Lebanon Day in Cleveland

The first Lebanese Independence Day took place on November 22, 1943 in remembrance of the liberation from the French Mandate which was exercised over Lebanese soil for over 23 years.

In 2011, the first Lebanon Day in the city of Cleveland was celebrated. The Lebanese flag flew from the top of Cleveland City Hall and a special ceremony was held in City Hall Rotunda.

Great food, people and entertainment. See pics and video of Lebanon Day in Cleveland

Music and dancing from Lebanon Day

Find a Christmas Tree? There's an app for that

Looking for a fresh tree? Are you frustrated with not finding what you want as you try "hit-or-miss" visits to the local holiday retailer who happens to have trees for sale? Do the trees you see seem brown with envy and dry as toast?

Wouldn’t it be great if you knew where to find a real, honest-to-goodness "mom & pop" tree lot with a lush, green, and fresh smelling selection to choose from. Now, with My Tree Lot Finder you can minimize your time and effort in searching in the cold for that special tree.

My Tree Lot Finder for Android OS smartphones and tablets is free of charge and can be downloaded from: www.mytreelotfinder.com or the Android Market Place.

Show this to the Apple Fanboys

Samsung has a great commercial that pokes fun at the oh-so-cool and hip Apple fanboys (and girls)

Dan Coughlin's Pass the Nuts

He's Baaaaaack!

And for all of us who felt sad when we finished Dan Coughlin's first book Crazy, With the Papers to Prove It: Stories About the Most Unusual, Eccentric and Outlandish People I've Known in 45 Years As a Sports Journalist
because we wanted more, relief is here.


Pass the Nuts: More Stories About the Most Unusual People and Remarkable Events from My Four Decades As a Sports Journalist is the same format as the first book - lots of short (typically 2-6 pages) stories of interesting people set in a Cleveland that many will remember.


Coughlin not only lived these wild stories but has the ability to tell them so well that you can almost smell the stale beer and cigar smoke as you read them.

You will read stories of the big names in Pass the Nuts. People like George Steinbrenner, Ted Turner, LeBron James and NFL Hall of Famer Gene Hickerson and his close personal friend Elvis Presley.

But you'll also get tales of lesser-knowns that will have you smiling, shaking your head and asking "Did they really do that?" Times sure have changed.

I particularly liked the stories from legendary Cleveland watering holes and restaurants like the Theatrical, Blue Fox, Carney's Bar and Pat Joyce's Tavern. These also lend credibility to the book.

For example, I have friends who were at the Theatrical that St. Patrick's Day when former Indians owner Dick Jacobs covered everyone's tab for 3 hours. Likewise, my uncle spent a lot of time at the Blue Fox and his stories are consistent with Coughlin's.

It's another fun book from a fun guy.





Pass the Nuts review

Cleveland Indians Mascots play at Snow Days

Fox 8 Sports Reporter Allie LaForce took on the condiments in pool.

Cleveland Indians Mascots Ketchup, Mustard and Onion try the games in a warm-up area at Progressive Field as part of the Indians Snow Days. Mustard lost to Ketchup in pool and then to Onion in Air Hockey before giving up.

Pictures and Video from Snow Days

Ice Skating at Cleveland Indians Ballpark

The Frozen Diamond was built at the Cleveland Indians Progressive Field to allow for a hockey game between Ohio State and Michigan St Ed’s vs. St Ignatius and other teams. The general public can also skate there as part of the Indians Snow Days.

Pics and video from Snow Days preview

Indians Snow Days Battle

The Great Lakes Geek races down the Batterhorn at Progressive Field during the Cleveland Indians Snowdays. Take that Missy!

Adobe Chairman Chuck Geschke

Chuck Geschke, Chairman of the Board and Co-Founder of Adobe Systems, spoke at the Cleveland City Club in October.

He has the unique perspective of being in Silicon Valley from the beginning. He was with Xerox PARC until he and John Warnock left and created Adobe.

Geschke told stories from the early days at Stanford Industrial Park and the push that became ARPA after Sputnik. Many of the "ARPA Brats" ended up in the Stanford Industrial Park which became Silicon Valley. Geschke recalled that in 1976 while at Xerox PARC he had a personal computer with a mouse, e-mail, Word-like word processor, Ethernet connectivity (courtesy of his officemate Bob Metcalfe) and a laser printer.

When he learned that his and John Warnock's InterPress graphics language might not become a Xerox product for 7 years, they started Adobe. He told how Steve Jobs wanted to buy the entire company but they only wanted to sell their products.

Fascinating stuff from one of the pioneers of the industry.

See more from Adobe's Chuck Geschke

Thank you Veterans

In 1789, General and President George Washington spoke these words,
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the Veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their country."

Did you know that as of Aug 2011:

There are 22.7 million military veterans in the US
39.1% of veterans are 65 or older
1.4% of veterans are under age 25
6 states account for 36% of the Veteran population in the US - California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio
8.1% of veterans are women but that percentage is projected to double in the next 25 years
The average age of all veterans is 60
The average age of Gulf War veterans is 37
The average age of Vietnam War veterans is 60
The average age of Korean War veterans is 76
The average age of World War II veterans is 84

Thank You to all Veterans!

