#columbus dispatch

[soviet-space-ace]

Thank you, Columbus Dispatch!

For your consideration, the names and photographs of four healthcare CEOs in the Central Ohio area. Do with this as you like.

[dubbatrubba]

Ohio: The Place to Meet... and Meat!

Article from the Columbus Dispatch: The meats were immediately shipped to the nearest Golden Corral restaurant. Police have started a steak out. If any suspects are apprehended, they will be grilled. Deciding which government agency is responsible for the disposal has become a bone of contention. (Several bones, actually.) This is what happens when your family goes vegan before the big…

[subsidystadium]

Negotiations continue to happen in secret across the country, all without the public seeing or hearing about it

This is not going to shock anyone. Sports owners hate when their plans are released and looked at intensively by anyone. Have you ever tried to read one of them? Try taking a look at the “Potomac Yard Economic and Fiscal Impact Study” from the failed Capitals/Wizards to Alexandria, Virginia proposal. The agreements are nearly impossible to read and understand unless you read these types of…

[pastdaily]

Andrè Cluytens Leads The Paris Conservatory Orchestra In Music Of Dukas - Besancon Festival 1949 - Past Daily Weekend Gramophone

Andrè Cluytens – One of the Greatest interpreters of French Music. https://pastdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/dukas-la-peri.mp3 The Paris Conservatory Orchestra, lead by the legendary Andrè Cluytens at the 1949 Besancon Festival in a performance of  La Peri by Paul Dukas. Andrè Cluytens belongs to the era when style and musicianship coupled with impeccable phrasing were the key elements to…

[xtruss]

Is Elon Musk 'Sonning' Donald Trump? Cartoonists Think So.

— Note By The Columbus Dispatch! This Piece Expresses the Views of Its Author(s), Separate From Those of This Publication.

With Friends Like These ... (Editorial Cartoon For February 9, 2025, USAToday.) Chip Bok/Creators Syndicate

[simplysnipes]

Columbus | O.H.

[grammarfails]

[libraford]

Columbus Dispatch: Westerville becomes 13th Ohio city to ban Conversion Therapy.

[itgetsbetter]

I grew up in Dublin, Ohio in the 1980s.

If you weren’t there, let me paint you a picture. It was quiet, conservative and isolating, especially if you were a closeted gay teenager. Back then, you didn’t need to come out to be labeled. People decided for you. And once they did, you had two options: shrink or suffer.

I tried both.

Recently, I received a message from someone I went to high school with. He wrote:

“I read your coming out story on Facebook and was struck by the similarity of our experiences at Dublin in the '80s and '90s. I was called a f*g on a nearly daily basis... I never used the bathroom for fear of harassment… I also know that I kept others who were perceived as or were gay at arm’s length for fear of association and further bullying… I regret that we lived in a time and existed in a place that prevented us from finding community with each other.”

That message wrecked me. Even though we were walking the same hallways, enduring the same cruelty and doing the same emotional math every day to survive, we didn’t find each other. We didn’t know we could.

The cost of community felt too high, so we settled for isolation.

That’s the great irony of so many queer people’s early lives. Our stories are eerily similar, yet we often live them apart. But I also believe that’s where our strength lies.

Once you’ve known what it feels like to be alone, you never want anyone else to feel that way again.

You understand how vital community is — not just for survival, but for joy, for truth, for becoming who you were always meant to be. Loneliness is a brutal teacher. It convinces you connection is dangerous, that being seen will cost you everything. But here’s the truth: someone almost always understands.

I didn’t realize that until I was an adult and free to move about the world. I found community in my 20s. For the first time in my life, I felt seen and safe. I realized I wasn’t broken.

I had simply been alone in a place that didn’t yet know how to hold space for people like me.

Today, I have the honor of leading It Gets Better, a nonprofit dedicated to uplifting, empowering and connecting LGBTQ+ youth around the globe. We help to ensure that young people don’t have to wait until adulthood to find belonging.

We meet them where they are, be it online, at Pride events or at a school in a Columbus suburb. Our message is clear. They are not alone, and they never will be.

