Fine weather for a resurrection.

I know bad weather happens on Easter, but honestly, I can never think of any in my recent memory. Maybe it just doesn’t register, or fades quickly, like the pain of childbirth. Whatever the reason, we had a pretty glorious Easter, weather-wise, and most of the other -wises, in that we had good food and chocolate and ham and eggs. I’m sure Jeff was working overtime and then some, but it is the busiest day of the year in his line of work.

As for me, I saw a Muslim girl at the Eastern Market, wearing a hijab, with a pair of bunny ears on top. Our wonderful country of weirdness.

We went to Toledo to meet my sister-in-law for Easter lunch — it’s about halfway between us. Somehow we got to talking about this and that, and she said her employer-paid health insurance offers a rebate for people who exercise four times a week for 30 minutes. It’s self-reported, she said.

And how much of a rebate do they get? Fifteen bucks per quarter. It’s hardly worth lying on the reporting forms.

I was wondering about this because I read something recently about “the internet of things” — all the interconnected devices that make our lives easier. I think we’ve discussed the Next thermostat here before, but there are also all these fitness trackers like the Fitbit and Nike Fuel Band, et al. I got one of these for Christmas, the Misfit Shine, and I really like it. It meshes narcissism with tech geekery with data analysis. I cannot deny that I check it several times a day, and that it motivates me to walk more often in pursuit of the points that make it blink and send me attagirl messages via my phone. I’m on a long-term, low-pressure quest to chip away a few pounds, and stupid stuff like this makes a difference

I don’t have to spend much time on the website, though, to see a definite dark side — the bundled packages “ideal for office groups,” where everyone gets a wearable tracker and competes to reach fitness goals. Is it so crazy to imagine a time when your insurer wants to know how often you’re making the 1,000-point standard, and determines your premium based on it?

I think it’ll happen. And I think the technology will advance, but also the shadow economy that will collect your tracker and attach it to a dog for 45 minutes or so before dropping it back in your mailbox.

Honest, boss, I don’t know why I can’t lose these extra pounds. I’m working my ass off at the dog park.

Let’s not let fear of surveillance put a pall on a gentle Sunday night, fading into golden light with a dog nearby and a single hot dog on the grill. (After that midday feed, I don’t feel like eating much.) Time to skip to the bloggage:

A friend of mine here in Detroit is one of those urban farmers you’ve heard so much about — the one with the ducks. She had her annual Easter Eggstravaganza, and I know a few of you threw her some money so she could make it free for all the neighborhood kids. Here are the event photos, at least the series where every kid in attendance got his or her picture taken with a duckling. Don’t know if that was the same duck in every picture, but you get a sense of the fun that was had. Lots!

I liked parts of this essay about Elmore Leonard, which ran last week in Grantland’s Detroit series. The writer understands which books were the best (at least, he agrees with me). Other parts, not so much, but it’s a fine effort.

And that’s enough for a day when we’re all recovering from chocolate poisoning. Happy week ahead, all.

Posted at 12:30 am in Detroit life, Same ol' same ol' |
 

49 responses to “Fine weather for a resurrection.”

  1. Dexter said on April 21, 2014 at 4:00 am

    http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/4-20-2013.jpg

    It’s Easter Monday. We used to get this off as a paid holiday and nobody could figure out why. Then the negotiating committee got that day off changed to the July 4 holiday. Another holiday we got for two contracts was “post-birthday”. For some reason somebody figured we needed the day that fell 30 days after our birthday off for a paid holiday. Everybody pocketed the pay and worked the day anyway.

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  2. Deborah said on April 21, 2014 at 4:07 am

    I wear a fitbit flex, my goal is 10,000 steps a day. I make that goal easily in Chicago, but in Santa Fe there’s more topography, it’s a little harder. The only thing I don’t like about the fitbit is charging it, it’s kind of a pain in the butt.

    The pictures of the kids with the duckling were cute until I scrolled down to the one with the Juggalo face.

