Yes, we know it looks like hell, and we’re going to fix it.
The 50-year-old parking deck attached to the Beacon Journal continues to be gobbled up by gigantic demolition machinery, increasingly exposing a mangled yellow-brick wall.
Some of the folks who drive past it each day on Cedar Street have expressed their horror.
Not to worry. Beacon Journal Publisher Andrea Mathewson says something will be done to improve the aesthetics, although she doesn’t know what.
“Our management team has discussed a few ideas, but we [believe] we need to solicit the help of an architect to fully understand our options,” she says.
Among the ideas floated thus far: banners, stucco, panels and creative painting.
“It will take a few months for a decision, and hopefully we will start something in April or May.”
How about an enormous mural of a certain local columnist?
Didn’t think so.
Wicked weather word
Reader Dave Gruver of Norton wonders what language the National Weather Service is speaking.
He points to a “Lake Effect Snow Warning” issued Monday afternoon that includes multiple references to a “trof.”
As in, “A trof was moving across the region late today. ...”
Sounds like a creature from Star Wars.
Most literate folks know the term as “trough.”
Says Gruver, “I would place a bit more confidence in the info the Weather Service puts out if they could actually spell weather terms correctly!”
So, NWS, what’s the deal? Are you worried about some cakehead broadcaster pronouncing it “trou”?
National spokesman Christopher Vaccaro, based in Silver Spring, Md., says he doesn’t think that’s a factor.
Rather, he says, it is a shorthand term frequently used among forecasters, particularly in a NWS product called an “area forecast discussion,” which is a technical, jargon-laden justification for the prediction being made.
Sometimes that shorthand bleeds over into the public warnings, he says.
No matter how it’s spelled, the NWS defines it as “an elongated area of relatively low atmospheric pressure, usually not associated with a closed circulation, and thus used to distinguish from a closed low. The opposite of ridge.”
Or maybe, in NWS speak, the opposite of “ridj.”
Heavy spin
The person in charge of public affairs and marketing for the Ohio Turnpike recently sent this email:
“Attached is a News Release regarding the Ohio Turnpike Toll Adjustment.”
Ah, yes. A toll “adjustment.” That wouldn’t be a toll increase, would it?
As if tolls ever go down.
Nice euphemism.
Selfish fortune
Speaking of fortune cookies (as we have been off and on), Esther Gruver of Wadsworth is still chuckling over one she received while on vacation in Florida.
When she cracked open her cookie, the slip read: “Boy, am I glad to get out of that cookie!”
Bandwagon blues
Terry Curtis of Akron is peeved at the “growing number of people wearing Pittsburgh Steeler attire.”
“Undoubtedly, these are the same people who wore Chicago Bulls sweatshirts in the ’90s and Cincinnati Reds caps in the ’70s. ‘Oh look at me everybody, I support a winner, so I’m a winner, too.’
“Sad and pathetic.
“I’m sure if the Tribe or the Browns win a title some day — obviously, this is hypothetical — those same losers will be walking around decked out in local gear.”
I doubt that will become an issue during our lifetimes.
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.
