Monthly Archives: November 2012

Thanksgiving Duck

This is the duck I cooked for Marisa and I for Thanksgiving.

Take a bird, a cast iron skillet and your favorite seasonings.
Spray the skillet with Pam and place into the oven on a middle rack at 500 degrees F.
Remove giblets and season your bird inside and out.
DO NOT STUFF!
Once the pan and oven are at 500, carefully pull the pan out onto the stove top. Place the bird, legs down, into the skillet and return to the oven. Cook for 15 minutes per pound, rounding up. Set your timer for 15 minutes LESS than the total. When the timer goes off, pull the pan and bird out of the over, quickly flip the bird over with tongs in the skillet and return all to oven for an additional 15 minutes. Remove everything from the over and place the bird onto a platter to rest for 15 minutes.
Serve, eat, enjoy, food coma. 🙂

The Icons of Kent No More…

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by Jerod J Husvar on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 8:17pm ·

“I WENT BACK TO OHIO / BUT MY CITY WAS GONE / THERE WAS NO TRAIN STATION / THERE WAS NO DOWNTOWN.”

 

Chrissie Hynde was writing about changes to Akron when she penned and recorded this song in 1982.  I wonder if she knew it was to be prophetic of Kent.  The town I came to be around in 1976 is slowly fading off into the realm of “That used to be…”

When Denny’s closed, few people appeared to give it a second thought; most of us were beyond the age of closing the bars and then drinking coffee and having breakfast at 3am.  But it was the first in a string of places that many of us came to know and love that have since passed by the wayside.  The College Street Library (it had a few other names, as well,) must have served one too many underage drinker and became a parking lot.  Cheers became FedEx/Kinkos when they expanded.  The Stuffed Mushroom, a foreign car garage and a few galleries were lost between the replacement of the Crain Ave. Bridge and the new Sheetz.  The building that was Long John Silvers for years and years, and then an ice cream store and, finally, a cell phone store, was demoed to build the first Sheetz.  The Dog House was there one day and gone the next.

None of these are nearly as iconic as the recently leveled Robin Hood Inn.  Even the old Kent Hotel is being changed and renovated and developed into something new.  Sadly, a living icon of Kent also has now passed away, Bob Wood, dead of a heart attack at 65.  Captain Brady’s, his long-time haunt, became a Starbucks a few years back.

Change and progress is expected, needed, absolutely necessary for growth.  Maybe part of the fact that I am turning 40 this year makes me feel that some of it happened too fast, and maybe not for the greater good.  All of these are missed in some way, some by many, especially Bob, even if his passing is still fresh.

I want to see Kent prosper, it’s just sad to see so many memories fading into obscurity.  Some of these losses are minor and will never really matter to most people, others are hugely significant.  The coffee at Starbucks will never be as good as the stuff from Brady’s.  The hipsters and others who hang out there will likely never be the artists, such as Bob Woods, who hung out there, making art, or poetry or just playing cards. 

The Acorn Alleys, new bus terminal, and other new business are marvelous additions to the city.  I don’t know that they’ll ever become iconic, as they’re already seeing tenant churn.  I hope that we’re left with a few icons to admire.  If Ray’s, or Mike’s, JB’s or Taco Tanto’s fall by the wayside, great connections to the past will be lost forever.

September 11 memories…

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September 11 memories… Took me an hour to find this post from 2007…
by Jerod J Husvar on Monday, August 29, 2011 at 2:24am ·

On September 11, 2001, I worked for a quasi-government organization in Northeast Ohio. We were the only officially occupied location in a 5 mile radius when Flight 93 was in CLE’s air traffic control area. We also happened to be the site of one the MANY successes resulting from the events of that morning. One of our team leads had gone to DC for a meeting a few days before 9/11. After the destruction of the towers and the subsequent nationwide air traffic stoppage, he was stranded in DC. There were no flights, every train and bus seat was booked, and there were no rental cars to be found anywhere on the Eastern Seaboard.

