An historic Friday the 13th yellow harvest moon shining a light on an outdoor Jack White show, his Raconteurs going off like Roman candles for the better part of two hours – could there be any summer's night of musical intensity more spectacularly supernatural?

Maybe a Def Leppard/Whitesnake/Blackstone Cherry return-of-the-wish-they-were-still-dead tour, for sure. Or maybe not.

Just kidding, kids. Thus it was at a heavily attended PromoWest amphitheater one warm and humid evening last month, the moon at its advertised farthest-away apogee in a dozen years (a minimoon they call it as opposed to a supermoon which is closest).

Nothing mini about the music that night, strictly super. But I think the infamous numeral of bad luck; the rare cosmic distance between earth and luna; and Jack White's personal nuclear energy made the night one very special bunch of loose ends coming together and sparking maniacally like the devil's lightning.

Exciting as hell!

Good timing. The New York Times just published an op-ed called “Why Republicans Play Dirty.” Lately, the better adjective would be “filthy” if you think of Trump holding up military money to the Ukraine while trying to get the Ukrainians to do a black bag surveillance job on Joe Biden and his son. Or, the ritualistic – like the running of the bulls in Spain – stripping of Ohio’s voter rolls.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose trampled democracy in Ohio when he removed 235,000 of the state’s voters from voting rolls for not voting in two previous federal elections. Back in January this year he purged 250,000 voters. Sadly, the Free Press previously reported LaRose had promised not to purge.

Monday, September 30, 2019, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM

On an overcast but otherwise pleasant Saturday morning in late September, about 300 volunteers set out on a litter sweep of the Kokosing River. By the time the mud they stirred up had settled, the volunteers had collected more than six tons of trash. That included nearly two tons of tires — 171 of them.

These folks don’t mess around.

Not that I expected they would. Earlier in September, some of the volunteers — The Kokosing River Rats — helped with the Friends of the Mohican River Watershed cleanup, covering the river from Greer to Brinkhaven. In short, they kicked ass, digging out tires and heavy debris from what is considered one of the most scenic stretches of the Mohican.

On Sept. 21, it was time to return the favor. Representing the Mohican Watershed group, I headed down to Millwood on the Kokosing with my friend, Elaine, and my Grumman canoe. I wanted to help and get down and dirty with these folks on the Kokosing, but I had an ulterior motive. Our Mohican crew is a relatively new group, having only two cleanups under our belts. I wanted to see how a well-established group conducted a river sweep.

Sunday, September 29, 2019, 2:00 – 7:00 PM
We’re cooking to share a meal outside the downtown YMCA shelter again — bring whatever vegan(ish) food you can find, or just bring yourself to help prepare the meal, or just come over for conversation and company. New people are Always welcome! The address on the event is where the cooking itself will occur. (We're test-running a new cooking location that is a bit bigger, and is wheelchair accessible)