By Joshua Benton and Kim Bates Blade Staff Writers Page A16 Whew. After the area’s nasty bout with winter last week – when snow became a four-letter word – local residents were thankful that Friday night’s storm whimpered instead of roared. “This is nothing,” said David Archer, 36, who was shoveling the light accumulation the […]
Category: Blade | Miscellaneous
The big dig-out; 2 die from weather; Travel is hazardous
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 1 Saturday was the day of the storm. Yesterday was the day to dig out. After the nastiness of 1999’s opening blast of snow, Toledo took to shovels and plows yesterday to slowly clean up nature’s mess. As the day wore on, the shifting snow dunes shrank to […]
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Year had ups, downs, and a balance due; 1998 had its pluses, but it was no bargain
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 4 This year, Toledo learned there is no such thing as a free lunch. If 1997 was about heady optimism and promises of revitalization and renewal, 1998 was the year residents realized that it arrives with a price tag. And this year, the bill came due. There were […]
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Dixieland swings at Hungarian fest
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 13 They don’t make chicken paprikas in south Louisiana, but you wouldn’t know it from the sound coming from East Toledo yesterday afternoon. Six men from Szeged, Hungary, assembled at the Birmingham Ethnic Festival yesterday to play the music Louis Armstrong helped start decades ago in New Orleans. […]
Woody Guthrie reborn; A new side to the legendary folk singer has emerged, thanks to his daughter’s decision to open his remarkable archives
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page G1 When you think of Woody Guthrie, you think in black and white. You think of dust bowls and desperation, of socialism and slow train rides. His image – earnest folkie troubadour, roaming America from sea to shining sea – is as set in stone as the faces […]
’98 fair pulls away on tractors
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 12 If you want to see a tractor pull, why not just go to your nearest farm and wait? Something will get pulled eventually. But if patience is not among your virtues, you would have done well to attend the Lucas County Fair yesterday afternoon. Dozens of tractors […]
Musicians lend a helping hand
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 25 “There’s not a real good medical plan for a jazz musician.” So says Joan Russell, co-owner of Murphy’s Place, the downtown jazz club. But jazz has a long tradition of health care that doesn’t include HMOs or Medicare: the benefit jam for someone who is ailing. (Think […]
Obituary: Aloysius Szewczykowski
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 13 Aloysius “Ollie” Szewczykowski, 87, a longtime leatherworker who loved playing and watching baseball, died Saturday at St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center. He was 87. The cause of death was liver disease, family members said. Mr. Szewczykowski was born and raised in Toledo’s old Polish neighborhood on the […]
Rockabilly band keeps its edge
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 48 Ben Friedman has had enough. He’s sick of watching upper-middle-class boys start dull alt-rock bands so they can whine about their problems. And he’s tired of seeing Nashville pump out cloned country music stars who sing about lost love at the ripe old age of 13. But […]
Obituary: Robert Wyse
By Joshua Benton Blade Staff Writer Page 15 WAUSEON — Robert Wyse, a farmer who kept his family together through decades of Sunday dinners, died of cancer Saturday at his home. He was 70. Mr. Wyse was born in Tedrow, O., to a farming family, and lived in the area for his entire life, his […]