Beer, beer is still good

Back in my crazy kid days of retail I had a small dream to open my own business. It was small, but it was mine, even if it did not have a decent name. The concept was a shop of Ohio related books and beverages. Fiction, non-fiction, beer, wine and other local products. It was a niche idea, but one I would have been comfortable with during a time when I was more comfortable dealing with the public. Not anymore.

Just last week a local business opened up called The Ohio Taproom. What it sells is beer, locally brewed beer to go. You can sample for fifty cents a shot, and get a quart or half gallon to go. Selling beer in a growler is a growing trend. There are parts of the city where Growler Walks occur, the craft beer stores are that close together.

After work today I stopped at the Ohio Taproom (1291 West Third Avenue) to pick up a growler and check the place out. It's a cozy place on the busy corner near Grandview that once housed a barber shop. Parking may be an issue, but I was there early enough to park close. It's also a residential area, with a good amount of foot traffic. The owners were talking about all the foot traffic they've already had. I bought the 64oz. jug for $4.50, which is obviously reusable as long as you keep it clean and took a look at the selection, but not without buying a shot first.



It's a small, but well curated selection of 16 beers from all over the state. The list is meant to be updated frequently and seasonally. I chose a Wiesel Junge Koelsch from the Weasel Boy Brewery of Zanesville. A very tasty and snappy German style lager you do not see often commercially. We'll enjoy this beer over the next day or two, clean out the growler then head back for a refill.

I'm still uncertain about the novelty and saturation of craft beer businesses in Columbus, but people do like beer. Who wants a place that makes and/or sells good beer to fail? Not me! Last time I checked, I'm a person who likes beer, too.

You can learn a lot from an Albanian

Last night I was invited to take part in a performance workshop led by poet and performer Gypsee Yo. I was really looking forward to this because while I had only seen her perform three poems at The Women of the World Slam here a few years back, what I saw really impressed me.

The discussion was great, her abilities as a performer and teacher really came through during the workshop. Definitely learned a few things to enhance my performance on stage with or without being in a slam.

Later, she did a feature at Writers' Block and the audience was blown away. She has a story to tell, an amazing human one. It's a great gift she possesses, and one that she is more than willing to share. If you ever get a chance to see her perform, do not miss. I've seen some great features at Writers' Block over the past seven years, if I were to rank this is one of the top two - the other being Jack McCarthy.

Slots and flowers

We were invited to the casino on Saturday night to see the Stylistics. All I remember about them is that they had a lot of hits on WABC when I was a kid. Had to look up and see who was left from the original group. Turns out, the only guy who left was the guy who sang the high notes, yes, the important ones. We went anyway, with some trepidation, but optimism.



They came out with some smooth moves, which got a bit slower as the night went on. They sounded great, with the newer guy, who was in a version of the Delfonics, taking the high notes with ease. Loved the matching suits, and they did all of the hits to a very appreciative crowd.

Have to say the casino does have some great entertainment value, and if they continue to host the occasional interesting act we're going to go. I should not gamble though, dropped ten bucks about as fast as I sat at the shot machine. My wife though, she fared better by winning a few bucks.

Earlier in the day on Saturday we went to the OSU campus greenhouse to see the Corpse Flower.



The university had one that bloomed last year but me did not go. I was determined to get a whiff this year, when another one bloomed. We did not get there when it peaked and you could smell it 100 feet away, but from about four feet, it reeked. Bad.

Planned on mowing the lawn this morning, but rain thwarted that plan. Kid is on the couch watching Sponge Bob, wife's making pancakes.

Let me also add a thank you to everyone who has been following this little blog. May has been a record for the number of page views, and it's not even over yet!

Let's no Krogering

For several months, the grocery store I use the most has been slipping. I've complained to cashiers, employees and have sent email to the corporate headquarters.

The store has stopped stocking items we need and has been frequently out of stock on items that I consider essentials. Not to mention a dirty store, hard to find carts and aisles blocked due to employees restocking during all hours. I sent an email on Sunday, and was promised a response in 24 hours. I just got this response, over ninety six hours later.

"Thank you for taking the time to complete our survey and providing your feedback on your experience.

I apologize you had multiple issues with product selections, many products being out of stock. I have shared your feedback with a member of the store management for review in correcting these issues and making sure that products are in stock, as long as available from the manufacture.

