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Wednesday, the New York Times, advertising column covered the controversy of Columbus retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch donating funds to Nationwide Children’s Hospital for an emergency facility, which will be named after the New Albany based retailer. Children’s advocacy groups and individuals have formed a coalition to lobby the Children’s Hospital in Columbus to not put the Abercrombie & Fitch name on the facility.

When a Corporate Donation Raises Protests

The money, 10 million dollars was donated to Columbus Children’s Hospital in 2006 by the Central Ohio retailer. The hospital since renamed Nationwide Children’s Hospital after Nationwide Insurance donated 50 billion dollars, will complete the emergency facility and trauma center by 2012.

In the NYT column Jon M. Fitzgerald the president of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Foundation is quoted that the hospital does not sell naming rights.Often controversial Abercrombie & Fitch is an inappropriate sponsor for the children’s hospital according to the coalition of children’s advocates.  A& F is guilty of “sexualizing and objectifying children” in the words of, the director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood in Boston, Susan Linn quoted in the New York Times advertising column.  The columnist, Stuart Elliott also quotes Linn as describing A&F as “among the worst corporate predators.”

Columbus tops the list of Top 10 Up-And-Coming Tech Cities which came out Monday Forbes latest cities list came out.includes  ‘In Pictures: Top 10 Up-And-Coming Tech Cities’ and says of Columbus:

“No. 1: Columbus, Ohio. In 1997, the Battelle Memorial Institute, Ohio’s largest research center, based in Columbus, managed a single lab for the U.S. Department of Energy with an annual budget of $1 billion. A decade later, Battelle oversees seven major laboratories for different federal agencies; current budget: $4 billion.”

The Forbes article written by William Pentland is based on a survey of cities done by  professor of public policy at George Mason University, Philip Auerswald.    Auerswald first looked at ”regional innovation trends” looking for:

advanced materials(?)

nano-crystals and quantum dots

polymers and plastics

 micro-systems

cell microbiology

Auerswald then looked for patents… or relationships between patents for technical areas.  Columbus is number one on the Forbes list which includes Santa Fe NM, Pittsburgh PA, Milwaukee WI, Yuma AZ, Lake Charles LA. 

Look out Silicon Valley….

Free to cookbooks to good Central Ohio homes.  There will really be no way to screen the good homes for cookbooks from bad homes for cookbooks… anyway I have some old HER Cookbooks if anyone is missing some from their collection.  If anyone still cooks.  If anyone still uses cookbooks.  I look at cookbooks… but I also find recipes online and I don’t cook much anymore…  Times have changed.

In one case the cookbook published by “HER Realtors” is a ”Celebrity Cookbook.”  

The celebrities in the Celebrity Cookbook No. 9 are not just local celebrities… national celebrities… international celebrities submitted recipes but the cookbooks are from Columbus.  HER Realtors did cookbooks for years… the last cookbook was produced for the companies 50th Anniversary in 2006. 

I don’t have any of the 50th Anniversary cookbooks but I do have a limited number of cookbooks …

Cookbook 17th Edition-  2002

Cookbook 15th Edition - 1988

and a very limited number of  Celebrity Cookbook No. 9.  

 I inherited the issues of  Celebrity Cookbook No. 9.  from someone, sometime because that edition was published loooooong before I was with HER Realtors (the company is now Real Living HER) or lived in Columbus…  They are old.  Collectors item?

The HER cookbooks don’t have a year published on them but I can tell the 17th edition was published after February 2002 from the “Message from Harley E. Rouda” inside the front cover.  I bet the 17th Edition Cookbook was published in late 2002.

The 15th edition…of the HER Cookbook was published  in the 42nd year of the company so that would have been 1998? 

On an introductory page of the 15th Edition the founder of the company, Harley E. Rouda says the first HER Realtors cookbook was published in 1975… the year of the Celebrity Cookbook Number 9 has to be at least 1984 then…. 

