Ha Ha Tonka

Ha Ha Tonka stayed true to its Ozarks roots on its third album, “Death of a Decade,” recording the record in a 200-year-old barn.

“We did our first record in an old church and our second record in an old building in downtown St. Louis,” lead singer and guitarist Brian Roberts said. “We like to record in different places, because it gives a different vibe to the music and you get different sounds from different rooms. Some friends of ours recorded at this studio and they were just raving about it. It was something we wanted to try out, and luckily it was a great experience.”

The barn has been converted into a recording studio, but it still offered unique sounds and situations.

“There are no sound isolation booths in this barn,” Roberts said. “When you’re doing an acoustic guitar track, you’re just sitting at the kitchen table with a couple microphones set up all around in a huge 40-foot room. People are making sandwiches around you.”

The title “Death of a Decade” isn’t a reference to the end of any specific decade.

“It can mean a few different things,” Roberts said. “We discovered we always end up with an alliterative album title. We like to keep that going. The title song is about how every decade, there’s always a pop  icon or political figure or someone meets an untimely end. It was JFK in the 60s, Elvis in the 70s, John Lennon in the 80s and Kurt Cobain in the 90s.”

Roberts said he is fascinated by the way the public reacts to these types of deaths.

“We kind of project ourselves onto these figures for better or worse,” he said. “When they die young, it seems to take them to another level in our collective opinions. We tried to explore that theme.”

The new album has received positive critical reception from publications such as Huffington Post and Spin. The Washington Post compared Ha Ha Tonka favorably to Mumford & Sons, saying it “tears at the heart of American roots music with every chord like Mumford only pretends to.”

“I like them as a band,” Roberts said. “With the Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons and Wilco, the fact that their records and songs can be on major FM stations is great. The fact that we get compared to bands like that is not bothering me one bit.”

One advantage Ha Ha Tonka has over Mumford and Sons is the band’s use of four-part harmonies.

“It’s time consuming sometimes, because it’s not easy to do,” Roberts said. “It’s something we enjoy, because it raises our energy level on stage and that is reciprocated by the audience. It’s something that we not only enjoy to do but it also helps the show.”

It’s no surprise they are able to harmonize so well considering Roberts has known drummer Lennon Bone and bassist Luke Long since grade school in Springfield, Mo. The band also includes Brett Anderson on keyboard and guitar. Roberts and Long attended Missouri State University together and formed the group Amsterband. They played local parties and bars and released two albums.

“Why does anybody want to start a band?” Roberts said. “We wanted to play parties and have a little bit of an adventure.”

Whether in Ha Ha Tonka or Amsterband, Roberts has always been heavily influenced by the Ozarks.

“It permeates every aspect of our band, our sound and who we are because that’s where we grew up,” Roberts said. “We can’t run away from that. We try to harness that and use it. The Ozarks are really underrated. Appalachia gets so much attention for its musical heritage, but the Ozarks can definitely hold its own.”

Ha Ha Tonka will bring its Ozarks sound to Toledo on Sept. 30 at Frankie’s Inner City along with Frank & Jesse and Jack & The Bear. Doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are available for $8 in advance and $10 at the door. Frankie’s is located at 308 Main St.

“This is our first time playing in Toledo,” Roberts said. “We’re just having a good time out here on the road. The tour has been wonderful.”

Despite a last-minute attempt to not board the bus on the first day of school, Elaine, my unsure-about-school kindergartner, actually settled in quite nicely to her new routine. After five days or so of waiting for the other shoe to drop, however, the other shoe dropped. As the novelty of school wore off and the strain of a very long school day wore on, our semi-pleasant mornings turned into battlegrounds and trails of tears.
After somehow managing to extract Elaine from the comforts of our happy home each morning, my own tears of guilt, exhaustion and the plain and simple empty-heart feeling of missing my middle child each day would flow. We worked through the separation anxiety and the days eventually improved enough to settle into a manageable place. As Elaine’s tears dried, so did mine.

