EQUALITY Sifting The Truth Forging The Deed

Reads the banner of the circa world war two American CORE bulletin which falls from the pages of an old book into my lap. Edited by James Farmer and published in this year 1944 in New York City. Meant to be carried in the pages of a book. These tiny "commie rags" , were considered subversive literature , and could cost one dearly his or her personal liberties if found upon a person by a bunko squad member , or hoover g-man.This issue of EQUALITY contains articles on the Fillmore District in San Fransisco County , and the overcrowded living conditions suffered there by Afro American citizens during that big world war. A fascinating read after all these years. Articles addressing jim crow laws and prejudice in Dallas , Texas and Detroit , Michigan. "Equality, sifting the truth , forging the deed " Doctor Martin Luther King died forty years ago this day , and his passing meant for me a strong initial taste of the humorless gravity of politics in America. When Bobby Kennedy fell dead in Los Angeles , shot up like Doctor King and his brother before him , I realized in my young mind that politics in the real big leagues must be a muther! Bless Doctor King on this his day of passing , and may we be wise enough to embrace the dignified path that Barack Obama presents in a field of thorny flowers and bushes , Obama is the rose..... Now the local sports chatter. Cleveland minor league hockey team beats Hamilton , Ontario skaters in a shoot out this evening. Never seen so many people leave town as quick in my life than after this hockey game. These are polite fans who like most decent baseball fans keep their polite manners up while in public , and do not as much as spit on a public sidewalk as if the very concrete they walk upon might as be their own home. Go monsters! mud sharks! sea devils! whatever your nickname is ? Cleveland , Ohio would do well to imitate Detroit , Michigan and attract a NHL franchise. Minor League sports are just that . Minor League. Besides , we have had plenty of minor league teams disguised as major league temas in recent Cleveland sports history to shake a stick at. Seems that save the early sixties and 1964 NFL champeen Cleveland Browns , my entire Cleveland sports youth was comprised of attempting to root for the local professional teams that more resmbled minor than major talents. Except the Cleveland Barons. They were minor league and made no bones about it. The other period teams minor league in nature , posing as major league. I really do love professional hockey , and have many fond Cleveland Barons moments that originated in viewing minor league games in the old Cleveland Arena years ago. Wish Cleveland had a professional hockey team. hell , I wish that Cleveland had a football team entered in the Canadian Football League. Perhaps if we can convince the Canadian Government to accept us citizens who live across from Melonville , Ontario on the southern shore of Lake Erie. I vote we secede immediately. Chances are however they would not take us in unless we gave the very popular and much respected in Canada Dennis Kucinich full control of this Lake Erie region. You see these Canadians believe in a wider field of play , and thus enjoy the fresh political opinions and progressive thought that Dennis Kucinich is capable of. Please check the archives of the Canadian Broadcast ing System's " As It Happens" ,interview with Dennis after his victory in the Congressional primary last month. The Canadians gush forth Love and respect for this evolved human from Ohio our Dennis Kucinich. Canadians are wise enough to put away their superior brand of Football in late November every year as well. Thus allowing for hockey and basketball to take their proper place in the scheme of sporting events that comprise a life. This years CFL championship Grey Cup game will be played in Montreal on November 23, 2008. I like the idea of a Great Lakes Canadian Football League franchise . Lets face the sad facts people North Americans love their football! Perhaps if we ever build the Jim Rhodes proposed bridge to Canada , we could construct a sports arena in the middle of Lake Erie to play our home games on. Seems like a more plausible bet than the likes of the projected success of the currently under construction Euclid Avenue Corridor project running from University Circle to downtown Cleveland. This sad boondoggle corporate usage of Government transportation funds will serve the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals , and the patients they attract will have easy access to downtown hotels via the Euclid Avenue corridor dedicated bus line. What really is lacking is any housing density the length and breadth of this expensive medical toy bus line . No retail entrepreneur in their right mind would consider locating on the automobile parking parched street that Euclid Avenue is becoming. The best addition so far is the new Aldi's store at East 75Th and Euclid. Aldi's is large enough to have their own parking lot. People are leaving Cleveland and Cuyahoga County by the droves these days , and unless a minor miracle occurs and the ten thousand or so people that once lived along this corridor in the nineteen sixties and seventies decide to return and the apartments they lived in reappear as in a mirage come to life. Good luck! I doubt that all the smoke that the happiness boys at wcpn and da p.d. blow up the asses of the Cleveland citizenry in behalf of the politics that brought us this people mover without rails.The efforts