It Gets Better shouldn’t need to exist. No one should have to rely on a nonprofit to feel safe being who they are. And yet, many LGBTQ+ youth are fighting silent battles in hostile environments.

Some argue that recent legislation targeting LGBTQ+ identities — book bans, bathroom bills, restrictions on curriculum — is about protecting children. But what it does is isolate them. It legislates loneliness. It tells young queer people that they are unwelcome.

We can’t let that happen.

We owe it to today’s LGBTQ+ youth to create the kind of world we didn’t have — a world where community isn’t something you stumble into years later, but something that finds you early, holds you close and tells you there is nothing wrong with who you are.

To the classmate who reached out: thank you. I see you. We both deserved better. And to the young people out there feeling like no one understands: You are not invisible. We see you.

We are you.

And we’re here, waiting to welcome you home.

A message from Brian Wenke, our Executive Director at It Gets Better, for the Columbus Dispatch.

[citizenscreen]

Bob Newhart toasting his chart-topping 1960 debut album: ‘It was back to accounting if comedy didn’t work out’

(The Columbus Dispatch)

[todaysdocument]

Letter from Captain John Page Regarding the Movement of 530 Creek Indians

Record Group 75: Records of the Bureau of Indian AffairsSeries: Letters ReceivedFile Unit: Narrative of Emigration in 1834 with Statement of Expenditures

Rec'd Jany 23d

Columbus Missippi [sic]

6th January 1835

Sir

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated the 13th of last month. Your letter apprising me of the discontinuing of Col Hill was acknowledged immediately on the receipt of it, but I discovered it must have laid in the Post office two or three days before I got it, notwithstanding a visit to the office every day the Post Master had left his business with a clerk who probably did not know where to look for them I dispatched the communications immediately to Col Hill as directed and on his arrival started the Indians the next day. the cold weather caused many of those who assembled for the purpose of emigrating to leave us and return to their town again, Col Hill put off the time for starting so long, they were getting impatient; and on the receipt of your letter I started fourth with [forthwith]. I have only 530 and a great many of them are in dreadful situation to move in the cold weather. I have found it almost impossible to get along, the roads are almost impassible, we have labored from day light till long after dark to get some days 6 miles, the waters are up and the bridges swept off, and it has rained and hailed almost every day since I left Fort Mitchell, the only thing I have to console me is that we may have some fair weather after a while [complete transcript at link]

[yuribeam]

With the flood of empty meme-ification of the bigoted violence targeting Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, I had no idea until today that there is actually a Haitian Community Help & Support Center that serves Clark County and surrounding areas.

They were founded in 2023 and help assist refugees and immigrants with a variety of pressing needs, including:

housing

interpreting

job search

welfare assistance

"Through our work and determination, community services must be accessible to people in need of them, regardless of their race, ethnicity, color, religion, or sexual orientation. We envision it as a place where people feel at home when they come for community services and are served with dignity and respect." -HCHSC

They are now navigating the community's fears amid escalating threats, including multiple evacuations due to bomb threats, and violent racism that has exploded after J.D. Vance and Trump's xenophobic fear mongering lies were platformed at the debate.

The Haitian Times and the Hatian Community Help & Support Center organized a meeting on Saturday (9/14/24), bringing together activists from across the country, NAACP leaders, journalists, and local activists in conversation with community members.

The meeting had to be moved online out of fear for residents' safety.

"Some Haitian residents in the meeting shared their experiences in recent weeks and months as the fake news went viral. Participants also shared their fears, concerns and hope for the growing community. Even as they spoke, a ruckus broke out outside the community center from which a few participants logged into the Zoom when a strange truck appeared in the parking lot carrying white occupants acting cagey." - The Haitian Times, 9/16/24

The Haitian Times reports that some parents are keeping their children home from school out of fear for their safety. One woman's cars were vandalized in the driveway of her family home- the attacker used acid and broke a window, while another resident is facing discriminatory eviction from her business location.

White supremacist groups such as neonazis "Blood Tribe" are active in the area and are associated with the origin of the anti-Haitian lie.