Between the flurry of beginning-of-the-school-year activity and struggling to adjust to my mind and my heart being two different places at once, that first month of school was an all-consuming blur. When the smoke cleared, I came face to face with my next adjustment: seven hours a day alone with just my 2-year-old, Lucy. Considering Lucy’s personality, I assumed I would be just as busy at home with one as I was with two or three. I figured Lucy would either keep me on my toes with mishaps and toddler tantrums or constantly request replacement entertainment when her best buddies went off to school each day.
To my surprise, neither has occurred. My climb-to-the-highest-height, put-the-closest-dangerous-object-directly-in-your-mouth kid is suddenly content to quietly play on the floor by herself. Some book reading here and there, a couple of games and the occasional cuddle in mom’s lap suits my littlest one’s daily needs just fine. I’m just not sure what to do about it.
Do I keep my household chores and personal interests on the back burner? Do I come up with a seven-hour toddler activity schedule? Or, do I actually take the time to sit down for an hour, put my feet up and watch an episode of Bravo’s flavor of the day?
I happen to be of the mindset that my mothering obligations do not include being an all-day playmate or even a cruise director. Yet, now that I find myself actually having the time to even perform such activities, all of those parenting magazines begging me to do so are gnawing at the back of my mind. Whenever I begin to feel like I should be spending even more time playing Candy Land, I think of  a quote I once read from actress Patricia Heaton: “I don’t remember my mother ever playing with me. And she was a perfectly good mother. But she had to do the laundry and clean the house and do the grocery shopping.”
To me, that is a perfectly good mother and I now actually have a child who is content to happily follow me around as I perform my household duties. As nice as it feels to not have to battle my way to beds that are made, laundry that is clean and dishes that are done, the idea of just enjoying my barrier-free day of homemaking is still something I’m struggling to get used to. It has become apparent that my 5-year-old’s difficulty adjusting to new situations comes from yours truly.
Just as I’m questioning whether I struck a decent balance of household chores, mother/daughter time and “Millionaire Matchmaker” each day, my older two come home from school bringing with them a fresh bundle of chaos. After some hugs, kisses and school day summaries, the loud household unrest I have become so accustomed to returns and reminds me that a few hours of peace, quiet and sweet freedom may not be the most difficult of hurdles to overcome. I just need to relax and enjoy the run.

Email Shannon Szyperski at letters@toledofreepress.com.

Talking with Lisa Lampanelli was shocking. The “Queen of Mean” was … nice. Really.
Maybe it’s because the insult comic, who referred to her past with black men as her chocolate diet, is mellowing as her one-year wedding anniversary approaches.
Or maybe it’s because she’s super-busy; there’s talk of reality TV, Broadway.
Maybe she just is nice.
“Sometimes people go, ‘Wow, she likes the people she makes fun of,’ ” Lampanelli said. “Honestly, I make fun of all the groups that I have fondness for — every race, creed and color.
“Don’t do a lot of French jokes because I’m not crazy about them,” she said and laughed. “If you make fun of one person, you better get them all because it’s equal opportunity.”

Lampanelli

The woman known for in-your-face humor recalled her early days of comedy.
“I got my first laugh when I was 8, but I didn’t have the guts to try [stand-up] until I was in my 20s,” she said during a call from her New York home. “I wasn’t technically class clown, but come on — I’m definitely funnier than that little bitch who won it. So I think you know it but are too scared to try it.”
That laugh when she was 8? It’s a story in her 2009 book, “Chocolate, Please: My Adventures in Food, Fat and Freaks.”
“It was a horrible, stupid joke,” Lampanelli said. “I’m at the dinner table with all my family and my relatives, and there used to be a store — Macy’s used to be called Macy’s and Bamberger’s — so I called it Macy’s and Hamburger’s on purpose, but they thought it was a joke; they thought it was me getting it wrong.
“And I was like, God, I’m so cool because I just manipulated these a-hole relatives of mine into thinking I was stupid, and I got a big laugh. And, of course, I said it again; it got nothing.
“And I learned you cannot milk a joke. Don’t even do it; you’re not even cute enough at 8 to get away with the same joke twice.”
She is hoping Logo laughs at the pilot for “Big Loud Lisa.”
“It’s a reality show. Initially, it was going to be about me and my husband, Jimmy, but we found our married life is completely boring because we don’t fight a lot,” Lampanelli said. “So instead we kind of shifted the focus to what is really going on, which is I’m making this crossover from being an insult comic to developing this Broadway show.”
The 50-year-old is writing a one-woman show for Broadway with Alan Zweibel, one of the original writers from “Saturday Night Live” who worked with Billy Crystal on “700 Sundays.”
“A working title is ‘Bring Back the Fat Chick’ because it’s a story that’s in the show. I always think it’s pretty provocative to put the word fat in a title because fat seems to be the last curse word we really have because women would rather be called the c-word than be called fat,” Lampanelli said.
The response to her book inspired her to keep writing.
“A lot of people read my book and were saying they learned a lot about themselves through it because it’s a lot about insecurities and co-dependence, food and men, and weight issues and self-image, and I loved that response.
“And I also loved that they saw that through the humor. So you don’t have to not be funny to make a point,” she said. “Just because it has a little message in there about liking yourself and working on yourself, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to make it some stoic drama; it’s going to be really funny. It’s going to be something that people can see themselves in, too.”
Fans can catch Lampanelli at 8 p.m. Oct. 8 at Stranahan Theater. Tickets are $34.75 for the show for mature audiences only.
“They can still expect the same Lisa without the same jokes; I’d say 90 percent of the stuff I’m doing now hasn’t been on TV before,” she said. “There’s so much in daily life that you can make fun of and be angry with.”

