Then vs Now

I came home from work last night and saw the latest flyer from Katie's daycare was a brochure from Scholastic Book Service. I was surprised to say the least to see Scholastic was still around selling books. I remember when I was in school I was a very voracious reader and always had a book to read in study hall after I knocked any homework out. Up until about the 6th grade I got all my books from Scholastic and the days when our teacher passed out the newest flyer were like individual Christmases for me!! In the 6th grade I made the transition to "grown-up" books, and the first one I read was a 666 page paperback titled "Rich Man Poor Man" by Irwin Shaw and is still one of my favorites to this day.

So as I was going through the flyer that Katie bought home I saw it was the October 2007 issue and had some Halloween titles in it. They had "Skeleton Hiccups", "The Littlest Pumpkin", "Happy Halloween Stinky Face", and of course the edge-of-your-seat spine-tingler "Care Bears - The Great Big Pumpkin". I was amused at these to say the least, and had to wonder if there are now separate selection forms for different age groups. Because when I was a kid, the selections offered were a bit more spooky at this time of year.

I thought back to one of the stories I could remember a line from, and thanks to the magic of Google was able to find it. It was a little poem by Theodore Roethke titled "The Bat". Which then set me off to find out if the book could be found still, and I did locate a copy which will be headed my way in the near future. It was a volume called "The Haunted House and Other Spooky Poems and Tales". Even the cover is sort of retro-Gothic which you may be able to see from the picture above. Not quite as feel good as "Room On The Broom" for today's youth is it?

Read if you will another selection from this tome titled "The Velvet Ribbon" and imagine if this was put in a book offered for sale by a book company catering to kids today. I wonder if it would even be scary to the pre-adolescent set? All I know is that in 1974 there was a certain 9 year-old who had the heebie jeebies every time he read that book, but couldn't help but read it over and over.

Now if I can only find out about this old commercial that I swore used to run around Halloween time involving a kid on a bike, a spooky house and Cracker Jacks.

Taste of Cleveland

Last night I went to the 12th annual "Taste of Cleveland" at the Time Warner Cable Amphitheatre at Tower City(that was more of a mouthful than some of the food I ate). This was my first time at the TOC, as I was there primarily for the Michael Stanley and the Resonators show at the end of the night.

Having been to more than my fair share of events in downtown Cleveland I had a pretty good idea how long it would take to get there, where to park and such. What I wasn't prepared for was the bottleneck of traffic that happened about 5 miles before my exit onto East 9th Street! As it turned out, there was 4 different events going on downtown and half the population of Summit and Cuyahoga counties were trying to get to them. In addition to the TOC, the Indians were taking on the White Sox, Akron U and Army were playing at Browns Stadium and the Air Show was going on at Burke Lakefront Airport. Not wanting to be sniffing exhaust any longer than needed I exited the Interstate on East 55th Street and figured I would just cut down Carnegie for the shortcut...that diversion proved interesting to say the least. Saw some parts of Cleveland I had only heard of before.

But at any rate once I arrived safely and parked, the aroma of food wafting through the air cured any regret I had about my travels. The array of food had me wondering where to begin, so I settled on a gyro that had more meat in it that I thought was possible, and a plate of "spiral fries" which was a potato sliced in one continuous motion and then deep-fried...which reminds me I think I am due for a cholesterol check...and what better way to wash it all down than with an ice-cold Budweiser. Later on after meeting with some of my fellow forum members, I had some barbecued ribs that while not as good as some I have had, went quite well with another Bud I found!!

Once the concert began, all thoughts of food were erased from my mind and I settled in to enjoy some great music. I have seen Michael Stanley live more times than I can remember starting back in 1980 and in about 4 different incarnations of a "group" but each show never fails to deliver on what I've come to expect...songs I know all the lyrics to, tight showmanship, and an occasional surprise thrown in. The surprise this time was a cover of "Purple Rain" which was done quite well. I have long thought Michael a talented songwriter, and the between song banter always brings a smile to my face.

All the major songs of his career were well represented, as well as some of the newest ones which went over quite well. In recognition of the fact most of the crowd came for the "oldies" and perhaps not in favor of the new ones, Michael said "You know, at one time Lover was a new song. My Town was new, and if I didn't play the new stuff you'd be stuck with me playing this for two hours", before launching into a great "Rosewood Bitters".

After the show, I still had some of the "coupons" you used for the food leftover and since they could not be redeemed back for cash, I found a vendor still open selling pastries. Bought a couple chocolate-chip cannolies and chocolate eclairs that were out-of-this world!! And if I had one regret it was that I wasn't able to save one to enjoy with my morning coffee.

I have posted some of the pictures here, and would like to thank my friend Jeff for offering me some advice on getting better shots with my camera. I normally used the "Auto" mode and at times got very poor quality pictures if it wasn't outside in bright sunlight. He told me to experiment with the PASM settings and the "Scene" function and see what that brought. I have yet to get comfortable knowing the appropriate settings for my shots, but happened to try taking some in the "Sport" mode which turned out pretty good.