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  3. jerry said on April 21, 2014 at 5:26 am

    Good Friday and Easter Saturday the weather here was marvellous – shorts and a polo shirt but yesterday here in Kent we had rain. Not hard, heavy rain but steady and continuous. It started while I was getting the Sunday papers and by the time I got back home my jeans were too wet to wear with any comfort. Today it is bright and sunny again I’m hoping it continues for our walk in the country tomorrow.

    Michael G – best wishes for your recovery. The hospital have told my brother that there is nothing more they can do to treat his lung cancer except make him comfortable. He’s currently in hospital having treatment for an infection developed after he knocked his foot and cut the skin while he was in the garden. We are hoping he’ll soon be back home, although that will be to a hospital bed in the lounge. I am so grateful for the National Health Service which means the only cost is car parking fees at the hospital for visitors!

    Happy Easter, everyone.

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  4. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 21, 2014 at 6:39 am

    Easter Monday SHOULD be a holiday (said the clergyman, selfishly). If only for purposes of recovery. And the practice began in countries where it was more common to have been up all night Saturday into Sunday morning for the Easter Vigil (bonfires, processions around the church at midnight, singing & prayers to dawn, then a family feast with the bread blessed at morning services). In such places it wouldn’t have been just the parson who was wrecked on Monday morning!

    MichaelG, grace and peace to you and your ex and everyone on your team; may healing be yours and your team mark a win all around, even the barber.

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  5. Julie Robinson said on April 21, 2014 at 10:06 am

    And don’t forget that in liturgical churches, pastors have also had services Thursday, Friday, and sometimes Saturday, and maybe an extra sunrise service. This was our daughter’s first Holy Week as a solo pastor, and by the time we talked with her she mostly wanted a nap.

    MichaelG, I also add my prayers and good thoughts to those of others for your recovery. Courage.

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  6. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 21, 2014 at 11:19 am

    And if you do ecumenical stuff, you preached on Monday and Wednesday the week before. Ten sermons in fifteen days, plus a newsletter (and two Saturday religion page columns). I’m outta things to say beyond “Christ is risen!”

    The nap yesterday was so nice I may take another today. We watched “The Way” with Martin Sheen in the afternoon, which made a very nice fit for the day, and I was rested up from the nap enough to really enjoy “Mad Men,” which definitely hit its stride again last night.

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  7. Jeff Borden said on April 21, 2014 at 11:43 am

    On Easter Sunday I almost gouged out my eyes after reading Maureen Dowd’s column about her Ford Mustang convertible. It had an Albomesque stench to it. . .just horrible and insufferable.

    The newspaper of record certainly has a weak-hitting team of op-ed columnists: Dowd, Friedman, Brooks, Douthat, Bruni.

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  8. brian stouder said on April 21, 2014 at 11:54 am

    Well, speaking of the news biz – the cadre of ‘aviation experts’ that the big press runs to have to be tired of their beepers going off today.

    First, another late-night Malaysian Air flight out of Kuala Lumpur turned around last night (although, thankfully, that one is still among the living), and then we had the news of the kid in the wheelwell of a 767 from California to Hawaii.

    I’d have missed on a quiz that it was even possible to survive that (thin air plus extreme cold – let alone all the other ways a massive hydraulic rig like that might kill you in the dark)

    One would be tempted to say “leave me on low and slow transport”, but the Italian and the Korean ferry boats show us that that’s no sure thing, either

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  9. Scout said on April 21, 2014 at 12:30 pm

    There is an non-profit org run by two of my friends called ONe TRUe LOVe. On a monthly basis they and a group of volunteers distribute as much food as they can get donated to a crowd of homeless street folk in a rough part of Phoenix. So that’s what we did yesterday, helped distribute bottled water, egg burritos, snacks, personal care items, clothing, and dog food to the needy. The most tragic to me were the newly homeless, the ones who were still fairly clean but with a look of bewilderment, like, how did this happen to me? It was 4pm and about 95 degrees.

    Michael G, I’m adding my good thoughts for your continued recovery.

