Gorgeous Victorian home lovingly restored and pampered with all the room you’ll need for your family or your lifetime treasures. One of London’s grande dames in a prominent neighborhood, this spacious two-story has loads of updates since 2007 (kitchen remodel, bathroom remodel, new wetbar, siding and foam insulation, insulated windows, master bathroom remodel, ceiling fans throughout). Decorating scheme recalls the grandeur of a century ago blended with all the amenities expected by modern-day homeowners. Distinctive leaded glass windows, inviting front entrance with beveled glass and sidelights, four beautiful fireplaces, tons of woodwork, working pocket doors, window seat in huge bay window, second bay window in dining room, beautiful burrelled oak built-in china cabinet in dining room, butler’s pantry, wine cellar, and great “man cave,” mother-in-law suite or college student room. You’ll love all the closet space, expansive front porch, loads of storage in full attic and basement, fenced yard and detached two-car garage. Unparalleled curb appeal, beautifully landscaped lot and super neighbors! AND THE PRICE HAS BEEN REDUCED AGAIN!!!

For your personal showing of this beautiful home, call Lisa Jackman at (614) 619-9295 or (740) 852-6446.
www.BuckeyeRealtyGroup.com

THE FACTS: Two-story Victorian, built in 1895, 3,384 square feet, central heat & A/C, lot size: 66 x 165, 4-5 bedrooms, 3 full bathrooms, 3 living areas, formal dining room, dining in kitchen, large inviting foyer, 4 original fireplaces, working pocket doors, window coverings, chandeliers

For more photos of this wonderful home, click on this link: Read the rest of this entry »

When Mother’s Day rolls around every year, I remember my mom’s often-said favorite lines that my sister and I called the 7 Deadly Sayings. And how much we hated hearing them. I suppose my own kids are saying the same thing about me, since I unwittingly carried them forward with the next generation.

Maggie van Ostrand

I expect most moms have their own 7 Deadly Sayings but, just in case you want to compare notes with mine, here they are.

1.  On a slovenly room: How many times are you going to step over those dirty jeans before you pick them up?

2. On whining, such as “OMG, the prom’s tonight and I’ve got this huge pimple … ” That should be the worst thing that ever happens to you.

3. On abject misery: Give up your pain for the poor souls in purgatory. They’ll get out sooner.

4. On a way to make me shape up: Do you want me to tell your father about this?

5. On a mini skirt: Are you really going out like that?

6. On bad behavior: Just wait until you have kids of your own.

7. On how she apprehends a transgression: I’ve got eyes in the back of my head.

Along with my dad, she would sometimes spout off with:

If a job is once begun,
never leave it till it’s done.
Be the labor great or small,
do it well or not at all.

I especially loathed that poem, partly because it took so long to hear. I never wanted to hear it again in my entire life. I hadn’t realized back then how much and how subtly it influenced me. I learned that lesson in the most embarrassing way: when my own daughter was encouraging me to stop procastinating, she said the hated poem and she said it imitating me, as I used to imitate my mom. Nonetheless, hearing it once more, I was forced to complete my tax returns.

The worst thing about mom’s sayings, and that dreaded poem, is that they were usually right, and they always worked.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Newspapers are in the unique situation of often being loved while at the same time being despised. There are occasions where school boards use strong-arm tactics to bully spineless corporate newspaper administration into backing off of doing exactly what a newspaper is supposed to do: Serve as a watchdog for the community, not just a cheerleader. Laurie Ezzell Brown has done a masterful job of depicting the fine line community newspapers must walk — whether in Texas or Ohio or anywhere else – while doing their job.

When school officials have sought an ally in the battle over school finance legislation, or in local efforts to stir up support for a multimillion-dollar bond issue for capital improvements, this newspaper has always been there. When public school students have excelled in any number of sports and academic competitions over the last few decades, when school nurses have wanted to announce vaccination requirements, when school administrators have wanted to promote parent/teacher open houses, when local merchants have wanted to congratulate students on their many successes, when Rotary Clubs have wanted to acknowledge their school’s student leaders … The Record and other weekly newspapers like it in other towns like this one have always been there.

Laurie Ezzell Brown

That is why it is even more puzzling that the Texas Association of School Boards would be on the leading edge of a movement among tax-supported entities to circumvent the state’s public notice laws. Or maybe it’s not so puzzling.