I hope that you find this information helpful. If I can be of further assistance, please simply respond to this email or call 1-800-XXX-XXX.

Thank you for shopping with us.

Sincerely,

XXXXXXX"

Consumer Affairs"

I'm not sure if it's worth the time to respond, but easier to start shopping elsewhere. So is it me, or is the Brewery District Kroger slipping in quality?

Chain gangs, gangsters and gun molls

Courtsey of the Wexner Center we got to see a couple more pre-code movies last night.

The first was Laughter in Hell, a dark little film starring Pat O'Brien who gets married, becomes a railroad engineer who gets married. He finds out his wife is having an affair with one of his childhood enemies then kills them both. He's sentenced to a life of hard labor and his warden is the brother of the man he killed. Yes, great fun. I was pleased to see Merna Kennedy in this film. She played the Girl in Charlie Chaplin's "The Circus." She was only 36 when she died of a heart attack.



Could not find a still from Laughter in Hell with her in it. The movie also included a mass hanging of black prisoners and had a very I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang feel, even if the main character was a honest-to-god double murderer.

The other film we saw was Little Giant, with the amazing Edward G. Robinson as a Chicago gangster who goes straight when prohibition ends. He moves to California to set himself up in what he thinks is high class society. Hijinks ensue when he meets a family whose motives are not entirely genuine. In what was Robinson's first comedy, he chews up and devours the screen with great delight. Mary Astor is quite charming as a real estate agent with a back story



I mean really charming. She had a tough life. A child star who was forced into acting then ripped off by her parents. She had scandals, breakdowns and losing bouts with alcohol. Some say she was too old to play Brigid O'Shaughnessy in The Maltese Falcon. I call bullshit on that.



A fine actress who really did not want to be there, thanks to her parents.

40 years early, he gets one done

My son underwent an endoscopy of his GI tract today to determine if there was anything physically wrong that may be preventing him from wanting to eat. He and I went to the hospital about seven this morning. Got him set up in his hospital gown. Signed the consent form and got the details from his doctor and the anesthesiologist. He hid under the blanket to keep warm while we cuddled on the gurney. Then he was taken to the procedure room, and I was asked to be in there when they put him under.

Comforting your son while he's squirming and crying as he breathes in knockout gas is not recommended. His mother saw it when he had dental surgery a few years ago and was traumatized by the fear in his eyes and now I understand that completely. Not something I ever wish to witness again.

I left the room and was told to wait in the reception area. I was given a pager, like in a restaurant, that would beep and vibrate when my son was, um, done. After about 25 minutes of waiting, it went off and I was taken to a consulting room.

One chair on one side of a small, curtained room. Three chairs on the other. I did not want to think about the other two chairs and thankfully it was just his doctor who came in to tell me he was fine and that the scope showed nothing wrong but the biopsy results would take a few days. He seemed confident there was nothing physically amiss. We talked of his toileting issues and what could be done about them. So much work ahead.

I emailed his mother and she quickly replied back that she was in the hospital, waiting to be brought in to see him. I went to the nurse's station and asked where she was. Had to get one of the nurses to bring her in.

We were taken to recovery where he was groggy and whiny, nothing unexpected. After a few minutes I gave him his iPad and he went under the covers and blasted Dora the Explorer. A few minutes later I took the iPad from him so we could get him dressed and out of there which caused him to have a bit of a meltdown, which also showed us that he was good to go.

I was not sure if his mother would show up or not so I was prepared to take the day off work. I was surprised and grateful to know she planned on watching him the rest of the day. She let me know a couple of hours later that he was back to normal and I have heard nothing to tell me otherwise.

Ok, I only worked half a day, and to destress I went to Pistachia Vera for breakfast.

There is a new lock on the door

I wrote about what happened to my wife a couple of weeks ago, when my son wandered off. Our story had a happier ending. Over the past month, two families have not had the relief we felt when the police brought my son home.

Seven year old Owen Black and Nine year old Mikaela Lynch both wandered off, both were autistic and non-verbal, both were found dead a few days after they wandered off.

I cannot imagine the grief these families are feeling. I join in supporting the Lynch and Black families during this horrible time, and remembering their children.

There is a group called The AWAARE Collaboration that is working to prevent wandering incidents and death in the autism community.

To learn more about the life of Mikaela Lynch, her family has set up a webpage called Mikaela's Village.