Playing Catch-Up

If you're one of the three people who regularly read this page, you may have noticed that it hasn't been updated in quite a while. Unfortunately, I'll have to resort to the usual excuse for things of this nature- I've simply been too busy. Part of why I've been so busy, though, is that Mighty Mahoning has moved its headquarters from Cleveland to Youngstown. Obviously, this is a good thing- why would you want to be anywhere else?

Anyhow, there are a few Youngstown-related things to catch up on.

Chris Barzak World Domination Day

August 28 was unofficially designated "Chris Barzak World Domination Day" by our good friends over at the Oakland. The reason for this, of course, was that his first novel, One for Sorrow, was released on that day. If you've been keeping up with the other Youngstown blogs (and of course you have), you've probably already heard about this. There are lots of interesting and exciting things to say about this, and presumably, many of them have already been said. In simplest terms, though, it's something for us all to be proud of and it's another great example of what a great scene we have when it comes to the arts here. I urge you to read the book (I hear it's great, although I haven't read it yet myself) and check out Barzak's blog over at http://christopherbarzak.wordpress.com.

Something to Crow About

"County fair, county fair
Everybody in town'll be there
So come on, hey, we're goin' down there
Hey, little girl with the long blond hair
Come win your daddy one of them stuffed bears
Baby, down at the county fair."

-Bruce Springsteen, County Fair

This weekend, as you know, is the Canfield Fair, one of the supremely important items on the Youngstown area calendar every year. It's hard to articulate just why I love the fair. As a city kid, I know very little about what qualifies a pig as a blue ribbon winner or just how one can grow a pumpkin the size of a Geo. The smell of several tons of horse and cow manure is a pretty foreign and pretty awful scent for me, too. It's not that I dislike the country life, it's just that I can't relate. Regardless, I love the fair.

Of course, everyone loves the fair. It's a great tradition and one that has been more or less preserved in its proper state even though everything else around it has changed. One imagines that, when the fair first started, Canfield was a pretty remote place, made up almost entirely of farmland. Obviously, things have changed around town- but the fair really hasn't. That's reassuring for a lot of people. The fact that things are almost always the same there- sights, sounds, smells- brings back lots of memories.

YSU vs. OSU

The Penguins take on the Buckeyes this weekend in the Tressel Bowl. I'll be there, proudly clad in my Defend Youngstown t-shirt. Go Penguins.