You see, there are things most school boards really want the public to know about their students and their schools. They are the stories and images that fill the pages of most community newspapers from Labor Day through Memorial Day each year, and which most publishers welcome as the vital news and information they know their readers count on finding inside the pages of each week’s edition.

We could stack up a long line of witnesses — including parents, students and most notably, our school trustees and administrators — who welcome the newspaper’s ability to shine the light on their educational efforts and would willingly testify to how essential it is to the business of raising the next generation of leaders.

There are other things, though, that some school boards would prefer the local newspaper not report, like low TAKS scores or high dropout rates, errant teachers or contentious school board meetings or principle-less principals or — heaven forbid — school trustees who flout open meetings laws and violate the public’s trust. But even most of them would admit — however grudgingly — that there’s no better way to stir up a hornet’s nest than to land on the wrong side of the local newspaper editor.

That is because this country’s community newspapers are the only media that report the important news of their hometowns — day in and day out, win, lose or draw, and even when hell occasionally freezes over. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I don’t know about the rest of you but, I’m weddinged out. There hasn’t been this much media coverage of an event since Lindsay Lohan’s last arrest. Nothing wrong with the Royal Wedding’s bride or groom, and nothing wrong with the opulent setting of Westminster Abbey, though I’m resisting the temptation to criticize some of those hats that looked like the women’s heads had exploded in spaghetti, bowling balls and a
few birds.

Maggie van Ostrand

Questions were raised by my kids who viewed the event and thought there would be “at least 100 other people watching this, right mom?”

Questions from our kids can drive a mom insane because it’s humiliating to have to say “I don’t know dear,” when moms are supposed to know everything. It’s no longer enough for them to know we really do have eyes in
the back of our head, now they want answers, too.

“Mom, what’s a troth?” I thought it was a lazy troll (troll + sloth = troth.) My daughter had to wait another full day before I had time to find out that when we pledge our troth, we are pledging fidelity. Seems like overkill to
me, since they had already pledged to “forsake all others” and keep one another “only unto him/her.” Poetic and lovely, but redundant. Not wishing to editorialize, I just told her “fidelity” and to look it up.

Prince William and Princess Catherine

The kicker question which required research was “What’s that square in the floor that everybody is walking around?” I wanted to know that as well and learned that it is the burial place of The Unknown Warrior from World War I. In that hallowed spot upon which not even kings and queens may trod, lies an unidentified British soldier killed on the battlefield during World War I. He was buried in Westminster Abbey on November 11, 1920. There are many graves on the Abbey floors, including Chaucer, Dickens, Austen, both Bronte sisters, Kipling and, well, you get the point, but The Unknown Warrior’s is the only grave which is forbidden to step on.

Thanks to the Internet, I was able to answer the questions of my curious kids, all questions except one. We just cannot figure out why everybody calls the bride Kate with a K when her full first name of Catherine is spelled with a C.

By Ryan J. Foley, Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. – A Wisconsin newspaper editor demoted after writing a column that offended advertisers has started a legal campaign to get her job back, saying she is taking a stand for editorial independence.

Autumn Drussell

Autumn Drussell filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Rights Division seeking to be reinstated as editor of the Stoughton Courier Hub. Drussell said she is standing up for journalism at a time when struggling small newspapers are especially susceptible to advertiser influence.

Months after being named editor, Drussell wrote in a July 2010 column she was shopping more at low-cost big box stores because of the economy. She suggested that local businesses needed to improve customer service, stop badmouthing their areas and appeal to frugal customers, advice offered at a chamber of commerce luncheon she attended.

The column upset some of the newspaper’s advertisers in Stoughton, a city of 13,000 people, including hardware store owner Jim Gerber, who warned he would stop advertising until the economy improves.

“I will stop short from calling for your job — Walmart and Target need your money,” he wrote to the paper.

Days later, Drussell was called into a meeting with the general manager of Unified Newspaper Group, which owns the weekly and other newspapers in the region. Drussell, 35, said she was removed as editor and asked to sign a document agreeing not to write opinion pieces and be on probation for 90 days.

