The shortest day of the year, winter solstice, has been a part of human ritual for as long as recorded time, for obvious reasons. For many, it was a line of demarcation toward the time when food would begin to grow again after winter.

Among the 'pagan' religions that still celebrate the solstice is Wicca, a surprisingly popular and widespread faith in Ohio. The Celtic tradition seems to strongly inform our local Wicca community.
While the strains of Wicca are many and widely varied, I thought the explanation of the Pagan Student Association at OSU did a good job of pointing out commonalities.

Wicca places moral behavior at the core of their beliefs: "An ye harm none, do as ye will." The existence of an afterlife is frequently held, as is the concept of karma. Pantheism and the concept of the goddess are also prominent.

The natural world plays a strong role as well. Many wiccans include the four elements, earth, air, fire and water, in their rituals. They celebrate naturally occurring events, as well. In addition to winter solstice, the other solstice and both equinoxes are usually celebrated.

The Ohio Wicca communities hold a number of celebrations and gatherings this week. A list of them can be found here. This video introduces some of the concepts nicely.

We wish you a stupendous solstice!

Last night the Buckeyes upset Oklahoma, the #3 team in the country by staging a thrilling comeback from a five-point deficit in the final five minutes to win 74-67. Saturday, the Buckeyes play the #2 team in the country in a nationally-televised showdown.

Last night's victors were the Lady Buckeyes, the #8 team in the country. Under Coach Jim Foster and behind All-American center Jessica Davenport, the program has vaulted into the top tier of women's basketball. Although they were soundly defeated earlier this year by powerhouse LSU, the OSU women's team (10-1) appears a favorite for their third straight Big 10 title since Foster took over the program in 2002.

Now the pressure is on the men's team to keep up. The former #1, now with über-center Greg Oden in the key, takes on #2 and last year's National Champion Florida this weekend on their home court. The game is at 4:00 p.m. on CBS.

Florida poses perhaps OSU's toughest matchup of the year, as they feature several top-notch post players led by All-American Joakim Noah, star of last year's playoffs. The Gator's size inside will test both Oden's fitness (after sitting out for six months) and the skill of their other inside players. Look for Othello Hunter and Matt Terwilliger to be tested early, especially if coach Thad Motta sticks with his man-to-man defense, which often draws Oden away from the key. Foul trouble for these players could spell trouble for the Buckeyes.

The outside game that the club depended on so strongly last year and earlier this year has evaporated with Oden's insertion into the lineup. Look for Florida to double down on Oden and, as a result, OSU to return to the long bombs.

Earlier this year, OSU had a rare double; #1 rating in both basketball and football. With the success of the Lady Bucks, perhaps we can look forward to the first triple #1 in history.

<Update 11/23: Florida center Al Halford won't play Saturday due to a high ankle strain. This will change the inside game to OSU's favor.>

There is no way you will love to do something as much as this jump rope team has a passion for double dutch. Double Dutch Will Take You Higher!

One of Governor Taft's most interesting initiatives is the Third Frontier Project, an attempt to kick-start high-tech research to build future industry in the state. The project was launched via legislation in 2003 and given 10 years and $1.3 billion to nurse Ohio into the digital revolution.

I recently reviewed their grants for 2006. The winners? Cleveland and Columbus. By far the largest awards came in the medical field, split between Case Western Reserve and OSU. Toledo, you were so screwed.

Fuel cell technology was also widely funded. There, the awards came out surprisingly balanced, with a number of firms receiving about a million bucks each. These awards were also spread around the state a little more.

Some of the big winners:
Medical –

• $8 million to Case Western Reserve, Cleveland, to expand the capabilities of their Center for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine. They must figure the next president won't be so hard-ass about stem cell research.
• $4.7 million to ChanTest Inc. of Cleveland for drug research.
• Another $8 million to Case for neurostimulation research.
• $3.5 million to OSU for biomedical diagnosis and therapy device development.
• $7.9 million to OSU to develop new medical imaging technology.

Fuel cells --

• $1 million to HydroGen of Cleveland.
• $999,841 to SOFco-EFS Holdings in Alliance.
• $1 million to Edison Materials Technology Center in Dayton.
• $919,892 to OnPower, Inc. of Lebanon.
• $775,300 to Pemery Corp. of Painesville.
• $751,719 to Catacel Corp. of Garrettsville.
• $999,927 to NexTech Materials.

