Columnist split the uprights with 'Point After'
By
Rory Ryan-hcpress@cinci.rr.com
I’m a bit behind on my reading again. That’s usually no concern of yours, except where it relates to a story or two that I’d like to share.
One such story was written by Joe Posnanski in the March 7 Sports Illustrated.
Granted, many of you are much more interested in the coming June 6 SI with OSU Coach Jim Tressel’s cover story.
In his Point After inside back cover column on March 7, Posnanski sat down with Nick Charles. Or, more accurately, he took a walk with Charles. It was one of Charles’ better days.
Many of us were introduced to the former CNN sports anchor some 30 years when the Cable News Network was just getting started. Charles brought us inside stories on George Steinbrenner, Joe Montana, Marvin Hagler, Mike Tyson and others.
At the time of Posnanski’s interview, Charles had inoperable, Stage 4 cancer.
“Nick Charles will die soon,” Posnanski wrote.
Imagine, for a moment, a newspaper columnist – particularly one in a relatively small, close-knit community – writing that previous sentence. “(So and so) will die soon…”
That’s a tough sentence to write about anyone.
But Posnanski continues: “Nick Charles will die soon. He does not hide from it. ‘It’s OK,’ he says.”
“Remember the look on Thomas Hearns’ face when he realized that no matter what he did, he could never slow down Marvin Hagler?” Charles asks, in an attempt to explain what it’s like to fight a losing battle against a progressive cancer.
Charles told Posnanski he’d like to call one last professional boxing match, but didn’t think it would happen.
It did.
HBO granted him his wish, allowing Charles to call a recent featherweight bout between Mikey Garcia and Matt Remillard.
Charles maintains a positive philosophy through it all: “Life is 20 percent what happens to you, 80 percent how you react to it.”
Nick Charles has lived a good and productive life and appears to be meeting the end of it on his terms. With one significant exception: He has a 5-year-old daughter. “She is strong,” he tells Posnanski. She will be OK when I’m gone. I know it.”
It is a comforting thought that we all know, upon our inevitable passing, our loved ones will be OK. (And they will be.)
Joe Posnanski’s March 7 Point After column was right down the middle of the uprights.
* * *
• Longtime area attorney and public servant Ben Houser passed away on June 1, succumbing to cardiac arrest at Clermont Mercy Hospital.
“The entire Southern State Community College region has lost a great man,” SSCC President Dr. Kevin Boys said of Ben, who was a college trustee.
“Mr. Houser was one of those people who was truly a public servant. I don’t know anyone who served on more boards than Ben.
“His motivation was pure and simple: Service. He had a way of getting things done. We will miss him immensely.”
Ben served on so many boards and committees, in fact, that we had some confusion on which ones he had remained active, while we were putting together an online story early Thursday morning.
Suffice it to say that Ben Houser gave much more of his time, knowledge and energy to Brown County and southern Ohio that many of us will ever know.
I was fortunate to serve with Ben on the SSCC board since his appointment by Gov. Ted Strickland in 2008.
In addition to his friendship, the board appreciated Ben’s straightforward approach and wonderful sense of humor. He will be missed more than words can say.
* * *
• Almost any time that National Review mentions Rob Portman, it’s in a favorable light.
On May 31, Robert Costa, writing for nationalreview.com, discussed Senator Portman’s “jobs agenda.”
(You can read the entire article at: www.nationalreview.com/articles/268399/senator-portman-s-jobs-agenda-ro…- costa.)
Costa tells us that Sen. Portman’s real political hero is “Mr. Republican,” Sen. Robert A. Taft (no, not the recent Ohio governor!). Taft represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 1939 until his death in 1953.
Costa also relates how Sen. Portman did some good old-fashioned horse trading and wrangled Sen. Taft’s old desk from Minnesota Sen. Al Franken (yes, the former SNL funny man).
“Al Franken didn’t care much about Robert A. Taft,” Portman told Costa, as “his left eyebrow raised half an inch.
“So I ended up getting his desk.”
On one crucial point that can be, and has been, lost on many conservatives – including this one, at times – Portman maintains that Congress has an “obligation to do more than throw punches at each other over the looming $14 trillion national debt.