 

Jack had been gone from his family for many days, through one of the most spectacular terrorist attacks in history, and he was really wanting badly to be home with his family. We, being a large group of problem solvers, were racking our brains until one of the guys had a stroke of genius… “I bet he could rent a moving truck!” Jack dropped off our conference call and called back 10 minutes later, having rented a 24 foot Uhaul truck on his company Amex. 14 hours later, he was home with his family, and an organizational legend was born.

 

9/11 was a colossal failure… For the terrorists who attempted to tear the heart out of our country. The most accepted number of people inside 1WTC and 2WTC on 9/11/01 is 25,000 people. 2603 souls were lost directly as a result of the actual WTC attacks and 24 more people are still listed as missing. Only roughly 10% of the people at WTC perished. 8 in 10 walked away and went home.

 

Personally, 5 people I know were at WTC during the attack, including my ex-wife’s brother. None perished.

 

2 men I know who are firefighters were in NYC within 14 hours of the attack, doing volunteer work. One now suffers from Post WTC Lung Disease, and still doesn’t regret having gone.

 

A lady I know who trains search and rescue dogs had her team at the site 11 hours after the attack. It is a 13 hour drive from where she lives to the WTC site under ideal circumstances.

 

I remember standing at the corner of East 9th Street and Superior Avenue a few days after the attack watching a convoy of fire, construction, law enforcement and city vehicles leaving for New York, the streets lined with people waving flags and cheering for them.

 

I remember people standing in line for hours to donate blood… Firemen’s boots filled to the brim with money from people having dumped change or cash into them at street corners.

 

Yes, I remember seeing the towers collapse in real time… But those images are fading, while the ones in my mind above are not.

 

Of course, the anger still burns, but the pride burns stronger.

 

Tomorrow, please drive with your headlights on any time you are in your vehicle and fly your flag! (No matter what country you are in!)

 

8/29/11 – The anger has cooled.. but the memories are still vivid.

A Christian’s view on personal judgements…

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by Jerod J Husvar on Friday, July 29, 2011 at 8:41am ·

Several (hundred) times over the years I have been asked a question that usually goes like this…  “How can you consider yourself a good Christian?  You hang out with… (homosexuals, pagans, nudists, people who are Miami Heat fans.)”  It really makes me reevaluate my friendship with the person asking the question because it’s just not a very Christian attitude at all.

 

I have never been a huge fan of Paul’s letters in the Bible.  I think Paul got a raw deal, honestly.  I am fairly certain that he had NO IDEA that his letters were going to end up being canonized by the Council of Carthage into books of the Bible.  If he’d have known he’d have written better and more clearly, or maybe not written at all…  That said, there are some great gems to be found, my prejudice not withstanding…  Romans 14:1-13 comes to mind.

 

14:1 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master [1] that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.

5 One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. 10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess [2] to God.”

12 So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.

 

This is one of the rare cases where what is meant is clearly and succinctly stated.  It is also backed up several other places,  such as Ephesian’s 4:29 “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Also in Matthew 7:1-5 “7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

 

If you’re a fellow Christian, the next time you think you’re OK to look at someone’s life, lifestyle, circumstance or job and to cast a negative opinion or condemnation of them because of it, perhaps you should rethink the image you are portraying in doing so.  In Matthew 22:36-40 Jesus was asked 

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” 

 

Recognizing a sin means that you can choose not to engage in it yourself, it’s not a blank check to get out of the rest of what the Man taught us.  Beyond all that even lies a lesson from my Grandfather John, a WWII USMC vet and survivor of island hopping in the Pacific.  He instilled a few lessons in me before he passed and did so in simple words.  I think I had mouth off about someone’s sexual preference or something and he spun me around and told me “when you’re 6 feet down in a sand foxhole you don’t care who the guy next to you wants to sleep with when he gets home, you care that he likes you enough to keep you alive.”  Lesson learned and passed on, Pap.