Some other awards:

• $1,152,400 to OSU in Columbus for superconductor research.
• $1,800,000 to the National Composite Center in Kettering for developing composite materials.
• $2.1 million to U. of Dayton for developing nanocomposite tooling. No, I don't what these are either.
• $1.1 million to the U. of Cincinnati for its "Southern Ohio Creates Companies Pre-seed Fund." As I understand it, they will then dole out this money to hi-tech startups that don't have the sexiness to attract venture capital.
• $1.5 million to TechColumbus for the same purpose.

It's hard to argue against funding research if we want to have jobs in developing industries. Certainly seems like a better place to put our money than a minor league baseball park.

I'm just surprised more interest isn't shown in just who we're depending on for this, and what they are going to do with these windfalls. Let's hope, they do a lot. I could use a nice nanocomposite tool or two.

Allow me to tell you about something just wonderful... about a jump roping team! (I'm loving this whole recent people going back to childhood things trend.)

Sidekick Girl and I were at our favorite Sea Level Lounge because we heard about a jump roping team that was going to be there. And we saw them and they were amazing! The team is called "Double Dutch Will Take You Higher," and they're a group of Cleveland Institute of Art students with a passion for the art of double-dutch jump roping. And it was seriously quite a passion.

There are seven students on the team, and they were fabulous! And I myself have never been so close to a man's Spandexed ass. The team took the stage, and had clearly been practicing and doing a great job. Lots of amazing moves, and the fact that they happily perform at midnight in neon Spandex outfits, and did thirty great minutes of jumping to a great dance track - well, I was just blown away. All of the audience was, because there were some fifty people there who were all hooting and hollering for this team of sweaty art students. Double Dutch Will Take You Higher was amazing, and well-loved, and you really ought to hit them up at Sea Level Lounge, where they will start appearing on a regular basis.

I was walking across the Ohio State University campus yesterday when I noticed this manhole cover. Quite a nice design for a hunk of iron with such a mundane purpose.

This reminded me of a few stories I read which might account for the artistry of this piece --

In 1995, an Akron scrap metal dealer was busted for buying 21 city water meters from "recyclers".

Between June and November of last year, 220 storm grates were stolen in Columbus.

Last November, Chicago lost 200 manhole covers, 40 in a single day.

Think we have it bad? In Bejing in 2004, 24,000 manhole covers were stolen. Shaghai loses a dozen a day. Calcutta lost 10,000 in a two-month period. Sounds like a great places for a tire dealership.

The average manhole cover weighs about 120 pounds and costs $200 to replace. Sewer grates are about 80 pounds.

Over the last three years, the price of scrap metal has more than tripled, but still, one of these covers is worth less than ten bucks. The repairs for a car that hits one? Take a guess. Mine is several thousand dollars.

I'm guessing that these beautiful Columbus covers are designed to tip off scrap dealers that the iron may have been stolen.

Or maybe our esthetics extend all the way to the ground.

Not that he needs the promoting, but I love authors, and he certainly deserves the promotion! Jared Diamond is the author of Guns, Germs & Steel, and the slightly more recent, Collapse. Collapse (of which I've read a tiny bit) is about the rise and fall of societies and civilizations. Supposedly, the collapse of societies has to do with the proper management of ecological resources.

I really like Jared Diamond's books, partly because I really like his background. There's a recent trend in nonfiction books to be as accessible and entertaining as possible, because the more people who find your book entertaining, the more people buy it! And Jared Diamond managed to make his books researched and accessible and entertaining all at the same time. He has won a Pulitzer Prize, he is a professor of geology and environmental health sciences at UCLA, and he got his PhD at University of Cambridge. He has worked hard at being very, very brilliant, and he's written some very good books. And there is nothing more interesting than listening to a really smart person talk about what they know best.

Anyway, he's speaking on Thursday the 7th in Elyria! He'll be at the Lorain County Community College, and it's free, thank goodness. But you do have to register, which you can do through the school's website or by calling 440-366-4949. Call!

OSU is not the only school in Ohio with a fine football program-- for example, Youngstown, Mt. Union, Bowling Green and Miami all have their share of titles. The Ohio University Bobcats are not usually included in that group, however.