When that cookbook was published Ronald Reagan was president, Nancy Reagan shared “Baja California Chicken”  and … “President Reagan’s Favorite Macaroni and Cheese” with Central Ohio residents.

Vice President George Bush (or maybe his staff) contributed a Lemon Bar recipe. 

There are recipes from senators,  congressman and governors in the Celebrity Cookbook No. 9.  There are recipes from Central Ohio mayors, newscasters and politicians as well.  There are recipes from teachers and principals at local schools mixed in…. There are recipes from Central Ohio restaurants some that I have never heard of.  There are recipes from local business leaders.

There’s a recipe from Margaret Thatcher, the Prime Minister of Great Britain and one from Prince Rainer III of Monaco.

Other celebrity recipes… 

Willard Scott’s “Cheese Grits Souffle” recipe Willard Scott of The Today Show

“Ed McMahon’s Roast Turkey and Dressing” recipe - The  Tonight Show sidekick of Johnny Carson. 

Pete Rozelle’s (the football commissioner) recipe for “Onion’s Rozelle (for barbecue) an there’s  a recipe from Roger Staubach and a recipe “from the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders” for Taco Salad.

Recipes from Art Linkletter, Carol Burnette, Brent Musburger (he was with CBS sports back then…) , Jerry Lewis, Connie Chang, Bruce Jenner and other 1980’s celebrities are throughout the book. 

Ed Koch was the mayor of New York City when the book was publishd and shared a recipe for gazpacho, Senator Gary Hart submitted “The Famous Senate Restaurant Bean Soup Recipe” to the 9th edition of the HER Realtor’s cookbook.  Wonder if it was pre scandal or post scandal?

Closer to home Eldon Miller was the OSU basketball coach and shared a recipe for ‘Brocolli Dip.”  The Celebrity Cookbook No. 9 from HER Realtors has a recipe from Doug Adair and Mona Scott Anchors - Newswatch 4  (WCMH - TV)…  a recipe for a cheese log. Jimmy Crum has a recipe in the book. Mel Dodge, the President of the Greater Columbus Convention and Visitors Bureau shared “My Mother’s Nut Bread.” Sherrod Brown was the secretary of state at the time and his wife Ellen is credited for providing a recipe for “French Puffs.”

Anyway if you are in Central Ohio and want a copy of any of the three cookbooks contact me and we can make arrangements for you to pick up cookbooks from the front desk at my office on High Street in Worthington. 

I’m not mailing cookbooks… I blogged about cookbooks once on the original Columbus Best Blog and heard from people who had lived in Columbus but had moved away… nolstalgia…  Columbus Cookbooks free to good Central Ohio homes…

Today’s installment in the Columbus Dispatch series about Ohio’s seven big cities is about Cincinnati. 

I will admit, I love Cincinnati. 

I love the history, I love the architecture,  I love the riverfront. I love the hils….  I have never lived in Cincinnati.  When I lived in Dayton, Cincinnati was the place to go for fun and  I have only been to Cincinnati a couple of times in the past 17 years.

I remember the race riots in 2003 in the Over-the-Rhine neighorhood from the news coverage. I remember Marge Schott’s making the news for comments.  I remember the Maplethorpe exhibit being in the news.  I know of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center but have never been there… then again I have never been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland either…

To me Cincinnati is exotic.  Neighborhoods built on hills… I envy Cincinnati’s hills.  When I lived in Dayton (long ago) I loved the Mt. Adams neighborhood  in Cincinnati.  I loved the restaurants on the river front… but I bet a lot of those restaurants were really in Covington Kentucky not in Cincinnati.

Up close to me anyway when I frequented Cincinnati it looked less like the “uptight, conservative, old-money town” that the Columbus Dispatch article refers to, than it does from a distance via the news.

The On the BRINK : Ohios big cities series

“The Dispatch takes a look at the issues, through the eyes of those living in those cities.”  I have heard of Rookwood Pottery but did not know it’s recent history until reading the Columbus Dipatch article.

