satur9poet's Blog

To the guy in the black pickup who exhibited one of the most childish fits of road rage I've seen in a while: Did they teach you to use the SIDEWALK to pass in Driver's Ed?!?

I was behind you waiting at an intersection in Parma yesterday. I also saw the guy who had the misfortune of breaking down right in the middle of the intersection. I'm sure he didn't plan to have a breakdown just to piss YOU off. Yet you continued laying on your horn, screaming and having a fit.

Instead of waiting 3 seconds for a break in the flow of traffic to pass like a normal human being, you threw your truck in reverse, came within an inch of backing up into me, and proceeded to drive around the disabled vehicle using the sidewalk as your own private passing lane---narrowly missing a fire hydrant and T-boning oncoming traffic in the process so you could make your precious right turn. Did I mention this took place in front of the Parma police station? Yesterday was your lucky day because my cell phone was down. Otherwise I had your plate number and would have reported your dangerous actions PRONTO.

Luckily no pedestrians were using that sidewalk. I'm convinced that in your fit of rage, you would have mowed them down if there were. If you have a family, I truly feel sorry for them, as they likely have to endure similar antics at home. Please do us all a favor and take some anger management classes.

If you haven't heard this latest euphemism, you either don't pay attention to the news or live under a rock. "Stay-cation" is the latest cliche to be pumped out of the corporate media machine to describe the impact gas prices are having on Americans.

It's really cute to hear people parroting the term on TV news interviews. "Gas is really high, so we'll just be having a little Stay-cation with the kids this summer." Everything will be ok, skyrocketing fuel prices are just a minor inconvenience. Riiight...Today it's a cancelled flight or vacation. Tomorrow it will be 1/2 tank of gas to get to work and back and less food on the table.  And after that?

The media feed us this BS while hard-working Americans can barely afford to live from day to day. 30-second soundbytes don't even begin to scratch the surface of a very real crisis which appears to last into the indefinite future.

Just like a pig in a dress is still a pig, there's no way to dress up our growing plight with cutesy terminology. I don't see this country recovering from the current economic situation. The American Dream, once touted as within the reach of all (or at least most) Americans, is just another catchphrase like Stay-cation: far-removed from reality.

Maybe the media catchphrases will stop when we no longer have homes, electricity, and TV's to learn of them.

When I heard rumors earlier this summer that Geauga Lake was tearing down and shipping some roller coasters to other amusement parks around the country, I knew that eventually the park would close. What amusement park in a healthy state ships out their roller coasters?

This move by Cedar Fair doesn't exactly surprise me. The park went downhill ever since Six Flags took it over. My family bought season passes to Geauga Lake every year up until the rides stopped working and the place became run-down and dirty. Until that point, it was a great place. I have many years of memories of both Geauga Lake and SeaWorld. Now both are gone. For a while, Geauga Lake maintained the SeaWorld side as an aquatic park after SeaWorld closed, and it was one of my favorite places to go. Then little by little, even that was taken away.

Heck, I even have fond memories of the old Memphis Drive-In, a historical landmark that closed last year due to good old corporate greed. You'd think by this point that I must be an older person reminiscing about the "good old days", but I'm actually a 20-something just starting out. I bring this up because while I'm young, so many of the places I spent my childhood are simply gone. At the rate things are going, I won't have ANY memories of the "good old days" for when I'm old. I expected places like Geauga Lake to be around when I have grandkids.

Here's an online petition you can sign if you think closing the park is wrong:

 http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/geaug
alake/

Who knows, maybe enough pressure will be on Dick Kinzel to save Geauga Lake from this awful fate? We can only try.

I suspect  the reason Cedar Fair let Geauga Lake get so run-down is because they knew they would eventually do away with the place and ultimately eliminate any competition. Any promise Cedar Fair made to maintain and even improve Geauga Lake as a family park was a pack of lies. Watch the price of admission and season passes at Cedar Point go through the roof next year. Those who have the cash will travel to Sandusky to enjoy the only amusement park in the area while the majority of us sit home or cross the border to visit Kennywood. But what does Dick Kinzel care? He'll have his money. And another part of our local heritage will be wiped off the map.

I hate to think of what might replace the ride side of Geauga Lake: Condos? Retail? God forbid another Wal-Mart?!?

What will be left for our children to inherit? Hopefully not a bunch of parking lots and big-box stores. 

 

    It's amazing to watch: Every year, hopeful Browns fans march into the stadium convinced that this team is going to win, and go home heartbroken. It's nice to dream, isn't it? Why fans believe this year will yield the "Dream Team" is beyond me. When I need comic relief, I watch a Browns game. Today's loss to Pittsburgh was expected. The way the Browns played was comical! 

    The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again expecting a different result. Cleveland fans must  enjoy the insanity of loss after loss year after year yet expect a Super Bowl team. Sorry, but that "Dream Team" played here long before I was born, so all I know is 1.) a city without a football team and 2.) a city with a laughable football team.

    It seems the Browns, certain uncouth fans, and the city of Cleveland are made for each other. It's a fitting match: some less-refined fans come to a decaying city in to turn Browns Stadium into Bumpkinland and rain glass beer bottles down on players, thereby changing container policy across the country. They are nasty and threatening to fans of opposing teams, believing the Browns to be the best team in the world while they bumble around on the field attempting to play the game. Because of this, I have never set foot in that stadium and never plan to. And I'm a Clevelander!

    It makes me sad when people get their hopes up of even a decent football season here, but what have we come to expect? The same goes for the city of Cleveland as a whole. It's the same old same old, the beat goes on. The Browns lose on Opening Day: move along, there's nothing to see here. Crime, poverty and joblessness continue here and city officials fiddle while Rome burns. Move along, nothing to see here. After getting my education I'll be moving far from this abismal city and it's equally abismal football team.

    Until then, GO STEELERS! GO TRIBE!