This year has been different. Right up until last night, the program was on a roll. Their seven-game winning streak had moved them tantalizingly close to their first conference championship in 38 years. On Wednesday they had accepted their first bowl invitation since 1968, to the GMAC Bowl in Mobile, Alabama.

So hopes were high last night at kickoff against conference foe and contender for the title the Central Michigan Chippewas.
Unfortunately, the magic didn't accompany OU to Ford Field in Detroit.

Problems were quickly evident on the defensive side of the line when Central Michigan drove the length of the field on their second possession. Even more damaging were the big plays the Bobcats gave up, including a 97-yard touchdown run and 71-yard pass completion. Chippewa quarterback Dan LeFevour threw for almost 350 yards, and receiver Damian Linson broke Randy Moss's record for single game yardage with 186 yards.

By comparison, OU gained a paltry total of 224 yards for the game. The combination of losing starting quarterback Austen Everson to injury early in the game and turning the ball over three times put the offense in a position from which they could not recover.

As a result of their victory, Central Michigan snuck by OU to claim the MAC Eastern Division title.

It is no small consolation that OU will play the winner of the upcoming Houston-Southern Mississippi in the GMAC Bowl on Jan. 7th. Go Green!

Bird flu! After a couple of years, the phrase is losing its power to drive people into panic, but findings by a team of researchers including Dr. Scott Rogers of Bowling Green University suggest the threat is real in ways we hadn't realized.

His team has discovered that viruses are capable of living in the snow of Siberia for many years. Recently they identified strains of the flu from the outbreak of 1933-38 and the 1960s still alive in the ice, waiting to re-infect birds if the ice should thaw.

This suggests a cycle of re-infection that begins when birds deposit the virus in the fall, where it is soon buried in new snow. Birds return in the spring as the snow thaws, bringing them back into contact with the waiting virus. In an exceptionally warm spring, snow from previous years might melt and expose them to other forms of the virus from previous years.

While they don't discuss the effects of global warming, I have to believe that the melting of hitherto permanent snowpack at the poles could speed the return of virus forms from our past.

Recent studies on the strain that became known as the Spanish flu have shown that our modern population no longer has any immunity to it. Who knows what other strains wait under the ice?

The hard part of keeping a winning football program at a medium-size major college is that the big boys routinely poach your coaching talent. The University of Cincinnati, on the tail of the biggest win in the school's history, is relearning that lesson today.

Just two weeks ago, Cincinnati thumped previously unbeaten and seventh-ranked Rutgers in a stunning 30-11 upset. While the Bearcats finished only 7-5 this season, their steady improvement and a strong showing earlier in the season against top-ranked Ohio State had sent their head coach's stock soaring. Today, Michigan State University announced Cincinnati head coach Mark Dantonio will be taking over the MSU program next year.

Cincinnati is not the only Ohio credential on Dantonio's curriculum vitae, either. He began his career under Earle Bruce at OSU before being hired by Jim Tressel for his multi-championship staff at Youngstown State. He followed Tressel to OSU and was defensive coordinator during the national championship season of 2002.

Diantonio inherits a program in the doldrums. MSU head coach John L. Smith's team declined steadily throughout the 2006 season, finishing 4-8 while playing worse than their record would indicate.

Seriously, there are statistics on this sort of things. Think about it, there are three major situations on Thanksgiving.
1) You're home visiting your family from college, so you want to go to the bar to hang out with all your old buddies.
2) You're home visiting your family from wherever, and oh good Lord, you need a drink after eight hours of "Why aren't you married/having kids/getting a better job?"
3) You're not visiting home, you're stuck wherever you are, and you're miserable and lonely. Hello, old friend Mr. Beer. How are you?

So yes, Thanksgiving weekend is one of the busiest bar weekends of the year. Since I only ever have lived in Bowling Green and Cleveland, OH, my bar suggestions are a bit limited, but they're still good. Let's get our holiday drinking started!

Sea-Level Lounge: you might remember this bar making a brief appearance in an earlier post. But you know what, it was still a great time! I'm hoping that this weekend there will be actual people there in the dance area, or playing pool. Definitely the place to go to look "hip."