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  10. Scout said on April 21, 2014 at 12:33 pm

    In case anyone is interested: http://www.onetruelove.org/

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  11. coozledad said on April 21, 2014 at 12:34 pm

    When I first saw David Brooks’ pate in the screen grab for this article, I thought briefly it might be an ad for glans penis tanning lotion. Apparently cock-headed non-entities are a big Sunday television draw.
    http://happynicetimepeople.com/extremely-super-manly-david-brooks-sure-bamz-enough-cojones-real-man-like-vladimir-putin/

    The fact Obama got Bin Laden is still a big hot lobster up their ass. They were banking on their preliterate fratboy fundie getting him, and he was an abject failure.

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  12. brian stouder said on April 21, 2014 at 1:54 pm

    And indeed – lest it be forgotten – I remember somewhere around 2006, I think, reading an article in Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, about how the Bush administration had de-emphasized and defunded the focused CIA/DoD effort to specifically find and kill Sammy bin Laden*.

    I very specifically remember how mad that article made me, because the reasoning given was that he was only a symbol, and it was a waste of resources to target him, and make his death a specific goal.

    It was such a complete mistake; that guy and his crowd LIVE (and die) for just such specific symbolism; afterall, why hit the twin towers? Why hit the Pentagon? His ignominious ending, it seemed to me then, was an absolutely legitimate national aim of the United States, whatever it costs.

    And when President Obama took office, that priority was jacked right back up, and the job got done. The night I saw the bulletin that the United States got him, Pam and I immediately said (almost in unison) – “President Obama just got re-elected”. It must have down the Obama-hater’s gullets like a sideways peach-pit.

    *I bet we could search the archive here, and find several of us commenting on that very story…

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  13. coozledad said on April 21, 2014 at 2:08 pm

    What it brings up like a hairball even among the buttoned down cretins like Brooks is their racism:

    CNN made asses of themselves this weekend asking if the Klan could rebrand itself. It already has. It’s the Republican party. if the Klan has been marginalized at all it’s not due to law enforcement efforts, but the big welcome mat rolled out by Ronald Reagan and his party of white revanchism.

    The ones who still want to use bombs and lynchings as a mode of self expression will find a home in any one of the dozen or so brands of apeshit that surround the white nationalist nucleus of the party. You can get any flavor you want, but it’s all vanilla. The tell is the violent anti-government sentiment the Right is stoking over the Bundy ranch grift. It’s pure Klan recruitment rhetoric.

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  14. coozledad said on April 21, 2014 at 2:19 pm

    My previous rant is missing its link; here it is. Another Scipio Republicanus bubbling out of the swamps of SC:
    http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/21/sc-gop-candidate-urges-christians-to-remove-children-from-godless-pharaohs-schools/

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  15. brian stouder said on April 21, 2014 at 2:28 pm

    And indeed – it seems to have bothered the bloody bastards that the US government didn’t press forward “Waco-style”* and make some latter-day martyrs out of a few of them.

    It seems to be the politics of a three year old…”I want what I want, and whatever I want I have a RIGHT to, b’god! And if I change my mind (regarding property rights, for example, and who owns what) – then it’s STILL unfair if I don’t get my way!!”

    *I think Chris Hayes did a compilation of Fox News/rightwing radio uses of the name “Waco” with regard to the lunatic rancher.

    If they thought twice, though, that Waco cult leader liked to rape little girls, when he wasn’t working on his suicide-by-cop fantasy-come-reality plan.

    Unless the “conservatives” are now lionizing David Koresh…

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  16. Jeff Borden said on April 21, 2014 at 2:43 pm

    Conservatives will lionize David Koresh, Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer if they think it will hurt Obama.

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  17. mark said on April 21, 2014 at 2:48 pm

    Liberals will lionize Adolf Hitler, Jerry Sandusky or Osama bin Laden if they think it will help Obama.

    Great discussing politics with you, Jeff.

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  18. Dexter said on April 21, 2014 at 2:53 pm

    JMMO: The first thing I searched for and found when I got Netflix was “The Way”. I too found it a very moving film. Martin Sheen is a serious, practicing Catholic, and he was really into doing this project with son Emilio.