Visit the ClevelandSeniors.Com pages for Veterans, Police and Fire

Better Broadband equals Better Lives

Better Broadband equals Better Lives - that's what Graham Richard, the former mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana, said at the OneCommunity Broadband Workshop last month.

OneCommunity and NTIA, the federal agency overseeing nearly $5 billion in broadband stimulus investment, sponsored a 3-day event titled Mid-Course Workshop for Broadband Awardees: Accelerating Deployments & Driving Towards Sustainability Conference in Cleveland, Ohio.

On the third day of the event, a panel of experts spoke on Technology is Changing the Way We Live, Learn, Work and Play.


The panel was moderated by Lev Gonick, Vice President for Information Technology Services and Chief Information Officer at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Lev is also President Emeritus of the Board of OneCommunity.


Panelists included

Sari Feldman, Executive Director of Cuyahoga County Public Libraries

Brad Chilton, Chief Technology Officer at University Hospitals and former IT director at Eaton Corporation and TRW

Graham Richard, Former Mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiana and named to Government Technology magazine's "Top 25 Doers, Dreamers & Drivers" for Public Sector Innovation

Scot Rourke, President and CEO of OneCommunity and Winner of the Intelligent Community Forum's "Visionary of the Year" award

Some interesting comments from people in the middle of the broadband revolution.

Regionalism in Cuyahoga County

Moderator Tom Beres, Pepper Pike Mayor Bruce Akers, Orange Mayor Kathy Mulcahy and Woodmere Mayor Charles Smith

For those who came to the Corporate Club hoping to hear of monumental proposals to merge suburbs into the central city of Cleveland (a la Louisville, Indianapolis, Columbus, etc.) they were disappointed in the mayors' plans.

But regionalism has to start somewhere. The investigation of the pros and cons of merging some services of the 4 communities is a necessary first step in the discussion. The 4 communities currently share a school district and senior and recreational programs. Years ago they, along with Hunting Valley, made up Orange Township.

See more from the Regionalism discussion at Landerhaven

Cleveland's Best Year Ever

What do you think would be Cleveland's best year ever?

Sports people might say 1948 or 1964.

Music fans might say when the Rock Hall opened.

It was interesting to hear what Albert Ratner, Co-Chair Emeritus of Forest City Enterprise, said was our best year at a recent program called Globalizing Cleveland at the Corporate Club at Landerhaven.

The year? 1904.

See why

St Louis Cardinals - Cleveland Indians

Unfortunately, it's yet another October that Cleveland Indians fans are watching other teams in the World Series. I thought I'd share some images of Busch Stadium, home of the National League champion St Louis Cardinals, from a fun trip we took to the Gateway of the West.

Whereas Progressive Field in Cleveland has a statue of Bob Feller, the greatest right-handed pitcher in baseball history and there are rumors that a statue will be built to honor slugger Jim Thome sometime in the future, Busch Stadium has several statues like the statue of Dizzy Dean above. They also have one larger statue of Stan 'the Man' Musial.

Casimir Pulaski Day

In 1985, The Ohio Legislature officially declared October 11th to be General Pulaski Memorial Day in honor of his contributions to Poland and the United States. The U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously on October 8, 2009 to award citizenship posthumously to Casimir Pulaski.


Members of the Polish-American community in Cleveland gathered at the Cleveland City Hall to honor Pulaski.



After the march from City Hall to the Pulaski Cannon, Councilman Anthony Brancatelli mentioned that it was Congressman Dennis Kucinich's birthday (65th) and the group sang a chorus of Sto lat (100 years)

Great Lakes Shipping

WASHINGTON, D.C. (October 18, 2011) - The Great Lakes maritime industry today released the results of a year-long study of the economic impacts of the entire Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway navigation system. The study was commissioned by members of the marine shipping industry, in partnership with U.S. and Canadian government agencies. Martin Associates of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a global leader in transportation economic analysis and strategic planning, was retained to conduct the study.

Some interesting results

Another Halloween Goodie

Halloween Stuff for Geeks

I always like the geek stuff from Think Geek and they have some fun stuff for Halloween this year. Check out the



and more stuff at

Irish Cultural Garden

Four new monuments were dedicated at a special ceremony at the Irish Cultural Garden on Saturday October 8, 2011. The Garden was lush with greenery and flowers thanks to Charlene Crowley and her team of volunteers. The Lennon fountain was flowing and the weather couldn't have been better.

Photos and video from the celebration

Photos of all 12 Irish cultural monuments. How many of the Irish cultural figures do you know?

River Shannon in Cleveland?

The Shannon River is closely bound up with Ireland's social, cultural, military, economic and political history. It is the longest river in Ireland at 240 miles and divides the west of Ireland from the east and south.

Cleveland, of courses, is divided into East and West by the Cuyahaoga River. But did you know that Cleveland also has a River Shannon?

See where it is in the Cleveland Photo Quiz

Hewlett Packard and the Cleveland Browns

Turnover at the top is often indicative of poor records. Just ask the Cleveland Browns.

The eras with stable head coaches (Paul Brown, Blanton Collier, Sam Rutigliano etc.) and quarterbacks (Otto Graham, Frank Ryan, Brian Sipe, Bernie Kosar) were the winning teams. It's probably both cause and effect.

Is this what Hewlett Packard, with yet another CEO change, has in its future?

Listen to the latest Minute with the Great Lakes Geek and Go Browns (and HP)