In our June 24 Toledo Free Press column, we asked the question, “Will history repeat itself?” The purpose of that question was to make sure our readers looked at having an exit strategy in place for the next stock the stock market sell-off. Little did we know at that time the sell-off would start in only a few short weeks. The other goal of that column was to stress the importance of running the fire safety drill while everything was going good, so an investor could avoid a panic situation. For investors without a clear and well understood plan, the sell-off recently in the stock market could be very concerning. That leads us up to today, as I now ask the same question, will history repeat itself?
First, let us go over the good facts. For our research, we will use the S&P 500 as our point of reference. This is an unmanaged index of 500 stocks and we feel it is a pretty good reflection of the U.S. stock market. “In the last 20 years (1991-2010), the S&P 500 stock index has gained more on a total return basis during the 4th quarter (i.e., October-November-December) than it has during the other 3 quarters combined. The final 3 months of the year have gained +150.9 percent (total return) vs. a gain of +129.2 percent for the first 9 months of the year over the last 2 decades. The 6-month period from November 1 to April 30 for the S&P 500 has produced nearly 8 times as much total return as the 6-month period from May 1 to Oct. 31 since 1990. The index has gained +344% in the (November-April) period vs. +45% in the (May-October) period. The best monthly performance on a total return basis for the S&P 500 during the last decade (2001-2010) has occurred in April, October or November in nine of the 10 years.” (source: BTN Research).

Next, an investor should consider how the stock market has done in the third year of the presidential cycle. “2011 is the 3rd year of the current presidential cycle (2009-12). The last time any “3rd presidential year” resulted in a negative total return for the S&P 500 was 1939 or 72 years ago (source: BTN Research). Using these facts, if history repeats itself or even rhymes, there could be some great opportunities in the stock market during the next few months.
The bad news is, poof, it’s gone. Traditional buy and hold investing, which for many investors didn’t work out well in the last decade, may not be working this decade either. The S&P 500 index opened this decade at a price of 1,116 and grew to a decade high of 1,363 on April 29, 2011. Then in only a few short weeks, the entire decade’s return in the S&P 500 Index disappeared when for a moment during the day on September 22nd the S&P was at 1,114. To make matters worse The S&P 500 closed Sept. 23 at 1,136, down 9.6 percent YTD (total return). Last week’s closing value is 27.4 percent less than the index’s all-time closing high of 1565 which was set on Oct. 9, 2007 or almost four years ago.
Other signs that point to importance of active money management are the rise in volatility, the TED spread, and the recession probability indicator. Volatility increases when stock prices go up and down rapidly over short periods of time which is what we have seen in the last several weeks, in our opinion this points to higher risk.
Next, as the Ted Spread rises, which it has been doing lately, it creates additional concern for us because it points to lenders believing the risk of defaults is increasing. The recession probability indicator attempts to measure the risk of heading into another recession. In August, it was at 38.74 and it jumped to 46.19 in September, which is one of the largest jumps since 2007. Although no one can predict the stock market, as more signs point to increased risk it points out the need to be prepared.
As we head into the month of October, I’m reminded of an old episode of Scooby-Doo, where Shaggy said, “Hold on man. We don’t go anywhere with ‘scary,’ ‘spooky,’ ‘haunted’ or ‘forbidden’ in the title.” All of those terms could be used to describe the stock market and the economy right now. Yet, for the informed investor, who is able to remove their emotions when it comes to investing, looking at history several opportunities and risk are apparent.
The goal would be to identify and take advantage of opportunities and reduce or eliminate risk. Remember by having a plan in place, it will help remove the emotions of investing, and once you have a plan in place you really shouldn’t be too worried right now. Investors who don’t feel they have a solid plan in place, take this time to get inspired, seek knowledge, take action and aim for success.

