Doritos tacos aren’t the only exclusive in the fast-food industry around Toledo. On Oct. 15, Rally’s unveiled its new image at 5855 W. Central Ave., the first store in the nation with the new look.
“We are excited,” Rally’s Vice President of Company Operations Marc Mediate said. “This is our first Rally’s restaurant that will be getting the new imaging process. It’s a whole facelift for our brand, especially our Rally’s brand, which is 26 years old.”
The company chose Toledo because of the success that Rally’s has had during the past three to four years in the area.
“We selected Toledo because it is one of our strongest markets in the company and it has been for many years now,” Mediate said. “We selected West Central Avenue because it is high-visibility and the trade area around here.
“We thought it was a great site to get started with as we move forward through these redesigns. We are always reinvesting into our business, including the technology and all of the equipment. Now it is time to bring the outside facilities up to that same level.”

The first 100 people in line Oct. 15 won free french fries for one year.

The new building has a checkerboard design of white, black and red squares. It also has added a stainless-steel exterior as well as neon lighting.
Rally’s celebrated the opening by giving away free fries for a year to the first 100 customers to arrive.
Remaining customers attending later received free fries for the remainder of the weekend.
“They are excited,” Mediate said. “The cool thing is we have people out in [cold] weather with the wind today. Just to bear through that to get fries for the rest of the year just speaks volumes of the product. When people think of Rally’s/Checker’s, the first thing they always mention is the fries, which are our signature product.
“We are very proud of them as well as the rest of the menu.”
With the success of the Toledo market, Mediate expects Rally’s to continue to expand around the area. In fact, Rally’s Chief Development Officer Jennifer Durham expects the company to double the growth in its market over the next few years.
“This is just the beginning for us,” Mediate said. “We are proud of the Toledo market and we want to continue not only to redesign but to identify trade areas so that we can bring more restaurants to our fans here and across the country.”

Owens Corning (OC) was recognized by Home Depot with its Environmental Partner of the Year Award, the only company to earn that distinction in 2011.
The award is based on Home Depot’s Supplier Social and Environmental Responsibility program, which ensures that its suppliers adhere to the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility.
The standards of behavior relate to workplace and employment conditions as well as environmental, health and safety practices, according to the company.
“Owens Corning rose above our dedicated group of suppliers with its ongoing commitment to sustainability, safety and reducing their environmental footprint,” Ron Jarvis, senior vice president of Home Depot EcoOptions stated in a news release.
“This award also recognizes the positive difference EcoTouch Insulation makes for Home Depot customers and associates,” he said.
Jarvis addressed company officials and suppliers at a recent awards ceremony, citing how Owens Corning has raised the sustainability bar by setting 2020 goals for product life-cycle assessments and reductions in energy, greenhouse gas, water, toxic emissions, particulate matter and waste-to-landfill measures.

Gale Tedhams of Owens Corning with EcoTouch insulatIon.

“It’s an honor for Owens Corning to be recognized with this award. This validation will encourage us to keep striving to improve our efforts each year,” said Frank O’Brien-Bernini, vice president and chief sustainability officer at Owens Corning.
EcoTouch became the first fiberglass insulation to be certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a bio-based product. The certification is part of a new USDA labeling initiative to identify products with ingredients made from renewable plant materials.
“EcoTouch Insulation and Home Depot will continue to be a successful combination for homeowners across the country,” Chuck Dana, group president of building materials for Owens Corning stated in the news release.
“Our goal is to deliver Home Depot’s customers the benefits of our relentless pursuit to insulate homes and buildings in the most environmentally sustainable and efficient ways,” he stated.
Owens Corning is working with Home Depot to promote its sustainable products that qualify for LEED for Homes, ENERGYSTAR and other green building programs, according to Gale Tedhams, director of sustainability, green products and communications at Owens Corning.
OC increased the recycled content in its EcoTouch Insulation from 50 to 65 percent, Tedhams said.
Earlier this month, Owens Corning Roofing established a strategic alliance with Earth911 Inc. to expand shingle recycling opportunities for contractors and consumers. Earth911 is the host of the largest single recycling directory in North America.
OC Roofing established the nation’s first shingle recycling program in 2009 in alliance with Heritage Environmental Services. Since its inception, the program has recycled more than 80,000 tons of asphalt shingles, which is equivalent to saving 80,000 barrels of oil, according to the company.
In September, Owens Corning and Solexel received $13 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for projects that will help shape the next generation of solar energy technologies. The grant is part of the DOE’s SunShot Initiative that seeks to make solar energy systems more affordable and sustainable for homeowners.
The funding provides an opportunity to integrate Solexel’s solar technology with OC’s roofing expertise into solar roofing solutions that are affordable, aesthetically attractive and easy to install.
Owens Corning is a producer of commercial and residential building materials, glass-fiber reinforcements and engineered materials for composite systems. It has been a Fortune 500 company for 57 consecutive years.
The Toledo-based company reported sales of $5 billion in 2010 with approximately 15,000 employees in 28 countries on five continents. For more information, visit  www.owenscorning.com.