    Kirk, nance…when did the Dispatch shrink to magazine size? I brought the paper in from the driveway Saturday and I thought it was an advertising flyer; hell, it was the Columbus Dispatch.

    jerry, I am really enjoying the British television series “Shameless” on Netflix. 100 episodes and I didn’t even know the show existed; I thought the American version was the original (Showtime, which I also adore). It took me just a couple episodes to get used to the British cast. Both shows are great. At first I thought they said the show was set in London but then they said Manchester. My older brother is the jetsetter, having taken fun-trips to London and of course a Beatles tour in Liverpool (where he met John’s late uncle Charley on a tour bus) . Me, someday. All depends on the Lotto gods, that’s all.

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  19. brian stouder said on April 21, 2014 at 2:56 pm

    Except, Mark, I haven’t seen any “mainstream media” types

    lionize(ing) Adolf Hitler, Jerry Sandusky or Osama bin Laden if they think it will help Obama.

    Somebody somewhere may, but show me the “liberal” who has a similarly large audience as shit-for-brains-Sean Hannity (et al), or Oxy-Rush, who “lionizes” Hitler or Sandusky or bin Laden.

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  20. mark said on April 21, 2014 at 3:02 pm

    brian- I made my statement up. It’s not true.

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  21. brian stouder said on April 21, 2014 at 3:11 pm

    Mark – while, indeed, it is true that the Fox News crew, and shit-for-brains-Sean in particular, DID go into “RAH-RAH/HUZZAH” mode for the rancher and the armed militia/”sovereign citizen” alcolytes that he drew; and there seemed to be a genuine let-down for them when there was no gunfight or body count.

    Thank you for graciously backing away from your false-equivalence

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  22. Dexter said on April 21, 2014 at 3:19 pm

    There’s a 36 year old guy in New Jersey who has three podcasts and used to be on a big XM radio show as a sort-of crazy-clown type, and has been my Facebook friend since Facebook started. Tonight he gets to be on TV for having some of the worst tattoos in the world.
    “Oh!! Oh-oh!!!! Watch the Dave Man TONIGHT at 10 PM (EST) on TLC on America’s Worst Tattoos!! Visit http://www.EastSideDaveCountry.com/news-polls/ for more info!!! Oh yes!!!”
    His name is Dave McDonald, the Dave-Man, Davey Mac.

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  23. Jeff Borden said on April 21, 2014 at 3:46 pm

    I’m terribly sorry to have hurt your feelings, Mark. And I’m calling bullshit on you while I’m at it. The level of hate, vitriol and good, old-fashioned race-baiting directed at Barack Obama and his policies is breathtaking, particularly because it comes not only from the flying monkeys of right-wing radio and TV, but from Republican office holders and seekers.

    I look forward to watching the conservative movement die of old age. I have a nice bottle of Scotch teed up for the day in the distant future when that momentous day arrives.

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  24. Dave said on April 21, 2014 at 3:53 pm

    Forgive my intrusion but I’ve really no other way to send this to MarkH. I thought he might enjoy this picture of the bridge at Clare, which was taken possibly in the 1940’s but looking much as it did the last time I ever saw it, sometime earlier in this century. When he said he played on the bridge, I was wondering if he meant this bridge right at Clare Yard.
    http://tinyurl.com/mxl6ya6

    Dexter, besides not being able to grasp why anyone wants any kind of a tattoo, why would anyone be proud of having the worst tattoos? I’m never going to get it.

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  25. Kirk said on April 21, 2014 at 3:54 pm

    Dexter@18: The paper shrunk to its present size in January 2013. Reader reaction has been almost 100 percent positive. The Cincinnati Enquirer since has done the same (the Dispatch prints it), and many other dailies are looking at doing so. It’s more convenient to handle, and the volume of content is the same as before.

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  26. Dave said on April 21, 2014 at 3:56 pm

    Oh, and missing the edit once again, if you click the left arrow after the bridge picture comes up, there’s a picture taken of Clare Yard in steam locomotive days.

    Does anyone else miss the sidebar that had the list of posters on it, making it easy to start reading where you may have left off?

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  27. brian stouder said on April 21, 2014 at 4:16 pm

    It’s still there, but just way at the top (sort of like a hat-rack)

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  28. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 21, 2014 at 4:27 pm

    Over here in Licking County, Kirk (he said disloyally), I’ve heard nothing but positives about the size/format change on the Dispatch; everyone keeps asking when the Advocate will go the same route. I’m assuming soon.

