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12/01/20 07:35 PM #5298    

 

Jerry Ochs

Nancy,

Although Richard and Gail warned us about engaging in the sort of divisive discourse that tore apart the alumni page of another graduating class, your tale of the tiny blankets for cute kittens may have become the spark that ignited a a civil war on this message forum.  In my humble opinion, dogs are baseball players and cats are prima ballerinas.  Dogs are from Mars and cats are from Venus.  Dogs eat things that cats view with disgust.  It may be true that a cat has never alerted a family to a fire in the kitchen or rescued a drowning child, but a dog has never jumped onto the middle of a pizza or knocked wine glass after wine glass onto the floor to the amusement of all present.  If reincarnation is more than a myth, I pray that I come back as a Sylvester and not a Pluto.


12/01/20 08:15 PM #5299    

 

David Buchholz

Just a reminder...as we focus on staying healthy, staying inside, and staying away from other people, there are beautiful things happening that really don't give a damn about any of us, our election, our health, and our frustration.  The full moon rising last night was one of them.

The monarch butterfly clinging to its chrysalis was another.

And the egret followed suit, drying in the sun,.

Wishing everyone well in this trying troublling time. 
 


12/02/20 06:30 AM #5300    

 

Paul Simons

In Philly lingo youse guys are lifesavers! Wonders of the natural world and Cincinnati chili!!

Ann the link at the end of the article was blocked by Disney but I found another which by curious serendipity contains interstitial animal petting on the way to Skyline at Clifton and Ludlow:




12/02/20 02:16 PM #5301    

 

Philip Spiess

The store on the northeast corner of Clifton and Ludlow Avenues, Clifton, which for many years now has been the Clifton branch of Skyline Chili (seen correctly at the very end of The Simpsons sequence above), was originally (well, in my childhood) Stier's Pharmacy (founded 1907).  It had a wonderful soda fountain on the eastern side of the store which served such things as chocolate Cokes and nectar sodas.  The interior, by the time I was going there, was wonderful Art Deco black glass and mirrors and indirect lighting.

Stier's Pharmacy, the rival of our classmate Steve Pahner's father's Pahner's Pharmacy, several doors west on Ludlow Avenue (we actually patronized both pharmacies), later moved to the south side of Ludlow Avenue west of Clifton Avenue, nearly across the street from Pahner's (which had a much more old-fashioned interior, with glass-fronted and medical glassware-filled cabinets running up to the ceiling; I believe the Pahner family lived above the store).  Kent Stier retired from the family business in 1994.  


12/02/20 08:24 PM #5302    

 

Paul Simons

I lived for a while up the street from that corner. Actually at that point Ludlow was called Jefferson Ave but cross Clifton Ave and it became Ludlow. There was an IGA grocery store where my girlfriend at the time and I used to shop for food. She was a sister of our classmate Sue Merkel but hadn't gone to WHHS. Looking at this website there's no information about Sue, nothing. She was as I remember a very quiet person. Anyway the IGA was strange in that it had a large pet food section.Why? Did residents of Clifton have more or larger pets than those of other neighborhoods?  We may never know.


12/02/20 09:06 PM #5303    

 

Philip Spiess

Paul:  It was the elephants.  For some reason they hated Skyline Chili (elephants have delicate stomachs -- though big ones), and so the IGA store, known locally as Keller's Supermarket, had to stock pet food (also fot the numerous goldfish which inhabited various Clifton residences, which, if they were very good, got to graduate to the waterways in the Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park).

The eastern end of Ludlow Avenue changes to Jefferson Avenue at Brookline Avenue (which was also the northern entrance to Burnet Woods) (cf. Enoch T. Carson Lodge, halfway between Skyline Chili and Brookline Avenue, the address of which is 518 Ludlow Avenue).  There also stood the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house, the former home of Cincinnati's political boss, George B. Cox [see Part VI of my treatise on "Cincinnati's African-Americans"]; I believe it is now a Cincinnati Public Library branch.  If you continued east on Jefferson Avenue, you could cut north on Ruther Avenue or Vine Street and quickly find yourself at the front entrance to the Zoo -- hence the elephants (tusk, tusk).


12/03/20 05:24 AM #5304    

 

Paul Simons

Aha! That explains it! Thanks Phil, thanks very much! I got to thinking about it and remembered there was something equestrian going on in that general part of Clifton which would also account for the big-box-store-worthy pet food section at Keller’s/IGA, but wouldn’t also account for the gravitational vortex that is responsible, like the massive but invisible black holes at the centers of galaxies, for everything. But when you add elephant traffic on that steep Clifton Avenue hill down to Spring Grove and on Woolper down to Vine Street to the elements already warping gravity in the region including adult usage of the Burnet Woods slide, cars failing to climb the extreme grades like Straight Street near the UC campus and certain nearly vertical grades in Mt Adams and rolling back down into the Ohio River, well, you don’t need Alex Jones to tell you that Cincinnati is smack dab in the middle of a gravitational vortex and so you’ve got your Skyline, your White Castle, your Krohn’s Disease Conservatory, your Mecklenburg’s and Hebrew Union College within walking distance of one another, and Pete Rose. It all adds up, it all makes sense.