Congress and the White House long ago turned over much of the control given to it to the agencies it created through misguided or malevolent legislation. As a consequence, it’s the Federal Reserve, the EPA, Homeland Security and the rest that have far more to say about how we live our lives than those we voted for.

A few of the Occupy protestors are beginning to recognize this (unlike their progressive counterparts at the demonstrations or those in Congress for that matter) and that much of the problem being faced today is a result not of the capitalism some demonize, but of the interference of these agencies known as crony-capitalism. Thanks to the cumulative effect of years of increasing regulation perpetrated by both parties in Congress and the White House on this nation, this cronyism has finally begun to undermine the very structure of the U.S. economy. Many of these protestors know that something is fundamentally and terribly wrong, but years of faulty education and self-esteem enhancing psychology have left them with poor target identification and worse crisis resolution skills.

While mostly still focused on taxes as an all consuming passion, some in the TEA Party movements are likewise beginning to see who it is that really pulls the strings on both sides of the aisle. Without losing their anger over taxes, they see that returning to a government stripped of its mountain of bureaucracy and limited by the Constitution is their last and best hope of survival. Increasingly disgusted with those who define themselves as Republicans as well as Democrats, they are beginning to truly understand both the dysfunction of the current two party system and their own potential power to change things.

The air is still now as the Occupy movement attempts to discover (much like the TEA Parties did a couple of years ago) how much of its movement will survive. With the onset of cold, what part of it will seek more comfortable forms of protest and which will remain? In its attempts to maintain its leaderless nature, what part will unconsciously take up the responsibility that becomes leadership without thinking? In the current confusion of goals (let alone how to achieve them), what will emerge as it settles on? And with the onset of another election next month and 13 months until the next major election, one cannot help but wonder what impact Occupy will have. More importantly, one might wonder if between these two movements, a perfect storm might be starting to form on the horizon.

As improbable as it seems, what might happen if the best and brightest parts of the TEA Party and Occupy movements were to stand together for a truly fair tax system, for an end to corporate tax loop holes and subsidies and for an end likewise to the titular privilege of national legislators who write one set of rules for the rest of us and another for themselves, while abandoning their responsibilities to an unelected bureaucracy? What changes might they look to in an education system which has become far too expensive to provide to the very young and far too expensive for those older to purchase for themselves; especially when gaining such education proves of so little value in the world at large.

As disparate as these movements apparently are at this moment, there are roots in common to both that might lend themselves to combining strengths. Both recognize that the system has gone off its rails, and while they may disagree on how to put it back on track, both know that it must be. Which incumbent politicians would survive the train wreck and repair? What shelter will there be for “Washington as usual” politics and politicians if assailed by storm winds of change from the left and the right? How much of the pointless rhetoric and status quo politics might find itself being swept away by a storm surge of an increasingly disaffected, knowledgeable, and empowered electorate? What direction might those winds of change take if conditions find these two tempests traveling in the same general direction, even for the briefest of times?

There is a crackling of potential energy in the air right now, and a feeling of anticipation as the clouds begin to gather. Storms are always unpredictable you see, and the impact of the worst can sometimes be devastating; but just as often they wash the air clean. We could certainly use something to cleanse the atmosphere of the stench of politics-as-usual and perhaps help some seeds of change grow after what might well be the Perfect Storm.

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is the first in a series of stories about Lucas County Children Services running prior to the Nov. 8 election.