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  29. LAMary said on April 21, 2014 at 4:39 pm

    Grace and Peace are lovely things to wish anyone.

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  30. brian stouder said on April 21, 2014 at 4:40 pm

    Speaking of newspapers and Ohio, the good ol’ Sunday Journal Gazette choked me up yesterday, with this:

    http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20140420/LOCAL09/304209930/0/SEARCH

    Here’s the lead:

    NASHPORT, Ohio – A couple who held hands at breakfast every morning even after 70 years of marriage have died 15 hours apart.
    Helen Felumlee, of Nashport, died at 92 on April 12. Her husband, 91-year-old Kenneth Felumlee, died the next morning.

    It goes on from there, and is quite affecting

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  31. Deborah said on April 21, 2014 at 4:43 pm

    I personally like the commenters names side bar at the top where it is now, I don’t miss the traveling version.

    Has anybody seen “Under the Skin” yet? Little Bird and I are going to see it either later this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon. I may have already mentioned this here but the actor with the disfigured face in the movie has NF (what LB has). Only his case is much more extreme than her’s. That is not make up, that’s really what he looks like. We first read about him on a website of an organization for people with NF. He spends most of his time in the film naked with naked Scarlett Johansson My husband saw the movie last night because he knew I was going to see it with LB before I get back to Chicago, I haven’t had a chance to get his review yet.

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  32. Dave said on April 21, 2014 at 4:49 pm

    Yes, there it is, obviously I’m not very observant. I was so used to the traveling version that I didn’t look for it elsewhere.

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  33. brian stouder said on April 21, 2014 at 5:05 pm

    Well, “He spends most of his time in the film naked with naked Scarlett Johansson” sounds like “two-thumbs-up” (so to speak) to me!

    Pam and Shelby and I caught Divergent last week; they both read the books(?) and loved it (them?), and wanted to see the movie.

    I thought the movie made a very nice anti-standardized testing comment…

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  34. Jeff Borden said on April 21, 2014 at 5:19 pm

    Presented without further comment. . .

    The white nationalist website VDARE is once again demanding credit for an idea that it has been championing for years that has now gone mainstream in the GOP.

    Last year, we reported that VDARE writer John Derbyshire (formerly of the National Review) was annoyed that prominent Republicans were failing to credit racist VDARE writer Steve Sailer when they advocated a plan nearly identical to the ‘Sailer Strategy’: that is, the idea that the GOP can only survive by solidifying and growing its white base while alienating people of color. Sailer had been persistently advocating this tactic for over a decade when it suddenly came into vogue among conservatives who opposed the Gang of Eight’s immigration reform plan.

    Now, another VDARE writer is upset that more and more immigration reform opponents are pushing another VDARE argument without giving the white nationalists credit. This time, the argument is that steady or increased legal immigration – with or without a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrations – will ruin the Republican party because immigrants are inherently liberal.

    In a post on Friday, VDARE writer James Fulford highlights a recent study from the Center for Immigration Studies which argues that Republicans shouldn’t bother with immigration reform because immigrants will inevitably vote for Democrats. Fulford complains that neither the CIS report nor the conservative outlets covering it “manages to credit Peter Brimelow or VDARE.com for saying all this early and often, possibly because it they’re scared of Media Matters and the SPLC.” As he notes, VDARE has been pushing the argument since as early as 2001.

    The CIS report solidifies what has become a common talking point among even relatively mainstream anti-immigrant groups. CIS spokespeople repeatedly argue that the country shouldn’t “ import more” immigrants because they’ll never vote Republican anyway. Phyllis Schlafly’s Eagle Forum has also been pushing this line of argument and released its own report on the subject. Schlafly probably put the argument the most succinctly when she said in February, “These immigrants, legal and illegal, coming in don’t really understand our country and will probably vote Democratic .” She also suggested that Latino immigrants “don’t understand” the Bill of Rights and reject American values.