 


12/04/20 11:57 AM #5305    

 

Paul Simons


12/05/20 11:54 AM #5306    

 

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Ummmmm, What exactly are you telling us, Paul?


12/05/20 03:46 PM #5307    

 

Paul Simons

Judy in this case there are several messages. First, just enjoy the humor. George Booth is terrific!! Second if we are involved in anything in the arts to not take it too seriously. Third in general dudes can learn a few things from the ladies in our lives.


12/06/20 11:55 AM #5308    

 

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Booth really is funny! Thanks, Paul!


12/07/20 07:44 AM #5309    

 

Jerry Ochs

Speaking as a card-carrying anarchist, I prefer cartoons by Mr. Fish.


12/07/20 04:54 PM #5310    

 

Philip Spiess

Jerry:

There's still an official Anarchist Party?  And it still issues official party membership cards?  (But not bombs to throw?) 

And I guess it's not the Mr. Fish who used to substitute at WHHS?


12/08/20 09:38 AM #5311    

 

Paul Simons



Gunned down 40 years ago today.

 


12/08/20 12:12 PM #5312    

 

Stephen (Steve) Dixon

All good cartoons. But I am going to have some special fun with the sandwich-on-the-porch from you, Paul.

And more great history from several of you. I want you to know I enjoy and deeply appreciate the work you all put into writing these.


12/08/20 05:06 PM #5313    

 

Paul Simons

Hey Stephen - first Happy B-Day - if sometime this monthe is your real B-day. I always tell people don't list your real DOB anywhere, it gives hackers a valuable, useable piece of PII - Personally Identifiable Information. 

Second about that cartoon - it's by George Booth. He was a very prolific new Yorker cartoonist and hilarious. We need hilarity now. He has many collections of cartoons out. A good one is called "Rehearsal's Off!"


12/09/20 01:48 AM #5314    

 

Philip Spiess

Paul:  I actually have a book of George Booth's cartoons entitled Rehearsal's Off! (1976).  One of my all-time favorite Booth cartoons, showing a barbarian general, with hoards at his back, speaking to a peasant shepherd, is captioned "General Varus's compliments.  Which way to Teutoburger Wald?"  My other favorite, which I shared with the many years of graduate museum studies students that I taught, shows a lackey at the front door of an historic house (possibly in England),  He is saying to the group about to depart their tour:  "Immediately on your left, as you leave, you will see a little old lady begging for coins.  She is the Museum Director . . ."  


12/09/20 06:53 AM #5315    

 

Paul Simons

Yes!! I remember that one Phil!! I've got that collection as well but not where I am right now. I have a request. There's another cartoon in that book that I love but can't find online. It's of a big Army mess sergeant standing over a new recruit at a table in the mess hall. He's explaining the plate of food:

"It's a blend of tasty meats and savory gravies appetizingly served on a shingle."

Can you find the image or post a photo of the page in your book? I think everyone especially the veterans would get a kick out of it.


12/09/20 07:34 AM #5316    

 

Paul Simons

Somehow strangely relevant:

 


12/09/20 04:09 PM #5317    

 

Bruce Fette

Paul,

 

If your wife is 53 and pregnant, I think you have something to brag about!

;)

 


12/09/20 06:15 PM #5318    

 

Paul Simons

I know Bruce, right? I don't understand it either because she is so tired when she gets home at night. She works out at the gym every day, she even has a personal trainer, he's a college kid just making extra money to go with his athletic scholarship. And on her weekend nights she has her swing dance club. I know it's true because they're called the Big Town Swingers and Philadelphia is a big town!! And I work long hours at the gas station - gotta take the overtime to pay for her personal trainer. So I don't remember when we have even had time or energy to - you know - "get busy". So how could she be pregnant?  There must be some mistake. 


12/09/20 06:53 PM #5319    

 

Jerry Ochs


12/09/20 07:18 PM #5320    

 

Jerry Ochs

Last one.  I promise.


12/14/20 01:05 AM #5321    

 

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

If you have NETFLIX, the Broadway musical The Prom, has been made into a musical with many big name stars. The focal character is portrayed beautifully by Jo Ellen Pellman, WHHS Class of 2014. I'm sure she benefited from our Performing Arts Fund. She is quite talented and now singing and dancing with the likes of Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and Andrew Rannells. 
https://www.netflix.com/title/81079914


12/17/20 07:54 PM #5322    

 

Jerry Ochs

Ann: Thanks for bringing The Prom to my attention.  My wife and I watched it last night.  Musicals never disappoint me and The Prom has all the needed elements: lots of dancing, singing, and a compelling story.  South Pacific touched on racial prejudice and The Prom looks at same-sex relationships.  My wife was surprised to learn that people in the USA are still so conservative.  The times have changed but many people haven't.   Speaking of changing times, the other day I suddenly remembered the hit song How Much Is That Doggy in the Window and wondered if today's youngsters are humming WAP. 


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