Lucas County Children Services (LCCS) is tasked with the responsibility of seeing that the youngest, most vulnerable members of the community are able to grow up in a safe environment.
Safe, although not always ideal.
“We’re not necessarily concerned with lifestyles, parents who are bad housekeepers,” said Dean Sparks, executive director of LCCS. “We’re don’t care about clutter. What we care about is safety — children who are beaten, not being fed, with no supervision or medical care, or victims of sexual abuse.”
LCCS is asking voters to approve a 1.4 mill renewal levy Nov. 8, expected to generate annual revenue of $10.4 million. Along with a 1.0 mill levy expiring in 2013, the tax measures account for almost half of the agency’s $41.4 million operating budget. Most of the rest ($17.8 million) comes from federal funding, while $2.8 million is generated from the state. The agency’s two levies are used for operating expenses, including staff salaries, child protective services (foster care costs, kinship support), service contracts (mentoring, tutoring, counseling) and matching money for federal reimbursements.
In 2010, LCCS had expenses of about $42.4 million, with nearly $25.2 million of that going toward salaries and expenses. Placement costs made up the next largest expense (about $9.6 million).
Staying busy is not an issue at LCCS. Last year, the agency received 6,500 children referrals, or cases the staff of 370 employees investigated. Many of the cases didn’t fall under the responsibility of what LCCS is assigned to do. At any one time, about 1,700 children are on the agency’s active list, meaning they receive assistance from LCCS.
Sparks has been with the agency for 14 years.
“Children services represents this community’s concern of children not being cared for properly,” he said, acknowledging that some public perceptions of the agency tend to fixate on decades-old behavior. “We used to take children from their parents and put them in the orphanage. We learned that’s not a good way of handling things.”
The current way of handling the safety of the county’s children involves taking action on more than 20,000 calls each year about potential cases of abuse or neglect. The agency receives and assesses these calls, determines what (if any) action is needed, works with the families to ensure children are in safe environments and strives to ensure parents and children both have the resources necessary to give the children an upbringing free of neglect and abuse.
“It’s our responsibility to determine whether (each situation) warrants child abuse and if the child is in danger,” Sparks said.
LCCS is constantly walking the sometimes fine line between being law enforcement and doing whatever is necessary to keep children free from harm.
“Once we get a call, we do a record check and make a home visit for an inspection. We don’t go randomly knock on doors. We’re not a law enforcement agency. Our job is to take care of the child. The police take care of the perpetrator.”
From his quiet office overlooking the county courthouse on Adams Street, Sparks realizes his agency’s mission may seem uncomplicated, perhaps even routine, as he speaks about it. Going out in the community and into the homes of the children LCCS serves paints a different picture of substance abuse, domestic violence, emotional and mental abuse and sexual assaults.
“Some of the things we see happen to kids is pretty incredible,” he said.
Seventy-five percent of the youth LCCS oversees are younger than 12 years of age; 50 percent are younger than 5. Most of them are from a few ZIP codes in inner-city Toledo. The neighborhoods are the same ones where other problems — substance abuse, unemployment — run rampant.
“The only other professionals going into these neighborhoods are law enforcement,” Sparks said.
The youth served by LCCS are disproportionately African-American. In a city with less than  20 percent black population, about 40 percent of the children under the agency’s watch are black.
“That is not unique to Toledo, however,” Sparks said.
Where there is child abuse, Sparks said there are most likely two other problems as well: substance abuse and domestic violence. In the most severe cases, LCCS staff can get the wheels quickly turning to remove a child from the home.
“Children can be removed by police in an emergency,” he said. “Or we can petition the court to remove the child. We do not have the authority to remove anyone from anywhere. The only authority comes from the juvenile court.”
If a situation calls for removal, LCCS tries to find a relative the child can stay with. If there is no suitable family available, the children go into foster homes. About 550 childen are currently in 300 foster homes in Lucas County. At its highest, 1,100 children were in foster homes, Sparks said.
The agency tries to keep siblings together in foster homes. Sometimes it doesn’t happen.
“I’ve had kids say to me, ‘I understand why you took me away from my mother, but I never understood why you took me away from my sibling,’” Sparks said.
The children stay in foster homes for a few days to years, with the average stay lasting about 13 months. In the meantime, LCCS and other agencies work with parents to get them ready to have the children move back in with them.
“If we can’t get the children back in their homes within a year, we can ask the court to terminate parental rights,” Sparks said. “The stakes are very high. They must get clean quickly or risk losing their kids forever. Of course, getting clean can take a long time.”
Even when the parents are not suitable guardians, LCCS makes a concerted effort to get children into permanent homes.
“We really make the effort to find homes for kids,” said Julie Malkin, public information officer for LCCS. “Most of them who are adopted are adopted from their foster families, because they really do become part of their families.”
Sparks called it a myth that children services lets kids loose once they turn 18, although legal adults are free to leave the agency at that point if they wish. Recently, the agency has had several stories of success where youth have gone on to higher education at University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University and Owens Community College.
To help these future parents avoid the mistakes they were subjected to growing up, LCCS attempts to prepare them for future success.
“We teach budgeting, how to cook and clean and bank — all of that,” Malkin said.

