The Christmas Wish

Well I was going to post my Christmas wish list but I think Steve Martin does the job for me. I will take any of these things.

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A Holiday Wish

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St. John

I'm guessing a lot of people who read this know John Buskirk (right). If you don't "Buzzy" graduated from St. John with me in 1993. He later came back to SJP to caoch football and teach history. He then left for the head coaching position at Harvey. A few years ago John was diagnosed with Leukemia, he battled it for about two years and was doing great. He was working on current SJP football coach Jim Timonere's staff and the two had discussed Buzzy going after a head coaching job again.

Not long after that conversation John was back in the Cleveland Clinic, he had relapsed and the awful disease was back, with a vengence. The situation looked pretty dire for a while. But according to the article in today's Star Beacon, Buzzsaw recently received a bone marrow transplant from his brother Bill (on the left side of the photo), the procedure has been successful thus far but it will take a year to know for sure if it worked. I know little but I would guess extremely cautious optimism is being experience now by the family.

I am telling you all this because there is something you can do to help John, who by the way is truly one of the most sincere, genuine, and caring people I have ever met. The Applebees in Ashtabula is donating a portion of their sales tomorrow night to the Buskirks to help defray medical costs. Obviously, none of these procedures are cheap even with insurance, not to mention the numerous trips back and forth to Cleveland with gas hovering at $3.00 per gallon. There is one catch, in order for a portion of your bill to go to helping out Buzzy yo have to bring in a flier about the special event. These can be picked up at the the High School or at the Star Beacon. I plan of grabbing a few so if you need to get your hands on one please contact me.

You are all going to eat dinner tomorrow night, probably a good portion of you will eat out at least once this week. Why not do both tomorrow at Applebees and help someone out at the same time? Trust me Buzzy would do it for you.

Let a Man Come in and do the Popcorn

I recently got a text message from my brother Rick that told me about the passing of a true Ashtabula Icon/ Celebrity. Richard Mead died today after a battle with lung cancer. I do not know any details beyond that at this time. If you do not recognize him by name you know him, at least if your around my age or older, from when he had his popcorn wagon on Ashtabula's Main Avenue.

Mead's Antique Popcorn Wagon was located directly in front of Sears and across from Carlisle's. I can remember many a shopping trip with my Mom where we had to run across the street to pay the Sears charge. Well this was before Sears offered "softlines" in Ashtabula. I'm talking about grills, lawnmowers, washers, dryers not much to do for a young kid. But my Mom would appease me by buying me a bag of popcorn and a lemonade as we crossed from one side of the "outside mall" to the other. I remember one time in particular when he gave me a free popcorn ball because I had gotten stung by a bee. May have been to shut me up from crying, but hey free popcorn ball.

Mr. Mead stayed for a while after the cornerstones of Downtown Ashtabula had run to the mall, closed their doors, or in some cases both. Wow, I really wish I could get a hotdog from there right now.

Mr. Mead was hired for different events as well; carnivals, grand openings, opening day celebrations, and what appeared to just be random Fridays at the School Employees Credit Union. I can tell you there have been a few Fridays where I stood in line in the bank salivating because I knew that a bag of fresh popcorn was in my future.

As I stated earlier Mr. Mead and his popcorn stand were more than just local icons, they were celebrities as you can see in the photo. This is a screen shot of the opening scene from A Christmas Story. Mr. Mead was hired to help turn Terminal Tower and Public Square back a few decades for a film that can only be described as a piece of Classic American Cinema.

I also have had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Mead personally. His older son Craig is one of my brother's best friends and a good friend of mine by default. When Craig has been home visiting from Arizona his Mom, Dad, and brother Chris often make an appearance at a picnic or some other random gathering. My favorite thing about Mr. Mead was that he told me I was a genius for having my Festivus Parties. He even took to calling me Festivus when we would see each other.

To Mrs. Mead, Craig and Christopher, your Husband/Father will be missed not just by those close to him but by the community as well.

Star Beacon Obituary

Here We Go Again

Obviously a different route than last year but it looks like the Buckeyes are heading back to the National Championship Game. The only question is who deserves to play them. There are about 5 teams that are possibilities and each comes with its own arguments for and against them. Each of these teams will probably also be favored in this game. This is fine with me, Ohio State did not play a very difficult schedule, and I'm not just talking about the trifecta of Akron, Kent, and Youngstown. The Big 10 (11), was weak this year anyone that argues otherwise is a blindly loyal homer. This however is not OSU's fault. NOr is it their fault that Washington was not very good this year. The Buckeyes have had the guts to go out and play great teams early, like the home & away with Texas, but these games are scheduled so many years in advance there's no guarantee that a program will be strong when the game is played.

I have been saying all year this Buckeye team would get killed by last year's team. But I also believe a lot of the top ten teams from this year would meet a similar fate against their earlier selves. To defend OSU though they should have been undefeated, but in their one loss Coach Tressel chose not to challenge a fumble out of the back of the end zone which would have given the Buckeyes the ball rather than Illinois a touchdown. Making matters worse, and typical of the crap that only happens to my team, the Big 10 replay official was trying to get the play reviews but the communications system with the on field refs was on the fritz so the Bucks went on to lose by a TD.

The one thing that has really stuck in my craw recently though is the argument that it isn't fair that some conferences play a conference championship game. Everyone seems to agree that there is an advantage for the schools that are sitting at home. True this definitely helped OSU over the last two weeks, but it has certainly helped the teams playing too. Ask the 2006 Gators if they are upset that they got to have a Conference Championship game, if their season ended before getting the chance to play Arkansas, OSU is replaying Michigan in January. The same will probably be said for LSU, the favorites to play OSU at press time, these games give a team that seemed to have no chance an opportunity to get back into the mix.

Besides the Big 10 will never go to a Big 10 championship game. Why? they already have one, it's called "The Game." The powers that be will never schedule a game after Ohio State vs. Michigan. It is the end of the season, and more times than not it IS the Big 10 Championship game. That being said what do I know? With all the money that would be generated by adding a conference playoff game, I'm sure I'm just being naive about what really matters to big colleges and big time sports programs.

Anyway, GO BUCKS!!!