Gun control doing wonders in Chicago

Wheeling ran the Elby's, Sheik. It is still run (by the hale and hearty) but as the Ogden Newspapers 20K. I have finally accepted my status as a spectator.

Oglebay today announced an aggressive campaign to drill in the "predominant field of natural gas in North America". They brag they can bring in the natural gas without disturbing the casual visitor to the park. I'm sure I won't be disturbed. Am wondering if my modest collection of natural gas lampshades will come in handy...

I'll happily critique Tudor's once the huge crowd dies down. I went past today and scanned (at 25 mph) no parking spots at 12:26 PM.

Elby's was named for Ellis Boury who made a small fortune in restaurant design. He sold lots of stainless steel fixtures and appliances along with his brother, George. Together they parlayed their share in the Big Boy franchise into glory somewhere between fast food and sit down/family fare. I'm not sure where the name "Ellis" came from but George, like his namesake the slayer of dragons, melded nicely with the other Lebanese emigres none of whom could run any further than you. At least you have an ethos...

Elby's was Shoney's with fewer choices. It was the training ground for a host (or hostess) of wait staff and cooks. Captain D's, however, was another matter altogether.

Why new name, there, OC?

I worked for a Lebanese woman from the northern panhandle. She told me that she learned to count helping her father run numbers. I really liked her, and she ironically ended up leaving my agency over ethics issues (theirs, not hers).

I can't say enough about the northern panhandle. Back in college I had friends in Martin's Ferry across the cursed river as well as in Wheeling. My fraternity was doing a "rock a thon" for charity where some poor sap (not me) rocked in a chair for a number of hours. I was leaving for a date in Pittsburgh (90 minutes or so from my college, Mount Union) and on the way out said that if my friend who was on the chair was still on it when I came back, that I would run the Elby's with him, which he had informed me was 20 kilometers running up elevator shafts. Well, he was on it when I came back. I don't know if I can ever get this lumbering frame to "jogging weight" for 50 yards, let alone 20K in the hills, but I would love an excuse to get back that way.

I'm sure the fuss will die down at Tudor's and you will get your biscuits. Careful, they are addictive and bad for you. So eat them before the government demands extra taxes and a warning label......

I figure if Barack Hussein Obama can have a song performed in the nation's public schools, I can have one as well. I just have to flesh it out a little and find a group with malleable minds who don't mind singing it.

I had an aunt whose father, one Harry Weiditz, ran his own numbers game out of his barber shop on 16th Street. Bill Lias sent a car to visit at night as he was getting home and shot him down in front of his house. Some speak fondly of the days when the gangs ran the valley. I think we're better off now that we're all broke.

Mount Union has won a number of national championships in football and was the alma mater of Jon Gruden now of Monday Night Football fame and formerly of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders. I wondered how you knew so much about the area...