Brooklyn Centre gets sloppy national coverage on public radio's Weekend America for participating in Cleveland's Corner Store project. 

Does Cleveland and northeast Ohio have a policy of deferred maintenance?  It would seem that the strategy is to let everything fall apart until we qualify for state and federal funding.

My father, bless his soul, played and replayed the soundtracks to Fiddler on the Roof and Man of La Macha, over and over, until the lyrics became a mantra.  Tradition!  Try to establish just one simple family tradition and you will have children with the gift of memory.

Kids understand basic shapes, sizes, colors. 
How can kids get on board and help to fix America?

Give yourself a thoughtful, beautiful, stimulating, uniquely American gift.  Visit the Westmoreland Museum in Greenburg, PA to see Painting in the United States: 1943-1949.  The exhibit runs Sunday, June 29, 2008-Sunday, October 19, 2008.

My colleague has generously donated the use of her technology to our kids in the neigborhood*--a karaoke machine.  Today, we tried to belt out some High School musical tunes, Hannah Montana and then Motown, but it was uniformly painful. 

What is wrong with this picture?  (Extra credit to any one who can identify the location)  Hint: Back to school!

From an esteemed colleague--some good news:

If you know of anyone that graduated from CMSD in 2008 there are full scholarships available to them to attend Tri-C.  The link below will take you to the site.  Below there is some extra information.  There is an informational session on August 16 (information below).

Today 8/3/2008, Chris Ronayne gets a front page editorial on the Forum page of the Plain Dealer.  Chris lives in Cleveland and drives to work every day.  I know his commute, because I made a similar commute when I worked at Metrohealth Hospital in the eighties.*  My drive time?  Ten minutes from University Circle to Metrohealth Hospital. Sure, sometimes, it was 15-20 minutes, if traffic held me up, or, if it took forever to get out of the parking lot, but I literally made the commute every day with my eyes closed.  It scared me so much to realize that I was driving in a trance, that I committed myself to public transportation. 

Jessica, Aladeen, Mohammad and Mustafa rode their bikes to see the kids perform in Lincoln Park under the stars! 

(This photo was taken in Berea)

A fellow librarian sent this article link Source: www.nytimes.com:

My colleague at work suggested that we show movies that matter to the kids this fall.  So, a discussion ensued.  What visuals really made a dent in your life?  We could go on and on about songs that affected us, but films come back to haunt our dreams.

Last night's Bill Moyers Journal discussed the mortgage meltdown and the role of Wall Street and the Federal Reserve Bank with author William Greider--order the book from a local library on line* and educate yourself on how we got ourselves into this mess.  In a word--GREED.

Who was W.C. Reed? Tremont is fortunate to have a large green space--Lincoln Park--which serves to provide a community center to one Cleveland neighborhood.

Today's PD includes an editorial opposed to Library Director Ken Warren's decision to monitor computer use at Lakewood Public Library. 

Public library patrons should be left alone

Graphics speak louder than words, but, of course, the kids know that!!!

Here's today's Summer's Bliss List.  I have to say this for the PD: Karen R. Long is a goddess!
Cleveland Public Library carries all the titles, so please find these great reads in a library or a locally-owned bookstore such as Visible Voice (west)  and Mac's Backs (east).

I never fell into the category of teen drawn to goth and vampires, but now I understand the attraction. I just finished Twilight by Stephenie Meyers.  It has become the de rigeur rite-of-passage book for the current generation of humans.

Under Mike White's administration, Abram's Creek in the Rocky River watershed was buried to make way for the expansion of Hopkin's Airport.  Fourteen million dollars in mitigation funding was allocated to restore the Doan Brook watershed.  What happened to the money?