    It’s no surprise that this idea originated in the racist underworld of VDARE. After all, the subtext of the argument is that the GOP should rely on what Pat Buchanan called a new “Southern Strategy” and dump any plans to expand its appeal beyond its mostly white base. As the “Southern Strategy” comparison makes clear, that involves both scapegoating immigrants and ignoring their voices in government.
    Filed Under
    – See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/white-nationalists-demand-credit-another-idea-s-gone-mainstream-gop#sthash.Z3ybhCjw.dpuf

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  35. MarkH said on April 21, 2014 at 5:27 pm

    Dave – great photos of the old Clare yard, especially seeing it with steam power; thanks for sharing. Yes, that is the bridge across the Little Miami we used to play on back in the day. I should say we were more in middle school when we used to play on it. By the time we were in high school we were driving and would go down there and do doughnuts in the dirt.

    Also, Dave, check out this vpike (a google streetview knockoff) capture. Recognize it? Upscale suburban Miami Bluff Drive at Cachepit Street. On the right, feebly blocked by the safety cone is the overgrown abandoned road down the hill to Clare (hope it opens up properly).

    http://www.vpike.com/?place=miamai+bluff+drive%2C+Mariemont%2C+Ohio&submit=Street+View&r=e

    Nancy, please forward my email to Dave so we can exchange other pics and have old home week off-site. 🙂

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  36. Dexter said on April 21, 2014 at 5:40 pm

    Thanks, Kirk. When we moved into this house 33 years ago we found an old trunk in the attic that was packed with WWII era newspapers, it was obvious someone had a loved one “across over there” and they were chronicling the war news. Those papers were huge as you surely know. I suppose those were the biggest papers in history. I don’t know when the world’s big cities began offering tabloids as an incentive for strap-hangers to read on their commutes, but I remember Chicago Today and the Sun-Times were both tabloids 46 years ago, and New York had not only The Post but several other tabloids, leaving The Times as the only full-sized paper, I believe. I think The Daily News was a tabloid as well.
    What makes the new Dispatch interesting is that it is not a tabloid, but according to my son-in-law, is marketing itself as “magazine size for easy reading”. But it is not a magazine at all…it’s a tiny newspaper. Well, of course we get used to these changes very quickly.

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  37. MarkH said on April 21, 2014 at 5:45 pm

    Kirk – The Dispatch is printing the Enquirer now? How does that work, printed in Columbus and shipped to Cincy, or do they now own the presses in Cincy.

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  38. MarkH said on April 21, 2014 at 5:48 pm

    Dave, that link didn’t open in the right location. Follow the street back to the west on the map by using the scrolling feature and then pivot the view to see the old road.

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  39. Dexter said on April 21, 2014 at 7:47 pm

    A 38 year old American who nobody outside the running community has heard of won the Boston Marathon. I have not heard anybody compare this feat with Barry Bonds suddenly acquiring super-powers a few years ago and at the same age becoming a home run hittin’ freak like never before or since, and the whole world knew he was injecting anabolic steroids left and right. Last week I saw the Ray Milland movie “It Happens Every Spring” in which the professor , well up in years athletically, becomes a star major league pitcher, all because of a wood repellent he perfected which made it impossible for a hitter to hit the doctored baseballs the professor was pitching.
    So is Meb Keflezighi for real? Where was he at his peak, say at age 27? How can a 38 year old runner capture the world’s most famous marathon so easily? Most athletes are done by age 38, not emerging.

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  40. Dorothy said on April 21, 2014 at 7:58 pm

    I loved the new smaller size of the Dispatch. We subscribe to the Daily News now but occasionally pick up the Dispatch on Sundays at Kroger. Our daughter’s boyfriend is a page designer at the VIrginian Pilot and he brought some copies of the Dispatch back to Norfolk after they visited us last year. He wanted to show it to his superiors and co-workers. I think most papers are going to have to transition to the smaller size as a cost-cutting measure.

    MichaelG I will be thinking lots of positive thoughts for you as you begin your chemo.

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  41. garmoore2 said on April 21, 2014 at 9:35 pm

    Dexter:

    Don’t know where Meb was at 27, but at 28 he won the silver medal in the marathon in the 2004 Athens Olympics, at 32 he broke his hip in the Olympic trials, and he’s been a force in distance running for years. Distance runners hit their peak in their late 20s and can hold that peak for a number of years. A lot of world-class runners start having muscle and tendon problems in their mid-30s, but some runners don’t.

