Did you know that Northeast Ohio's Nela Park, located on Noble Road at the edge of East Cleveland, was America's first industrial park? Or that the facility, the world headquarters for GE Lighting, has made and donated the lights and ornaments for the National Christmas Tree in Washington DC for over 80 years?

Nela Park, best known to Cleveland residents for its spectacular holiday lighting display, was built in 1911 on a former abandonned vineyard in what was then rural Ohio. The campus includes over 40, mostly Georgian Revival-style, buildings, all but two of which were designed in the early 1910s by the New York architectural firm of Wallis and Goodwillie. Nela Park was made a National Historic Site in 1975.

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Darren was on the phone to a work colleague and she teased and enquired when he would give her the opportunity to buy a new hat. It is a phrase I heard many a time and often when I was young. It set Darren thinking, so he wrote a piece about Love And Marriage and asked for our thoughts.
I come from the dark ages. My father saw a womans place as in the kitchen. A third level education was seen as a waste for me as I would only go off and get married! Back then I had no interest in marriage because it only meant drudgery and work and I had plenty of that already with my father and brothers. Why would I ever willingly take all that on?
My working life started in the Civil Service. Back then girls working in the Civil Service in Ireland were required to resign from work on marriage. I know that my own mother would have liked to keep on working after she married. She had a good head for figures and indeed earned ‘a Man’s Wage’ back in 1941. My father announced that “No wife of mine will go out to work” and so my mother became a full time wife and mother.
Time passed and along came Jack and changed the whole canvas of my thinking. He was old enough to be my father, a widower, from a different religion and ! It may only be across the water to the next island but it was seen by my family as a very different culture. Heads nodded and tongues wagged, it was sure to be a disaster. We were more than expected to fall at the first hurdle.
While out with my mother one day shortly after we became engaged, I met a friend of mine. My friend was delighted and excited for me and said as much to my mother. To this day I still remember my mother’s reply “I hope she doesn’t miss out; he is a lot older than her you know!” There was no warmth or affection in the remark. Perhaps the way my mother uttered those words was the best thing she ever did. I knew that if I stumbled along the way, there would be no point in going home to mother! I would have to stay and work it out.
I didn’t expect to stumble and in fact never had any doubt that I was making the correct decision.
Within a week of the engagement my father produced a list! It was a first draft of wedding guests. It numbered 70 and that was only our side. I tore it up and said that we only wanted immediate family to share in our day. I had no desire for relations that only came when they needed feeding, to dance at my wedding. I in fact went on to say “Anyway, what is wrong with having the wedding out there in the back garden that you are so proud of”! I have no idea where that came from, but once uttered I began to really think about it and like the idea. A friend of mine was a chef and I asked him to look after the catering for us. He did. Every cup, glass, plate and chair was imported for the day, and he produced a mouth-watering buffer for us. A friend of one of my brother’s worked in a pub and organised to have the Guinness on tap for the boys (it was a great hit) we bought the wine wholesale.
My outfit cost £75 pounds and was way less than a traditional wedding dress. Jack wore a suit and we asked our witnesses to wear whatever they were comfortable in. My Godmother, a florist provided the flowers and I gave a couple of rolls of film each, to my eldest brother and my cousin and told them to just click away. No formal groups required. My Uncle officiated at the ceremony.
The sun shone brilliantly on the day and for most of the time thereafter. Marriage is not always a bed of roses; you only get out of it what you put in. It is a work in progress and we learn to change and move along with life’s seasons. You learn to live with the toothpaste being squeezed in the middle, the cushions being fluffed up the second you stand up from a chair, or the hours spent washing and polishing a car. Having a soul-mate to start the day, share worries and joys, kisses and cuddles, before snuggling close to as evening draws to a close is worth all the tea in China, as my grandmother used to say, or indeed all the modern day technology! A kiss or cuddle does not depend on broadband or electricity to work!
As someone who was married until death did us part, I know that the love and strength of my marriage has carried me through the black abyss of bereavement. In the dark days of Jack’s illness I regularly repeated silently to myself the word of the wedding vows I had made many years earlier and thought of how I felt about Jack when we first fell in love. It helped!
Sadly not all have a marriage like mine and I have watched with great pain while some have crumbled before my eyes. Nowadays there are so many distractions and modern working hours are no help. Laptops and mobile phones surgically attached are a curse of the highest order. No good saying I wish… when a marriage is over or a soul-mate has died. The time to do something is NOW!
I remember many decades ago, Gay Byrne had a Jesuit priest on the Late Late Show, talking about marriage and its problems. His advice (to the horror of all the little ‘Holy Marys’ round the country) was two hours on the couch twice a week! Best advice I ever heard.
Now close up that Laptop, switch off the mobile and tell your soul-mate how much you love them!
Amen.