For more information about The Retirement Guys, tune in every Saturday at 1 p.m. on 1370 WSPD or visit www.retirementguys.com.  Securities and Investment Advisory Services are offered through NEXT Financial Group Inc., Member FINRA / SIPC.  NEXT Financial Group, Inc nor its representatives provide tax advice.  The Retirement Guys are not an affiliate of NEXT Financial Group. The office is at 1700 Woodlands Drive, Suite 100, Maumee, OH 43537. (419) 842-0550.

The 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, dominated the news a few weeks ago, but true to the nature of news, we have moved on to car bombs, arson and “gay isn’t a gift from God” billboards.
In the Sept. 11 issue of Toledo Free Press, I discussed the satirical online newspaper The Onion and its “funny” take on the terrorist attacks and how humor sometimes allows us to heal.
The Onion famously poked fun at Sept. 11 with stories that included “Not Knowing What Else To Do, Woman Bakes American-Flag Cake,” “U.S. Vows to Defeat Whoever It Is We’re At War With” and “Rest of Country Temporarily Feels Deep Affection for New York.”
And a lot of people loved The Onion for giving them permission to laugh again.
But one online reader did not think The Onion was funny. He believes the most appropriate coverage includes stories of respect and honor, something Toledo Free Press did in its commemorative issue. He did not think my column’s reference to The Onion was necessary.

Toledo Free Press reader Master Sgt. Jason Kraemer, who I knew many years ago, wrote to me from his home in Virginia.
“I was quite disappointed in any humor found in that day. I was deployed to Prince Sultan Air Base Saudi Arabia. I had just been released from an 18 hour shift when I was brushing my teeth and was getting ready for bed. I witnessed the second plane striking Tower 2. I looked at my RED phone and it rang. I had to report right back to work. I spent the next 12 hours launching F-15 aircraft, not knowing what mission we were performing or supporting.”
Kraemer, who graduated from Maumee High School in 1997, said he is not asking people to relish 9/11; he just wants them to understand that the military has never rested since that day.
“I am offended when people make light of 9/11. That day will always serve as a day when I FAILED! I speak only for myself. 9/11 will always remind me that I can never fail again.”
Kraemer finished by saying, “I understand you are a reporter, and report only the news. I just needed to get that out.”
Kraemer makes a good point, but as a reporter I also need to get this out. Just as your job is to keep us safe, some people work to make us laugh after unspeakable tragedy. The reference to The Onion was to remind us that laughing is some people’s only way to fight, although I certainly value the way you fight. Sometimes we need both.

To ask a question, send a letter to Community Ombudsman, c/o Brandi Barhite, at 605 Monroe St., Toledo, OH 43605, email bbarhite@toledofreepress.com or contact her through www.facebook.com/toledofreepress and www.twitter.com/toledofreepress.

Fred Altvater

LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan received his Christmas and Birthday  presents all rolled up into one tidy little package named Alexis Thompson. Lexi is exactly what the LPGA needs. She is a serious, talented and fresh young golfer with a game to back up her great style.

Neither Christie Kerr, Paula Creamer, Michelle Wie nor Morgan Pressel have been able to fill the void left with the early retirements of Annika Sorenstam and Lorena Ochoa to raise families. Yani Tseng has dominated the LPGA for the last two seasons, but to recoup big corporate dollars the tour needs a dominant American player.

