In Memoriam: Don Warren, 1928-2019 I'll begin with a confession: I have not spoken to Don Warren for probably five, maybe seven years. Not since before or shortly after my family and I picked up stakes after 11 years in Chicago, Don's nearly-lifelong stomping grounds, and trekked west to South Dakota. "You're WHAT?" I can... Continue Reading →
College Poem Ruminated on Winter, Parenthood The snow keeps falling in our part of the world. What had gotten sloppy and root-beer slushy in the weeks double-digit subzero temps had kept us shut inside is now great mounds of white again. And I've been rummaging around inside, through drawers and shelves and boxes, trying to... Continue Reading →
Making the World Safe for My Father's Chili On this post-Thanksgiving, football-rich weekend, let's throw back to a column I wrote in 2008 to capture one of my family's culinary obsessions: Cincinnati-style chili spaghetti. Be sure to read to the end for the recipe. This article originally appeared in the Youngstown Vindicator on Feb. 27, 2008: I... Continue Reading →
A Very Foutz Thanksgiving, 1949 As a writer, what turns me on about genealogy is the stories you uncover. And it's a bonus that the characters starring in them are bound to you by blood. The intimacy of it -- their history is yours, too -- is what tantalizes. Not necessarily the dates and thrice-so-and-so-twice-removed... Continue Reading →
Throwback: Browns Football Misery is Timeless It's season-opening Sunday once again in the NFL, and that means a full slate of aerial battles, bone-jarring hits (as long as they're head's-up), ankle-breaking jukes and coaches popping a forehead-vein, usually in the postgame presser. Oh, and renewed heartbreak for Cleveland Browns fans. I am under few illusions... Continue Reading →
Passing the Pigskin: 10 Lessons in Football from an Ohio Father to his Chicago-born Son It's been a bit of a long interval of work and travel and mad-late-summer-rushing, and more of an absence from this space than I'd wanted. But there's nothing like the rituals and rhythms of the coming Fall to put purpose... Continue Reading →
Throwback to 2008: Steroid Report Brings Down Baseball Heroes Tonight is Major League Baseball's annual All-Star game. I haven't watched it in many years, and I won't be watching tonight. Baseball used to be a daily obsession for me, starting in my grade school years. From memorizing the names and stats of players, courtesy of... Continue Reading →
Party Like There's a Tomorrow on July 4 We had a saying in my hometown: "Stay out of the police log." My wife's family also has a saying, right before waving you goodbye on a long trip: "Drive carefulment." I've added a certain levity to that last saying by pronouncing it, "au franzay": drive carefoomaw. But... Continue Reading →
2018 Drum Corps Season Kicks Off Tonight! The big moment has arrived. Or, is it just the accumulation of a thousand tiny moments, stretching from winter tryouts through the first weekend sectionals on to the weeks that have already been spent rehearsing, developing the base tan, pulling a show together good enough to debut under... Continue Reading →
10th Anniversary: Building the Green Machine I can still picture my desk in the Naperville newsroom. One of three I sat at during my five years there. This was close to the beginning of my tenure as city reporter, during a hectic 2004 when I took over the desk behind me, too, to stack files... Continue Reading →
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