Springfield's annual CultureFest, a two-day event that celebrates diversity, arts, and culture, has been cancelled for safety concerns.

"I take my kids to the park usually, I cannot do that anymore. You know, I have to just stay home and just don't go out. We used to just go for a walk in the neighborhood, but we cannot do that anymore," - Jims Denis, quoted in the Columbus Dispatch, 9/14/24

It is especially important to support the Haitian immigrant community during times like these. I hope visibility will shift from unhelpful dunk-on-trump memes to instead focus on the facts of the matter, the actual harm being caused to real communities, and how we can help.

With that in mind, the Haitian Community Help & Support Center takes donations through Stripe and Paypal on their website.

"Your generosity can make a profound difference in the lives of our Haitian community. By making a donation today, you help us provide essential resources, support, and opportunities for those in need. Donate now and be a part of the change. Every contribution counts! Thank you for your support." -HCHSC

(photo from Springfield Flag Day festival, 2023, Springfield News-Sun)

[stevebattle]

ISOC the COSI robot (1986), Center of Science and Industry (COSI), Columbus, OH. ISOC was a mascot of COSI for several years. The first two photos show the radio-controlled version of ISOC. "1986, Richard Whiteside, 4, from John 23rd Head Start Fair Ave. Center gives ISOC the robot a hug at COSI." – The Columbus Dispatch. The remaining photos show the earlier, ISOC 256, a simple mechanical manned-robot introduced in 1979.

[majestativa]

Long before Elizabeth Taylor or Cher had signature perfume, Theda had a scent created by “perfume artist” Ann Haviland. The fragrance (not, sadly, called “Vamp”) consisted of woods and gums of Persia (“to typify her Orientalism”) and pomegranate blossoms (“typifying the depth of her soul and radiating warmth”). The results, according to the Columbus Dispatch reporter, were “subtle and hunting” (one can only assume the typesetter left the “a” out of “haunting”).

— EVE GOLDEN ⚜️ Vamp: The Rise and Fall of Theda Bara, (1998)

[hockeyinheels]

IN REVIEW: THE 2024-2025 COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS

Remembering the 2024-2025 Columbus Blue Jackets, the Gaudreau brothers, and the organization's first playoff push since 2020.

The Gaudreau family leads the Columbus Blue Jackets into Ohio Stadium. March 1, 2025. Image Credit: Samantha Madar, The Columbus Dispatch.

It is impossible to tell the story of the Columbus Blue Jackets without telling the story of Johnny Gaudreau.

Gaudreau, 31, was a star in a city with a cursed hockey team. Drafted in 2011 in the fourth round of the NHL Draft, one hundred and fourth overall by the Calgary Flames, Gaudreau was the definition of “beating the odds” when it comes to NHL players.

Johnny Gaudreau changed the game of hockey.

At the time of his draft, the NHL was torn in transition. The game was slowly turning away from enforcers: young men whose job it is to fight on the ice. Stories of enforcers became less idealized and more tragic: Bob Probert, Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak all come to mind for fans. After the deaths of Boogaard, Rypien, and Belak within months of each other in summer 2011, the game had a distinct choice on where to go next.

While the NHL has largely not learned from these tragedies, Gaudreau’s speed, intelligence, and size (a popular story often told about Gaudreau involves him placing pucks in his jock at the NHL Combine as a height and weight boost) made him a player to watch. A generation of smaller players, often American (including Montreal Canadiens superstar Cole Caufield, who now wears the number thirteen in Gaudreau’s honor), like Gaudreau, were inspired by someone who played the game like they did.

On July 13, 2022, Number Thirteen stunned the hockey world by signing as an RFA with the Columbus Blue Jackets — a team not known for winning, but for being deeply cursed, unlucky, and having to continue on after tragedy. Columbus legend and Director of Hockey Operations Rick Nash described Gaudreau’s decision as “wanting to be closer to home”, as his wife, Meredith, was expecting their first child at the time.