of these shills and media hacks pitching hot air for a private little bus line will be to no avail and to little amusement for those that can see their little ruse . East Ninth and Euclid Avenue's future goal should be to regain the prominent epicenter status of Cleveland downtown commerce . Instead a potential future as a deserted bank district looms. Let us begin at the northeast corner and work clockwise. With the demise of National City Bank eminent and awaiting a takeover. With any good fortune a takeover will spell the end to the ugly skyscraper they currently occupy , which more resembles an upside down refrigerator box and is void of any architectural or aesthetic considerations whatsoever .In a mediocre architectural city the likes of downtown Cleveland , this blanco banko bunko vertical bunker is not very pretty to look at and it's little swinging sculpture out front often resembles a swastika or a pair of dancing metal can openers . Moving on to the north east corner of Euclid and East Ninth Street , one of the loveliest of all Cleveland downtown buildings exists in the form of the Union Trust building , currently named the Huntington Bank Building. You see the desecration by the recent exterior lettering slapped onto this gem in the form of loud block letters reading , THE HUNTINGTON BUILDING. Ugly! In a word , These loud letters screaming at anyone who should pass them. Inside , the most charming pair of linking banking rooms. A classical inspired pillared staff of Cleveland history , this building deserves better than having it's primary tenants make a mad rush to the door in haste to occupy the new proposed Flats office building in the Wolstein group's current plan for the Flat's east bank. Huntington Building occupancy could easily dip precipitously , and coupled with a closed National City Bank structure would add to the already closed Cleveland Trust Tower and rotunda that so much of the success of the entire Euclid Avenue Corridor project hinges upon. The Cleveland Trust Tower and Rotunda renovation is perhaps the true measure of the entire Euclid Avenue Project as far as downtown Cleveland is concerned. If the proposed development by the KD Group does not pan out " bar the door Katy". If this current credit crunch that we are suffering as a Nation continues to unravel and more cheap acts like National City Bank are swept out of town or folded into another bank's holdings ,wath out! Any prudent lending institution would be wise to examine the current demographic state of affairs that is Cleveland , Ohio today and really consider the odds of a profitable venture prior to loaning 35 million or better on the future of East Ninth and Euclid Avenue. All the excited media gibberish and blather that wcpn and da p.d. conspire to churn up via their sordid little public relations dance that denigrates the use of our public radio airwaves , is no more than that hot air I mentioned until actual results occur and money is laid down. Show us the money. Follow the money. Show us the tangible results. The larger picture here is the future of our current economic meltdown and how it will affect lender's positions on such local proposed projects such as the Flats East Bank, Cleveland Trust Tower , and to some degree the Robert Stark warehouse district project which I am afraid is trumped by the Wolstein flats project and Stark's decent dream to build on the ugly warehouse district parking lots is dead in the water. One only has to look a scant three miles south of downtown Cleveland to find that corporate America big box retailers expect parking for their customers. And indeed , The Steelyards Commons project is that mere three miles from downtown and perhaps a good look at the Steelyards commons as downtown Cleveland's new shopping district is in order. A system of connecting transit lines would be wise to converge in these Steelyard commons with all the suburban style big box stores a mere three miles from Public Square. We have no density of downtown population to attract those stores featured at Steelyard Commons to reduplicate themselves street level in downtown Cleveland . So downtown living and those that do rely on rta should be given good access to these Steelyard Commons stores. Let us hope that some form of wisdom prevails in this confused City and that the current Huntington Bank tenants are retained , and that the Cleveland Trust Tower development goes through as planned. Not much we can do about National City Bank's future. They reap what you sow , and having never had a National City account in my lifetime consider myself fortunate. ...... Hello to my old chum and lifelong friend Willy Lambdin. A fine scholar and writer of some repute. He now resides in Finland with his lovely wife. During their last Cleveland visit the most wonderful dish of anchovies , fresh butter , and potatoes baked together i oven were prepared in our humble kitchen by these kind visitors. Filling the house with splendid aromas , and then our bodies and minds with culinary pleasure. Willy and the way back machine in my life. I will twist up his arm and ask him if he will share some of his poetry and writing on this very space. Hell , he is much better than I am at putting together a sentence , and we share a lot of space in our lives spent around Cleveland years ago. Perhaps Willy can show me how to use the simple devices on this computer that would enable the creation of sentences and paragraphs. As for the concept of EQUALITY in our lives , please remember to be kind when you can , man.

