Archive for March, 2010
Stately style in Upper Arlington
Wednesday, March 31st, 2010“Does the Flying Santa stay with the house?” was the often asked question at a well-attended open house held at 2074 Yorkshire Rd. in Upper Arlington. This classic home, and gently sloping adjoining lot, are currently on the market. The owners are hopeful that the house will welcome the next “caretaker” soon.
“We have always felt we were caretakers of the house” says Wendy Vaughan, homeowner. “This house helps to define the character that makes Upper Arlington special. We hope the next owners will preserve and care for the house as much as we have. We are ready to pass the torch.”
The 3-story stone home and adjoining lot is hard to miss; due to its prominent location at the corner of Yorkshire and Guilford Rds, the architecture, and it’s majestic stance atop a sweeping hill. It is difficult to pass by and not notice and admire the property.
“We’ve gotten letters from people that have moved away and been back to visit,” recounts Wendy. “Even if they aren’t personally connected to the house, seeing it brings back and defines their memories of growing up in Upper Arlington. It is fun, and sometimes sad, when those memories have been shared with us.”
The home was built in 1923 for, according to tax records, Florence C Covert. It sold in 1927 and has had 5 “caretakers” since. Current homeowners are Roger and Wendy Vaughan, and their three children, Katie, Zach, Sara and their dog Happy.
They purchased the house and side lot in 1989. “The house was in horrible shape. Everything needed to be done to it. It probably qualified to be condemned. We saw what it could be again,” Roger Vaughan remembers. In addition to making remodeling choices in character with the house, the Vaughans have preserved and maintained all of the original features of the home including the woodwork, flooring, doors and built-ins. The exposed stone in the kitchen, sun room and lower-level, echo the exterior, and combined, create an old European feel .
Lars Sandberg of Upper Arlington shared a memory he had about the property. “ About 30 years ago my father was visiting from Sweden and wanted to find a restaurant in town to eat. He wandered around and saw this house with tables along the side yard and on the side porch. This was what restaurants in the French countryside looked like so he went in to get a table!” Lars recalls.
“There are so many stories,” Wendy laughs. “We’ve gotten letters from people around the holidays, thanking us for putting the Santa up across the side yard. And we heard from people when we didn’t have Santa up for a few years! We felt we had an obligation to preserve a lot of memories!”
Santa and his sleigh with reindeer, which was made of plywood and, for years ,spanned across the side lot every holiday season, was inherited by the Vaughans when they moved into the house in 1988. It fell apart a few years ago. The Vaughans decided that it was too much a part of what defined the house to let it go. They had digital images taken of the almost 100 ft. long Santa and co. and had it re-made out of lighter composite metal material.
“Santa’s back!” says Roger. “It’s not that easy to get up there, but it’s worth it. It’s part of the house.”
So, yes, Santa does stay.
We would love to show you this amazing property. Contact us at panningribar@realliving.com.
Walk through this wonderful home…
CCAD’s Viewbook Honored in HOW Magazine
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
CCAD's Viewbook is honored with a merit award in the March issue of HOW Magazine.
CCAD’s collaborative project with Columbus-based branding agency Ologie was recognized recently when the college’s Viewbook was honored by HOW magazine’s 2011 International Design Awards, garnering a merit award. The piece and its award are featured in the March 2011 issue.
The relationship between Ologie and CCAD’s in-house Design Group was featured in the fall 2010 issue of IMAGE Magazine. “Students worked for many hours with staff members from the college and from Ologie, enriching their professional development while still in school. ‘As the students were doing their work, they were presenting their concepts to senior-level staff, which might not have happened in a regular internship at a design firm,’ says Creative Director Lindsay Kronmiller. Students develop the communication skills needed to articulate their concepts and are taught to understand client needs. Well prepared to bridge the gap between school and the professional world, most Design Group alumni are employed within three months of graduation.”
“’When prospective students, parents, and the general public encounter our materials, they are seeing student work,” said Kronmiller. ‘It is a great testament to the talent and ability of our students.’”
Owned by board of trustee member and alumna Bev Bethge (CCAD 1982-1986), Ologie is an award-winning branding agency that serves national and international clients. Ologie’s mission is to build brands that are clear, compelling, and consistent so they will be better known, better understood, and completely unique.
Another collaborative piece, “Think. Do.” received a silver ADDY award and a merit award from HOW magazine. Read more here.
Read the entire IMAGE story here.
