Resolute

A few hours prior to the New Years a friend asked what was my New Years resolution? I replied... To remain Resolute.

It is easy to see what problems exist in a destitute City in decline like Cleveland, Ohio today. Much more difficult to come up with strategies and means to help improve these conditions of decline.

I will remain resolute in scrutiny and critical examination of this Cities meager media concerns. Holding both the, for profit and public mediums accountable for their actions, or lack of said actions.

My pal Slipsy Junior moved here from Youngstown, Ohio some years back, and this region seems like paradise to him compared to the Mahoning Valley.

Be that as it may, Youngstown was always a greasy backwater burg between Cleveland and Pittsburgh that never served as much as a model for any Civic activity with the exception of a highly organized mix of crime and politics, that made Youngstown more resemble some loutish New Jersey city than Cleveland, Ohio in its better previous years.

I would have preferred a little better start to this New Years 2008, though being pinned down on our street awaiting the gunfire to cease was the way it began for a group of us eager to leave a party for a neighborhood club, though not willing to run the gauntlet of errant bullets being fired with rapidity into the sky as if a street in Baghdad, not Cleveland's east side.

This unfortunate display of local firepower seems to grow in intensity and length of time every New Years, and the smoke and gunfire did not die down until an hour had passed. Driving to fetch a New York Times the next morning brought a look at the spent cartridges and shell casings that littered many street corners and sidewalks.

These folks who discharge their firearms seem to have no regards to where the bullets might land, and I am surprised that more harm has not come from this barbaric practice. I have a distinct feeling that this practice is not status quo in Westlake, Bay Village, Strongsville, or any of the swell suburbs that most of the well fed and cared for members of the local media clans reside. Perhaps in the year 2008 some of these folks will consent to a cultural exchange program, and actually reside in the City of Cleveland that they purport to provide news coverage of.

Fat chance!

You see it is easy to cover a war from a comfortable distance equipped with a fat paycheck, and do not think that life in contemporary Cleveland does not more resemble a war zone than a civilized outpost.

I am tired of local crime and gunfire, and vow to remain resolute in letting as many other people who care for a taste of reality, versus the local media fictional tidy universe quilted by da p.d. at 1801 Superior. I do intend to describe the sordid truth and shameful conditions that rue life here today in Cleveland, Ohio 2008. In this I remain resolute.

To say that business conditions in Cleveland today are rough seems an understatement of fact.

The law of diminishing returns comes to mind, and the diminishing part of this equation is the population that has fled making it difficult to sell books to those who remain.

So I will remain resolute to sell more books outside of the area that we call home. We have over nineteen thousand books listed for sale online, and we have at least that many awaiting description and cataloging for sale.

If you are looking for a title and having little to show for your efforts please contact us. We will do the best we can to connect you with the book you are looking for.

Book Selling Time!

Forget the lousy lies of politicians, and the media concerns who do the lying for them. Celebrate the season with a warm look at Cleveland 's recent past provided via a copy of Richard Karberg's great illustrated volume of recipes and accounts of the late Silver Grille, an art deco restaurant which occupied the tenth floor of the Higbee Company Department Store on Cleveland's Public Square until it's closing in late December 1989.

Yet another dark sad day in downtown Cleveland history. The Silver Grille was a favorite "tea service style" lunchroom in the grandest fashion. This fine volume recounts the history as well as the recipes and flavors that made the Silver Grille a hometown favorite for over fifty years.

Happy New Years to all of our friends and Family!

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