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Cuyahoga County peddles Breuer Tower , wcpn premature,

Good news for the corner of East Ninth Street and Euclid Avenue. Home of the historic Marcel Breuer Ameritrust Tower , and the original Tiffany ceiling Cleveland Trust rotunda that adjoins it.Present owners Cuyahoga County accepted the K & D Group of Willoughby , Ohio bid yesterday and both historic structures survival and potential development seem to have found a lasting peace. K & D plans a mixed office , residential ,and hotel for the site. Congratulations to all involved in this forward thinking project.Like most Cleveland renewal projects , the proof is in the actual puddin' and take. In other words completion spells perfection . More often than not in related proposed projects in Cleveland's past projected means neglected or even abandoned due to a slew of reasons often fiscal or otherwise political. Given the projected shape of the current economy in election year America , we will reserve a wait and see attitude on the future of this historic corner. Secure for now that at least an interested developer has stepped forward and envisions the significance of the two former banking buildings that they are willing to lay down thirty five million dollars for. Seems like quite a bargain to me , given the prominent crossroads that Euclid Avenue and East Ninth Street has functioned as in the history of Cleveland. Congratulations K & D of Willoughby!.... And big thanks go out to mindreader Kim from down near Kentucky way. Kim sent a nice copy of a live Charlie Louvin compact disc recorded last year at Shake It Records! Available from ShakeItUSA.com . It is a fine little disc and representative of Mister Louvin's show at The Beachland ballroom in Cleveland reviewed and posted here on December 20 , 2007. [ see Charlie Louvin...December 20 , 2007 ]. Kim's envelope that he mailed the disc in arrived the very day , this past Monday January 14 , 2008 ,that I rambled on at great length here concerning television star Froggy The Gremlin featured on Andy Devine's children show of my youth Andy's Gang. Kim's mailer had a picture of Buster Brown and his dog Tige. Far out! Buster Brown shoes were the sponsors of various children's television shows in the nineteen fifties , including Andy's Gang......WCPN gave me the listening hour off this morning concerning their choice of topics for the nine to ten a.m. slot. A bit premature to discuss the 2007 Presidential candidates , and their opinions and plans concerning the state of our National economy , and what each candidate plans to do to stimulate the economy . In yesterday's National Section of the January 15 ,2007 New York Times , a one half page article by Edmund L. Andrews was dedicated to this very subject complete with a nifty sidebar featuring a bipartisan view of the eight major candidates and their pictures and encapsulated views : " Candidates Economic Stimulus Plans" . To quote Mister Andrews concerning this matter; " The debate among candidates about stimulus measures is largely academic , because economic conditions are almost sure to be entirely different by the time a new president takes office a little more than a year from now." It is a full year until the new President is to be inaugurated , and I am so tired already of the blather and wind spent and expelled from these career politicians mouths! Bad enough we are always offered the less of two evils in a Presidential election , why should we suffer the inanity of our Public and private media playing into the hands of this deflection mechanism called an election , which only raises hopes to have them later dashed for the citizens who are naive enough to believe the trash talk that belches forth in efforts to gain votes . The true sorry fact is that we are kept so far in the dark in most matters , ecological , International relations , and Domestic political realities and plans , that we might has well be turnips or mushrooms. The real story concerning the election is local native son Dennis Kucinich taking another brave run at the White House office , and the continued resistance he meets along the way. Last evening's Nevada debate that candidate Dennis was eighty sixed from , comes to mind as a worthwhile story to examine on the wcpn airwaves. Not so much as a peep was said concerning this matter during this mornings news on wcpn. Seems that both wcpn and their butt buddies da pd have a very vindictive and mean agenda concerning Dennis Kucinich . Da pd continues to run uncomplimentary pictures of Kucinich , and takes great pleasure in serving up negative bias whenever the opportunity presents itself. Using the words objective and Kucinich in the same news articles