Thoughts on Space…

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by Jerod J Husvar on Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 7:47pm ·

Today was a bittersweet day for me…  Being 38 years old means that I have witnessed the entire history of Nasa’s space shuttle program…  In 1981 I, along with most every school-age child in America, watched the first successful launch of the shuttle’s STS-1 mission.  

 

The first fully operation flight took place on November 11, 1982…  I remember because it was my 10th birthday…  Off and on from then on we would watch a launch here and there, but it wasn’t a really a HUGE deal until they decided to put a teacher into space.  Christa McAuliffe was to be the first Teacher In Space.  73 seconds into the mission it all went wrong, and we all watched…  I will never forget our Vice Principal, Mr. Rowe, walking down the hall crying after the explosion.  Most of us who watched the first success in the shuttle program also watched it’s first failure…  Older people remember where they were when Reagan was shot, or the pope, or JFK or MLK, JR…  My generation remembers that we were sitting in thus and such a classroom with all of our fellow students.

 

Life went on…  Shuttle launches became routine, same with landings…  On February 1, 2003, my ex-wife and I were getting as bite to eat and watched the re-entry of of STS-107…  We saw it all go wrong… as did everyone else in the restaurant…  I don’t think anyone finished their meals…  They just went home.  And again, life went on.  I was blessed to be able to witness 6 shuttle launches while living in coastal Florida…  The beauty of it in person is undescribable.  

 

The risks of spaceflight are small, but there…  NASA recently released statistics saying that the first 9 missions had a 1 in 9 risk of failure.  All subsequent missions had a 1 in 100 failure risk.  I think if you ask most of us who have watched the shuttle grow from a test to a final landing this morning, even at the 1 in 9 risk, we’d all have jumped on.  It will not be the same knowing that the shuttles are all grounded and all future flights into space will look similar to the earliest…  A capsule stuck to the top of a big damned bottle rocket.  Not very romantic.  It’s almost like watching the passing of a friend…  The shuttle has been a constant source of pride, even romantic daydreaming, for many people, myself included.  It has taught us about reaching beyond the conventional, about loss, about dreams fulfilled and that sometimes a dream is just the precursor to a nightmare.  But what it has taught us most of all is that through good and bad, failure and success, life goes on.

With the greatest respect to the 14 souls lost on STS-51-L and STS-107, and thanks and admiration to the thousands of people at NASA who made the whole thing possible.

Bob the Bureaucrat Goes To War

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by Jerod J Husvar on Monday, March 28, 2011 at 7:17am ·

I know this guy, let’s call him Bob, and he’s a bureaucrat…  Sits in a comfy government office all day, working on paperwork and dealing with members of the public, many of whom probably hate him for being what he is, by day.  See, the thing is, Bob got his “cushy government job” by having the experience of leadership in the US Military.  It’s easier to work for the government when you already are used to it, and they look for people who used to be military because, well, they’re damned good workers.

 

Bob isn’t all that intimidating to look at… He’s fit, and he keeps himself in shape, to the point that a lot of people who don’t know about his second job probably think he’s some kind of fitness nut.  All the time he’s jogging, or working out, and watches his diet and stays trim and lean.  Because, you see, that’s what the US Military still requires of him.  After many years of active duty, and then a stint in the civilian world, Bob decided to join the reserves to make a difference.  It was a place he understood, and with his degree he got as a civilian, he was officer material when he decided to go back.  You’d never guess that Bob is a very special beast… A Direct Commissioned Officer…  It takes the recommendation of a Congressperson to make it happen… Civilians who have special skills that are critical to sustaining military operations, supporting troops, health and scientific study may receive what are called “direct commissions.” These officers usually occupy leadership positions in the following areas: law, science, medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nurse corps, intelligence, supply-logistics-transportation, engineering, public affairs, chaplain corps, oceanography, merchant marine affairs, and others.  Bob does so, and is damned proud of it.