“We cannot simply cut our way out, we have to grow our way out,” Portman told NR.
“The top concern for every American is how we are going to get this economy moving again. That was the top concern in 2004 and 2008, and it will be in 2012. Sometimes our candidates miss that point.”
Ohio Sen. David Daniels made a similar point several weeks back when he told the Highland County commissioners that budget cuts alone won’t solve the state’s deficit.
With respect, I’ll not argue too much with either senator, except to say this: Give spending cuts a chance. There are numerous areas of mostly non-painful cuts through which the respective state and federal budgets can be reduced.
(But I will attest that Sen. Portman and Sen. Daniels are much more a part of the solution than the problem.)
“Sen. Portman knows a few things about how federal and state burdens can rattle a business,” Costa said. “Growing up in Cincinnati, he spent summers working at his father’s forklift dealership. Since then – at Dartmouth and the University of Michigan Law School, and then in his 12 years in Congress, followed by a stint in the George W. Bush administration – he has often recalled those days at the Portman Equipment Company.
“‘I wish my Democratic colleagues would go out and talk to people in the trenches,’ Portman says. ‘People are making decisions about whether to hire
or not, and the cost of doing business is a huge part of that calculus. What has been coming out of Washington — the regulations, the mandates — have made it harder for companies to stay here.’”
Senator Portman gets it. He can relate to private-sector employers because he’s witnessed their frustrations with the federal and state bureaucracies.
Maybe that’s why people like Phil Milazzo of PAS Technologies has expressed considerable confidence in the senator and has backed that confidence with a commitment to local job creation.
Many small business owners have an easy formula for what Sen. Portman refers to as the “cost of doing business calculus.” It’s as simple as this: If we hire someone for $10 an hour, the employee costs us $15 an hour. It’s a sad day, indeed, when the bureaucratic red tape, taxes, and document preparation and storage can add 50 percent to an already low-income worker’s cost of employment.
Reasonable minds would prefer the $15 per hour stay within the local worker’s pocket – and within the local community.
Good luck, Senator Portman. You’ve got a heckuva lot to undo and a Senate that’s not overly inclined to do anything.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]
One such story was written by Joe Posnanski in the March 7 Sports Illustrated.
Granted, many of you are much more interested in the coming June 6 SI with OSU Coach Jim Tressel’s cover story.
In his Point After inside back cover column on March 7, Posnanski sat down with Nick Charles. Or, more accurately, he took a walk with Charles. It was one of Charles’ better days.
Many of us were introduced to the former CNN sports anchor some 30 years when the Cable News Network was just getting started. Charles brought us inside stories on George Steinbrenner, Joe Montana, Marvin Hagler, Mike Tyson and others.
At the time of Posnanski’s interview, Charles had inoperable, Stage 4 cancer.
“Nick Charles will die soon,” Posnanski wrote.
Imagine, for a moment, a newspaper columnist – particularly one in a relatively small, close-knit community – writing that previous sentence. “(So and so) will die soon…”
That’s a tough sentence to write about anyone.
But Posnanski continues: “Nick Charles will die soon. He does not hide from it. ‘It’s OK,’ he says.”
“Remember the look on Thomas Hearns’ face when he realized that no matter what he did, he could never slow down Marvin Hagler?” Charles asks, in an attempt to explain what it’s like to fight a losing battle against a progressive cancer.
Charles told Posnanski he’d like to call one last professional boxing match, but didn’t think it would happen.
It did.
HBO granted him his wish, allowing Charles to call a recent featherweight bout between Mikey Garcia and Matt Remillard.
Charles maintains a positive philosophy through it all: “Life is 20 percent what happens to you, 80 percent how you react to it.”
Nick Charles has lived a good and productive life and appears to be meeting the end of it on his terms. With one significant exception: He has a 5-year-old daughter. “She is strong,” he tells Posnanski. She will be OK when I’m gone. I know it.”
It is a comforting thought that we all know, upon our inevitable passing, our loved ones will be OK. (And they will be.)
Joe Posnanski’s March 7 Point After column was right down the middle of the uprights.