printed in da pd , proves an impossible task. Of all the candidates at play for 2008 , Kucinich is the only one that really offers an opportunity for " change". Hillary is status quo to a fault . Obama a fine orator , though I am afraid in need of political seasoning for his own sake and survival. As for the rest of the pack , Edwards would make a great vice president , and forget the Republicans one and all. We blue voters have had enough of the damage inflicted by eighth years of that bushcheney republican flavor! Book Selling Time! Today's choice morsel is a rather tough one to chew these days. The Euclid Avenue Corridor project. Connecting Cleveland's downtown by dedicated bus to the area six odd miles east known as University Circle , the ECP has resulted in a complete aversion of Euclid Avenue for those of us Clevelanders who know better than to wander on to a construction zone that seems to just keep getting farther than closer to completion. We offer today a view of Euclid Avenue from it's true glory days in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Jan Cigliano's easy to read and well illustrated history of Euclid Avenue SHOWPLACE OF AMERICA . No kidding , Euclid Avenue was a most exciting street of my misspent youth in Cleveland , Ohio. My Grandmother resided near the East Cleveland / Cleveland border and taking the number six bus from downtown always was a great learning experience. The corner of East 105 and Euclid was a second City in itself , with hotels , nightclubs , bakeries , delicatessens , bowling alley , fine restaurants , book stores , record stores, twenty four hour drugstore , a long diverse public market , and five movie theatres. Today the Cleveland Clinic has expanded to this corner and a rather dull couple of brutal modern buildings now exist where the big cheeses that run this flesh factory park their fancy sports cars by day , before running back to the cozy confines of the convenient East side suburbs. Oh well , I guess that Cleveland will never really become a comeback sort of City until we find a way to recreate such a diverse crossroads. Most of SHOWPLACE OF AMERICA is dedicated to the fashionable homes nad mansions that lined Euclid Avenue in it's heyday , so do not expect to find much concerning the corner of East 105 and Euclid contained within this volume. That book has yet to be penned , just like the plans for the corner of East Ninth and Euclid . When you see it , believe it. Until then , let your imagination be your guide in this here City on the south shore of Lake Erie.

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Charlie Louvin , Detroit, fresh oysters , and da p.d's resident weirdo

Charlie Louvin played a fine two hour plus set this past Friday December 14 , 2007, for the one hundred or so fans in attendance at The Beachland Ballroom on Waterloo Road in Cleveland's Collinwood neighborhood. Now a spry eighty years of age Charlie Louvin is the de facto voice for country music of the classic not contemporary fashion and is very much still a musical force today.Covering many favorites from his solo career and the career that included his late brother Ira . Mister Louvin performed Great Atomic Power , Cash On The Barrel Head , and the often covered Christian Life. As well as great interpretations of classics by Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton , Woody Guthrie , and a Blue Yodel by Jimmie Rogers among others. A highlight was a song that Mister Louvin addressed as his signature song , See The Big Man Cry. The band that backed Mister Louvin was able and soulful , and his duets with the female guitarist were breathtaking in a sparse beatific fashion. Though I caught Mister Louvin working a cigarette between his lips after the show , his voice is strong and he worked the corners of his vocal range in an upward fashion , gaining strength as the evening progressed. Charlie Louvin remains the humble king of true country music today , and it is a shame that not more fans were about this past Friday to listen to his great voice. The Beachland Ballroom is a true Cleveland treasure , with two owners who book consistently the most interesting , eclectic , and aesthetically pleasing acts on a weekly basis year round. Please support this important local institution , which truly is a gem. Just like old Charlie Louvin...........On to Detroit , Michigan for a quick tour this past weekend. Not much seems to have changed since my last visit a few years back. Sure , a few casinos have sprouted up amid the deserted and decayed streets of the Corktown neighborhood , though no real change seems to have occured save the pair of cookie cutter stadiums for football and baseball. I was glad to read recently in a article