They don't pay me enough

If this is Sunday, it must be time for Dick.

Farrell, that is.

Many of you have told me how much you miss reading my Sunday commentaries in the paper and for that I am humbled. I truly am.

But readership of this blog is about what it was a month ago. That means that those of you who are reading this blog are not telling your friends about it. Otherwise, I'd have ... I don't know ... 500 readers by now. Maybe 1,000. Maybe a million.

Instead, I'm averaging a little less than 200 page views per blog entry. Ahem. That is humbling, too.

For the record, dear readers, I DON'T GET PAID FOR THIS.

I tried to participate in the Google Ads program initially but they -- Google People -- got angry at me for some reason and won't let me play. And, no, I wasn't clicking on the Google Ads. That's a huge no-no with Google. Blog owners are not supposed to click on the Google Ads that appear on the site. That skews the results of the actual click-throughs. (Don't ask.)

Anyway, I woke up one day and Google had sent me an e-mail, telling me the gig was over. Heck, I never thought I was going to get any kind of a hefty payday with Google Ads. It's a lot like credit card reward programs that really pay off only if you're buying Gulfstream IV jets.

Did I tell you that I DON'T GET PAID FOR THIS?

I need your help. Tell your friends where they can find Dick. The easiest thing to do is to Google "dick farrell blog." (Remember the correct spelling of "Farrell." There's an "a" in there -- not an "e.")

OK, enough of that -- onto this week's offerings...

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My wife and I were among the few hundred who attended the dedication Friday night of the Performing Arts Center at Kent State-Tuscarawas. Among those offering remarks were KSU President Lester Lefton, U.S. Rep. Zack Space and other elected officials and their representatives.

Dr. Gregg Andrews, dean of the campus, took on the project earlier this decade with the full support of the Board of Trustees of which I am a member. The board knew that if anyone could get this project done, it was Andrews. And he did it with the help of his very capable staff and with generous contributions from members of our community. The Performing Arts Center is a testament to the goodness of Tuscarawas County.

Photo by Greg Spitzer

The campus' new Steinway piano graces the stage of the Peforming Arts Center.

For Andrews, the construction project was anything but a walk in the park (especially when the flytower superstructure collapsed in March 2009) and there remains finishing work before the building is officially accepted. But it's safe to say that the mission has been accomplished.

This is a jewel among jewels, folks, and rivals any theater you've seen anywhere, including the glitzy ones in Las Vegas.

Opening weekend is coming up and a public open house is set for early December.

You can access the PAC's home page here and from there you can purchase tickets to any of the shows. There's not a bad seat in the house. Trust me.

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Dover Mayor Richard Homrighausen was among those offering remarks at the PAC dedication and slipped me an envelope containing an invitation to last week's two bridge dedications in his city. The envelope also contained two pieces of ribbon, marking the ceremonies (see photo below).

Needless to say, I was overwhelmed with his thoughtfulness and now feel badly that I missed those events.

And clearly, Homrighausen is watching taxpayer dollars, or at least pennies. He saved 44 cents by hand-delivering the invitation to me, albeit a week late.

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What in the name of God are the congressional Democrats thinking about?

Nancy Pelosi again?

Are they nuts?

I could expound on this issue, but what's the use? It's almost like they didn't pay attention to what happened on Nov. 2. I'm really tired of giving Democrats advice. Maybe after the holidays...

* * *


To be fair and balanced...

I wholeheartedly agree with Barbara Bush.

Sarah Palin ought to stay in Alaska.

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In a recent post, I asked former U.S. Rep. Bob Ney to weigh in on the history of the new Dover interchange. He's communicated with this blogger before so I thought maybe he could shed some light on how the interchange came about.

Since then, I've found out that Ney is in India, studying and meditating with Dalai Lama devotees.

Actually I know that because former Copley Washington Bureau Chief George Condon wrote a story about Ney for the National Journal.

The Copley bureau serviced The Times-Reporter during the years of Copley Press ownership (read: Good Old Days). Condon is a journalist's journalist and has interviewed seven sitting presidents.

Ney, Condon reports, has lost weight, quit drinking and is in the process of reinventing himself. You can read the story here.

I'd like to add that, because Ney is studying with the Dalai Lama, well, he's got that going for him, too.

I couldn't resist.

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This week's LeBron/Miami Heat link: Stories of LeBron and sportswriter intertwined, tangled

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Have you heard about the 8-year-old Jets fan who was tackled by a drunken Cleveland Browns fan in the Muny parking lot last week?

You'll have background if you read this story on Bleacher Report.

I have questions.

-- If the incident happened as the kid's mother says, why wouldn't the family take up the Jets on their offer of an all-expense trip to a Jets home game? For an 8-year-old, wouldn't that be something to remember forever?

-- Why didn't the kid's father write the letter to the editor rather than the mother, who wasn't there? Could it be that the kid's father didn't want the mother to write the letter? From personal experience, I know that sometimes one parent will overreact when his/her child has been wronged (for whatever reason). It's human nature.

-- Callers to talk shows seem to confirm an incident, but don't agree that the kid was "tackled." How about this: Drunk has trouble walking. Drunk falls on kid. Kid falls down.

Sometimes, just because something has gone viral in the media, it doesn't mean that it's true.

I know.