Saturday, March 4, 12 noon.
Goodale Park Gazebo (near Buttles and Park) 101 Buttles Ave, Columbus, Ohio 43215
FACEBOOK EVENT

I learned on the radio today that had he lived, Kurt Cobain would have been 50 years old on February 20, 2017. While it didn't really tug at the heartstrings or inspire a nostalgia trip, it brought to mind a conversation I had a few years back.

I was sitting at the Little Palace with a Dennison student who had some sort of connection with my Uncle Bill. She was taking a bus to NYC that would be picking her up down the street, and my wife had insisted that I stay with her she got on board. We got to talking about music. She was an enthusiastic proponent of the string band revival which at the time was approaching its high water mark, and in my view also approaching tedious. At some point she asked me what I was listening to when I was in High School, paused a split second, and said “Nirvana, right?” Well, I thought, that’s a really interesting question.

The warning sounded ominous: “… three unresponsive persons calls in the last 24 hours. The common denominator appears to be marijuana laced with an unknown opiate. The victims are unaware they are using anything other than marijuana but are overdosing like they had used heroin or fentanyl. Be cautious and call 911 ASAP if you suspect an overdose.”

Yikes. So I read a post on the Facebook page of the Painesville Township Fire Department on February 8, 2016.

Fair? Ohio has indeed been hit hard by the opioid crisis. A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation accorded Ohio the dubious distinction of having highest number of annual opiate-related deaths – some 2,106. This tragedy has touched countless families and stretched the limited resources of first responders like fire departments.

On first blush, the warning had the community interest at heart. Or did it?

Within a few hours, the post had gone viral. As of this writing, 4,846 shares, 259 likes and 120 comments, for an organization that received only one congratulatory note for its 50th anniversary.

Sometimes the real world needs heroes. And sometimes those heroes need inspiration.

To anyone only passingly familiar with Captain America, it's easy to assume he's nothing more than the embodiment of blind patriotism. A muscled-up blond white man in stars and stripes, he looks like an American fascist's dream.

But Captain America was created to fight fascism in America’s name, and for that, he’s a perfect icon for the modern-day resistance.

The early days of the comic book industry were deeply rooted in New York City, so it's no surprise that most superheroes with a pedigree that old were created by the children of Jewish immigrants. Plenty of scholarly examinations of Superman have made a big deal of that aspect of that superhero’s creation. Though Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster started in Cleveland rather than New York, their experiences growing up in immigrant Jewish families influenced the creation of the ultimate immigrant character.

Sam Husseini just asked Nancy Pelosi why she won't support an impeachment investigation for Trump.