proud to bestow upon a deserving student athlete at UT.
“The coaches send me candidates throughout the year on who they think could be a candidate. The student athlete must have a strong sense of team, an inspiring drive, a strong academic record and demonstrate a strong sense of family values as well.”
For all his off-the-field success, Ealey says he still is most recognized for his on-field performance. After compiling a 35-0 record at UT, he said fans still see his accomplishments as untouchable, even continuing to campaign for him to get in the College Football Hall of Fame.
“With me and with any athlete, sports are just one part of the backdrop to life. It’s not about the success you have, but it is about the significance your life can have on another’s life.”

Over the past couple of years, various prominent progressives have made Statements that betray their attitude towards Constitutional limits on power. For example:

• When asked to cite the Constitutional authority by which Congress could order Americans to purchase health insurance, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-California) replied, “Are you serious? Are you serious?” No citation given, because there is none; only incredulity that a commoner would dare ask her to provide one.
• Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) claimed on the House floor that it is unconstitutional to repeal Obamacare, because doing so violates the 5th and 14th amendment’s protections of life and due process. Too bad she doesn’t think those protections extend to the unborn, or to those to whom Obamacare would deny care on the grounds of economic viability. Less than two weeks later, federal judge Roger Vinson ruled that Obamacare itself was unconstitutional.
• Congressman Pete Stark (D-California) answered a question about the implications of passing Obamacare for limitations on federal government power to tell citizens what they can and can’t do by saying that there are “very few Constitutional limits that would prevent the federal government from rules (sic) that could affect your private life.” When reminded of the specific powers and limitations enumerated in the Constitution, this eighteen-term Congressman continued, “The federal government can do most anything in this country.” Constitutional limits on government? What rot.
• During a discussion of a potential shutdown of non-essential federal government services, Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) claimed, “We have three branches of government: We have a House, we have a Senate, and we have a President.”

Schumer’s disregard for the Supreme Court is amplified in President Obama’s actions concerning the Court and Constitutional limits on power. After publicly ridiculing the Supreme Court in last year’s State of the Union address, he responded to the Vinson ruling by continuing to implement Obamacare, despite the understanding that, when a lower court rules a law to be in violation of the supreme law of the land, the offending law stops dead in its tracks pending appeal. More recently, he deemed the federal statute defining marriage as being between man and woman unconstitutional and ordered Attorney General Eric Holder to stop enforcing it, even though authority to make such rulings rests solely with the courts.

Let that sink in for a moment. On the one hand, the President is defying Supreme Court rulings against his pet legislation; on the other, he is seizing the Court’s authority and making it his own to throw out laws he finds distasteful. This is as clear an usurpation of Constitutional checks and balances as the courts crafting legislation. (Oh, that’s right – that’s happening, too.) It also violates the Constitution in another regard; it completely disregards the Presidential Oath of Office, found in Article II Section 1: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Obama’s actions fail the Oath on all four counts – faithful execution of his office, and preserving, protecting and defending the Constitution that defines the duties and limits of his office – and they are tyrannical.

From Obama on down, each of these departures from Constitutional knowledge and limitations is as egregious and detrimental as any worker abandoning the standards of his or her trade – imagine a surgeon being this cavalier about medical practice! But they also reflect our national departure from common sense. The Constitution embodies fundamental principles that reflect a profoundly wise and logical understanding of the human condition, including notably our tendency towards aggrandizement. We love power, and the Constitution sets up an elegant system for limiting power. Yet these politicians are among those who view those checks as antiquated, part of a living document that must be changed, if not ignored outright, as the quest to enhance personal and governmental power may dictate.

While this essay is intended as an indictment of all politicians who place their addiction to power above the Constitution’s limits on power, it is even more an indictment of Americans who, due to ignorance, blind passion or mere apathy, have enabled these tyrants to win office, and who tolerate the failure or our schools to faithfully and accurately teach civics and American history. If you think the examples I’ve cited pose a danger to your liberty, as I hope you do, I guarantee that the next crop of progressives will be even worse unless we, the people, begin casting educated and informed votes.

Thomas Berry, for the Children of Liberty, www.meetup.com/The-children-of-liberty.

Dear Lauri,
I dreamed last night that these people and I were stuffed in to an old, run down trailer. They were all whispering and staring at me. Then I saw my bf walk into another room with someone else. I tried to reach out for him but when I did he burst into flames and everything got pitch black and I started falling. I woke up right before I hit what looked like rocks. Lucky, I was sleeping on the floor or I might have fallen out of bed! – Nicole 22, Lewisberry, PA

Lauri: Now why in the world were you sleeping on the floor, young lady? Interesting dream. How are things with you and your boyfriend? Do you feel the relationship, or at least some element of it, is getting old and run down like the trailer? All the people stuffed into it suggest the relationship is stuffed full of issues, not leaving enough room for just you and him. It is very interesting that he burst into flames. Did he have a sudden burst of anger recently? Did he exhibit a fiery temper at you? I think the end of the dream shows us that you fear you two may wind up “on the rocks” as they say… or that the relationship has hit “rock bottom.” If you can’t find a figure of speech in your dream, you have found the message!

Nicole replies: We have a lot of issues right now, mostly trust issues. We almost broke up Sunday. It was horrible. I felt like my whole world was coming to an end. He was going to leave without even talking to me and we fought until he found out I was telling the truth. But he still is being distant to me. And we sleep on the floor because we can’t afford a new bed! Ha ha.

Lauri Quinn Loewenberg is a certified Dream Analyst, author of “Dream On It” and member of The International Association for the Study of Dreams. She joins The Kiss Morning Show on 92.5 every Tuesday morning at 7:10 analyzing listeners’ dreams. You can visit Lauri at www.thedreamzone.com