Winking Lizard: Wow, I never realized how many of these there were! Avon, Bedford Heights, Lakewood, Cleveland Heights, Columbus, Canton, Fairlawn, Gateway (downtown Cleveland), Independence, Macedonia, Peninsula, and another Columbus location! Clearly, quite the Ohio chain. I myself have only been to a Winking Lizard's once, but tell you what, I'll drink anywhere that I can see people get freaked out by a giant iguana.

REVISION: It turns out that I am quite dumb. Quite, quite dumb. Moda Nightclub is completely closed. In light of that fact, allow me to suggest to you that you take the opportunity of not having to work tonight or tomorrow to go out to some bar you really like, like how Sidekick Girl and I went out to Phantasy in Lakewood last night until 2 in the morning. Awesome!

With Deborah Pryce's and Mary Jo Kilroy's votes still duking it out in the ballot box to see who will end up victorious on November 27th, it's timely that Marie Wilson is coming to Columbus on November 29. The fact that it's two women who are jockeying for position in Congress, Wilson might think, is something to cheer about and gives hope. Besides being the founder of "Take Your Daughter to Work Day," Wilson was involved with the Ms. Foundation for 20 years before she decided to turn her focus more fully towards the White House -- specifically to help to put a woman there as our nation's leader. Wilson is the founder and president of The White House Project, a non-partisan foundation geared to helping women land leadership positions whether locally, statewide or nationally.

While some folks may say, "I wonder what would happen if women ruled the world," Wilson has the answers. No, it's not throwing the men out. She just wants more women to step up to the plate. In her view, the world depends on women's increased involvement in leadership roles. You can hear all about her views up close and personal since she's the speaker for the annual "Barbara K. Fergus Women in Leadership Lecture" through the John Glenn Institute for Public Policy at OSU. And the focus of her lecture? Women Can and Must Help Run the World. The event is free, but you have to reserve tickets. You can order mugs like these from the White House Project Website.

I fondly remember high school - and where were the teachers then, telling me that I had to start preparing to get a job!? Nowhere, that's where! And now I have two degrees in English! I'm just kidding - I love my English degrees, and they've actually gotten me several jobs. I'm such a kidder! No, but with only a month and a half to go until the next Ohio government, the Republicans left in the Ohio Senate and the Ohio House are making the effort to pass Governor Bob Taft's curriculum plan that would supposedly make Ohio high schoolers "more employable."

Believe me, Governor, I hear ya. We do need some effort to become a little more employable in this state, although I'm not sure that more stringent testing and more required courses will cover it. Taft's plan calls for mandatory Algebra II, biology, chemistry, physics and two years of a foreign language. These requirements would become a prerequisite for attending a four-year institution, and if the high schooler doesn't want that plan... well, they have to "opt out" of going to college, pretty much. As I said, I'm not sure that's the best plan. More schooling is good, and science is good, but I dislike the whole "do it or else" feeling that the prerequisite to a four-year college or university caveat brings to the plan. Anybody else's thoughts?

The Ohio Historical Society has made available on-line video from the most famous OSU-Michigan game in history, the Snow Bowl of 1950.

On Saturday November the 25^th, 1950 Ohio was in the throes of a blizzard. The day before, temperatures had plummeted to near zero across the state. By Saturday morning, snow and a 40 mph wind covered the state. The storm would deposit up to 30 inches of snow and blow into drifts up to 25 feet deep.

Nonetheless, the game went on. After all, it was Michigan-OSU, and the Rose Bowl hung in the balance. Before a crowd of 50,503 lunatics the game played out as you might expect in whiteout conditions with 40 mph winds. Volunteers were recruited to sweep the goalines and sidelines cleared.

Michigan gained a total of 27 yards in pulling out a 9-3 victory. The touchdown came on a blocked kick.

My hero of the day, though, was OSU's Vic Janowicz for managing to kick a field goal in conditions that couldn't have been more difficult.

There is very little that impresses me quite so much as a good piano player. This is because I have never been able to make my hands do two things at once, and piano players manage to do that all the time!

With that scintillating intro, let's talk about Pianofest, which is tonight (Tuesday the 14 at 7:30 pm) at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Pianofest is an evening of performances by various CIM students and faculty, paired with commentary! I am hoping for seedy composer biographies, the juicy stuff about Brahms that they never tell you! No, that's me being silly. I find piano music to be gorgeous, and so I am well excited to go. I apologize for the short notice, but you can do it!