The fastest man in Columbus lives in the Toledo area.
Matt Folk, a 35-year-old runner from Perrysburg, won the 2011 Columbus Marathon on Oct. 16 over a field of 4,745 runners. Folk has won the Columbus Marathon in both of his two attempts, earning his first victory in 2009.
“When I started in high school I couldn’t do three miles without walking,” Folk said. “Now not only can I do a marathon, but I can race it as well. Just try not to set any barriers on yourself and you will be surprised with your body adapting and how many things you can achieve.”
Folk tied a career-best time of 2:19.47 in his marathon victory in Columbus, nearly one minute faster than his winning time of 2:20.45 in 2009.
The victory, however, was 47 seconds short of the qualifying time for the Olympic trials, one of Folk’s major goals going into the race. That mark would have been accepted if not for a recent change in the qualifying times, which used to be 2:20.
“If they would have left it to the old standards I would have qualified again but unfortunately they made it a bit tougher this time around,” Folk said.

Matt folk won his second Columbus Marathon on Oct. 16, finishing 47 seconds short of qualifying for the Olympic trials. PHOTO COURTESY MARK HALL, COLUMBUS MARATHON

Folk qualified for the Olympic trials in 2004 and 2008 but was unable to advance further. After missing out on the 2012 Olympic trials by such a close margin, Folk is considering whether to attempt one last effort to qualify, although he is leaning toward taking a break from running. The deadline is Dec. 14 to be eligible for the Jan. 14 Olympic trials.
There is still one race Folk is considering — a half marathon Dec. 4 in Las Vegas. If Folk can earn a time under 1:05, he would be eligible for the Olympic trials. Folk, however, has yet to make that decision.
“As of right now I’m not sure if I’m going to do a marathon next fall or not,” Folk said. “I have been chasing the Olympic trials qualifying time and it’s in January so this was probably my last marathon trying to go after that. I might try and take a little bit of a break from marathons for a year and see how I feel.”
Folk has been a competitive runner since his sophomore year at Clay High School. He continued running in his collegiate career at Youngstown State University but didn’t compete in his first marathon until years later in 2001. Since then, Folk has run in one or two marathons each year.
“I ran competitively in college and high school and it just seemed like the farther the race the better I did,” Folk said. “I just kept bumping up the distance from 5Ks and 10Ks to half marathons and eventually worked my way up to marathons.”
After failing to win in his first eight races, Folk won his first marathon in 2009 in a race close to home. With a time of 2:31.04, Folk won the Glass City Marathon in Toledo. He then proceeded to win his next two marathons, including the 2009 Columbus Marathon, before repeating as the Glass City Marathon Champion in 2010 (2:28.23).
“It’s pretty neat,” Folk said. “It’s funny because the first eight marathons I ran I was nowhere close to winning and then I had a streak where I won Toledo, Columbus and Toledo for three marathons in a row.
“I always wanted to run in Toledo because it is the local race. You always want to try to win your hometown race and everything so it was neat to do that a couple of times.”
Folk took a break from the Columbus Marathon in 2010 to compete in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, where he hoped the increased participants would help carry him to the Olympic trials qualifying time. Folk finished 29th with 2:21.38, two minutes from making the trials.
“The bigger the race, the more guys there are that can pull you along to a faster time,” Folk said.
Folk devotes his life to running, spending the rest of his time at work as the general manager in a store specializing in running apparel. Second Sole is located at the Town Center at Levis Commons, where it has been in business for the past three years.
Folk and Second Sole host group runs every Thursday at 6:30 p.m. where all participants run a three-mile loop beginning and ending at the store. Participation is free.