Columbus College of Art & Design Blog
Wisconsin in Idaho: Fighting for teachers
Monday, March 29th, 2010Meet 17 year-old Jonny Saunders (transcript at this link), a young man from Boise, Idaho who has helped spark a mini-revolution, a la Madison, here in Idaho.
The fight in Idaho is targeted directly at teachers, the only union with any strength at all in this “right-to-work” state. The superintendent of public education, Tom Luna, has proposed a new education plan that would slash 770 teaching positions across the state (a significant chunk in a small-population state), increasing class sizes and picking up the slack with online learning—every high school student would get a laptop.
The Idaho Statesman ran what in another state would have been a deal-breaking story, detailing how Luna’s major campaign donors and cronies in for-profit education will cash in on his plan.
If Luna’s “Students Come First” proposal passes the Legislature, online education will be mandated in Idaho and a laptop will be available to every high school student. That means 115 school districts, with 82,000 high school students, will be in the market for computers, software and online courses.
Among Luna’s contributors in October 2009:
- K12 Inc. of Virginia, an online company with 81,000 students and operator of the Idaho Virtual Academy. In Idaho, IVA enrolls 2,930 students and received .8 million from the state in fiscal 2010. K12, its employees and major stockholders spent about ,000 supporting Luna; ,000 of that was funneled to an Idaho interest group for independent advertising on Luna’s behalf.
- Apollo Group of Phoenix, the parent company of the University of Phoenix, an online university with more than 400,000 students. Luna’s plan would allow high school students to earn college credits at state expense once they complete high school requirements. Apollo Group gave Luna ,500.
- Executives of Scantron Corp., a Minnesota-based leader in testing technology that is aggressively expanding into online education. Scantron employees and family contributed ,450.
Idaho’s Republican-dominated legislature barely blinked at these revelations, having long been in the back pocket of corporate interests. It’s just politics as usual in this state. But it’s getting a very strong reaction from Idaho families and particularly students. Led by kids like Saunders and Tyler Honsinger of Boise High, hundreds of students across the state have staged three days of protests, walking out of class to protest the plan and to support their teachers. Tiny Clark County School District shut down school on Monday, when a quarter of their students left school. In Boise Wednesday, about 130 junior high students joined the walkout.
It seems to be working. The plan was presented to the legislature as three bills, one that would implement the teacher firings, huge class sizes, mandatory online learning appears to have stalled out in the Senate. The Education Committee passed it 5-4, but it was returned without a vote from the full Senate, and might not be acted on again. Eyes now are on the House Education Committee, where testimony continued to run at about 95 percent opposition.
The other two components aren’t as blatantly pernicious, but are still very damaging to teachers. They would “give local school districts more power in labor negotiations with teachers’ unions (SB 1108) and implement a pay-for-performance plan for teachers (SB 1110). In Luna’s words, they give districts the chance to reward great teachers and get rid of bad ones.” In other words, pit teachers against one another and break the union. That’s the Republican way.
Cell Phones, Rat Whiskers and Glucose Metabolism
Monday, March 29th, 2010The NYTimes set off another temblor in the interwebz with its story about a study showing that among a few dozen subjects with cell phones strapped to their ears those with an active set emitting microwave radiation showed approximately a 7% increase in brain metabolism of glucose in the area of the brain nearest the antenna. (The NYTimes’ article came out the day before the paper was published and was full of quotes from long time cell phone worrywarts – both are obvious red flags). Anyway, the story quickly became its most popular and stories of how irrefutable "proof" that cell phones affect the brain is now available and that "biologic plausibility" – thanks to a couple of quotes in the NYTimes’ article amounting to nothing more than rank speculation – is similarly established.
That living cells respond and adapt to their environment should not come as news to anyone yet it always does. So, for those surprised to learn of it, the finding that cells respond and adapt to microwaves (assuming the observation is confirmed) is in and of itself no biggie. Now about the two proposed mechanisms whereby increased glucose metabolism might lead to brain cancer.
One idea advanced was that extra metabolism might generate extra free radicals (molecular boogeymen to protect against which people have variously and at best ineffectually overdosed on vitamins). The other is that the extra metabolism might set off an inflammatory response (chronic inflammation being implicated in some forms of cancer). So the question that occurs is whether there are other forms of stimulation that set off increased brain glucose metabolism and, if so, whether any of them have been implicated in brain cancer.