Read the rest of this entry »

Julie Kay Smithson and Wiggles

My familiarity with March weather is from the perspective of a Buckeye, an Ohioan in the United States of America. In this part of the world, March is a tempestuous siren, a flirt bringing balmy weather one day and a slap-in-the-face with snow and ice the next. Wind can be a beast that seeks to peel one’s warmth away with its bonechilling fingers.

Days lengthen, nights grow more brief, and the powers that be tell us we are “saving” daylight when we have a 23-hour-long Sunday.

Birds arrive from sunnier climes and set up housekeeping, always on the alert for “cheep wrent.”

At this point in time, winter brooks no interference from spring, though the snows don’t last like they did just one short month ago. Icicles and snowmen vanish, to be replaced by green sprouts coming up through still semi-frozen ground.

It’s fair to say that, while April may be fickle, March in Ohio can be a real weather scoundrel with April tagging along behind!

Maggie van Ostrand

All is not lost in networkland. In an effort to liven up the otherwise snooze-worthy Oscars for next year’s telecast and bring back the millions who dozed off right after Kirk Douglas’ earlobes presented Best Supporting Actress to Melissa Leo, Charlie Sheen has been hired to host in 2012.

Celebrities attending the annual event will be encouraged to wear their own jewelry, buy their outfits off the rack, and say how they really feel about attending. It is felt that women viewers might favor hearing celebs respond to the hackneyed question, “Who are you wearing?” with “WalMart.” Actresses, now referred to as “female actors,” will be asked to butt out and be photographed only from the front. Celebrities will continue to walk the carpet, which will be green in an effort to attract Westminster Dog Show viewers.

Because of the conventional mid-show sag where awards are given out that nobody outside the industry has any interest in, the second half of next year’s show will be co-hosted by Sheen and Jerry Springer, the theory being that bad taste is better than no taste at all.

While I was blessed to have many fine teachers, Mrs. Dora Hobbs and Mrs. Orpha Strong stand out. Mr. Wilkie, Mr. Ron Houser and Mr. Campbell are also remembered in warm memories. Mrs. Strong’s quiet, grandmotherlylike demeanor, while still being a fine teacher, are a fond memory, but it is Mrs. Hobbs who remains the cornerstone of my twelve years of structured, official schooling.

Julie Kay Smithson and Wiggles

My first two years of school were in houses, because the housing subdivision north of Dayton, called Huber Heights, outpaced Wayne Township’s school capacity. In second grade, our teacher became ill and was replaced by Mrs. Dora Hobbs. As little kids, we only knew that our teacher was sick, and Mrs. Hobbs helped us in many ways that she may never have known.

I brought home glowing reports to my parents about how beautiful Mrs. Hobbs was & how kind she was to all of us. Then Mom attended a PTA (Parent-Teacher Association) meeting and returned home in tears. She told my dad, “Honey, Mrs. Hobbs is a physical wreck! She is crippled from polio, wears very thick glasses & barely gets around.”

All I knew was that Mrs. Hobbs cared, she loved us — and that memory remains strong as ever, 51 years later. It is my hope that this dear woman — who worked full time teaching youngsters at a time in her life when her health might well have kept most people home — would be proud of the curly-haired, blue-eyed student that told her parents about the beautiful Mrs. Hobbs.

Each of us has a precious memory of one teacher that stays strong throughout our lives. What’s yours?

You don’t like the President’s budget proposal? Try the Top 10 from the People, who kept it simple so members of Congress can understand it.

Maggie van Ostrand

First a few reminders: Salary for a House member is $174,000, not counting perks, one of which is called their “allowance.” This is a euphemism for lots of extra taxpayer money ($900,000, commonly called “almost a million”) given to them for office supplies and salaries for almost 20 loyal underlings. They get about $250,000 (commonly called “a quarter of a million dollars more”) for office expenses (what, that wasn’t covered in their ”allowance”?), including travel (we’ll bet they don’t go Economy and we also bet these might include golf trips). You don’t even have to be alive to get this money, as evidenced by the late Robert Byrd’s continuing salary of $193,000 even after he’s been in the ground since last June.

We the People aren’t crazy about learning that Senators get even a bigger allowance for their office expenses … more than $3.3 million. Each senator is given $500,000 to hire up to three legislative assistants. If they’d only learn to type for themselves, that taxpayer money could support ten taxpayer families. Let us now get to our simple Top 10 Items, to wit:

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