All posts by Larry Chapman

A retired educator, historian, writer, blogger, teller of tales including the occasional lie, saltwater angler, traveler, political junkie, technology geek, optimist, pessimist, wanna' be chef, and lover of independent thinkers. 2011 recipient of the Professor Irwin Corey Foremost Authority Award and resident curmudgeon of Worley Mill Rd.
Just Stuff

Reactivation of Site ???

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I last updated this site in 2020 just before the Ohio Presidential Primary Election. My post at that time dealt with how to register to vote and to ensure your ability to vote, hopefully against the dude that wasn’t re-elected.

Since then, most of my posts have been on Facebook since that’s where most of my followers are. Over the years the popularity of such social media outlets has greatly lessened the interest and support for private websites.

However, as politics have become more volatile and posting controversial statements on sites like Twitter and Facebook more policed, there is growing censorship that I don’t approve of or want to be subjected to. On several occasions now I have been notified by the Facebook Keystone Kops and put in Facebook Prison for a short period of time. The reason is never specified other than a general statement that I have violated community standards. The first time it was for simply identifying the source of a quotation as being Hitler’s book Mein Kampf. Apparently, someone took that to mean I supported Hitler and was some sort of neo-fascist.

One way to regain my independence and not worry about Facebook’s rules is to reactivate Chapman’s General Store and post my political views here with a link posted on Facebook.

Politics & Economics

How to register to vote online in Ohio

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If you haven’t registered to vote you have until October 5th to do so and you don’t have to leave the comfort and security of your home. In Ohio, you can easily register to vote online. Read the following and at the bottom click on the CLICK HERE link.

This system provides a convenient and secure way to:

  • Register to vote in Ohio
  • Update your voter registration address

WHAT YOU NEED

To register online you will need to provide the following:

  • Ohio driver’s license or Ohio identification card number
  • Name
  • Date of Birth
  • Address
  • Last four digits of your Social Security number

If you do not have any portion of the required information, follow this link to update your voting address using our paper form (PDF). Once you complete this form, you must sign and send it to your county board of elections.

If you are a Safe at Home participant, before you proceed, please follow this link to contact the Safe at Home office.

REGISTRATION DEADLINES

You must register or update your voter registration no later than 30 days prior to an election. Upcoming voter registration deadlines:

  • October 5, 2020 for the November 3, 2020 General Election

If you register or update your information after the deadline, the change will apply for the next election.

 To begin the process CLICK HERE.
Politics & Economics

How to vote and be counted

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The right to vote for many Americans has been a long hard fight. In the beginning, only property-owning white men were allowed to vote. Everyone else had to wait for another few centuries and some are still waiting.

In the year 2020, the right to vote has come square up against a determined effort by the Trump-led Republican Party to suppress or block the right of certain ethnic groups and women, specifically those who may disagree with their purposes and vote for their opponents. The major effort at present is weakening the United States Postal Service’s ability to get mail-in ballots to the election boards in time to be counted. Trump has openly stated that he is holding back monies and removing mail sorting machinery to weaken the mail-in voting procedure.

Continue reading How to vote and be counted →

Just Stuff

Getting Back to Just the Facts, Ma’am!

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I don’t know how old one has to be to recall the original Dragnet television show starring Jack Webb and Ben Alexander. It was a cop show that cut to the no-nonsense quick of the case at hand. As the duo of Joe Friday and partner Frank Smith pursued the case they cautioned every potential witness that they were interested in the facts, nothing but the facts. It was straight police work and at the end of the show, they always had their man in cuffs.

Janet and I watch lots of police dramas, especially from the British Commonwealth. What most have in common is a required amount of police drama coupled with way too much relationship drama. There’s the distraught wife who’s pissed because the hubby loves the job more than her. There’s the angst-ridden teenager whose life is ruined because dad the cop wasn’t there when his first pimple ripened.

Continue reading Getting Back to Just the Facts, Ma’am! →

Issues

Nude Photos of Nikita K

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Like most mornings I woke up and watched the first half-hour of Morning Joe. Before the thirty minutes had passed, however, I had to witch channels and watch a rerun of Texas Iron. The two lead stories dealt with the insanity and incompetence that currently resides in the White House.

First was a recap of yesterday’s press conference in which Trump defended some quack doctor and her claims about alien DNA being the enemy of religion in America. This woman made the most outlandish claims and Trump supported her on grounds akin to, well she must be correct, she has all her own teeth. Now, put that together with his already telling us to stick light bulbs in our orifices and bleach in our veins and tell me the inmates aren’t in charge of the asylum.