As luck would have it there’s a new study that answers part of the question. The title is entirely too long to type as I’m heading out the door so here’s the link. Now if, by the same analysis (stimulation and PET scan), it turns out that stroking the whiskers of a rat produces an even bigger increase in brain glucose metabolism (which is exactly what the paper demonstrates) does it follow that one should hereafter forego stroking one’s whiskers (or those of a loved one) lest the doing of it cause brain cancer?
HI-Sen: Dan Akaka to retire
Saturday, March 27th, 2010Dan Akaka, who has served in the Senate since 1990 and is now 86 years old, says he won’t seek another term next year:
After months of thinking about my political future, I am announcing today that I have decided not to run for re-election in 2012. As many of you can imagine, it was a very difficult decision for me. However, I feel that the end of this Congress is the right time for me to step aside. It has been a great honor and privilege to serve the people of Hawaii. In 2006, the people of Hawaii gave me an opportunity to continue my service in the United States Senate and I fully intend to serve the last two years of my term in office.
While Akaka hadn’t really said anything to indicate he wouldn’t seek re-election before this announcement, he hadn’t done any fundraising and his campaign account was extremely light (just K). Combine that, the senator’s age, and his colleague Dan Inouye’s recent attempt to cajole Akaka into higher gear, though, and this certainly isn’t the most surprising of retirements.
What next? A whole host of Democrats are likely to be interested in Akaka’s seat, including both of the state’s representatives in the House, Mazie Hirono and Colleen Hanabusa. (And if either or both women get into the race, that would also set off a cascade for their House seats.) DLC Dem (and former congressman) Ed Case, who unsuccessfully attempted to primary Akaka in 2006, may also make another go at it. Mufi Hannemann, the former mayor of Honolulu who lost last year’s gubernatorial primary to now-Gov. Neil Abercrombie, is another potential name, as is Lt. Gov. Brian Schatz, who, like Hanabusa, was just elected to his current post in November.
Republicans are going to have a very hard time here. Not only is native son Barack Obama going to be on the ballot next year, but 2010′s brutal red tide didn’t wash up on Hawaii’s shores. Abercrombie won the open governor’s seat by 17-point margin, and Hanabusa defeated the 1st CD’s incumbent Republican by six. Still, the losers of both of those races – Duke Aiona and Charles Djou, respectively – are potential GOP candidates for this contest. But the biggest cheese is former Gov. Linda Lingle, who managed to win two terms as a Republican in this very blue state. Like most governors in the 2008 to 2010 timeframe, though, Lingle saw her popularity start to wane by the end of her second term, and even if she does get into the race, the Democratic Party will be favored.
By: bjones2585
Saturday, March 27th, 2010“…but also noted that illegal guns were used in more than 74 percent of the homicides in Columbus in 2010″
Maybe he should stop worrying about guns being sold LEGALLY at the gun shows and focus on those illegally acquired guns and violence in the city in general. 99% of the people at the Westland gun shows (myself included) are law-abiding citizens who are not using the guns purchased for crime. I feel Westland takes reasonable measures at the shows, included a dress code and security, and that the vendors there are legitimate and kind people.
Comments on: State of the City: Focus on Housing, Jobs, Safety
SB 5 statehouse 2 030211
Saturday, March 27th, 2010Fewer than 50 people were inside the Statehouse rotunda at 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 3.
www2.nbc4i.com – Govt_politics
Democratic governor in CT leads on responsible budget fixes
Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
If you only watched cable TV or the nightly news, you might get the impression that Scott Walker (WI-R) and Chris Christie (NJ-R) are the only governors in the country. Their hyper-confrontational tactics make them media darlings (Tonite on the news: yelling at teachers, now with video), but there are other governors in the country tackling budget deficits without scapegoating public service or the unions that support service employees like bus drivers and teachers.
Let’s take some other examples … EJ Dionne has a list of Governors who are doing the responsible adult thing and adding revenue enhancement to spending cuts as a way out of the mess they are in due to the recession (and their predecessors):
The brave ones are governors such as Jerry Brown in California, Dan Malloy in Connecticut, Pat Quinn in Illinois, Mark Dayton in Minnesota and Neil Abercrombie in Hawaii. They are declaring that you have to cut programs, even when your own side likes them, and raise taxes, which nobody likes much at all. Rhode Island’s Lincoln Chafee has warned of possible tax increases too.
Here’s a closer look at the less well-known (than CA’s Brown) Dannel Malloy, for example:
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget is being picked apart, in hearing rooms at the state Capitol, on talk radio and the web, and in town hall meetings across Connecticut. But the real debate is about the essence of the man, not the details of his budget.