 

What Bob does is so important that every person in the his Reserve unit will or has gone to war.  Iraq, Afghanistan, the Sand Box…  And Bob is no different.  He’s about to go over to the other side of the world, into the midst of a war zone, to, well, do his job.  And he’s chomping at the bit to go.  It’s what he’s trained for, it’s what he’s good at, it’s what he loves to do.  He does not go without reservations…  Most of the people who know him aren’t even being told he’s leaving…  You see, feral dogs go after the families that people like Bob leave behind…  The wives, the kids, the families who stay at home, and pray, and are proud of the job men and women like Bob are doing.  They sit for entire deployments praying not to receive a certified letter, or a sedan full of military officers and their family preacher, or to get a call that the man or woman they love has been wounded and is being airlifted out.  And those dogs have sharp teeth, but there are friends and family and loved ones who do their best to keep the family safe so that Bob does not have to worry while he’s half a world away with people all around who just don’t like him because of who he works for, and enforce it with bullets and bombs and other nastiness.

 

Men like Bob are the truest form of patriot.  Bob doesn’t even much care for the current administration, but he doesn’t let that stop him.  These people love what our country represents so much that they are willing to put their butts on the line to keep it intact.  I am damned proud to have known Bob most of our lives, and damned proud to say that I’ll be keeping an eye out for the feral dogs for him.  And I will pray for his safe return every day, so that other people will have the honor of knowing him.  Bob, every person I have known personally who went to war has come home, and I expect you to do the same.  Preferably intact!   Though I can’t name your name, you are appreciated and loved and will be in my prayers every night.  Thank you for what you are about to do.  Most people don’t give a damn, but I do. Good Hunting.

Commentary to BATFE Comment on 925(d)(3)

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to shotgunstudy@atf.gov

cc Marisa Torres

date Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 6:11 PM

subject Comment on 925(d)(3)

 

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

In so far as any firearm can be used for the purpose of target shooting and general recreational shooting, I feel that any firearm, shotgun or otherwise, automatically passes the “sporting suitability test.” 

 

On the list of items that you find incompatible with a firearm having a “sporting purpose,” Folding, telescoping, or collapsible stocks; bayonet lugs; flash suppressors; grenade-launcher mounts; integrated rail systems (other than on top of the receiver or barrel); and forward pistol grips or other protruding parts designed or used for gripping the shotgun with the shooter’s extended hand all provide primarily COSMETIC value to the weapon in question.  They no more make a weapon more or less suitable for “sporting purposes” than painting a station wagon “Ferarri Red” makes it an exotic race car. 

 

In the matter of magazines over 5 rounds, or a drum magazine; while the weapon in question will have a larger magazine capacity than some other designs, having said additional does not make the weapon any more or less inherently dangerous than a weapon with a single shot.  Excessive weight (greater than 10 pounds for 12 gauge or smaller); or excessive bulk (greater than 3 inches in width and/or greater than 4 inches in depth) would actually serve to make the weapon LESS likely to ever be used in a crime, as it can effect the ability for concealment.  It’s much easier to hide a VW Bug than it is a school bus.

 

Concerning light enhancing devices; so far as I know this is meant to include Night Vision scopes or sights, which are prohibited by other statutes.

 

I am absolutely against using these standards to stop the importation of shotguns, rifles, handguns, carbines, or any other firearm.

 

My opinion is that existing laws need to be enforced in the matter of prosecuting criminals who use a firearm, or any other weapon down to a paperclip, to the MAXIMUM extent of the law.

 

Thank you,

 

Jerod J. Husvar

Rootstown, OH  44272

A Soldier’s Christmas Poem

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A Soldier’s Christmas Poem  

 

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,  I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,my daughter beside me, angelic in rest.

 

 

Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,Transforming the yard to a winter delight.The sparkling lights in the tree, I believe,Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.

 

 My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,Secure and surrounded by love I would sleepin perfect contentment, or so it would seem.So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.

 

The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,But I opened my eye when it tickled my ear.Perhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know,Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.

 

My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,and I crept to the door just to see who was near.Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.

 

A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years oldPerhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.