In 2007, at age 12, Lexi became the youngest woman to ever qualify for the U. S. Women’s Open. She turned professional at age 15 and two weeks ago became the youngest winner ever on the LPGA Tour by capturing first place at the Navistar LPGA Classic.

The LPGA does not allow membership under the age of 18, but Thompson successfully petitioned the LPGA to allow her to enter Q School in July. She shot four rounds in the 60s and blew away the entire field at first stage of LPGA Q School by 10 shots.

There won’t be any main street cruising, Friday night football games or high school proms for the 17-year-old. She will receive full membership and playing privileges on the LPGA Tour for 2012.  

Lexi has the game, charm and style to help launch the LPGA back to prominence. 

All she has to do is “Just Win Baby.”

Tim Higgins

The President is out on the political stump, raising money for his upcoming re-election bid and pushing for quick passage of another Stimulus package. It’s a package that has yet to be scored by the CBO to discover its true cost, needs its accounting examined closely to determine how money that we weren’t going to spend in the Middle East anyway can be counted as ‘savings’, or even officially submitted to either House of Congress.   In the spirit of full disclosure, I must point out that it’s I and not the President who’s calling it a Stimulus package, under the ‘looks and quacks like a duck postulate’.

Setting aside some of the nonsensical rhetoric designed to stir up his political base in an election run-up, let’s turn instead to the general principles of government spending as imposed onto the national economy, with reason to challenge some of the propaganda being passed out for these ‘props’ to various parts of the economy.

So for example, government can prop up the price of corn or wheat with subsidies in order to allow a farmer to sell his crops at a higher rate, allowing him to spend the rewards he reaps on things to stimulate the economy. When you do, however, the price of each product of which these grains are a part also increases. Everything from bread to animal feed goes up, and food becomes less affordable. Money spent on higher food prices by taxpayers contributing to these props takes away that they could have used on other things, and the economy stagnates.

Now that you understand the general principles involved, let’s get more specific with the plan proposed…

Government can cut Social Security taxes deducted from the paychecks of workers, but doing so will mean that a program already all but bankrupt will have even less money coming in.  When it runs out (soon), funding for the program will likely need to come either from government borrowing money and paying more in interest on its debt or be confiscated from taxpayers in increased taxes. Both functionally give them less to spend, negating the principle and causing the economy to stagnate.

Government could waive payroll taxes to businesses that hire new workers, but such a waiver will be far more temporary than the long-term cost of the employee hired. A stagnant economy (created by the previously mentioned effort), has no need of the goods or services that such a new employee would provide anyway, which will means they will likely drain such  businesses to the point failure and place a greater burden on the economy. Meanwhile, the waived taxes will further add to the national debt, to the borrowing thereby required, and to the interest on that debt, causing the economy to stagnate.

Government could prop up the condition of the nation’s infrastructure with construction projects. Setting aside their necessity, however, the insistence of that same government that such construction be done by union laborers or at pay rates consistent with such labor means that these projects will be more expensive. More expensive projects mean that fewer of them can be done with the available capital. Not only will less of the threatened danger (real or imagined) be averted, but fewer workers will be employed by such projects and less of the taxpayer money invested will be returned to the economy as a consequence. Instituting such projects will also mean that the nation will be borrowing even more money and more will be paid on that debt’s interest, causing the economy to stagnate.

Sure, the government can raise taxes on those making over $250,000 per year to prop up funding for all of the other props they’re attempting to create, and since the IRS is not an agency to trifle with, all will pay them. Warren Buffet and Ron Howard tell us that these ‘exceptionally rich’ will in fact be more than willing to pay it. (Strange, since they have spent great sums in the past to minimize their tax burdens and refuse to voluntarily contribute in spite of being able to do so.) Of course, most of those nearer the $250K level are more likely to be those who pay their corporate taxes as individuals. Such tax increases will therefore likely mean that they will either not be able to afford to buy things either for themselves or that would allow them to expand their businesses and hire people. (Though in fairness, no one will be able to afford the things that their companies can’t provide anyway; which I suppose makes the whole thing alright.) The result again is an economy that remains stagnate.

It seems the economy might be better served with less government props and even less government propaganda.