Halloween is once more upon us, and many still seem as undecided on costumes as they do on who they will soon be voting for, assuming they’re one of the few who vote at all. Have no fear however, because once again, the staff at Just Blowing Smoke has come up with a few last minute, inexpensive costume suggestions to help the unready to ready themselves, the undecided to decide and the uncommitted to be committed. If something seems wrong with that last sentence, wait until you read these costume suggestions.
Dress however you want and carry around a sleeping bag. When the door of homes you visit is answered, tell them you’re part of Occupy Wall Street and that you have no idea what you want, but that you want it now. If you don’t get it, you’re going to put your sleeping bag down on their porch and stay there until you do.
Wear a suit and tie to the front door of homes you visit. When it’s answered, break down in tears and tell them how proud of them you are, and that you really don’t want to ask any more of them … they’ve given enough already. Stifle the sniffle a bit, and then introduce yourself as Speaker of the House John Boehner.

Wear your Gollum suit from last year’s “Lord of the Rings” effort under a nice suit and tie. Add a pair of wire-rimmed glasses and when the front door is answered, refuse to do anything. When faced with a slamming of the door, tell them that you’re Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and that you won’t allow Republicans to stand in the way … or to get your precious.
Wear a shirt with a blue collar, and when the door is answered break out in a hearty rendition of “Look for the Union Label,” asking if the homeowner is a union member. If the answer is no, demand not a treat but nonmember dues, threatening to file a grievance if they are not delivered quickly. If the answer is instead yes, explain to them very quietly that you are a member of City Council appearing as a hard-working Toledoan. Tell them you wouldn’t be asking if the city’s financial situation wasn’t dire especially this close to an election — but could you please have back some of the inordinate amount of candy that you’ve been giving them for years.
When you’ve made your neighborhood rounds, return a second time to the non-union homes with a plastic bat in your hand. Tell these homeowners to give you more candy and to vote no on SB5 if they know what’s good for them, while either slapping the bat in your hand or writing scab on their porch in chalk.
Guys can pair up, wearing their best Sunday suits and going from door to door, carrying leaky buckets. When the door is answered, one should attempt to pour his bucket’s contents into that of his companion’s, spilling a bit. When asked, tell them that you’re Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke trying to fix the economy; then ask not only for your treat, but some additional ‘Stimulus’ water so that you can make it to your next stop.
Dress in well-worn clothes and carry a dunce cap as well as a trick-or-treat bag. When the door is answered, tell them that you’re Toledo Public Schools, and that you really don’t want anything right now, except their understanding for the marginal education you’ve long provided children in the district.
I couldn’t end this list without one that shouldn’t have made the cut in more ways than one. This one is for women (or men who like to cross-dress). Dress nicely and go from door to door begging for a handout. The trick, however, is that you can’t do it until Nov. 7 (one week after Halloween). When asked who you are and why you’re so late, tell them you’re Councilwoman Lindsay Webb, that it’s really not your fault you’re so late since you came by way of Ann Arbor and Detroit, and they shouldn’t be denied having a chance to give you candy now. While you’re begging, ask them if they’d vote for you tthe next day.
Finally, there’s the 2011 version of a longtime Toledo costume favorite. Take out your old “Downtown Toledo” costume (a sheet of plywood worn front and back), but this year painted with the Chinese ideogram for “Sold” on each side. When asked, tell them you are either a hopeful sign of economic recovery for Toledo, or the government’s attempt to balance the Chinese trade deficit by selling them the city a piece at a time.
Happy Halloween …

With all the escaped animals from an exotic animal farm near Zanesville, Ohio, accounted for Oct. 19, the focus has turned to enhancing exotic animal laws in Ohio to prevent future incidents.

“I’m hoping that this incident, as tragic as it was, will get the lawmakers in Columbus interested in this issue and we can get a ban in place,” said John Dinon, executive director of the Toledo Area Humane Society. “Ohio currently on a statewide basis has no restriction on private ownership of exotic animals except for native wildlife. You can’t own things that are native to Ohio, but if you want to have a lion or tiger or chimpanzee, that’s perfectly legal in most of Ohio. It is prohibited by some local ordinances, but if you live out in the country, in a township or even some cities, it’s probably perfectly legal to own any of these animals. It’s a very bad thing for animal welfare and public safety.”