Something I’ve been thinking about through the whole Columbus Dispatch series (or at least since the installment on Dayton… ) are who did the Columbus Dispatch talk to in the cities and what was their agenda.  Were the people interviewed by the Dispatch reporters honest about the community or were they cheerleaders for their city? Did the reporters talk to the mayors? There’s a video from the mayor of each city in the interactive online part of the Dispatch series… 

Still to go in the series…Youngstown and Columbus…. and I assume a recap of the seven big Ohio cities.  … if anyone is reading my attempt at a recap of the Columbus Dispatch series… I’ll bet tomorrow is Youngstown but don’t expect more than a link from me.  I spent a weekend at a retreat in Youngstown.. for all I know I was not even really in Youngstown.

Cleveland -  Blame “Sex in the City”

Dayton - Ohio Big Cities’ burbs…

Akron - “I went back to Ohio”

Toledo - Ohio Jobs, Jobs, Jobs….

Toledo… I drive by Toledo occasionally but that’s the extent of my exposure… My view of Toledo is from the highway… actually once in the 80’s I remember driving through the city.  Toledo was foggy that night.

The Columbus Dispatch article today in the series about the seven large Ohio cities is about Toledo,  On the brink: Toledo  Leaders say manufacturing remains the answer for city  

The  Dispatch article written by Joe Hallett says ProMedica Health Systems and Mercy Health Partners, combined are the largest employers now with a  combined 18,400 employees (approximate.)

Yet city and regional officials say manufacturing remains the answer for the city.  Manufacturing and technology… doing old things in new ways. 

Manufacturing in Toledo means Jeeps and Chryslers… to me anyway.  I can see that from the highway.  I am not sure I knew there is a GM transmission plant…  other manufacturing, the Dispatch article says:

“At its 1970s peak, when the population was 383,818, Toledo was home to five Fortune 500 giants, but now only Owens-Corning and financially ailing Dana Corp. remain in the city limits. A downsized Owens-Illinois moved to a suburban industrial park, fleeing the downtown glass skyscraper it built on the Maumee River that, with the now-defunct Portside Festival Marketplace, symbolized yet another rebirth for Toledo in the 1980s.”

Does that mean the Jeep Chrysler plants and the GM transmission manufacturing facility are not in the Toledo city limits?

The former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party, James Rivulo who now works as a lobbyist lives in Toledo.  Rivulo says the low cost of living and Toldeo amenities including the Mud Hens keep him in Toldedo.  Rivulo lobbies lawmkers in Columbus and Washington. 

Rivulo said in the article that  his three children will settle where they get the best jobs.

I had missed the news in late October that the Jeep / Chrysler Plant in Toledo had laid off the third shift because of lack of demand for the Chrysler Nitro.  In a discussion on ActiveRain another Columbus real estate blogger had commented “

“but didn’t Chrysler decide to stop building Jeeps up there? If so, that might explain why their focus is on assembly plants and why population declined if the workers went elsewhere.”

From the stats and graphs (also online in the Special Report in the Sunday December 2, 2007 Columbus Dispatch article: 

Toledo grew geographically from 1950 to 2000 from 38.3 square miles to 80.6 square miles.  Columbus is over 200 square miles as of 2006.

Toledo Population dropped from 303,616 to 298,448 from 1950 to 2006.  Columbus opoulation has grown to 733,203 as of 2006. 

Toledo Housing - median home value in 2000 dollars rose from 57,376 (in 2000 dollars) to 75,300 in 2000.  Columbus median home value in 2000 was 101,400.

Toledo Employment (average annual jobs ) went from 143,400 to 136,400, those figures are from 1983 to 2006…  Columbus had 392,300 averge annual jobs in 2006.

The Sunday December 2, 2007 Columbus Dispatch Special Report says:

“Except for Columbus, Ohio’s big cities have endured vast population and job losses, but now city leaderws realize the glory days aren’t coming back.”

“I went back to Ohio”

Columbus Big Cities’ Burbs

Blame it on “Sex and the City”