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  42. Sherri said on April 21, 2014 at 10:03 pm

    WP Kinsella on the 25th anniversary of “Field of Dreams”, the second (or maybe third) best baseball movie: http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10797026/mlb-wp-kinsella-25th-anniversary-field-dreams

    “Bull Durham” is the best baseball movie. “Bang the Drum Slowly” may be the second best.

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  43. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on April 21, 2014 at 10:43 pm

    Brian, I did Kenny’s brother’s funeral just a few months ago, and the whole Felumlee family is just a joy to be around. The story truly does them justice, and I’m happy to confirm that the reality lives up to the narrative. A branch of the family goes to my church, and I do funerals occasionally for the side that lives around Nashport & Irville (they’re mostly Methodist, but clergy coverage is spotty out in that stretch of country east of here).

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  44. Deborah said on April 21, 2014 at 10:44 pm

    I had a coworker in St. Louis who at one time was the 10th American male in the results of the Chicago Marathon. This guy was from St. Louis and had been hit by a car on his bike prior to this amazing feat. He had a slight build when you saw him fully clothed, but If you saw him dressed in his workout clothes while running, you could see that he had an incredibly muscular physique. I don’t know what happened to him since, I keep checking every year since then when they give the results of the Chicago Marathon but I’ve not seen his name. So he may have been injured again or who knows what.

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  45. Kirk said on April 21, 2014 at 11:02 pm

    Dexter@36: When we were doing test runs of the new-size paper, I checked and, sure enough, the page vertically now is shorter than it was wide when I started there in 1976.

    MarkH@37: Having retired from a boss-type position and moved to part-time a few years ago, I’m not as plugged in as I once was, but we print the Enquirer on our presses in southwestern Franklin County. Not sure how early the deadlines are, but the Enquirer, like so many other dailies, is a shell of its former competent self now. And, unlike the Dispatch, it does present itself as something of a daily magazine. No idea what kind of Reds coverage the people in the tri-state area are getting (though I do know it’s certainly not as well-written as when Bob Hertzel was covering the Big Red Machine).

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  46. Deborah said on April 21, 2014 at 11:05 pm

    Here’s an example of why my fit bit is a pain in the butt: usually it tells me when I need to recharge, but today it didn’t and I walked about 3 miles at the community center before I realized it was out of juice. Then it took hours to recharge before it was ready for action. Bummer. It’s amazing how much weight I put into my weekly stats, when I know shit like this happens.

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  47. Joe Kobiela said on April 21, 2014 at 11:28 pm

    Dexter,
    Mebs is a beast, marathoners seem to peak at a later age, next time you take a bike ride try and ride around 13 mph, that’s how fast a world class runner is moving, for 26.2 miles, my fastest was a 3:47 can not imagine running a 2:08 or faster.
    By the way Mebs 25th mile was under 5:00 minutes.
    Pilot Joe

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  48. Dexter said on April 22, 2014 at 12:14 am

    Thanks for the education. I guess it was the Ethiopians’ domination for all these thirty years that had me off-track.
    My buddy Greg from Connecticut ran Boston once, I think it was 1978. All I really know is that Bill Rodgers was really good back then. I am not a runner but I am glad for this new cable channel that televises all the big marathons. I watched the whole thing live today. We also have a channel now that televises bicycling and not much else…races, all sorts of competition.

    Sherri, you are definitely the pro sports guru on these pages. Have you read “Shoeless Joe” by W.P. Kisella? I loved the movie “Field of Dreams” but the book is so much better.

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  49. Sherri said on April 22, 2014 at 12:28 am

    Dexter, I have read “Shoeless Joe”, both the original short story and the novel, and yes, the book is much better than the movie. Kinsella has written several baseball novels and short stories. My favorite is a short story of his, “The Last Pennant Before Armageddon” which is in the collection “The Thrill of the Grass”.

    “Bang the Drum Slowly” is also from a very good novel of the same name, by Mark Harris. It’s a sequel to “The Southpaw”, which is also good.

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