Hollywood Casino Toledo will begin accepting applications Sept. 30 for hundreds of dealer positions to be available at the nearly completed business. About 1,200 openings are expected and applications will be evaluated in the order they are received.
Applicants for the dealer positions must meet the minimum requirements for employment, which are:

• Must be 21 years of age
• Must have a high school diploma or equivalent
• Must be able to work flexible hours, including nights, weekends and holidays
• Must submit to and pass a drug test and background check
• Must commit to at least five weeks of training for 20 hours per week

“First and foremost, individuals who are skilled in working with people will have a significant edge,” said General Manager Richard St. Jean in a news release. “Those that thrive in a dealer position tend to be outgoing, friendly and enjoy providing the highest level of guest service.”

Richard St. Jean: "It's coming along quickly ... it's just spectacular."

Penn National Gaming, developer of the $300 million casino, has pledged to hire 90 percent of the casino’s work force from the local area.
Chrystal Herndon, Vice President of Human Resources, said the level of interest is expected to be high.
“We are extremely excited to begin the process of recruiting fellow Toledoans for our team, and are prepared for what we expect will be a tremendous interest from the community for these positions,” Herndon said.
The full-service casino, located on the Maumee River opposite Downtown Toledo at 1968 Miami St., is slated to include about 2,000 slot machines, 60 table games, a poker room with 20 tables in 125,000 square feet of gaming space, a fine dining steakhouse and piano bar, buffet, sports bar, casual grill and a live entertainment lounge.
Candidates can elect to attend a voluntary dealer school starting Oct. 31 through Owens Community College, where they will be trained how to oversee all types of table games from blackjack and roulette to craps and poker. Individuals that excel may be tapped for supervisory roles. Applicants accepted for the dealer school will not be paid for taking the classes and are not Hollywood Casino Toledo employees. Those who successfully complete dealer school must obtain their license from the State of Ohio before they become Hollywood Casino employees.
For more information or to fill out the online application, visit the website hollywoodcasinotoledo.com.
— Sarah Ottney
Executive hires
As Hollywood Casino Toledo continues to grow, so does its executive staff. General Manager Richard St. Jean has expanded the executive roster to five, gathering experienced employees from across the country.
Mike Galle has been named assistant general manager after serving as vice president of casino operations at Penn National Gaming’s Riverside property in Kansas City, Mo.
Jeffrey Goodman will become the vice president of casino operations after a 24-year career in the gaming industry.
The new vice president of finance, John McLaughlin, was an independent gaming industry consultant before joining Hollywood Casino Toledo.
Jason Birney takes over as the vice president of marketing after spending the past two and a half years in Bangor, Maine, as the director of marketing at Hollywood Slots.
Taking the post as vice president of human resources will be Chrystal Herndon, who joins the staff from a position at Wynn Resorts in Las Vegas.
— Zach Davis

Approaching the turn to 45, my definition of “adventure” has changed dramatically. That word used to include a variety of self-indulgent, reckless, crazy, death-defying, spit-in-the-devil’s-face-to-watch-the-spit-sizzle double-dog dares. Now, an adventure centers around family activities, like loading the kids in the minivan and going to the park, where words like reckless and death-defying are banned and the lay of the land is far too humdrum for the devil to bother noticing.
So when a friend embarks on an adventure I wouldn’t dream of undertaking, it’s an opportunity to live vicariously through his experiences.
I met Micah Rubin about a decade ago, when he interned with me at a publication whose name never made my resume. Rubin is a tall, thin, almost always smiling man with a sharp wit, talent for photography and a healthy, moderate perspective on life. He has been a constant friend as the decade rolled by, even as his path took him to pursue journalism in the big, bad city of New York.
I love talking to Rubin, hearing about Manhattan and his adventures at the national magazines he has worked for. When my family visited Manhattan for the first time, Rubin was our patient tour guide and walkin’ dude. He took my wife and me to a rooftop hotel across from the Empire State Building, for a spectacular, non-touristy view of that incomparable structure.