 

“What are you doing?” I asked without fear”Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”

 

For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts,to the window that danced with a warm fire’s lightthen he sighed and he said “Its really all right,I’m out here by choice. I’m here every night”

 

“Its my duty to stand at the front of the line,that separates you from the darkest of times.No one had to ask or beg or implore me,I’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.

 

My Gramps died at ‘Pearl on a day in December,”then he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘NamAnd now it is my turn and so, here I am.

 

I’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,But my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,The red white and blue… an American flag.

 

“I can live through the cold and the being alone, Away from my family, my house and my home,I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat,I can carry the weight of killing anotheror lay down my life with my sisters and brotherswho stand at the front against any and all,to insure for all time that this flag will not fall.”

 

“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no frightYour family is waiting and I’ll be all right.””But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,”Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?

It seems all too little for all that you’ve done,For being away from your wife and your son.”

 

Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,”Just tell us you love us, and never forgetTo fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone.To stand your own watch, no matter how long.

 

For when we come home, either standing or dead,to know you remember we fought and we bledis payment enough, and with that we will trust.That we mattered to you as you mattered to us.

 

By Michael Marks, Christmas 2000

 

Thank the troops!

The US Postal Service, A true National Treasure.

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by Jerod J Husvar on Saturday, November 27, 2010 at 9:59am ·

I just heard a story (https://preview.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131447482&live=1) on NPR’s Weekend Edition about how the US Postal Service, once again, is in trouble.  They’re considering canceling Saturday delivery, and closing more Post Offices around the country.  This makes me very sad, and also concerns me on many levels.

 

Having run a business in the past in which the USPS was my primary method of shipping, I know that a customer getting a package on a Saturday instead of Monday is a “Big Deal.”  It allows them to use their ordered item several days earlier, and satisfys their desire for having their item as quickly as possible.  It also means that I was able to SHIP items on Saturday morning, allowing my customers to get an item on Monday or Tuesday that otherwise they would have gotten on Wednesday or Thursday.  And it’s done so using the most economical and efficient delivery service in the world.

 

As a consumer who recieves his medications in the mail, having it arrive on Saturday rather than Monday means that I don’t go without medications that do little things like keeping my blood pressure out of the danger zone.  It means, for some people, having their paycheck, Social Security check, welfare check or retirement payment for the weekend, rather than the next week.  It’s psychologically comforting to know that there is only one day that these things aren’t delivered, and that is on Sunday.

 

Being a child of a digital age, I was probably the first person many of you know who used e-mail, I am all about progress and technological growth.  Sure, instant delivery is nice when it comes to a quick note or even a long letter…  But let’s face it… Electronic Christmas cards, birthday cards and greetings are lame.  I didn’t look forward to an email with a gift code when I was a kid, I looked forward to a card filled with quarters, or a dollar bill.  And there is no greater joy than recieving a package from a far-off relative, or someone overseas, or even just a physical post card rubbing our noses in the fact that a friend is in paradise, at least for a week.  

 

Progress is great, it has it’s place in our lives, in medicine, in computers, in automobiles and appliances.  However, anachronisms are wonderful, too!  While the USPS is a modern company meeting modern needs, it is also somewhat of a pleasant anachronism.  In an age of “press 1 for English,” you walk into your post office, or greet your carrier, and they are pleased to see you, genuinely offer good service, and usually a smile.  We’re an electronic society that is losing touch with many of the physical joys of our world… The simple, tactile ones such as tearing open a greeting card, or seeing the beauty of a foreign stamp.  All of which, and so much more, provided to us 6 days a week by the US Postal Service.  This service is in trouble, bleeding money like a trauma victim, and very much likely to go away if we do not see it for the national treasure that it is.  It’s not only about efficieny.  It’s about connecting our past and our present, about maintaining our sense of humanity through human contact and interaction.  It’s about opening that card full of quarters on our fourth birthday.

 

I think I’m not going to send out any electronic greetings for the upcoming holiday season.  I think I am actually going to mail out cards this year.  It’s the least I can do for a service that has done so much for me.