concerning the casino biz in Detroit that the homeless that panhandle the area around the casinos are now customers of the slot machines. I truly wish these destitute folk good luck , and I am happy that their money is green and spends as well as the next parties. As we know empirically , crime spikes upward with the advent of legalized gambling , and Detroit , Michigan would do better to work on attracting some of it's former citizens back into the city itself , instead of clipping the paychecks and funds available from the tormented addicted gamblers that casinos attract. I was glad to see that Tiger Stadium was still standing at the historic intersection of Michigan and Trumbell in the Corktown neighborhood. Many great sports memories exist for me and the entire State of Michigan. I would not be at all motivated ever to attend a Tigers game at the new Commerica Park. Seeing Commerica on television proves that another wave of cookie cutter ersatz intimate ball yards have been constructed since Baltimore's Camden yards provided the template for such phony architecture some years ago. Detroit's Tiger Stadium deserves a place on the National Register of Historic Buildings , and is significant in that it is the last standing example of a baseball stadium that was engineered and built with the fan in mind before the lodge holder. Wrigley Field in Chicago was built for a Federal League team , and is as worthy an architectural significant example. Fenway Park in Boston also unique and a valuable National structure worthy of preservation. Baseball has been played on the corner of Michigan and Trumbell since the Civil War , then a picnic grounds with a baseball diamond , and I for one would return every year without fail for a tourist trip to Detroit if Tiger Stadium was again utilized and preserved. As for Commerica Park , tear that abysmal phony ball yard down and move the Tigers back to Michigan and Trumbell. Detroit , Michigan is a great City in severe decline , and as a citizen of a similar City in decline it proves difficult to watch two cities repeat each other's mistakes. Time has come to work on providing safe inhabitable neighborhoods for those of us who remain in these cities , not more corporate welfare for the downtown players , land grab gangs , and greedy interests who pimp out the political system for their personal profit. If we place our elderly and children safety first , and all other concerns as secondary , we as a culture will be headed in the right direction..... Had a great trip across the mighty Cuyahoga , local Native American Indian for crooked, yesterday with my pal Slipsy Junior. Junior was kind enough to treat me to three fine bivalves from the briny Louisiana gulf stream of the oyster variety in their natural juicy selves replete with half shell's. Shucked up of course.Simple is best!Our pal Jose gave us each a pint container of his homemade sofrito as a Holiday gift. Thanks Jose! I will combine your kindness with baccala and eggplant in the Puerto Rican style and eat off it for a week or so. A visit outside to the fine Family concern of the DiCara's produced a lovely bag of fresh sweet English peas , eaten just like the oysters. Raw and naked.Mister DiCara is a old school Market man , and always has the best and freshest selection of seasonal vegetables at the family stand that he now shares with his daughter Mellisa whose seasonal self adornment by means of very creative costumes always speaks for the season or holiday at hand. Do not miss trading with either of these two West Side Market merchants should happen to cross our crooked river. Have your passport in order how ever.....Thanks to P Danny , who read about the volume of Cleveland Stadium Memories in an earlier article and put his money up and purchased a copy.P Danny and his charming bride Greta are great Clevelander's , Greta being quite a good euchre player as well... Dan Oak also checked in on the Cleveland Stadium piece , and as most of us do shared a favorite moment concerning his memories of pater and the Cleveland Stadium. For me it was watching Ted Williams take batting practice on a sunny summer morning prior to a Saturday day game in the year 1959. Standing behind the home plate screen and watching Williams , then into his last years , crack one ball after another into the lower right field stands , the noise from the horsehide hitting the wood seats or adjoining concrete they perched on as audible today as that moment suspended in time nearly fifty years ago. My Father stood with us behind the screen pointing out Williams whip hand and the varieties and strong features of his impressive swing. n Now the sordid 21st century leaves me with a rather morbid vision of the splendid splinter's