Is the first Democratic governor in 20 years really intent on demanding billion in labor savings — a 20-percent giveback? His tax package is a political disaster, seemingly calculated to mobilize as many opponents as possible, raising income and sales taxes and whacking a popular property tax credit.
Conservatives are aghast at his endorsement of an earned income tax credit, money that would go to the working poor. Liberals are furious he won’t hit the rich harder, digging dollars from the only demographic that gained in the past decade.
He can’t be serious, can he?
…
He inherited a .2 billion deficit, a big hole in a billion budget, one of the worst faced by any governor. His Republican opponent, Tom Foley, had insisted it could be erased without new taxes. Malloy’s proposed solution: .5 billion in tax increases and .8 billion in spending cuts, including billion in labor savings.
Malloy’s a moderate, not a progressive, but he’s looking at the budget as a problem to fix, not (see Walker – WI) an ideological crusade to push. And as you can see from the headlines, he’s not exactly making everyone delighted. There’s plenty of pain to spread. But, and this is the point, even the critics recognize this as a credible response that includes both revenue and spending to reach balance. The willingness to at least look at revenue separates the Democrats from the Republicans, and his current town meeting tour of the state shows at least a willingness to listen.
Here are some of the statewide responses:
(Meriden) Record-Journal:
Tough but balanced
It may not be perfect and there’s still plenty of work to do, but the accomplishments in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s first proposed budget shouldn’t be lost on anyone – nor should the leadership he displayed in trying to get Connecticut back on the road to fiscal health.
An adult in the governor’s mansion — what a novel concept.
Connecticut’s Dannel Malloy has emerged as a voice of reason in the national debate over budgets and spending. One side is saying, in effect, “It’s all public workers’ fault.” The other side, Malloy’s, says, “No, it’s not.”
Malloy is not letting public employees off the hook. His budget calls for, as he says, “shared sacrifice,” including billion in givebacks from state workers. Without those concessions, he says, the only choice is mass layoffs. We take him at his word.
And he is proving himself willing to take an unpopular stand — no one makes friends by proposing to raise taxes.
It’s not a Traveling Medicine Show where sugar water is being passed off as the magic elixir. It’s a frank, no sugarcoated discussion about the reality of the state’s situation.
And it’s a hard sell.
Malloy is not laboring under the misguided belief that it’s going to be easy convincing people they have to swallow the bad-tasting medicine in order to get better. But that’s exactly his message — with a bit more emphasis on the “getting better” part.
Rep. Lawrence F. Cafero Jr., R-Norwalk, minority leader of the state House, in an otherwise critical piece.
The governor does deserve credit for proposing an honest budget that does not use gimmicks or borrow to pay operating expenses. He asked for serious concessions from the state employees. He has also embraced the idea of consolidation by proposing to fold 81 state boards and commissions into 57.
Predictably, Cafero’s complaint is that Malloy dared to raise taxes, as if that’s not even allowed to be thought of. Taxes aren’t going to be popular (they never are), but like Jerry Brown and unlike Republican Governors like Christie, the balance in the balanced budget comes from both revenue enhancement and spending cuts. A recent free market Yankee Institute (poll by Rasmussen) highlights people’s dislike of taxes, but
…despite all the disapproval of Malloy’s plans, 50 percent told the Yankee Institute’s pollster that they approve of the way he’s doing things so far.
As EJ Dionne notes in his own piece on responsible Dem Governors:
And those governors doing the hard work trying to balance cutbacks and tax increases get ignored, because there’s nothing sexy about being responsible.
Malloy’s taking the less popular but balanced approach to a balanced budget. He’s talking to unions in private, not via the nightly news (concessions are coming, collective bargaining will not be touched, and as per the current plan, pensions will be funded.) What a novel concept. Anyone who thinks it’s easy to get out of a budget hole ought to talk to—um—an adult. And if you do, you’ll find it can be done without eliminating collective bargaining or turning the state against you. Scott Walker, take note.
Study Abroad at Columbus State Community College
Monday, March 22nd, 2010
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It’s almost Spring Musical Time in Olentangy…..
Sunday, March 21st, 2010Spring is my favorite season. The sun comes back out, flowers start to bloom, neighbors come out of hibernating, PEOPLE START LOOKING FOR HOMES TO BUY(hint, hint), and high schools begin preparing their spring musicals. This is a project I am involved in, as my daughter is fully immersed in the drama program at Olentangy [...]
Columbus Unpeeled