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Choosing a herbal nutritional supplement can be confusing because there are a lot of nutritional supplements out there that claim to have many different but beneficial effects on people. There are some guidelines in choosing and using an herbal nutritional supplement which can keep you healthy and benefit you without losing too much money in investing in too many different kinds of supplements. Discount nutritional supplements are feasible only if they show that they have the right dosage and the right potency. Some of these discount nutritional supplements may have expiration dates that are too close for comfort.
Herbal Nutritional Supplements Interaction With Medication
An herbal nutritional supplement can be beneficial for many people. There are instances, though, that these can have a negative effect on individuals. The instance that an herbal nutritional supplement is to be avoided is when it has some conflict with a medication or drug that you are currently taking. Mixing an herbal nutritional supplement with medication can be dangerous to your health, even fatal. It is best to read and research the effect of whatever herbal nutritional supplement you wish to take and find out if there are contraindication with other medications and conditions.
If you have a proven treatment for your disease, you do not need to take any more supplements that are supposed to help in getting rid of the condition. Taking additional supplements may complicate your condition or mask the state of the condition.
Single Herb Supplements
An herbal nutritional supplement is best taken as a single herb product compared to a mixture or combination of two or more herbs. This is to ensure that you are safely taking just a certain herb with its specific effects and benefits as compared to several herbs that can have a variety of effects on you and your body. These are actually herbal nutritional supplements that are not approved by the governing body to be labeled as medications. This means that they are not proven to have the actual effects that many claim they possess.
Pregnant Women
Pregnant women should avoid taking any kind of herbal nutritional supplement as well as any medication during gestation unless recommend and prescribed by a certified, practicing doctor. Some pregnant women are so excited to provide their children with the right nutrients that they take whatever supplement they see or hear about through advertising.
An herbal nutritional supplement can be beneficial for many people but at the same time can complicate things for those who randomly take them without recommendations of going through a consultation.

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II. Food as Sacramental Gift
God is the giver of all good gifts. Genesis 1 and 2 describe God as an artist and architect, bringing creation into existence for His glory and praise. But God is also depicted in the creation narrative as a master gardener. On the third day, God brought forth vegetation from the soil of the earth, plants yielding seed and fruit trees bearing fruit (Genesis 1:11). He did so with great flare, creating a world rich in diversity and aesthetic sensibility, a veritable palette of mouthwatering fare. At the very least we can see that God was not indifferent to his handiwork. God was pleased to get his hands dirty so to speak and involve himself in the very world we call home. We are told that He took pleasure in his labor and blessed the work of his hands, declaring it “good” and beautiful. God did not stop creating after the third day, however. Rather continued his work, climaxing in the creation of humanity, his image-bearers. Herman Bavinck writes: “The whole world raises itself upward, culminates and completes itself, and achieves its unity, its goal, and its crown in humanity. In order to be the image of God, therefore, man had to be the recapitulation of the whole of nature.” Every discussion of food must take into account God’s creation and man’s vocation as God’s image-bearer. As the recapitulation of creation man summarizes creation’s goal to glorify God in the totally of his existence. To quote Bavinck again: “Man forms a unity of the material and spiritual world, a mirror of the universe, a connecting link, compendium, the epitome of all nature, a microcosm, and, precisely on that account, also the image and likeness of God, his son and heir, a micro-divine-being (mikrotheos).” A covenantal union, therefore, exists between God and man. God is the giver and supplier of all good gifts; man is the Eucharistic being for which all good was intended, to receive God’s blessings with joy and thanksgiving.