severed head packed in some sort of cryogenic soup , awaiting resurrection and transplant if the modern medical mavens can produce the means. I prefer the vision of Williams able swing , while my Father's hand was at my shoulder is now a memory flash stored as a lodestone of sanity compared to the hard scrabble science fiction bent antics of the modern world. Such as a nightmare version of Ed Wood's THEY STOLE HITLER'S BRAIN , was recast as " They Pickled The Splendid Splinter ....I have always imagined da p.d.'s Kevin O' Brien to be a weirdo of sorts , if indeed he existed at all. O'Brien"s low humor on the op ed page rivals the comedic slime that Rush Limbaugh pushes or the twisted antics of one National radio syndicated bland white bread sad humorist known as the drudge report. To take the content of any of the above as anything else as stand up humor would prove quite a stretch. Leave it to da p.d.'s butt buddies wcpn radio ,on the a.m. Thursday December 20 , 2007 nine to ten morning radio show , you know the confusing one that pretends to offer ideas , only to deliver pre digested opinions instead. The humor of refering to themselves as an idea stream is not lost on me , and to really seem to prove what a weird piece of work this O'Brien actually is , I can only assume that the pathos is not lost on wcpn either. Seems that O'Brien penned some poetic trashy ditties , reworded versions of Christmas Carols . Pastiches with a political flavor. O'Brien has a " face made for radio" and a voice to match the metaphor. And the mere inclusion of his croaking and belching some nonsense verse about " using awesome powers to tear down the Breuer Tower" to the tune of " Hark , the Herald Angels Sing" , was rather mundane and glibly morbid in it's delivery and content. Did nothing for me at all . Nor did the hour long show do very much for the radio public either , seeing as only three telephone calls were recieved , and the O' Brien muscial / political clips seemed to be added to fill a conspicuous void. O' Brien's odddly resembled in form only the original creative pastiches of Christmas Carols by the brilliant political humorist and syndicated cartoonist Walt Kelly of Pogo fame , and how O'Brien's verse and voice and content resembled some odd bleating and belching of a snarky little wag that fell into the wassail bowl. Whew! This O'Brien really is weird!.... Seems that the Cuyahoga County Government made enough of a mess on the corner of East Ninth and Euclid by purchasing this landmark building , in the first place.The Tower's proposed destruction was sad enough.Any locally and International recognized iconic architectural structure's proposed slaughter by a local Government is bad . The train of thought that arrived at that place to create rubble of acclaimed architecture only seems to further label Cleveland, Ohio as the rube town that it is already perceived as by the majority of the literate world today. Let us exercise at least the modicum of common sense , pausing long enough to prioritize our future as a County Government with declining tax futures. The cooler heads at Cuyahoga County seem to have taken just that pause and should now be rewarded for their current new found fiscal prudence .Let us look at the County's purchase of the Tower as a community asset and reward and sell the spin as just that. Throw some of the " arts money "gathered recently with the cigs tax at renovating the Tower. Try this spin folks?[ As part of an attempt to attract a more intelligent and art savvy tourist class, we the citizens of Cuyahoga County invite civilzed citizens of the world to visit this architecturally significant tower as you would a sculpture in an art museum , and by the way have fun here with the reopening of Cleveland Museum of Art , and look at the renovated Bruer CMA addition as well while you are here....} Sounds to me like hot air , my own wind at that . Yet when I open an envelope with a plea for arts funds , or just some buncha aired out media copy , it more resembles a travel dialogue than copy..... Our civic good fortune placed Breuer's only major skyscraper safely in Government hands . The demographic is increasing for a modernism positive voting generation born after 1970 that will applaud the efforts of an enlightened County Government that would recognize the Tower's significance in accordance with International architectural and design institutions that gave Breuer and the Tower it's due earlier this year by including it in a catalogue of important Breuer design works. This International recognition is well reported in an article by Christopher Magg printed in the New York Times , earlier in this year when the local County Government still had it in mind to