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Solicitors take cut of police proceeds
Mag touts dirt-cheap universities
Chapel Hill isn't rolling right along
Take comfort in knowing Browns could be bigger losers
Driver's licenses looking fishy
New words in the works for bench
Gimmick a solid waste of resources
Most Read Stories
Police accuse bank robbery suspect of gobbling up note (with dashcam video)
Victim of beating in Kent last week is declared dead at Akron hospital
Akron man killed in crash on his street
Can DNA tests free ex-Akron captain?
Browns find another way to lose
After 30 years at the helm of Akron Children's, Considine still looks to future
Dad accused of forcing son into field, killing him
Akron Circle K store robbed for second time this month
Man found dead in North Akron home is identified
Blogs:
Pets:
Cat-loving chihuahua suckles seven abandoned kittens
The Heldenfiles:
Sunday Notebook
Patrick McManamon:
Browns sick after sick loss in Detroit
Akron Zips:
No. 1 Akron to play Stanford next
Tribe Matters:
Seven players added to Tribe’s 40-man roster
Cleveland Browns:
Post-game defensive quotes
Kent State Sports:
Kent State defeats Rochester College, 63-44
Cleveland Cavaliers:
Gameblog: Cavs vs. Philadelphia 76ers
Buckeye Blogging:
OSU – Michigan college football rivals meet in Baghdad
Varsity Letters:
Four area football teams play tonight
All Da King's Men:
The Onion, By Any Other Name…
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Will Health Care Reform Pass?
Akron Law Café:
Health Care Financing Reform: (70) Savings in Medicare Advantage
See Jane Style:
Vintage Chic
Car Chase:
TIME TO GET YOUR COLLECTOR CARS WINTERIZED
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Faye Dunaway to be Evicted?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Monique asks how to get tickets for the Polar Express.
Sound Check:
Steely Dan Plays "The Royal Scam" at E.J. Thomas Hall
HRLite House:
Personal Rant – You are All Wrong About Jobs, or the Lack of Jobs, Being the Reason People Do Not Live in NEO
Akron Gamer:
Nintendo's Mario endures even as games come and go
Canal town has news for Hinckley watchers
By Bob Dyer
Beacon Journal columnist
Published on Thursday, Mar 13, 2008
That scandal in the New York governor's office is nothing compared to this.
We come before you today to blow the lid off the biggest public relations scam since the invention of the media.
Dateline: Hinckley.
The first buzzard of spring? Puh-leeze.
The buzzards in that Medina County burg are nothing but no-good procrastinators. You want real buzzard action? Forget the sacred Hinckley ceremony this weekend. Head to Clinton. Right now.
Yes, you heard me right. Clinton. Down near Canal Fulton. Cozy little town just off state Route 21 in dear old Summit County. The real capital of Hurray-It's-Almost-Spring Day.
Clinton's buzzards have already been back for well over a week. My special Clinton operative, Lynn Westfall, reports that the first ugly avatar came flapping in on March 3.
''They're always in Clinton before they hit Hinckley,'' says Mayor Phyllis Mayberry, who has called Clinton home for 43
years.
''We've had as many as 50 nesting down in our trees.''
Mayberry and her husband live in Warwick Park, right next to a stand of pines that serves as Buzzard Central. So many buzzards hang around there at times that a couple of trees were destroyed by all the droppings.
''I'd go through there honking my horn and they'd all take off, and as soon as I'd leave, they'd all come back,'' says Mayberry.
It should come as no surprise that Clinton — Ohio's 550th most populated place — doesn't have much experience in putting together PR juggernauts. The mayor presides over a population of 1,404 (not including winged scavengers) and is the casual, down-to-earth sort. She'd never dream of trying to drum up a pseudo, Hinckleyesque news event.
So we did it for her.
Exactly one week ago today — March 6, 2008 — at precisely 2:35 p.m., Ranger Bob spotted a big ol' turkey vulture swooping just above a tree line on top of a hill.
Ranger Kenny Love, armed with a 600 mm telephoto lens, documented the moment through the magic of pixels.
And the rest shall be history.
Take that, Hinckley.
On the other hand . . . towns should be careful what they wish for.
''Oh, they're ugly,'' admits the mayor. ''Uglier than ugly. They have that red beak on them and stuff. People think they're turkeys when they see 'em.''
The big raptors also live on the wrong side of the tracks.
Warwick, after which Warwick Park was named, was once a hamlet outside Clinton proper. But Warwick was behaving improperly. The Ohio & Erie Canal, which gave birth to the village, brought an influx of rowdy residents, and that tradition continued long after the canal gave way to the railroad.
In the 1950s, when old Army barracks were dragged in to house the railroaders, Clinton had seen enough, and annexed Warwick to gain some control through zoning.
Hey, maybe Clinton can annex Hinckley.
Although Mayberry appears to be a mellow mayor (we'll skip the obvious joke about her last name), don't get the impression she's a pushover. She recently outlasted the notoriously glacier-paced Federal Emergency Management Agency, duking for 21/2 years to nail down funding to relocate six families who suffered severe flood damage.
Those families rose from the swamps to higher ground. And continued to move up, ever higher, way up to the peaks, where they now gaze out over the luscious landscape, soaring with the majestic — nah. We can only take this so far.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.
That scandal in the New York governor's office is nothing compared to this.
Get the full article here.
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