An emergency executive order from former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland banning new exotic pets expired in March, leaving Ohio without any statewide regulations on exotic animal ownership.

Deputies went to the animal farm the night of Oct. 18 after the sheriff’s office received calls that wild animals were loose west of Zanesville. When deputies arrived on the scene, they found owner Terry Thompson dead by self-inflicted gun wounds with multiple aggressive animals near his body and all the cages open.

Deputies shot and killed 48 animals, including 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, three mountain lions, two grizzly bears, a baboon and a wolf. The animals were all buried on the farm. Three leopards, two monkeys and a grizzly bear were captured alive and transported to the Columbus Zoo.

“They took a conservative approach and did what they could to protect the people, which I think is appropriate,” Dinon said. “A lot of people have said, ‘Why didn’t they tranquilize them? Why did they have to kill them?’ From what I understand, there were nearly 20 lions and nearly 20 tigers. In the dark, in the rain out in rural areas outside of Zanesville, there’s no way you’re going to tranquilize those guys and get them back.”

Dinon used to work at zoos before joining the humane society. He said tranquilizing the animals would not have been safe.

“I can tell you from the time you put a tranquilizer dart in an animal to when it goes to sleep in ideal conditions can be 5 to 20 minutes,” he said. “You’re not going to keep up with a lion or tiger running through the woods of Zanesville for 20 minutes and recover that animal. Animals when they are anesthetized by injectable anesthetics, they go through a hyper-excited phase where their behavior is especially unpredictable. I think it’s a tragedy that all these animals had to be killed, but I wouldn’t second guess or fault the sheriff’s department for doing what they did.”

Tim Harrison, the director of Outreach for Animals and subject of the 2010 documentary “The Elephant in the Living Room,” also supported the actions of the sheriff’s department.

“There were a lot of deputies out trying to keep the animals to a general area,” he said. “By the time the sun came up, they had shot more than 35 animals. It’s really sad. They had to because they are dangerous. The sheriff department didn’t have a choice but to kill the ones that are aggressive. Those are dangerous exotic animals. If you dart an animal, it takes 15-20 minutes for it to take effect. Now you have a drug-crazed animal running through the neighborhood that may never go down. You have to make a decision for public safety at that time. No police officer has ever been through the police academy and they teach you how to take care of an African lion or a tiger that’s loose.”

In all Harrison’s years of working with exotic animals, he said this is the first time he has been warned about them by a highway sign.

“This farm is right next to Interstate 70,” he said. “As we’re driving up 70, there’s a great big flashing sign saying, ‘Dangerous exotic animal on the loose. Stay in your car and call 911.’ I’ve never seen that before.”

While he hadn’t seen the literal signs before, he did see signs of an incident like this happening.

“It’s not like you had to be a brain surgeon to figure out that some situation where a bunch of exotic animals escape was going to happen in Ohio,” Harrison said. “There are too many of them here, and too many people who have them that shouldn’t. [Thompson] once had a full-grown African lion get loose in the neighborhood. They cited him, took his license away and gave it back to him. He ended up going to prison for illegal guns. He got out of there and still had his animals. He should have never had these animals in the first place.”

Tod Kowalczyk

When Tod Kowalczyk took over as the Rockets’ head coach in March of 2010, he knew the task ahead of him was going to be tough. He inherited a basketball program that saw the previous head coach resign amid off-the-court controversy after a season in which UT finished 4-28, the worst record in school history.

“We knew coming in that it was going to be a complete rebuilding job,” Kowalczyk said. “We knew the shape of the program was not good. I’m not sure we knew to what extent. What we learned is we’ve got to stay true to our system, and good things will happen.”

Ironically, that system was built on tough. Kowalczyk said prior to last season starting that while the future of Toledo basketball would be about a lot of things, toughness was “the most important thing it’s going to be about.” He and his team actually broke down the word into the acronym T.O.U.G.H., which stands for Trust, Ownership, Unity, Grateful and Humility.

In his first year at the helm, Kowalczyk had five transfers, two seniors and six true freshmen. Of the five transfers, only one was eligible to play in the 2010-11 campaign. Of the two seniors, one was a transfer in his first year at Toledo. Of the six freshmen, three were walk-ons. Kowalczyk knew winning was going to be tough, and it was.