Continue reading Nude Photos of Nikita K →

Just Stuff

Simple Rule Books – I Love Them

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I had bariatric surgery in 2008 and afterward, I came across a small book, Food Rules, that contained a list of very simple, easy to follow, tips for managing one’s weight. A couple of examples is, never order French fries. If you want fries, go to the trouble to do the work, make the mess, and clean it all up. Another is, nothing good for you comes through a drive-thru window.

Anyway, I love books like that. You learn valuable things and you don’t have to tie yourself to reading thousand-page textbooks.

Continue reading Simple Rule Books – I Love Them →

Greenfield

A drive around South Salem

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Yesterday, July 17, I had both a physical therapy appointment in Greenfield and a car repair appointment in WCH. With a two hour separation, I decided to take advantage of the blue skies and drive the hills around South Salem and take the back roads to Court House.

The trip began with driving to Salem via Lower Twin Rd and doing the covered bridge. In town, I turned onto Mt. Olive Rd and then Salem Rd over to SR 41. Most of that was as I recall from recent years, a few new homes along with a few in greater disrepair. Before SR 41 I turned left onto Upper Twin and at the top of the hill, I turned left onto Mt. Olive and stopped for a few minutes to take in what is one of the most spectacular views in our area, the valley below that stretches well beyond Good Hope in the far distance. I always wanted to build a home looking North at that location.

Mt. Olive brought me back into Salem and I turned right onto Lower Twin Rd and proceeded to Morgan Rd. It was at the corner of these two roads where I saw my first Ohio deer in 1970 while driving my school bus route. It was in the middle of the road and when it saw my yellow brick it leaped a fence and disappeared into the closest woods.

Morgan Rd. has changed a lot. When I drove a bus on it, it was all dirt and at times dangerous. I succeed in putting my bus into a ditch on two successive days and at the end of the year was presented a trophy, courtesy of Norman Gingerich, and Dave Watts, of a bus being pulled by a wrecker. Several of the homes I picked up kids at have since been torn down.

At SR 28 I turned left to Westfall Rd. and then left onto Parrot, which was a part of Joe Current’s route. I wound my way over those hills and at SR 138 I turned left to Lyndon Rd. where I turned right and made my way to Good Hope.

Years ago some wise sage advised me to never pass up a chance to take a whiz and I had passed up too many. I found myself pulling into the cemetery outside Good Hope in search of a tree. The canopy of old maple trees made the detour well worth it.

An hour at Doug Marine’s and I was back on the road taking the most direct road back home but firm in the renewed knowledge that we live in a beautiful part of the world if you just take the time to go look at it.

History, Issues

Cowboys, Hockers, & Mumblety-Peg

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Upon waking this morning the news seemed focused on Bubba Wallace, Confederate flags, and Bubba’s need to apologize to his fellow NASCAR drivers. The truth is, until a noose was discovered in his garage I wouldn’t have known Bubba Wallace from Bubba Gump or some guy who runs a gasper goo catch, clean, and cook show on YouTube  (now you have something to Google). But, it got me thinking about hangman’s nooses and how I came to become proficient in tying them.

I grew up in the 1940s and 1950s when the main recreation for young boys was listening to Tom Mix on the radio and going to double feature Saturday matinees at the Lyric or Rand theaters. Most cowboy shows had plots that focused on some crooked rancher or banker who had a gang of thugs doing his evil deeds and at its worse, a hero always rode into town and saved the citizenry from these evildoers.

Continue reading Cowboys, Hockers, & Mumblety-Peg →

History

The Passing of Carl Reiner

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It’s been a little teary-eyed around here lately. I’ve noticed that as a part of aging I find myself experiencing periods of sadness more frequently and I’m sure it’s attributable to witnessing the normalcy or familiarity of life fading away. I don’t know who the popular entertainers are,  I couldn’t tell you the name of a professional baseball player, I don’t know what a “Karen” is, and I’ll never understand why anyone would give up beer in favor of flavored seltzer water.

Sunday I watched a PBS documentary about Jewish-Americans who fought in the American military during World War II. So many were first-generation immigrants whose families had escaped the horrors of Hitler’s Europe only to find themselves fighting to free the very places their families had fled from.

Continue reading The Passing of Carl Reiner →

History

Today Is Juneteenth

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American and Juneteenth Flags.

One of the most important days in the annual calendar of African Americans is June 19, 1865, or what has become known as Juneteenth (also known as Freedom Day). Even though the Emancipation Proclamation ending slavery was declared in 1863 it wasn’t until after the war had officially ended that word of the proclamation reached the far corners of the Confederacy, such as Texas where the Union General in charge announced it on June 19, 1865.