destroy the Tower . Please google New York Times , Christopher Magg / Marcel Breuer, for this well written article concerning this Cleveland political art fiasco. So far , so good with regards to the Cuyahoga County Governments ownership of the Tower. It is not uncommon in Europe and other outposts of civilization to leave historic buildings in a form of pre preservation stasis , and it is with sincere hope that this pattern of thought will prevail with regards to the Tower.... Mothballing and taking the time to make appropriate sound planning ideas regarding the fates of the former Cleveland Trust properties , including their original Euclid Avenue buildings East along Euclid from the rotunda. It was on this site that the second Breuer Tower was to have been built as part of his original plans desingened for The Twin Towers . In a sane world the proposed and unbuilt second Tower would be constructed sometime within the twenty first century and Breuer's vision completed and serving as headquarters for a progressive regional government. The Superb Terra cot ta gems of the Halle Brother Buildings and the CAC , and upper Euclid Avenue must be restored as a district if a preservation minded city is to function correctly and aesthetically in concert with smart Cities. Cleveland deserves intelligent Government. We are the people.{ "Look at the peoples", Charles Brown , yet another late great American voice}..... As for O' Brien and his op ed article's in da p.d. , sorry I can't say as to having the pleasure of reading one. I have attempted a few sentences of his churlish prose and having been reminded of my own read on no farther. Without fail have chuckled and departed the column knowing just were this weirdo's efforts were headed. I do not read the funny pages either.My Mother is eighty one years old , Irish as lace , and a good judge of character even now while currently suffering a tough illness. O' Brien's columns are not an illness she can suffer , nor his rabid and sometimes vapid political views. Perhaps , as many former newspaper employee's count upon to do with the shank end of their careers , just prior to visiting God's waiting room and after mowing an eternity of lawns .That is , using the contacts made while in the employ of the media to stagger about a water cooler while employed in the public relations, advertising , or some other poisonous propaganda trade.With the emerging bond crisis to further complicate the foreclosure fiasco , expect 2008 to tank , and some lean years lie ahead for corporate America in the media , entertainment sectors .Layoffs accross the board will follow. All of us will suffer to some degree. Personally try the European Union , their currency is faring better these days , and we will have accrued so much debt that if our bad bets are called in we run the risk of loosing our collective wealth and value as a Nation.... 1801 Superior is a modern architectural and creative failure , and appears to suffer an impending fiscal crisis and failure as well. Prudent media concerns periodically trim dead timber as it will be soft wood that tumbles if you belong to management. Fat salaries and little produced copy should equal liability in terms of most of our current survival oriented careers in the work force. If O' Brien is one of the architects of the current op-ed page on da p.d. , he would seem expendable as a productive or creative force . With corporate profits in peril in the dead tree industries , fatted cattle will be slaughtered..... In a City such as Cleveland, Ohio in the year 2007 , whose downtown offers little in the terms of architectural significance , one less historic structure means quite a bit to those of us in possession of our faculties and some sort of responsible aesthetic selves. O'Brien's sad arse songs provide evidence of da p.d.'s croaking and signing for their suppah's on the public airwaves of wcpn radio. wcpn takes the public out of public radio 24/7/365! Leave the singing to the likes of Charlie Louvin ! Book Selling Time! Time again for a quick look back a mere thirty one years and the great volume penned by Mary - Peale Schofield LANDMARK ARCHITECTURE OF CLEVELAND. Read and view the Marcel Breuer Cleveland Trust Tower on pages 97 to 99. of this fine volume. The sad fact concerning Cleveland architecture is that many of these documented buildings are victims of poor planning and have been demolished in the past thirty odd years. The destruction of the Breuer structure would only provide yet another cultural black eye for a city mostly considered a mid west rube outpost of less than salient aesthetics and ethics. Stop International art terrorism , save the Breuer Tower!

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