The Rockets finished his first season with the same school-worst 4-28 overall record as the previous year, playing the last six games with just five scholarship players. And while UT struggled in the aspects of T.O.U.G.H. throughout the season, the experience readied the seven remaining players from last year’s roster for the 2011-12 campaign.

“We just tried to keep our heads up, stay positive,” sophomore guard Reese Holliday said. “You can’t have too many negative people on the team because then that’s just when everything goes south. We knew a lot of people weren’t going to be here [this season], but that’s just reality, so we just had to stay positive and wait until this year.

Dominique Buckley, left, and Reese Holliday.

“I’m real excited. This is what I’ve been waiting for. This is what the coaches have been waiting for. This is what Toledo’s been waiting for.”

Playing the waiting game last year were sophomore guard Rian Pearson (UW-Green Bay), sophomore forward Matt Smith (UW-Green Bay) and junior guard Dominique Buckley (Iowa State), all of whom had to sit out after transferring to UT. Despite not being able to play in games, all three were able to practice and named team captains by Kowalczyk.

“The biggest hurdle was just trying to stay focused the whole year because we had to stay focused with the guys that were playing to get them better, but at the same time we weren’t playing, so there was no motivation,” Buckley said. “So we had to find it within ourselves to come out every day to practice and play hard and get better.”

Hailing from Romulus, Mich. and ranked in the ESPN 150 coming out of high school in 2008, the 6-foot-2, 200-pound Buckley is eager to finally show what this season’s Rockets can do on the court.

“After winning only four games last year, everyone’s hungry,” Buckley said. “We had a lot of guys here over the summer. We had a few guys stay the whole summer and work out and take classes. Just being here over the summer and looking at the way things were going, everyone’s ready to get out on the floor. Everyone was working hard, in the gym all the time, so we’re just ready to play.”

Pearson started his collegiate career in 2009 with Kowalczyk and the Phoenix, averaging 11.3 points and 4.9 rebounds over the last seven games of his freshman season. Together with Smith, the 6-foot-4, 190-pound Raytown, Mo. native elected to leave UW-Green Bay and sit out a year in order to follow Kowalczyk to Toledo.

“He’s a great guy,” Pearson said of Kowalczyk. “Him and [associate head coach] Angres Thorpe and [assistant coach Jason] Kalsow, they’re great guys. I just followed them because they look out for you a lot. It felt like family.”

And while this season features another roster overhaul with six new players, Holliday likes where the team is at right now.

“We’re real tight, on and off the court,” said the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Holliday, who led Toledo in minutes per game (32.2), rebounds per game (6.6), free throws (77), free-throw attempts (124) and double-doubles (5) last year. “I think that’s why we’re going to be so good because we’re friends off the court. We bond. We’ve got good team chemistry, and on the court we’ve got chemistry, too.”

After all the losing, waiting and preparing, Kowalczyk is excited for his second year at UT to finally be here.

“New team and new era,” Kowalczyk said. “I think last year we all talked too much. I as a head coach, our staff, our players, the media, the fans talked a lot about next year, next year, and with good reason. But next year is here. The future of Rocket basketball is now.”

Now it’s time for the Rockets to show how T.O.U.G.H. they are.

When I first met Dr. Lisa Wolford Wylam, it was hard not to be intimidated by her intellect and academic pedigree. But it was harder still to not immediately be put at ease by her demeanor and kindness.
Her knowledge of and experience in the theater arts was virtually unparalleled. Wolford Wylam’s writings on performance art and directing theory were numerous and revered. By the time I first met her, she commanded incredible respect in her field.
She was my favorite professor when I began attending undergraduate theater classes at Bowling Green State University in the late 1990s. One of the most insightful and passionate teachers one could hope for, she opened my eyes to a wider variety of theater arts than anyone else I encountered during my time in academia.