* * *
• Longtime area attorney and public servant Ben Houser passed away on June 1, succumbing to cardiac arrest at Clermont Mercy Hospital.
“The entire Southern State Community College region has lost a great man,” SSCC President Dr. Kevin Boys said of Ben, who was a college trustee.
“Mr. Houser was one of those people who was truly a public servant. I don’t know anyone who served on more boards than Ben.
“His motivation was pure and simple: Service. He had a way of getting things done. We will miss him immensely.”
Ben served on so many boards and committees, in fact, that we had some confusion on which ones he had remained active, while we were putting together an online story early Thursday morning.
Suffice it to say that Ben Houser gave much more of his time, knowledge and energy to Brown County and southern Ohio that many of us will ever know.
I was fortunate to serve with Ben on the SSCC board since his appointment by Gov. Ted Strickland in 2008.
In addition to his friendship, the board appreciated Ben’s straightforward approach and wonderful sense of humor. He will be missed more than words can say.
* * *
• Almost any time that National Review mentions Rob Portman, it’s in a favorable light.
On May 31, Robert Costa, writing for nationalreview.com, discussed Senator Portman’s “jobs agenda.”
(You can read the entire article at: www.nationalreview.com/articles/268399/senator-portman-s-jobs-agenda-ro…- costa.)
Costa tells us that Sen. Portman’s real political hero is “Mr. Republican,” Sen. Robert A. Taft (no, not the recent Ohio governor!). Taft represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 1939 until his death in 1953.
Costa also relates how Sen. Portman did some good old-fashioned horse trading and wrangled Sen. Taft’s old desk from Minnesota Sen. Al Franken (yes, the former SNL funny man).
“Al Franken didn’t care much about Robert A. Taft,” Portman told Costa, as “his left eyebrow raised half an inch.
“So I ended up getting his desk.”
On one crucial point that can be, and has been, lost on many conservatives – including this one, at times – Portman maintains that Congress has an “obligation to do more than throw punches at each other over the looming $14 trillion national debt.
“We cannot simply cut our way out, we have to grow our way out,” Portman told NR.
“The top concern for every American is how we are going to get this economy moving again. That was the top concern in 2004 and 2008, and it will be in 2012. Sometimes our candidates miss that point.”
Ohio Sen. David Daniels made a similar point several weeks back when he told the Highland County commissioners that budget cuts alone won’t solve the state’s deficit.
With respect, I’ll not argue too much with either senator, except to say this: Give spending cuts a chance. There are numerous areas of mostly non-painful cuts through which the respective state and federal budgets can be reduced.
(But I will attest that Sen. Portman and Sen. Daniels are much more a part of the solution than the problem.)
“Sen. Portman knows a few things about how federal and state burdens can rattle a business,” Costa said. “Growing up in Cincinnati, he spent summers working at his father’s forklift dealership. Since then – at Dartmouth and the University of Michigan Law School, and then in his 12 years in Congress, followed by a stint in the George W. Bush administration – he has often recalled those days at the Portman Equipment Company.
“‘I wish my Democratic colleagues would go out and talk to people in the trenches,’ Portman says. ‘People are making decisions about whether to hire
or not, and the cost of doing business is a huge part of that calculus. What has been coming out of Washington — the regulations, the mandates — have made it harder for companies to stay here.’”
Senator Portman gets it. He can relate to private-sector employers because he’s witnessed their frustrations with the federal and state bureaucracies.
Maybe that’s why people like Phil Milazzo of PAS Technologies has expressed considerable confidence in the senator and has backed that confidence with a commitment to local job creation.
Many small business owners have an easy formula for what Sen. Portman refers to as the “cost of doing business calculus.” It’s as simple as this: If we hire someone for $10 an hour, the employee costs us $15 an hour. It’s a sad day, indeed, when the bureaucratic red tape, taxes, and document preparation and storage can add 50 percent to an already low-income worker’s cost of employment.
Reasonable minds would prefer the $15 per hour stay within the local worker’s pocket – and within the local community.
Good luck, Senator Portman. You’ve got a heckuva lot to undo and a Senate that’s not overly inclined to do anything.
Rory Ryan is publisher and editor of The Highland County Press.[[In-content Ad]]