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I remember watching Valmeyer wash away in 1993. The heartbreak of those people was something else. Their decision to move to higher ground seems really smart. There are areas North of us that are flooding pretty heavily. I recall driving to one of Drews soccer games last year and there was an entire area that had billboards mocking the flood of 1993 talking about how they were selling the land to build industrial parks all along the levee. Right now that area where the billboards were as well as the road we drove on are underwater. I dont think those people thought the levee would break so soon..they were figuring on an 80 year cycle or something. There are some things you really cant predict.
Food
Sarah and the Goon Squad was asking for help today on what to make for dinner. It just so happens that Im bringing a dish to my friends BBQ tomorrow. This is one of those super easy yet yummy ideas.
Strawberry and Spinach Salad.
Step One: Go to the store and purchase a bag of prewashed baby spinach. Pint of Strawberries. Bag of nuts. Bottle of Poppy-seed Dressing. Tin Roasting Pan. Disposable Utensils.
If you cant figure out what to do with all of that you have no business fixing food. Ive also had this with some additional stuff like crumbled feta cheese, blueberries, red onions.. You can really do whatever you want. Its super yummy, the right about of sweet for a summer day, or anytime really and its quick and easy to throw together. You can also purchase lowfat Poppyseed dressing which is pretty tasty too.
What is a quick easy thing you like to bring with you to events?
Fireworks
Click here to play with fireworks and not get hurt..or arrested.
Driving to work this morning there was a huge billboard advertising fireworks. Umm, in the area where the billboard is and where I live fireworks are illegal. It seems silly to either be selling them or make them illegal. At my house I always end up with bottle rockets on my roof and in my yard. Cops dont really do anything about it. When I was little we always had sparklers and chasers..What the heck is the PC word for those? Am I right, Tiger Chasers? Anyway we also had snakes which I loved but they made the sidewalk black which mom hated. As we got older we had bottle rocket fights in the parking lot. (union lots we used to hang out in every night to ride bikes, smoke, drink, and do everything else..of course this was pre-security cameras). Back then the cops had things like organized crime to deal with and left us kids alone.
Now..we dont even buy fireworks, they seem like such a waste of money.
Do you buy and shoot off fireworks.

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I really didn't know much about food irradiation when I slid into a booth yesterday, ordered an iced tea, and prepared to hear Food and Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter discuss her new book: Zapped: Irradiation and the Death of Food. I knew it involved putting food through something like a giant x-ray machine to kill bacteria, and I knew I didn't want to eat it. That's about it.
Boy, was I in for it.
The quest for food irradiation began after WWII, when it was seen as a way to ensure a food supply for soldiers. Over the years it has received varying levels of support from the government, until the Reagan administration realized it had a little toxic nuclear waste problem. By promoting food irradiation, they could turn that problem into an asset -- the nuclear waste could be used in the irradiation process. Sounds tasty, right?
It gets even yuckier. Irradiated food may last longer than other food, but it also loses vitamins faster. That irradiated mango might still look fresh, but you're only getting a fraction of the nutritional value. Plus, when it comes to meat, irradiation can be used to justify abhorrent factory conditions.Cows coming in from the CAFO covered in dung? No problem! We'll just zap the meat! Of course, when they do zap the meat, it looks brownish-green and smells and tastes like burnt hair. Irradiation also adds processing time, travel, and cost, and in animal tests it's been linked with cancer, stillbirths, genetic mutations and premature death.
So what you get with irradiation is weird-looking, off-tasting food, with fewer nutrients and a larger environmental impact, that costs significantly more than fresh food. Oh, and it might kill you. What a deal!
Although several products are approved for irradiation in the United States, commercial irradiation has never really taken hold (and very few irradiated products are on supermarket shelves today). Consumers are skeptical, and required labeling (with that symbol up at the top there) means that we've consistently avoided irradiated options. Unfortunately, the E. coli outbreaks from California spinach have renewed government and industry interest in irradiation -- apparently it's easier than asking producers to clean up their acts -- and the FDA is also considering allowing irradiation for processed foods, which make up the bulk of many American's diets.
Unfortunately, they're also considering weakening the labeling requirements for irradiated food. Some processed foods would only be labeled 'pasteurized,' and other irradiated foods wouldn't have to be labeled at all. Clearly FDA thinks we're too dull to make our own decisions about irradiated food, so they've got to slip it in under the radar. Thanks, FDA.
For more info on food irradiation and what you can do to keep it clearly labeled, visit www.zappedfood.org.

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