Recently, when Rubin told me he and his girlfriend Joanie were quitting their Manhattan jobs to take a nearly eight-month hiking trip across Southeast Asia, my response was, “@#$& you!” Who gets to walk away from their Manhattan job and loft, put their arm around their hottie girlfriend and take off for a long walk across Asia? Who gets to do that?
My friend Micah Rubin does. That’s why I love him.
Rubin is, of course, naturally, it goes without saying, chronicling his adventure on a blog, http://bucketbath.travellerspoint.com. Tracking two vegetarians hiking their way through the lands of pork and shrimp is a great way to stretch one’s virtual adventure muscles.
Rubin, on the great adventure: “I’m looking forward to the blank slate ahead of us. The pit in the stomach after arriving in a new city, no reservation … not knowing where we’re headed or where exactly we’ll end up. It’s human, elemental survival: struggling to find ourselves amidst the swirl of the new, unknown, explored, but not by us. There’s a new person on the other side of this abyss, the most beautiful, alluring, humbling place one could be and I look forward to meeting him (and her).”
Rubin, on jogging through Tiananmen Square: “I continued north, crossing the street, past vendors selling kites strung up a hundred feet into the air, boiled corn, dumplings and Chairman Mao curios … through the security checkpoint into Tiananmen Square … past the imposing structure of Mao’s tomb, north to the gates of the Forbidden City, where kings ruled for ages. I continued south, past the National Performance Center, a modernist orb shaped like a hard-boiled egg that’s been sliced in half.
The air was a choking paste, but I kept going.”
Rubin, on the Great Wall of China: “At the ends of both sides of the Mutianyu section was a sign that said ‘do not pass.’ But for us, that’s only an invitation for adventure so we walked past the barrier and climbed the stairs. The Wall continued for another quarter-mile or so until falling into disrepair: collapsed guard towers, pathways overgrown with trees and bushes, loose stones and crumbling ramparts. I felt transported to another time, humbled and amazed at the skill and perseverance of the Wall’s builders — and waited for an ancient soldier to materialize from the chalky mountain mist.”
Rubin, on nearly breaking an ankle and visiting a Chinese hospital: “In a way, hospitals represent a country’s benchmark of the population’s health. This hospital was similar to others I’ve visited: bleak white walls stained with dirt, cigarette burns on the floor and lacking that antiseptic cleanliness that makes us squirm. Despite the unpleasantness of the hospital’s atmosphere, I was impressed by the service. Maybe foreigners are treated better or the hospital wanted to show off their (and China’s) high standard of care.”
Rubin, on cuisine in Luoyong, China (complete with colorful pictures): “Adventurous eaters beware — we might have met your match in Luoyong, China. Heart? Frog? Bugs? We weren’t quite sure what they were …”
I’m having a great time seeing China through Rubin’s eyes, and look forward to hearing about more when he returns. But his current adventure shares a characteristic with his city of Manhattan: it’s a nice place to visit, but at this point in my life, I wouldn’t want to live there.

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

In a pure scenario, athletes would play and win games without influence or interference from officials and referees. But officiating — and officiating mistakes — have been a part of sports culture since the first nearsighted caveman put on a zebra skin and merged his cranium with his lower intestines.
But our University of Toledo Rockets faced an on-field injustice that set a new low for botched calls.

As any pigskin fan knows by now, UT’s opponent, Syracuse, scored a late-game touchdown that was followed by a missed extra point attempt. Except the officials on the field ruled the kick good and — even more mystifyingly — a replay official who had access to the game film also ruled it good.
That decision, which gave Syracuse a three-point lead instead of a two-point lead, surprised even the Big East announcers covering the game, who were clear and vocal that the kick missed its mark. When all was said and done, a game UT should have won by a point was lost in an overtime that never should have occurred.
There are those who argue that UT could have done this or could have done that on the field to prevent being in a situation where a blown call decided the game, but that does not address the reality of what happened.
Subsequently, UT coach Tim Beckman, backed by Athletic Director Mike O’Brien, sought an appeal or a reversal of the game’s outcome. That was not going to happen, but kudos to them for standing up for their program and their student athletes by trying.
But the mystery here is why they had to ask at all. Once the Big East officials made a public statement that the call was a mistake, why wouldn’t Syracuse and its Big East officials take the initiative to make things right by vacating the “victory”? What example does the college and its conference set for its students by slinking away in silence instead of being proactive and refusing to settle for a stolen win? Maybe that’s endemic of a conference that has allowed a half-dozen schools to leave for greener pastures.
It may be just a game, but it was an opportunity for a life lesson the not so Big East let slip away.

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