And yet, Gaudreau silenced the noise surrounding the Blue Jackets on the ice. On the ice, that same hockey talent the city of Calgary had fallen so deeply in love with had not skipped a beat. This time, it was Columbus’s turn. Nash had a new person to occupy him as hockey’s “Mr. Columbus”, with a reach outside of hockey: Johnny Gaudreau.

Off-ice, Gaudreau was known as a family man with a heart of gold. In Calgary, he began the Johnny Gaudreau Scholarship Golf Tournament. The tournament raised money for lower-income students to attend Gaudreau’s alma mater of Gloucester Catholic High School. In Columbus, Gaudreau was not just the face of the Blue Jackets and the team’s leadership, wearing an A — he was also the face of the Columbus Blue Jackets Foundation. In 2023, teammate Patrik Laine pledged to donate $1,000 US dollars for every point he scored on-ice to OhioHealth’s mental health initiatives. In January 2024, Laine entered the NHLPA’s Player Assistance Program. Gaudreau took up the cause of his teammate. The Laine/Gaudreau Initiative became the defining story of the 2023-2024 season: one man brave enough to seek help, the other brave enough to take up his teammate’s cause in his honor.

Gaudreau’s authenticity was the kind most people spend their whole lives trying to find.

On August 29, 2024, Gaudreau and his brother Matthew died as the result of an alleged drunk driving hit-and-run in New Jersey.

Gaudreau was thirty-one years old.

It would be completely understandable — hell, perfectly acceptable — if the team did not play their 2024-2025 season. Gaudreau’s death occurred shortly before the team’s training camp, with preseason games across the NHL showing a video tribute to the brothers before the puck ever dropped.

One cannot tell the story of the 2024-2025 Columbus Blue Jackets without the word “perseverance.”

......................................................................................................................

The Columbus Blue Jackets raise Johnny Gaudreau’s number thirteen into the rafters of Nationwide Arena. Image Credit: The Cherry Hill Courier-Post, October 17, 2024.

Hockey wasn’t on the mind of most of the Fifth Line (the devoted army of Blue Jackets fans) come October.

Despite everything, the team carried on anyway. Their season was focused on honoring their friend, teammate, brother. With the rest of the hockey world watching the team’s twenty-three-man roster through a fishbowl, the Blue Jackets still played on.

The team continued onwards.

For the first month of the season, the scores of games remained a blur in a sea of memory and tributes. Gaudreau’s widow, Meredith, told fans at the team’s home opener to “love the game that John loved.”

And that is exactly what both the Fifth Line, the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the rest of the hockey world did.

During the Blue Jackets’ home opener, a “Johnny Hockey” chant could be heard in the stands throughout the game, and once the game began after thirteen seconds, a loud roar echoed across the bleachers of Nationwide Arena.

The roar of love is Gaudreau’s legacy in Columbus. A city that loves hockey. A city that loves (present tense) a man who helped bring hockey to a new generation of kids in Ohio. Even if Columbus citizens didn’t know hockey, they’d know these two names, and love them for what they did for the city. In the rafters, there are two numbers, and two names. Number 61, Rick Nash, and Number 13, Johnny Gaudreau.

They will live in Columbus hockey history forever.

The entire Columbus hockey community wouldn’t have accepted anything less.

Gaudreau’s legacy, that lucky number thirteen, continues to live on.

By the end of October, it was evident — despite horrid injury luck, despite the state penitentiary ghosts; there was something special about the 2024-2025 Blue Jackets. And this time, by the month of December, that magic was here to stay. It was no fluke or luck, but rather, a team slowly coming together.

After a December 31, 2024, shootout win against the Carolina Hurricanes, broadcaster Tripp Tracy summed up the season in a simple sentence: “You just have to admire the resilience of these Columbus Blue Jackets.”

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The Ohio State marching band (“The Best Damn Band In The Land”) creates the famous Script Ohio on ice at Ohio Stadium during the Blue Jackets/Red Wings Stadium Series game. March 1, 2025. Image Credit: Samantha Madar, The Columbus Dispatch.