She soon became a very close friend and consistently encouraged me in my studies. Lisa and I  could spend hours talking in her office. How was this possible? Easy: Lisa was also a huge, huge professional wrestling fan.
No, I’m not kidding. This brilliant, insightful and challenging writer and teacher was also a die-hard follower of the mat wars. She and I spent much time dissecting the minutia of the art form — as she and I both thought of it.
That’s the thing — even though she genuinely enjoyed wrestling on a superficial level, she also insisted on looking deeper, and understanding why it worked as it did, and what it meant as a cultural movement. Lisa helped me see the levels beyond the surface, and in doing so, helped me understand how anything in pop culture can be understood in such terms.
It was Lisa who encouraged me to move past my undergraduate work into post-graduate theater studies at BGSU. I had been considering grad school, but for journalism (my original major), not theater. But Lisa said she saw potential in my writing and ability for analysis. She went to bat for me and campaigned hard to earn me a place in BGSU’s grad program.
There was a problem, however, and that problem was me. From the outset, I felt like I was completely out of place, pretending to be a grad student instead of actually being one. Surrounded by individuals much more intellectually gifted than me, and who I didn’t feel nearly as comfortable around as I did with Lisa, I felt like my graduate work was never up to par.
Lisa encouraged me to perservere, insisting that everyone felt this way and I would grow into it. But throughout my two years in higher education, that gnawing feeling of being a fraud — a populist writer in academic clothing — persisted. I did my studies, I took my tests, I wrote my papers, I passed my classes. But I never really belonged.
When my two years were up, all that was left was to write my thesis, another activity which I felt ill-prepared for. I remember meeting with Lisa at Grounds for Thought in Bowling Green, where we discussed once more my topic — wrestling, of course. She was passionate and encouraging about my work, saying she thought I was on the right track.
I would never see Lisa again.
Not long after, I fell into a deep depression. The reasons are myriad, including a heartbreaking loss, feelings of inadequacy in my studies and more. I spent a good six months doing little more than the bare minimum necessary to live. That primary bout would finally recede at the end of 2003, though I continued to struggle with depression for another four years until finally seeking treatment in 2008.
During that time, work on my thesis slowed to a trickle, then stopped. I’m sure if I simply had notified Lisa of what was happening, she would have understood, but I was so ashamed of myself that I couldn’t face her. I kept telling myself that I didn’t deserve to talk to her until the thesis was finished. To hell with a degree — I missed my friend. But in the twisted psychological headspace I was in, I had to face this dragon alone.
I never finished the thesis. Part of it still sits on my hard drive. But as my unsuccessful attempts to complete it grew in number, so too did my shame. Lisa went to bat for me. She believed in me. And I let her down.
Now, I will never get a chance to apologize to her. She eventually relocated from BGSU to York University in Canada, where she directed the theater studies MA and Ph.D programs.
Suddenly, last week, word came that Lisa passed away on Oct. 7.
I was a coward. I couldn’t face her and explain my failure. And it cost me one of the great friendships of my life.
I’m sorry, Lisa. The biggest regret I will ever have is not that I didn’t finish what I started, but that you’ll never know how much I loved and missed you.

Email Jeff at PopGoesJeff@gmail.com.

“The amount of sleep required by the average person is five minutes more.” -Wilson Mizener

Dear Lauri,
I needed a cardboard box. I was at the store and kept asking and was mad that they were throwing some away when I needed them.    - Gina 33, Pittsburgh, PA

Lauri: Cardboard in a dream is often related to money issues in waking life, believe it or not, because we collectively joke about having to move into a cardboard box if finances don’t improve.  Are you trying to be frugal when going to the store lately? Are you realizing the waste you may have created before money issues? If not, this dream may be about your attempt to box in your thoughts or feelings regarding some issue or person in your life lately.

Gina replies: Both of those actually make sense! We have been trying to be more frugal at the store and I’ve been boxing in some feelings regarding my mother in law. She refused to go a funeral that I felt strongly she should have attended. I felt she was being petty. I was trying to not voice my opinion on the matter too much because it didn’t concern me.

Lauri replies: Ah, that makes sense in regards to the anger you had over the boxes being thrown away at the store.  That is reflective of your inner conflict over whether to box in your thoughts or rid yourself of them by speaking up.

Celebrity Dream: While promoting his new movie “The Big Year,” funny man Jack Black reported a recurring dream he used to have in high school to TheRecord.com: “I dreamt that I was in the theatre at my high school, and I had the power of flight, and I would fly around the theatre, and people would be amazed at my power of flight. Then I would fly outside into the lunch area and just immediately lost my powers. I’m just walking around.”

-Lauri Quinn Loewenberg
Dream Expert and Author
“The brain is wider than the sky.” – Emily Dickinson
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