Like every team, the Blue Jackets have their stars. Norris Trophy contender Zach Werenski remained the main attraction, setting franchise records throughout the season. Werenski, drafted by the organization in 2015, had spent the past decade largely under the hockey world’s radar. Now, his name arises with Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes, defensemen who define their generation of hockey. Werenski was a part of Team USA at the 2025 Four Nations tournament, ultimately playing every game for the United States. 2023 third-overall pick Adam Fantilli is behind Werenski, slowly and steadily rising to the expectations that lay upon any high draft pick’s shoulders. Kirill Marchenko, a speedy winger and a thirty-goal scorer. Sean Monahan, a former Calgary Flames star, Gaudreau’s best friend, and sixth overall pick in 2013.

Like every team, the Blue Jackets have their gritty players — those who can go under the radar, but want nothing more than to win. Goaltender Elvis Merzļikins, enforcer Mathieu Olivier, captain Boone Jenner, forwards Cole Sillinger and Kent Johnson, and the rest of the roster quietly learning how to gel with each other.

In January 2025, during a postgame interview that aired on FanDuel Sports Network Ohio, after being named first star of the evening, Merzļikins described the team’s ultimate goal: “[I] really, truly believe that [we] will make playoffs this year.”

Just win. Just win… and you’re in.

2025 began for the Blue Jackets with yet another miracle — their first win in Pittsburgh, PA, since 2015, stunning the hockey world in overtime. The winter marked yet more milestones for the team. Fantilli’s first career hat trick in Toronto. Goaltending growth, particularly for Merzļikins. Highlight reel goals for Kent Johnson. Werenski’s ever-growing campaign for the Norris.

And yet, each and every one of these things is nil compared to the Stadium Series.

March 1, 2025. Ohio Stadium. An olive branch between the Blue Jackets and The Ohio State University. An act of love for Gaudreau. An act of love for the city of Columbus. Ninety-five thousand fans packed into an outdoor stadium after spending all day tailgating in a cold Columbus winter, with millions more watching at home — all for their Blue Jackets.

When Ohio Stadium cheers for blue, it is only for their beloved Blue Jackets. Five goals, each a team effort. Merzļikins had forty-three saves for the evening. It was like a traditional Blue Jackets game — every moment, every play, every move of a skate — is a team effort.

No one can function alone, and the Blue Jackets continued to prove that throughout the spring. Win or lose, and they sure did lose some, they never walked alone.

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The Gaudreau brothers are honored at the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Stadium Series game at Ohio Stadium. March 1, 2025. Image Credit: Adam Cairns, The Columbus Dispatch.

Just. Win.

Just win, and you’re In.

Few things sting quite like being inches away from something, particularly a dream, and having it crumble in front of the eyes, especially after having full control over the dream for so long. To lose sucks. To lose due to circumstances out of one’s control — a game involving the Carolina Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens — stings. The response — and the backlash — will likely be swift. The March collapse and April rise is what longtime fans will describe as “classic Blue Jackets.” This feeling will hurt. But it won’t be forever.

But a fact remains undeniable. It isn’t the same old Blue Jackets. No matter what happens next, the Blue Jackets have a deeply bright future. With a whole new generation of players settling in, such as Fantilli, Johnson, and goaltender Jet Greaves, and the current generation of stars continuing their rise, there remains light for the future under the glow of Nationwide Arena. When a team expected to have fifteen wins at a maximum makes a deep playoff push, playing meaningful games well into April for the first time in years; fighting and fighting, there is always some light at the end of the very long tunnel.

The story of the 2024-2025 Columbus Blue Jackets cannot be told without love. A team who picked themselves up to play for their friend, particularly Monahan, the team’s nominee for the Masterton Trophy. A team that fought like hell for eighty-two games, win or lose. A team that, despite all the odds against them, played meaningful hockey for eighty-two games, delivering a show at home in Columbus. A team, despite everything, being eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs in late April.

There is hope for the Blue Jackets. For the first time in a long time, there is true, authentic hope for the Columbus Blue Jackets — a team that has walked through hell and back, but with a deeply loyal fanbase who walks through those coals with them.

And the legacies of the Gaudreau brothers remain -- forever.